Auswahl der wissenschaftlichen Literatur zum Thema „Education, Tests and Measurements|Education, Evaluation|Education, Elementary“

This evaluation examines the process through which the Dade County Public School’ limited English proficient (LEP) students are “exited” (i.e., classified as language proficient) from the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) Program. Five hundred LEP students participated in the evaluation. The results indicate that student who exit the ESOL program tend to perform successfully in regular classroom settings. Additionally, the Stanford Achievement Test discriminates between LEP and non-LEP student performance on language-related components of the test. Nevertheless, questions were raised about the appropriateness of using achievement test results to exit students from ESOL.

Background:Evidence-based physical education (EBPE) programs have increased physical activity (PA) by as much as 18%, yet widespread adoption has not occurred. Understanding school facilitators and barriers to PE should prove useful to EBPE dissemination efforts.Methods:Pairs of principals and PE teachers from 154 schools (75 Adopters and 79 Non-Adopters) from 34 states completed questionnaires. Differences between Adopter and Non-Adopter schools were tested using t tests or Wilcoxon Signed Rank Tests and chi-square analyses.Results:Principals and teachers reported distinct PE curriculum adoption decision making roles, but few viewed themselves as very involved in program evaluation. Teachers in Adopter schools were more satisfied with PE program outcomes and had greater involvement in teacher evaluation and program decision making. Compared with teachers, principals were generally more satisfied with their school’s PE program outcomes and did not share the same perceptions of PE barriers. However, principals also demonstrated a general lack of PE program familiarity.Conclusions:To facilitate EBPE adoption, dissemination efforts should target both principals and PE teachers. Increasing principal’s knowledge may be instrumental in addressing some teacher perceptions of barriers to PE. Strategic advocacy efforts, including targeting policies that require PE program evaluation, are needed.

The quality of mathematics learning in Bantaeng Regency, South Sulawesi were in a low category based on the research findings from the Institute of Educational Quality Assurance of South Sulawesi in 2011. It affects students to be unwilling to be involved in the process of mathematics learning. This study aims to evaluate the process of learning mathematics in the elementary educational level at Bantaeng Regency. The model of evaluation used in this study is the Stake Countenance Model consisting of three steps of evaluation, namely antecedent, transaction, and outcomes. The subjects of this study were 12 teachers at state elementary schools in Bantaeng Regency assessed by three raters. There were 363 midterm score tests from 12 schools. The instruments used in this study were observation sheet, lesson plan sheet, assessment documentation sheet, and interview guideline. This study used a quantitative research approach supported by qualitative data. The result of the study shows that (1) the lesson plan of mathematics subject is in a good category (93.45%), (2) the learning process is in the good enough category (67.07%), (3) the document of students assessment is in the good enough category (71.34%), and (4) most students in each school do not pass the school standard.

The aim of the study was to describe the planning of inclusive education programs in primary school 20 of Mataram. The study used a qualitative approach and was conducted at Elementary School 20 Mataram. Data sources used are primary data and secondary data. The data validity test in this study includes the credibility, reliability, and validity tests. The results showed that the planning carried out by Elementary School 20 Mataram was carried out by establishing an annual work program with student activities for a year, including students with special needs, these activities include identification and evaluation of students at the time of registration of new students, meetings of routine parents of children with special needs and schools, class promotion meetings, extracurricular exercises, training of managers of children with special needs, the composition of individual learning programs.

It is argued that the educational process in elementary school in this period was innovative, namely: in the organization (transition to the semester education system, reducing the school year and increasing the length of the holidays; restructuring the school week, reducing the lesson’s duration to 40 minutes, the opportunity to receive primary education in the individual form of education); in teaching methods (improvement and adaptation of traditional methods to new goals and content of primary education, distribution of the game, testing the method of art projects); in the forms of educating organization (a variety of lessons on the content, structure and methods of activity, the distribution of non-standard lessons, as well as excursions and competitions, the introduction of integrated lessons; the elimination of homework in the 1st class); in monitoring and evaluation (introduction of tests; introduction of final certification at the end of the year and since 2000 - state final certification for pupils of 3 (4) classes; transition to verbal evaluation in 1st class; transfer of all students to the next class regardless of the grades, which made it possible to eliminate the phenomenon of “repetition”; since 2001 - the introduction of a 12-point assessment system; the conclusion of the assessment for the behavior of the category of "mandatory").

