Problems of Education in The 21st Century, Vol. 77, No. 4, 2019

Problems of Education in the 21st Century, Vol. 77, No.
4, 2019
ISSN 1822-7864 (Print) ISSN 2538-7111 (Online)
PROBLEMS OF EDUCATION
IN THE 21st CENTURY
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Editors-in-Chief
Dr., Prof. Agnaldo Arroio, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil
Dr., Prof. Vincentas Lamanauskas, Šiauliai University & SMC „Scientia Educologica“, Republic
of Lithuania
Editorial Board
Dr., Prof. Boris Aberšek, University of Maribor, Slovenia
Dr., Prof. Saleh A. Alabdulkareem, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia
Dr. Monica Baptista, University of Lisbon, Portugal
Dr., Prof. Martin Bilek, Charles University, Czech Republic
Dr., Prof. Andris Broks, University of Latvia, Latvia
Dr., Prof. Marco Antonio Bueno Filho, Federal University of ABC, Brazil
Dr. Paolo Bussotti, University of Udine, Italy
Dr. Muammer Calik, Karadeniz Technical University, Turkey
Dr., Prof. Margaret Chan Kit Yok, MARA University of Technology (UiTM), Malaysia
Dr., Harun Yilmaz, Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, Turkey
Dr., Angela James, University of Kwazulu – Natal, South Africa
Dr., Prof. Vladimir S. Karapetyan, Armenian State Pedagogical University named after
Kh. Abovyan, Armenia
Dr., Prof. Kuo-Hung Huang, National Chiayi University, Taiwan
Dr. Milan Kubiatko, University of Zilina, Slovakia
Dr., Prof. Miroslaw Kowalski, University of Zielona Gora, Poland
Dr. Todar T. Lakhvich, Belarusian State Medical University, Republic of Belarus
Dr. Eleonora Melnik, Petrozavodsk State University, Republic of Karelia, Russia
Dr., Prof. Danuše Nezvalova, Palacky University, Czech Republic
Dr. Osman Pekel, Suleyman Demirel University, Turkey
Dr., Prof. Yuriy Pelekh, Rivne State University of Humanities, Ukraine
Dr., Prof. Raffaele Pisano, Lille 3 University, France
Dr. Costin Pribeanu, Academy of Romanian Scientists, Romania
Dr. Agneta Simeonsdotter Svensson, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Dr. Uladzimir K. Slabin, University of Oregon, USA
Dr. Laima Railienė, Scientific Methodical Centre „Scientia Educologica“, Republic of Lithuania
Dr., Prof. Borislav V. Toshev, Sofia University, Bulgaria
Dr., Prof. Milan Turčani, Constantine the Philosopher University, Slovakia
Dr., Prof. Nicos Valanides, Educational Robotics and Science Organization, Cyprus
Copyright of this issue is the property of Scientia Socialis, Ltd, Lithuania. By virtue of their appearance in
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CGIJ OAJI: 0.350 (2018).
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Problems of Education in the 21st Century is an international, periodical, peer reviewed scientific journal,
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PROBLEMS
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IN THE 21st CENTURY
Vol. 77, No. 4, 2019
Contents 455
Editorial
SCIENTIFIC ARTICLE PREPARATION: TITLE, ABSTRACT AND KEYWORDS

Vincentas Lamanauskas ............................................................................................. 456
Articles
PRACTICAL EDUCATION OF ADULTS WITH INTELLECTUAL

DISABILITIES USING A WEB COURSE
Petr Benda, Jan Pavlík, Jan Masner ................................................................................ 463
ASSESSING THE INFLUENCE OF SERVICE RECOVERY STRATEGIES ON

DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS
Steven K. Msosa, Jeevarathnam P. Govender .....................................................................478
PROBLEMS OF NARCISSISM IN EDUCATION: THE CULTURE OF NARCISSISM

AS A DANGEROUS GLOBAL PHENOMENON FOR THE FUTURE
Michal Podzimek ...................................................................................................... 489
THE DEVELOPMENT OF STUDENTS’ MATHEMATICAL LITERACY PROFICIENCY

