Adapting to PSTs’ Pedagogical Changes in Sustainable Mathematics Education through Flipped E-Learning: Ranking Its Criteria with MCDA/F-DEMATEL

Approaches and Methods of Science Teaching and Sustainable Development

Unfortunately, science teaching at the university level has largely consisted of lectures in which the students’ position is usually to gather information by listening and taking notes from the instructors [...]

A STEM Course Analysis During COVID-19: A Comparison Study in Performance and Affective Domain of PSTs Between F2F and F2S Flipped Classroom

Due to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, university education has faced a significant challenge that requires adaptation to virtual and online education. Here, a fruitful flipped methodology with increased popularity can support adaption to and improvement of the current pandemic situation. This research presents a comparison of two different instruction situations with an identical teaching methodology, face-to-face (F2F) and face-to-screen (F2S) flipped methodology, in terms of students' performance and affective domain in a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) course. It was considered and designed as an examination of 132 pre-service teachers (PSTs), with 68 and 64 PSTs respectively for each group. The first group before the pandemic was applied by F2F flipped classroom and the second group after the pandemic was applied by F2S flipped classroom. The results after pertaining various data analyses of class activities and questionaries showed that performance had been improved for both groups toward the course. In addition, F2F had a significant difference in PSTs' emotion and perception toward the course and made classes more interactive. The mean score values of students' emotion and perception between two groups showed that the difference between these mean values were significant, suggesting a very large effect. Particularly, the effect size (ES) showed that positive emotions were more significant with different variables and the items Q7-Q9 of questionnaires indicated more significant different perceptions for both F2F and F2S after completing the course. Finally, the principal component analysis (PCA) test described that F2F answers were located mainly in the positive emotion, while F2S answers were grouped in the negative emotion, while no differences were observed for PSTs perceptions to the flipped methodology. Consequently, although F2F-F2S transition was an effective process, instructors and PSTs faced difficulties in the platform usage for online lectures reflecting emotions' results in F2S group. Thus, by solving the problems raised, it will allow PSTs to be more interactive in a virtual and online context for their future implementation by giving them active instruction methodology and educating future students to teach STEM contents.

Improving Experienced Mathematics Teachers’ Classroom Talk: A Visual Learning Analytics Approach to Professional Development

The professional development of experienced teachers has received considerably less attention than that of novice teachers. This study focuses on four experienced secondary mathematics teachers in Shanghai, China, with two participating in a year-long professional development program (treatment teachers) and the other two received conventional knowledge-based professional development (comparison teachers). The program introduced productive classroom talk skills which can facilitate teachers’ formative assessment of student learning during class. To encourage teachers to reflect on their classroom discourse when reviewing recordings of their teaching, we used visual learning analytics with the treatment teachers and theorized the use of this technology with activity theory. After completing the program, the treatment teachers were better able to use productive talk moves to elicit student responses and to provide timely formative feedback accordingly. Specifically, the percentage of word contributions in lessons from students and the length of their responses increased noticeably. Qualitative findings suggest that the use of visual learning analytics mediated the treatment teachers and improved classroom discourse. Based on these findings and activity theory, we provide recommendations for future use of visual learning analytics to improve teachers’ classroom talk and designing professional development activities for experienced teachers.

Flipped-OCN Method in Mathematics Learning to Analyze the Attitudes of Pre-Service Teachers