This study is aimed to develop teaching materials, which is an English module for Elementary School Teacher Education Programs in Indonesia based on the integrated language skill approach. A number of 75 respondents from the Elementary School Teacher Education Programs at three universities participated in this research, they are from Universitas Pendidikan Ganesha in Bali, Universitas Mulawarman in Samarinda, and Universitas Negeri Manado in Manado. At the Elementary School Teacher Education Programs, no book with a practical model of integrated language skill is available at these universities. In collecting and analyzing the data, this study combined the research and development (RD) model of Gall et al. (2003). The process comprised four stages to develop this module, they are (1) preliminary studies and needs analysis, (2) product design and development, (3) evaluation, field test, and product revision, (4) and product refinement and dissemination. The data was gained through three instruments from questionnaires, interviews, and formative tests to measure the mastery of English teaching materials for primary school teacher education. The result of this study demonstrated that the module is feasible and effective for English Elementary School Teacher Education Programs at the three universities.

Standardized achievement tests continue to be used as the primary criterion measures in the evaluation of basic skills programs despite explicit recommendations against this practice by many testing and evaluation experts. A major issue behind this criticism is examined in this comparative study of three types of tests. These tests represent three points on a content validity continuum which references their correspondence to the instructional program being evaluated. Data are examined on these tests at two levels in eight groups of elementary school students receiving instruction on various basic skills. The results show why and how standardized tests provide different information from other tests that are more closely matched to program instruction. They also show why out-of-level standardized test results often correspond more closely to the results of instructionally referenced tests as compared to at-level tests. The implications of this research for basic skill program evaluations are discussed.

Since 1978, the national evaluation and reporting system for Title I/Chapter 1 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act has depended upon a norm-referenced evaluation system to determine the effectiveness of compensatory education programs funded under the act. For a decade, policy directives urged caution in interpreting local results and encouraged use of additional indicators. Since 1988, legislative amendments have required that the national evaluation system serve, without adjustment or interpretation, to identify individual school projects in need of improvement. In this article I argue that the system is technically unsuited for this purpose. Problems with regression and measurement error are illustrated with empirical data. Policy should encourage the use of multiple indicators of program quality at the local level, including applied performance tests and process indicators.

This study was aimed at developing a feasible magazine based on the guided inquiry for 5th-grade elementary schools. The development procedure adopted was the Hannafin and Peck model which involves needs assessment, design, development, evaluation, and revision. Data were collected through the use of questionnaires and tests. It analyzed using descriptive statistics and interactive qualitative analysis. This research produced science magazines which are feasible to be used as instructional media towards overcoming learning difficulties and enhancing students‘ understanding.

The federal government, through NCLB legislation, has provided target proficiency goals schools will be accountable to meet. Missouri public elementary schools use these target goals to determine their success. The focus of this study was to examine the highly effective public elementary schools in Missouri that met or exceeded the 2011 Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) targets and determine the practices that contributed to their success. The overarching questions were: Can the actions, performance, and knowledge of schools achieving AYP assist other schools to improve their performance on AYP targets? Do Lezotte's correlates of effective schools provide a framework to view successful school performance? With these questions in mind, the purpose of the study was to explore the researched-based programs, characteristics, or reforms used by highly effective elementary schools in Missouri that mirror Lezotte's (2011) correlates of effective schools and comply with NCLB. It was determined that the principals' and teachers' high expectations for themselves and their students were a significant contributor to effective school results. The areas of school focus outlined in the correlates closely matches the goals and procedures effective schools are meeting to be successful. Principals and teachers reported communication arts programs were based on textbooks, with guided reading used to support reading instruction. The math program most used was also the adopted textbook series.

This qualitative, action-research study used themes from appreciative interviews of Texas elementary teachers to recommend a framework for a school-wide assessment model for a Texas elementary school. The specific problem was that the Texas accountability system used a yearly measurement that failed to track progress over time and failed to accurately provide elementary classroom teachers with information about student performance in ways to guide instructional decision making. Appreciative interviews of 22 participants were analyzed using open coding and thematic analysis. Findings revealed teachers valued teacher-made assessments, consistency and alignment, multiple assessment measures, multiple assessment formats, student-centered assessment, and data-centered assessment for classroom use. Themes were triangulated with literature and public testimony of Texas teachers. Recommendations were made for educational leaders and global leadership. The research method used in this study was an Appreciative Inquiry generative research approach within a larger continuous improvement change management cycle. This is significant for global leadership as a method for implementing a process of change in an organization.