Heri Retnawati, Nidya F. Wulandari ................................................................................502
THE INFLUENCE OF DIFFERENT EDUCATIONAL CONTEXTS ON TUTOR

PRESENTATIONS OF VISUAL ARTS IN TEACHER COLLEGES IN UGANDA
Julius Ssegantebuka .................................................................................................. 515
FOUNDATION PHASE STUDENTS’ METACOGNITIVE ABILITIES IN MATHEMATICS

CLASSES: REFLECTIVE CLASSROOM DISCOURSE USING AN OPEN APPROACH
Simon Adjei Tachie .................................................................................................. 528
CHOOSING TEACHING AS A PROFESSION: VALIDATION OF AN SMVUP-4-S

ASSESSMENT TOOL
Robert Tomšik ........................................................................................................ 545
Information
INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS ............................................................................. 560
EDUCATION POLICY, MANAGEMENT AND QUALITY ................................................. 563

PROBLEMS
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456
SCIENTIFIC ARTICLE PREPARATION:
TITLE, ABSTRACT AND KEYWORDS
Vincentas Lamanauskas
Šiauliai University, Lithuania
Scientific article writing is undoubtedly an inseparable part of academic activity. Every

researcher/scientist, in one way or another, has to declare scientific research activity results,
i.e., to publish in scientific press. If this is not done, it is considered that a scientific work is
not finished regardless of the size of the research/experiments carried out and so on. Such
information has to be completely understandable not only in the academic environment but also
in society. Publications in the international and independent science journals acknowledged in
the academic community show the real value of the scientist and his works. This does not mean
in any way that the other level publications are not necessary (Lamanauskas, 2013). Every
publication has its auditorium, purpose, aims and so on. Regardless of the type of publication
broadly speaking, it has to be appropriately prepared.
On the other hand, every scientist and/or researcher is different, first of all, in the sense
of academic literacy. Academic literacy formation is one of the constituents of the academic
activity. Thus, an appropriate academic literacy level is necessary. The question only is what
an appropriate level means. According to the researchers, academic literacy is a complex
wholeness of abilities, knowledge and attitudes covering both general and special items, typical
only for academic literacy (Žukauskienė & Erentaitė, 2011). Writing, first of all, is a direct
analysed material/information presentation in written form and visualisations, isn’t it? And
such presentation is inevitably focused on other people, i.e. scientific information consumers/
readers, who are not exhaustively acquainted with the particular research and/or area of interests.
Academic writing is a manifold construct joining such essential elements as specific science
field understanding, scientific research methodology understanding, statistics knowledge,
finally, native and foreign language culture understanding. For academic writing, it is important
to understand well not only scientific text characteristics (e.g., clearness, completeness,
originality) but also responsibility (e.g., research methodology validity/reliability/suitability,
formulated conclusions and /or presented recommendations).
It is understandable that researchers are people having different qualifications, experience
and so on. However, inevitably each of them constantly encounters academic writing challenges.
Scientific research activity is not a static, unchanging thing, on the contrary, it is a dynamic
activity.
From the classical point of view, there exist two though closely related however different
scientific activity processes. The first one is search for a scientific research idea, grounding,
research planning and carrying out. The second one is the carried-out research description
and presentation. Presentation is usually understood as research procedure and result public
announcement. Despite the fact that plenty of various advice, recommendations, examples
on academic writing questions are published, nevertheless, it is necessary to accentuate some
essential things preparing a scientific article. Here the focus is put on social science field
scientific publication preparation (for example, education). On the other hand, we think that it
is useful for the other field scientists as well.
https://doi.org/10.33225/pec/19.77.456 ISSN 1822-7864 (Print) ISSN 2538-7111 (Online)