Due to the learning difficulties in mathematics education, a new teaching methodology have been proposed for its improvement. Difficulties in mathematics learning indicate that students are not able to properly deal with resolving calculations and/or problems. This research examines the evolution of the attitudes of pre-service teachers’ (PSTs) toward mathematics learning when an open calculation based on numbers (OCN) method was followed in a flipped classroom. It was conducted in a general mathematics course, Primary Education bachelor’s degree during the course of 2019/2020. A total of 143 students participated in the study (230 students enrolled), with a pre- and post-test survey questionnaire. Based on the analysis of survey questionnaires, the obtained results demonstrated that the attitudes (own beliefs and conceptions (OB), positive (ATP), and negative (ATN) attitudes) of PSTs improved positively after completing the flipped-OCN method toward mathematics learning. Regarding the statistical analyses, all questions had a significant difference that showed the influence of the flipped-OCN method, improving the PSTs attitudes toward mathematics learning (p < 0.005). According to the structural equation modeling—partial least squares (SEM-PLS) analysis, it demonstrated that the components relation effects of OB, ATP, and ATN of PSTs toward mathematics learning, and the influence of their educational background. Finally, with the principal component analysis (PCA), it can be found out that the science and technology background were positively correlated after the flipped-OCN method comparing with the rest of PSTs. The influence of the proposed method indicated a significant improvement in these components. Therefore, the results concluded that this study allowed to draw a promising tendency about the PSTs’ attitudes toward mathematics learning with the OCN method in the flipped classroom. Additionally, these outcomes could advance our comprehension of how to help pre-service education for teachers’ enhancement and maturity of positive attitudes about themselves as future teachers. Then, it would be a fundamental piece in building logical and critical thinking and development for children.

An Online-Based Edu-Escape Room: A Comparison Study of a Multidimensional Domain of PSTs with Flipped Sustainability-STEM Contents

The use of active and flipped methodologies has increased in recent years. Here, gamification uses typical elements of a game in different contexts, including that of education. Specifically, Escape Room games used as educational tools have potential for teaching–learning, and they can be beneficial because they can improve students’ motivation and emotions toward learning. This is particularly valuable in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses, where the cognitive factor and multidimensional domain are closely connected. This research presents an online-based Edu-Escape Room with science and sustainability contents as an educative tool in a STEM course. With the intervention proposed, we analyze how this tool influences the multidimensional domain (attitudes, self-efficacy and emotions) of pre-service teachers (PSTs). According to attitude and self-efficacy analysis, it is observed that most of the items analyzed show an increase in self-efficacy and more positive attitudes after the intervention. In particular, Question 11 (Q11) indicates a significant difference. Concerning the results for emotion, the positive emotions “joy”, “satisfaction” and “fun” are significantly increased after the intervention. However, the negative emotions “nervousness”, “frustration” and “concern” also increase, partly due to the game characteristics. The proposed activity had a medium effect on items with significant differences except for the emotion “frustration”, where the intervention had a large effect according to effect size (ES) analysis. According to the principal component analysis (PCA), the attitudes, self-efficacy and emotions of the PSTs are positively correlated, and the influence of the proposed activity shows a significant improvement in these variables. Finally, the structural equation modeling partial least squares (SEM-PLS) analysis showed the effects that the instruction has on the PSTs’ emotions and also that they had a significant effect on the positive attitudes towards and self-efficacy in science. Therefore, there are multiple benefits in the multidimensional domain of PSTs of having implemented the proposed online-based Edu-Escape Room.

Linear Diophantine Fuzzy Soft Rough Sets for the Selection of Sustainable Material Handling Equipment

The concept of linear Diophantine fuzzy sets (LDFSs) is a new approach for modeling uncertainties in decision analysis. Due to the addition of reference or control parameters with membership and non-membership grades, LDFS is more flexible and reliable than existing concepts of intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IFSs), Pythagorean fuzzy sets (PFSs), and q-rung orthopair fuzzy sets (q-ROFSs). In this paper, the notions of linear Diophantine fuzzy soft rough sets (LDFSRSs) and soft rough linear Diophantine fuzzy sets (SRLDFSs) are proposed as new hybrid models of soft sets, rough sets, and LDFS. The suggested models of LDFSRSs and SRLDFSs are more flexible to discuss fuzziness and roughness in terms of upper and lower approximation operators. Certain operations on LDFSRSs and SRLDFSs have been established to discuss robust multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) for the selection of sustainable material handling equipment. For these objectives, some algorithms are developed for the ranking of feasible alternatives and deriving an optimal decision. Meanwhile, the ideas of the upper reduct, lower reduct, and core set are defined as key factors in the proposed MCDM technique. An application of MCDM is illustrated by a numerical example, and the final ranking in the selection of sustainable material handling equipment is computed by the proposed algorithms. Finally, a comparison analysis is given to justify the feasibility, reliability, and superiority of the proposed models.