Research has shown that there is a strong link between reading comprehension and vocabulary, yet many children lack the required vocabulary needed to perform adequately on reading comprehension assessments. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the teaching of Larry Bell’s 12 Powerful Words vocabulary program in order to raise third, fourth and fifth grade test scores on the North Carolina Reading Comprehension End-of-Grade Assessments. This study surveyed third, fourth and fifth grade teachers concerning their beliefs of the efficacy of this vocabulary program, surveyed third, fourth and fifth grade students to determine their knowledge of these 12 words, and tallied the occurrence of these 12 words on formative and summative assessments administered within the district. A regression analysis was performed to determine if there was a relationship between teachers’ perceptions and student performance on the North Carolina Reading Comprehension End-of-Grade Assessments. Results of the regression analysis showed no significant relationship between teachers’ beliefs of the value of teaching these 12 words and students’ mean scores across 12 years of third, fourth and fifth grade North Carolina Reading Comprehension End-of-Grade Assessments in the district of study. Results of the word searches indicate that only five of these 12 words occurred frequently enough to impact reading assessments. An implication of this study is that teaching and learning a short list of vocabulary words may not result in higher scores on reading comprehension assessments.

The purpose of this study was to implement Orlick's (1993) mental skills/life skills training program and assess the extent to which children (1) learned to relax themselves at will, (2) successfully implemented stress control strategies, and (3) improved the frequency of their highlights (any simple pleasure, joy, or other positive experience that improves the quality of one's day). Two intact classes of grade 2 children took part in the study. One class served as the experimental group, while the other class served as the control group. The usual classroom teacher delivered the program 4 to 5 times per week, for 9 consecutive weeks. Each intervention session was 10 to 15 min in length. Significant positive effects were found in the experimental group with respect to the children's abilities to lower their heart rates at will and successfully implement relaxation and stress control strategies in their daily lives. Children in the experimental group also experienced a significant increase in the frequency of their highlights over the course of the intervention period. The results suggested that children in grade 2 can (1) learn to relax themselves at will as measured by heart rate, (2) successfully implement stress control strategies, and (3) improve the frequency of their highlight experiences when the usual classroom teacher delivers Orlick's (1993) mental skills training program.

In the context of a rapidly changing world, higher order thinking skills are necessary for sustainability of U.S. society. Beginning with the premise that U.S. public schools are charged with the constitutional duty of growing children into informed and educated citizens, prepared to thrive in the world of work and to participate in democratic processes; and, that higher order thinking is a core part of that mission, this study examined children’s perspectives on school climate and the environment for the teaching and learning of higher order thinking in twenty five public elementary schools in an urban Connecticut school district. This integrated program of research used an exploratory sequential/concurrent mixed methods design to construct a pair of new psychometric instruments to measure student attitudes toward school climate and the environment for teaching and learning higher order thinking in a public elementary school. The intended uses and interpretations of the scores reported by the Climate4Creativity Elementary (C4C/SPE) and Middle School (C4C/SPM) Student Perspectives measurement instruments, were validated to professional standards. The study concluded that these instruments have utility for public elementary schools, particularly in identifying areas of focus and in the management of strategic and tactical school improvement work as part of a wider program of transformation in a school. Cronbach’s Alpha reliability scores in excess of 0.90 were reported for all measures. This study supported the core idea that safer schools with stronger, more caring communities provide individual students with better learning environments, and that general learning and the learning of creativity are intrinsically linked in the minds of students in public elementary schools, even though these students may not always name these components as such. The environment for learning higher order thinking measure tends to deteriorate from the early grades to middle school grades, implying both raised expectations, and an increase in variability in the data due to more and more variety in classroom settings and teacher practices. Examination of reported bullying experience shows bullying victimization to be a powerful, pervasive determinant of school climate and feelings of safety and community in all grades, but, bullying victimization tends not to penetrate into perceptions of the classroom learning environment to the same degree. By exploring school safety, community, and the structure of the learning environment required for the teaching and learning of higher order thinking in a public elementary school, this work begins the creation of a framework to enable school leaders to make significant, transformational, strategic change in their schools.