Vincentas LAMANAUSKAS. Scientific article preparation: Title, abstract and keywords
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Vol. 77, No. 4, 2019
An Article Title 457
One could hardly find a scientific article which did not have a title. One can say that
basically the whole research scientific idea/problem is described in one sentence. To say it
in other words, the title of the article creates the first impression about the article itself, more
exactly, about the carried-out research. Quite often the researchers try to make the title very
impressive, attractive, captivating. Some researchers accentuate the article attractiveness a lot
(Poviliūnas & Ramanauskas, 2008), which is probably not rational. Often enough a certain
field jargon is used or even slang, various abbreviations and so on. This, of course, should
be avoided. On the other hand, readers are potential authors of the future articles who will
hopefully use, cite, paraphrase, report etc. on a particular published article. From this it follows
that the title of the article has to attract the reader’s attention.
Here are presented some partly appropriate and, in our opinion, inappropriately
formulated title examples (Table 1).
Table 1. Article title examples.
Appropriately formulated Inappropriately formulated

• Fairytales creation possibilities of children with
• Lifelong learning of university teachers – dilemma
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in diagnostics
or synergy
of psycho-social and cognitive sphere
• Alcoholism is bad
• Integration of the disabled: The formation of positive
• The aspects of student learning motivation
attitude toward disabled in the process of musical
• University governance reforms
education
• ICT in science subjects
• Examining secondary school students’
• Management of resources in early childhood
misconceptions about the human body: Correlations
development centers and its implication for quality of
between the methods of drawing and open-ended
education in Bungoma district, western Kenya
questions
• Distance – remembrance – tolerance
• Cooperation of the pre-service chemistry and
• Physics education in kindergarten
geography teachers on an interdisciplinary lesson
• Learning for earning - student expectations of
planning
universities and administrator perspectives.
• Factors influencing the first-year students’ adaptation
• On investigation pupils´ attitudes towards biology.
to natural science studies in higher education.
If we could look at these examples, we could see that inappropriately formulated titles are
usually of a very general type, not concrete, unclear, some of them are very complex and so on.
It happens that the title of the article is formulated in the form of a motto e.g., “Qualified teacher
- future society creator”). Frequent cases are when in the titles of the articles such phrases are
found as “Research on...”, “Investigation about ...”, “Analysis of ...”, “Lessons learned...”, “A
study on...”, “Research about ...”, “Mixed research on …”, and so on. These are inappropriate
elements of the title. First of all, every scientific article describes one or another carried-out
research. Therefore, to include concepts “research”, “analysis” in the title is not purposeful.
Another rather frequent case is when at the end of the title after the colon the type of research is
indicated, e.g., “comparative analysis”, “case study”, “correlational research”, “factor analysis”
and so on. In certain cases, it is purposeful especially when, for example, in the article research
instrument creation, validity, reliability estimation and other are described. Uncertainties also
arise when the title is constructed as a presentation of partial results. E.g., the title “Spatial
images and changes in their graphic representation in primary and lower secondary school
students (preliminary results of the research)” is unclear. Already beforehand it is not clear what
preliminary research results mean. Besides, a part of the title is presented in parentheses. The
other example also shows that the title is inappropriately formulated. For example, in the title
“Chemistry education research: Content analysis”, two methodological concepts are used –
research and analysis. Such title is neither informative nor methodologically correct.
ISSN 1822-7864 (Print) ISSN 2538-7111 (Online) https://doi.org/10.33225/pec/19.77.456

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458 Formulating the title of an article, the author should evaluate the chosen keywords as
well. It has to be an obvious link between the title of an article and keywords. According to the
given keywords, one can find analogical and/or similar analysed sphere articles.
The length of an article is the thing of no less importance. It is worth to remind that
following APA recommendations, the length of an article should not be more than 12 words
(Publication manual APA6th ed., 2.01, p. 23). It goes without saying that this is not an imperative
attitude, and it means that there can be some more and some less words in the title. However, it
is obvious that it would not be possible to formulate a scientific article title with 3-4 words, as
well as it would not be purposeful to use 15-20 words. Therefore, one can think that an interval
between 6 to 12 words is optimal for the article title formulation (mainly, in social science field).
One more variant happening quite often is when an article title is formulated in the form
of a question. Though, one can notice various positions in the scientific discourse, I think that
such formulation is not appropriate. Some published article examples can be presented (Table
2).
Table 2. Article titles and sources.
Title Source
What type relationship do we have with our brands? Is the International Review of Management and Marketing,
name of this relationship brand romance? 2017, 7(2).
Does attending a public or private university make a International Review of Management and Marketing,
difference for students in Colombia? 2017, 7(2),
What is equality of opportunity in education? Theory and Research in Education, 2016, Vol. 14(1).
How broadly does education contribute to job

