Problems of Education in the 21st Century

469-470

Authors: Editorial Board

Cover page, Vol. 78, No. 4, 2020

472-485

Authors: Vincentas Lamanauskas

The presentation of research results is definitely an important part of any scientific article. On the one hand, the findings of the conducted research should be explained in as much detail as possible, whereas on the other, the obtained results must be clear, understandable and relevant. The previous editorials analysed the elements of a scientific article such as the title and summary (Lamanauskas, 2019a), introduction (Lamanauskas, 2019b) and the description of methodology (Lamanauskas, 2020). This editorial briefly discusses the optimal presentation of research results treated as one of the most interesting stages in preparing a scientific article and requires effort, intensive work and creativity. Alternatively, both methodology and research results (empirical research in particular) are considered the most important parts of a manuscript (Fox & Jennings, 2014). As expected, many important points related to the description of research results are given in APA 7th. ed. (2019), and therefore are not intended to be discussed in detail. Although APA standards are widespread, other criteria are also admitted by scientific community and focus in this editorial is more oriented on the practical subjects of academic writing and the most common mistakes.

500-515

Authors: Sintha Sih Dewanti, Badrun Kartowagiran, Jailani, Heri Retnawati

Mathematics is one of the fields that has important role in the 21st-century thinking because mathematics involves the process of logical and systematic thinking to solve problems. This makes mathematical competencies need to be developed through learning and integrated into knowledge, skills, and attitudes. When learning has facilitated the development of 21st-century mathematical competencies, the assessment must also be able to photograph it. This research aimed to find out whether the lecturers of the Mathematics Education Study Program have conducted a 21st-century mathematics competency assessment. This research used a qualitative approach with the phenomenological method. The data were collected using in-depth interviews with each participant. The research participants were 20 lecturers from Mathematics Education Study Program who came from 12 provinces in Indonesia. Data analysis was performed by using the help of ATLAS.ti 8 software to analyze participants' transcripts and documentation, formulate important phrases or sentences, formulate meaning, bring themes up, and be integrated into in-depth descriptions of the phenomenon. The result showed that lecturers of the Mathematics Education Study Program have not focused on the 21st-century mathematics competency assessment. The assessment of each mathematical competency was only done globally and not carried out in detail about each of the competency indicators.

533-552

Authors: Julio Cesar Gomez

This longitudinal, 2-year study explored the experience of a cohort of seven in-service teachers in an English Language Teaching master’s program as they carried out action research studies to determine the impact of the stages of the research process on the various components of their pedagogical content knowledge. The research design followed a qualitative multiple case study model. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews, written reflections, and participant observation journal notes. Main findings highlight the way specific components of the thesis linked to stages of the action research study contributed to developing certain types of knowledge integral to pedagogical content knowledge. Knowledge of the students was highly impacted by the needs analysis and the design and implementation of the intervention. In terms of pedagogical knowledge, building the state of the art and theoretical framework along with the intervention clarified and further developed knowledge of teaching methodologies and strategies. Subject matter knowledge was highly impacted by the theoretical framework and the socialization opportunities. Establishing the setting of the study contributed to further understand the constraints and affordances of their teaching contexts. Overall, this action research study became an insightful experience that helped participants promote effective classroom practices to address their students’ needs.

576-594

Authors: Bing Jia, Dan He, Zhemin Zhu

The quality of multiple-choice questions (MCQs) as well as the student's solve behavior in MCQs are educational concerns. MCQs cover wide educational content and can be immediately and accurately scored. However, many studies have found some flawed items in this exam type, thereby possibly resulting in misleading insights into students’ performance and affecting important decisions. This research sought to determine the characteristics of MCQs and factors that may affect the quality of MCQs by using item response theory (IRT) to evaluate data. For this, four samples of different sizes from US and China in secondary and higher education were chosen. Item difficulty and discrimination were determined using item response theory statistical item analysis models. Results were as follows. First, only a few guessing behaviors are included in MCQ exams because all data fit the two-parameter logistic model better than the three-parameter logistic model. Second, the quality of MCQs depended more on the degree of training of examiners and less on middle or higher education levels. Lastly, MCQs must be evaluated to ensure that high-quality items can be used as bases of inference in middle and higher education.

612-626

Authors: Marcela Šarvajcová, Ľubomír Rybanský

The aim of the research was to analyse the effects of family cultural capital on reading behaviour of the selected group of lower secondary and upper secondary school students in Slovakia. Based on the results of the international testing called PIRLS (2016) and PISA (2018) the school children in Slovakia achieved low results. Therefore, the selected aspects of family cultural capital were analysed to find out the extent of effect it has on the reading behaviour of the selected sample of the students in Slovakia. Specifically, the research was focused on the several selected factors, as follows: family trips, cinema, theatre shows, galleries and concerts attendance, family crafts, parental education, and parental reading behaviour. The sample was selected based on the age of the respondents and their school affiliation. Geographically the random sample was selected from the students of Nitra region in Slovakia. Although the data were collected about both parents of each student, the effect of mother’s reading behaviour appeared to have greater significance. Apparently, the number of books in the family library had some effect on reading behaviour of the children in the family, too. The results presented the importance of family environment in the process of reading behaviour development of the selected groups of students.

644-662

Authors: Quan-Hoang Vuong, Minh-Trang Do, Thi-Van-Anh Pham, Thi-An Do, Phuong-Thuc Doan, Anh-Duc Hoang, Thu-Hang Ta, Quynh-Anh Le, Hiep-Hung Pham

Since 2013, Vietnam has implemented a plan to reform the whole education sector. However, there is little understanding on the status of educational research in Vietnam, which may lay the foundation for such plan. Thus, this research aims to analyze the whole picture of educational research from Vietnam, as seen from the Clarivate Web of Science (WOS) database: 215 publications were recorded, ranging from 1991 to 2018. These 215 publications were further analyzed from five perspectives: 1) number of publications by year; 2) research fields and levels of education; 3) top institutions with the highest number of publications; 4) international collaboration; and 5) quality. Some of the most notable results are: 1) the educational sciences in Vietnam have been still under-developed until recently; 2) among different research topics research among educational sciences, some (e.g., Vocational Education and Training or Early Childhood Education) seemed to be overlooked whereas others (e.g., Higher Education and Teaching and Learning) seemed to receive more attention from educational scholars; 3) all the most major education – specialized universities did not appear among the top five institutions with highest number of publications; 4) Australia, Thailand, the USA, New Zealand and China were the countries with the highest number of co-publications with Vietnamese researchers; and 5) The majority of publications belonged to low-ranked journals. Implications would be withdrawn for Vietnamese policymakers, education leaders, educational researchers and teachers in order to adjust their policies and/or action plans; thus, enhancing the performance and impacts of educational research in the future.