English Language Learners (ELLs) are no longer a part of specific areas of America. They have crossed all classroom boundaries of the United States. This means as ELLs have integrated into the classrooms, educators are becoming versed in methods and strategies to help ELLs learn and achieve proficiency on standardized assessments. The purpose of this study was to determine if ELLs learned enough to be proficient in English to do well on a standardized test as their non-ELL peers. The Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) and the Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English State to State (ACCESS) were the two exams used to compare proficiency results. The MAP is the standardized test given to Missouri students beginning at Grade 3. The ACCESS is a language achievement test developed by the World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA) Consortium to track levels of English in students beginning in Kindergarten. Students in Grades 3 through 8 were the focus for this study. The exam results of ELLs who took both the MAP and ACCESS were analyzed and compared to their non-ELL peers. The results showed that ELLs who meet academic proficiency on their ACCESS test also have as much English comprehension to do as well on the MAP as the non-ELLs. All groups of students, Grades 3 through 8, showed that if ELLs have reached a level of bridging, or Level 5, they are capable of working with grade level material in English.

In this study, the researcher investigated cultural sensitivity within the mandated English Language Arts Common Core exemplar fictional texts that “serve as useful guideposts in helping educators select texts of similar complexity, quality and range” (Common Core State Standards, n.d., p. 2) for kindergarten through fifth grade, for the state of Missouri. The researcher utilized a modified version of Frances Ann Day’s children’s literature evaluation framework, “Evaluating Children’s Books for Bias,” an adaptation of the Council on Interracial Books for Children’s, “Guidelines for Selecting Bias-Free Textbooks and Storybooks,” to test for cultural sensitivity within 50 of the 90 suggested fictional texts. Day’s framework included investigating omission, illustrations, story lines, authenticity, relationships, depiction of heroes, self-image, author/illustrator background and perspective, language, and copyright date. From Day’s work, the researcher created two separate frameworks, Literature Analysis Framework-First Round, and Literature Analysis Framework-Second Round. Literature Analysis Framework-First Round consisted of passage title, race of author, race of illustrator, copyright date, whether minority characters were present, the number of minority characters, and the number of Caucasian characters. Literature Analysis Framework-Second Round consisted of titles with minority characters, illustrations, relationships/heroes, language, and storyline.

The purpose of this action-research case study was the investigation of possible pedagogical transformations teachers experienced through participation in professional development training of Essential Questions and student learning; specifically student questioning, reading, and math achievement. The research in this study investigated two core focal points: the possible shift in a teacher’s transformational practices after participation in professional development on Essential Questions (McTighe & Wiggins, 2013) and whether the implemented transformational practices led to a possible difference in student questioning skills in grades two through eight on the Measure of Questioning Skills, student achievement in STAR Math, and STAR Reading in grades two through eight. The researcher designed and implemented professional development for the faculty during one school year, based on Essential Questioning (McTighe & Wiggins, 2013) utilizing an enhanced digital lesson planner and on-line web forum, each designed by the researcher to support the components of professional development and collect data during the research period.

The researcher utilized the Measure of Questioning Skills (1993) pre and post-assessments with teachers of grades kindergarten through eight and students in grades two through eight, a qualitative survey of participants comprised of a questionnaire, interview, observation, lesson plans, and discussion boards, as well as classroom observations, teacher interviews, pre and post-survey questions, and reflective journaling to measure possible change in the level of implementation of Essential Questions demonstrated by teachers. Secondary student data included STAR Math and STAR Reading pre and post-assessments from grades two through eight.

Teacher perceptions reflected positive adoption of Essential Questions into lesson planning and teaching practice. Teacher participants demonstrated transformed practices of lesson planning, room design, and teacher-student interactions. Gathered data revealed a statistically significant increase in student achievement in STAR Math and STAR Reading assessments. Teacher participant Measure of Questioning Skills reflected statistically significant changes, as well. Student Measure of Questioning Skills revealed a significant increase in Stage 1 - Organizing Information questions, categorized as factual and procedural questions and an observable increase in Stage 3 - Extending Information questions, categorized as hypothetical and speculative questions.