Personnel Psychology, 2009, 62.
performance?
These are only some examples. Firstly, it remains unclear how research title correlates
with possible research questions. As can be seen in Table 2, the first article title consists even
of two questions. The other article titles are expressed in the form of one question. Such
formulations are not appropriate.
Abstract
Article abstract preparation is not an easy process, however a well-written abstract as

researchers claim forms possibilities that the research will be noticed, used, but not ignored, and
not used properly (Sousa, Driessnack, & Flória-Santos, 2006). First of all, this is because it is
a very limited size text, in which the whole article essence has to be reflected. The abstract size
varies, different journals raise slightly different requirements. In the literature it is indicated that
the size of an abstract can also reach 400-500 words (Dash, 2016), however, it is obviously a
too wide text. Following APA recommendations, the abstract size varies in the interval between
150 – 250 words (Publication manual APA, 2.04, p. 25). One can claim that most science journals
meet these recommendations regarding the requirements of an abstract. Every author should
understand that an abstract is short characteristics of a scientific article, in which a carried-
out research is described. Namely characteristics but not retelling of the content (especially
wrong approach is when the abstract text is compiled from separate parts of the already written
article). Moreover, an abstract performs a marketing function. Preparing an abstract, the
article’s purpose, content, type, form and other peculiarities are taken into consideration. What
is more, one has to avoid source content retelling, various abbreviations, and links (references)

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to literature sources. A very frequent drawback is that an abstract is prepared using various 459
structural part elements of a written article. Such compilation is completely worthless. As a
rule, an abstract is written when the whole article text is basically finished. Otherwise speaking,
an abstract should convey to the reader a gripping story about the conducted research. There
shouldn’t be a place in it for any misinterpretations.
In an abstract, first of all, the main research idea and/or a problem is presented and
research motivation, i.e., why the research is conducted. Quite often, the authors start an abstract
straight away presenting the aim, e.g., “the purpose of this study was...”, “this study aimed
to...”, “the research aimed to analyse...” etc. The other drawback is when an abstract is started
with the obtained research result presentation, e.g., “In this research, the impact was…”, “The
results indicated that...”, “The results show that...”, etc. In this case, it remains unclear what was
analysed and why in a particular research. The third mentioned drawback is when it is written not
about the conducted research in an abstract, but about the article itself. As a rule, such phrases
are used e.g., “This paper presents...”, “This article builds on and contributes to...”, The aim of
this paper is to...”, This scientific paper presents...”, “The purpose of this article is to...”, “This
article, written within the framework...”, “The paper analyses…”, “The problem of the article
is…” and other. In academic writing practice one can encounter the most diverse types of such
phrases. Basically, it becomes close to an article annotation, on the other hand, quite often from
a logical point of view it is wrong e.g., an article of its own accord does not have a problem.
It is necessary to emphasize that an abstract and annotation are two different things. Usually
in the annotation, the article itself is described in a few short sentences and the structure of the
annotation itself does not repeat the article structure. In the case of an abstract, the text basically
repeats the article structure regardless if the abstract text is structured or not. As it is known,
structured abstracts are typical to medical literature and clinical trial reports (Nakayama, Hirai,
Yamazaki, & Naito, 2005). However, a possible and even recommended variant is to write
an abstract at first as a structured text, e.g., first of all, to define the research idea/conception,
separately to describe motivation and the main aim, afterwards, methodological aspects, and
finally the most important research results and conclusions/implications. Later, according to
Mack (2012), one can join all parts into an integral text and get a traditional abstract. Such an
attitude is quite rational, except that such integral text is considered a traditional abstract text
form.
Having discussed the research problem and/or the main idea, the research design is
defined, research data gathering methods and instruments are presented, research population
and sample are described, concisely are described theoretical perspectives and/or theoretical
framework, essential results and conclusions/implications. It is understandable that, first of all,
this suits in the case of quantitative, empiric research. In other cases, some of the mentioned
elements might not be, they are changed by others (e.g., if purely qualitative research is
described). If the size allows, it is desirable to show the carried-out research contribution to the
body of knowledge (value-add).
Let us have a look at the two article abstracts, which are presented in Table 3.