The purpose of this study was to determine if positive teacher-to-student relationships impacted student academic performance. This case study involved examination of the results of data collected from 43 students who participated in a mentor adoption program initiated with the intent to enhance positive teacher-to-student relationships for the 2013-2014 school year. Archival data of students who participated in the mentor adoption program were compared to data from a stratified group of students who did not participate in the mentor adoption program. Data from English language arts (ELA) and mathematics (MA) Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) scale scores, attendance rate, and number of discipline referrals were compiled and analyzed using paired-samples t-tests. The results of the study showed students who participated in the mentor adoption program demonstrated a significant increase in MAP ELA scale scores, increase in MAP MA scale scores, and significant decrease in the number of discipline referrals. Students who did not participate in the mentor adoption program showed significant improvement only in MAP MA scale scores. Perceptual interview data were gathered and analyzed from 10 teachers who participated in the mentor adoption program to determine teacher perceptions and feelings about the program. The results indicated teachers believed the mentor adoption program had value and should be continued in Elementary School A. The analysis of these data showed student academic performance was significantly impacted by the use of a mentor adoption program in Elementary School A.

In this descriptive study, I researched five elementary general education teachers’ reading assessment practices as they worked within the context of IDEA (2004), NCLB (2002) and Response to Intervention (RTI). My own connection to the classroom and reading assessment practices brought me to this research. I presented my personal and professional connection through vignettes about my own classroom assessment practices. Relevant literature on both the context and culture of assessment were pertinent to this research.

I used a qualitative design, specifically, Colaizzi’s (1978) method of phenomenological analysis. Data were three in-depth phenomenological interviews, relevant documents and artifacts, and use of a researcher reflective blog. I summarized the initial findings of this research through 10 clustered themes; shift of focus, ever changing accountability, independent efforts with data, collaborative efforts with data, working environment, interventions and reading assessment practices in action, authenticity in practice, lack of decision making power, teacher emotion, and teacher needs and wants and a composite narrative in order to describe the lived experience of these teachers reading assessment practices.

Implications from my research with regard to policy include a perceived incongruence between an RTI framework and the teacher evaluation system with regard to active collaboration. Those toward practice include difficulty with the day-to-day implementation of an RTI framework and the perception of a singular focus of RTI as disability determination. My recommendations for future research include an action research agenda designed to explore increased involvement of stakeholders such as students, parents and other school personnel.

The relevance of our research is that for the successful development of the country in the nearest future, it is necessary to assess adequately the situation reflecting the level of knowledge of Ukrainian schoolchildren in comparison with other countries. The progress and economy of countries is very dependent on the quality of the educational system and the scientific complex. A competition in education began to exist among the traditional forms of competitions among the states. Developed countries make attempts to attract the best youth from other countries that’s why the purpose of the study is to investigate the problem of pedagogical measuring. The objective of our study is to analyze and compare students’ educational achievements in international measurements. There are many reasons to determine the importance of qualitative and quantitative measuring of educational systems and for this purpose, developed countries have organized the international testing of pupils of all ages. The article focuses on reading skills among pupils of elementary school (PIRLS testing), knowledge of pupils of the 4th and 8th forms in mathematics and sciences of nature (TIMSS testing), and a complex measuring of the «readiness for life – XXI» of 15-year-old students (PISA) – Programme for International Student Assessment). Ukraine took part for the first time in the international PISA-2018 test – a comprehensive measurement of the readiness for life of Generation-Z students born in 2002. We offer an analysis of the reaction of Ukrainian educational administrators and experts to the results of intensive two-hour measurements of knowledge and abilities of many hundreds of our adolescents from secondary and vocational schools posted on the Internet. We provide data for all tests 2000-2018 years for the first time in the pedagogical press of Ukraine. They will allow readers to evaluate their own evolution of the results of all tests. So you can find ways to improve their professional activities based on a combination of administratively recommended and own conclusions. We point to the beginning of changes in higher education and in the content of university quality ratings. The new rating (Impact Rankings 2020) also focuses on protecting humanity and environmental problems.

This study was designed to understand the effects of experiential learning style test on elementary music and movement education experiences of students. Despite the general music education in Turkey elementary music and movement, education was used. The students were expected to gain experience, by the way, perceiving the rhythm of the words, singing, dancing, and playing free and regular games. The rhythm studies similar to the prosody written according to the rules of classical Ottoman poetry were developed with the participants. And also the students interpreted the test results according to these experiences. At the end of the study, the rhythm studies similar to the prosody written according to the rules of classical Ottoman poetry were developed with the participants. While the rhythm of the syllables and words were studied by the applications and also the letters were provided with the correct accent and intonation during the syllables. The experiential learning style test was used to understand how the students affected their elementary music and movement education experiences. And also the students interpreted the test results according to these experiences.

The objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the Geometer's Sketchpad (GSP) in teaching the area of triangles to elementary students. The authors adopted a pretest-posttest research design with 2 equivalent groups. The subjects of the experiment comprised fifth-grade students from an elementary school in Pingtung County, divided into an experimental group of 26 students and a control group of 25 students. Both groups attended six 40-min lessons over a month, with the experimental group receiving GSP-aided instruction and the control group receiving traditional lecture instruction. The authors revised the test instrument based on , and the instrument was further reviewed and revised by experts. They conducted a third revision of the contents after performing a pilot test. The difficulty index of the test ranged between 0.18 and 1, and the discrimination index ranged between 0.13 and 0.88. The split-half reliability of the test was 0.8723. The results revealed the following: (a) in learning the area of triangles, the experimental group performed significantly better than the control group; (b) the results of the formative assessments indicated a superior performance in the experimental group compared with the control group in all of the lessons, with the exception of the second lesson; and (c) the male and female students in the experimental group and the control group exhibited no significant differences. Based on these results, the authors suggest that students be offered the opportunity to use concrete teaching aids or computer simulations when learning the area of triangles.

Technology is shaping our world persistently and swiftly every day. Does the use of technology improve teaching and learning as well as the overall quality of education at schools? To what extent are technology-integrated curricula in an elementary school correlated with students' academic performance on statewide achievement tests? To what extent are technology-integrated curricula in an elementary school correlated with students' computer literacy skills? The aim of this chapter was to identify whether a relationship exists between technology-integrated curriculum and students' academic performance on statewide achievement tests as well as their computer skills in an elemental school in Alabama. Data were collected through a survey questionnaire and archival data. The participants were 113 fifth grade elementary school students. Results from the study and recommendations for school administrators, teachers, and students are provided.

In this study, a modified Draw-A-Scientist Test (mDAST) and an Attitude Toward Science Survey (ATS) were analyzed. Results revealed that students' (N=127) drawings of scientists were not consistent with students' attitude toward science in grades 5, 9, and 12. Attitudes toward science continued to decline while student drawings became more positive in respect to where they were drawing scientists and what activities scientists were doing in grades 9 through 12. Most importantly, the fact that students' perception of the appearance of scientists did not change from the end of elementary school to the end of high school suggests the severity and longevity of these images. The findings of this study reinforce the significance of ATS and perceptions of scientists in conjunction with the interest of science-related careers.

Over the past decade, there has been a growing interest in learning analytics for research in education and psychology. It has been shown to support education by predicting learning performances such as school completion and test scores of students in late elementary and above. In this chapter, the authors discuss the potential of learning analytics as a computational thinking assessment in early childhood education. They first introduce learning analytics by discussing its various applications and the benefits and limitations that it offers to the educational field. They then provide examples of how learning analytics can deepen our understanding of computational thinking through observing young children's engagement with ScratchJr: a tablet coding app designed for K-2 students. Finally, they close this chapter with future directions for using learning analytics to support computer science education.

Integrating high-quality children's tradebooks into elementary content areas has long been considered a best practice. When teachers choose to incorporate these texts into content area lessons, they are exposing students to art through the pictures and reaching an array of visual learners. There is a delicate balance between teaching the literacy strategies needed to read these texts and the actual content materials that students need to learn in the STEAM areas. This chapter explores how to incorporate texts appropriately into content area lessons so that students can focus on the content, as well as apply literacy strategies for comprehension.

The chapter describes the flipped classroom practice with video contents in elementary school arithmetic. Japanese students have acquired relatively high scores in international well-known competency-achievement tests like PISA and TIMISS, and then, it is believed that the educational system in Japan gets in good success to put the basic competency onto the students. However, the teachers in Japan feel that the students should acquire more ability to apply the basic competency to the real problems smoothly and actively. The authors performed flipped classroom at an elementary school using consulting preparatory teaching videos for partial flipped teaching, transferring “understanding subjects,” “recalling already learned items,” and “self-solving” to home learning, and closely connecting learning (preparation) at home and in the classroom to upgrade the students' abilities that can solve more complex and advanced problems smoothly.

Integrating high-quality children's tradebooks into elementary content areas has long been considered a best-practice (Olness, 2007). When teachers choose to incorporate these texts into content area lessons, they are exposing students to art through the pictures and reaching an array of visual learners. Hoffman, Collins and Schickedanz (2015) state that teachers have difficulty discussing the concepts presented in the books. The goal is to strike a balance between the literacy skills and strategies needed to read the informational text, and the concepts that must be discussed (Hoffman, Collins & Schickedanz, 2015). In order to increase students' understanding, teachers must be able to successfully merge their book selection with a carefully scaffolded lesson plan (Fisher & Frey, 2015). This chapter presents a lesson plan template that assists teachers in planning for integrated instruction.