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460 Table 3. Article abstracts.
Appropriately prepared abstract Inappropriately prepared abstract
Research on children’s ideas about biological phenomena Quality assurance is important for learning and
showed that their interpretations of natural phenomena teaching process. Quality assurance is new type of
often differ from those of scientists. The purpose of this working in universities of the post soviet countries after
study was to investigate children’s ideas about animal implementation of the Bologna Process. It is uncultivated
breathing systems. This study was descriptive in nature soil, when we must work so much and the at same time
and consisted of a cross age and cross-cultural design we can create new approaches. We researched problems
involving the collection of qualitative data from a total of understanding of the essence of quality assurance, that
of 549 children from two distinct countries, Slovakia (n why we conducted survey with academic staff. The results
= 248) and Turkey (n = 301). The results revealed that was very interesting. It seems, some of respondents has
understandings of invertebrates breathing systems were sophistical attitude with quality assurance. In general,
generally poorer than understandings of vertebrates the stereotypes are viable, especially, when there are
breathing systems. Turkish children acquired better ideological stereotypes. Therefore, the post soviet
scores than Slovakian children. Although some children stereotypes today impact on our mentality. In the article
were able to identify breathing organs of animals, they had I tried to show my vision and strategy within the quality
difficulties with describing how breathing works. assurance, which I use in a practice.
As can be seen, the size of both abstracts in words is similar (120 and 127). Taking into
consideration already mentioned APA recommendations, one could still expand these texts,
including valuable information describing the conducted research. In the first case, one can see
that research idea/problem is clearly defined, research aim is presented in one sentence. Also, in
one sentence very briefly is described research type and design, gathered data type and research
sample. Later the essential results are defined. Of course, the discussed abstract is not absolutely
perfect. One can discern that it lacks conclusions and practical/didactic implications. Also, the
carried-out research significance, added value are not reflected. In spite of this, such abstract
can be considered sufficiently appropriate. In the second case, one can see that general type
information dominates in the abstract text. The first two sentences simply repeat well known
truths and/or statements. Instead of the obtained essential result presentation, it is just written
that the results were very interesting. The text is personalised, written in the first person, there
are language mistakes in it. One can say that the text has a clear emotional charge. Basically,
such abstract does not describe the conducted research and does not characterise it.
Still some more practical things. Appropriately written abstract is also important that it
is placed into various data catalogues. Usually, abstracts are free of charge/and have unlimited
access even if the article is not in the open access journal and/or database.
Keywords
At the end of the abstract keywords are usually presented. This is APA style
recommendation. The other variants are also possible. Most frequently from 3 to 5 keywords
are presented. Undoubtedly, in some cases there can be more of them, however it is obvious
that only two keywords, is too little. Except the main research idea (problem), at least one
keyword has to identify the carried-out research methodology, e.g., factor analysis, comparative
research, qualitative research and so on. The author of an article has to evaluate that the chosen
keywords as optimally as possible characterise the described research. Though it seems that it
is a completely easy task, scientific research practice is different. Some examples are presented
(Table 4).