This chapter describes how a children's literature educator provided a space for preservice teachers to select, read, and discuss diverse and social justice literature through read-alouds and literature circles. In addition, the preservice teachers questioned and challenged their own assumptions about their world during a semester-long read-aloud partnership with elementary students focusing on diverse or social justice children's literature. The college students involved the children in discussions around the texts and planned response activities for them. The findings suggest that partnerships, emphasizing diverse literature, help preservice teachers practice how to choose diverse books, experience the value of read-alouds, and discover how to encourage discussion around diverse texts.

Since changes to the reading/language arts State Subject Area Test (SSAT) in late 2010, elementary education teacher candidates at a teacher training college in the Southern United States have experienced declining scores resulting in test failure and delaying student teaching and graduation. The purpose of this case study was to identify factors that students and faculty perceived as most beneficial in preparing students to pass the SSAT. Constructivism served as the conceptual framework for this study addressing the effects of collaboration, hands-on learning, and application of knowledge. Purposeful sampling was used to recruit 6 elementary education students who had taken the SSAT and 4 full-time reading and language arts faculty members who participated in semistructured interviews. Analysis of coded data indicated themes of preference for experiential learning, intensive strategy instruction, and a review of tested content. Based on study findings, a 3-day professional development training was created to provide students a review of tested subject matter through embedded strategy instruction and opportunities for hands-on application of learning.

The planning of teaching with technological tools in Kosovo schools has brought new and challenging experiences for teachers at all levels of education. The purpose of the research is to analyze the attitudes of teachers about the application of technology in effective planning of teaching and raising learning outcomes in primary school. Furthermore, the research determines the impact of age and level of teacher’s education on the application of technology according to curriculum areas. The TPACK model was used as the theoretical framework during the research, which helped us to clarify the notions: technological knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and teaching contents in the effective planning of teaching by applying technology. The data were collected from a questionnaire with 25 teachers in an elementary school where technology finds higher applicability in teaching. To analyze the learning outcomes during the application of technology and applicability in other subjects, the Post Hock test, and the Correlation was used to measure the relationship between the two variables, respectively the correlation between the age and the level of education of teachers. The results of this research show that learning planning through technology affects the increase of focus and gain a higher understanding in each subject, acquiring knowledge of new concepts, raises the desire to learn independently, makes the learning process more innovative and more attractive to students. The research recommends for the local and central level to give priority to equipping primary schools with technological tools to improve teaching by having the opportunity to plan different practices.

Anumber of youth movement activities, e.g. running, walking, jumping, climbing trees, throw-ing and catching a ball, has been on a decline in the current European cultural space. The results of this research contribute to broadening the knowledge about the level of basic motor competencies and qualifications of the 1st and 2nd grade elementary children in the Slovak Republic. The primary data on the basic motor competencies and qualifications of the examined group (n=307, age = 7.58 ± 0.69 years) were collected by means of the MOBAK 1‒2 test battery (Herrmann et al., 2018b). The significance of differences between boys (n=156, age 7.62 ± 0.69) and girls (n=151, age 7.55 ± 0.70) was evaluated by Student’s t-test in two independent groups. The boys in the first grade (n = 97) achieved a significantly better performance in basic motor competency object movements (x = 5.17 ± 1.79 points) than their female peers (n=88, x = 3.52 ± 1.78). The girls in the second grade did not achieve a statistically better performance in the movement qualifications in throwing, balancing and rolling than the first-graders of the same gender. Knowledge of the level of basic motor com-petencies and qualifications of the Slovak elementary school children allows the national and European educational and cultural authorities to design and improve the content of physical and sport education classes.

The aim of this research is to determine the level of elementary physical knowledge, which can be used for solving the problem of nursing task. For this purpose original didactic test was used, which contained tasks from elementary physics and tasks of nursing, too. It was found, that nurses minimally remembered physical knowledge. Nurses preferred to solve practical nursing tasks only by using nursing knowledge. Decoupling physical and nursing knowledge may cause the increased risk of damage to health nurses and patients. Keywords: knowledge retention, solving of practical nursing tasks, physical knowledge in nursing.