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Table 4. Article keywords. 461
Article title Keywords

Integrative educational reality, conditions of integrated
Methodology of classroom environment measurement, education, diversity of school class, special educational
respecting the diversity of the students of elementary needs of regular school students, equality strategy,
school in the conditions of integration selected results of empirical research, recommendations
for pedagogical practice
Formative assessment of student progress Assessment, teachers, students
The study of reactions of interaction of metal — binary Properties of metals, series of metal activity by element,
compounds of metals based on activity series of metals substitution reactions
Communication, communicative competence,

Management of the communicative competence
communicative component of training, level of maturity of
development in future physical education teacher
communicative competence, education
Additive complexity, creative tasks, „critical point“,

The analysis of possibilities of using foreign language communicative competence, culturological obstacles,
texts of literary works in teaching English at the university independent reading, intercultural communication, socio-
cultural component, structure and features of the text,
unadapted literary works (authentic texts)
In Table 4 one can see that both article titles and chosen keywords raise reasonable
doubts. In the first case, keywords are obviously unclear, chaotically presented, there are too
many of them. Some of them in reality are phrases of the text, but not keywords. In the second
case one can see that three words are presented. One can claim reasonably that these are the
most general type concepts, practically met in every scientific article of educational field. Using
such keywords in the search systems, e.g., Google, one will not find necessary information.
In other words, publication will be absolutely non-searchable because Google currently gives
975,000,000 results for “teachers” and 2,870,000,000 results for “students”. In the third
example, keywords are also chosen inappropriately. E.g., keyword “education” does not say
anything at all about a particular article because it suits to all announced publications in the
educational field. The third example given in Table 4 is completely wrong because according
to content it is a didactic field publication. According to keywords one cannot decide about the
type of a prepared article. In the case of the fourth example, one can speak up the same already
mentioned shortcomings. It is most logical when two words make one keyword, in some cases
three, e.g., “social media”, “inclusive education”, “peace education”, “quantitative content
analysis”, “youth policy monitoring”, etc. As it was already mentioned, it is inappropriate to use
phrases as keywords, e.g., “a new method for solving tasks with parameter”. It is recommended
to avoid “of” and “and” in word combinations, e.g., “teaching and learning”, “teacher and
lecturer”, “organizational models of learning”, and other. Usually, a single word cannot be
as a keyword (or concept), e.g., “education”, “teaching”, “student”, etc. A keyword may be
just a single word, but then it must be very specific like “neuroeducation”, “nanotechnology”,
“gamification” and so on. It is worth to pay attention that according to its initial meaning,
a single word makes a keyword. If there are more words, then there is a keyphrase. In the
given examples it can be seen that keywords are confused with keyphrases. There is no special
difference, however, keywords are single words, while keyphrases are made up of a few words.
As it has already been mentioned, both of them characterise the prepared scientific article.
However, it is recommended not to confuse. In scientific work practice the term “keyword”
has settled. As it has been mentioned, keyword formation of two-three words is grounded
and useful carrying out information search. To be exact, such construction is called long tail

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462 keywords. However, such keywords in many cases are specific. There are cases when it can
be complicated to judge about a scientific text only from given keywords because they can
be interpreted multi-meaningfully. The authors should evaluate this seeking to avoid keyword
multi-meaningfulness. Also, the thing happening quite often is using various abbreviations.
Some of them, generally accepted abbreviations can be used e.g., DNA, ICT, AIDS etc.
Summing-up
It is reasonable that every scientific article is original. In addition to general scientific

article preparation requirements and principles, there exist particular science field/branch
peculiarities. Finally, there is already no talk about one universal scientific discourse. According
to Sinkūnienė (2014), there exist different scientific discourses, a certain variety of them.
Constant competence improvement in academic writing sphere is inevitable and necessary.
Note
Some examples were taken from manuscripts submitted for journals “Journal of Baltic
Science Education” and “Problems of Education in the 21st Century”.
References
Dash, M. (2016). Three pillars of a biomedical research article: The title, abstract and keywords. Journal
of Health Specialties, 4(3), 186-189.
Lamanauskas, V. (2014). Mokslo vertinimas: keletas štrichų [Science evaluation: Some features]. Švietimas:
politika, vadyba, kokybė / Education Policy, Management and Quality, 1 (16), 4-7.
Mack, C. (2012). How to write a good scientific paper: Title, abstract, and keywords. Journal of Micro/
Nanolithography, MEMS, and MOEMS, 11(2), 020101. doi: 10.1117/1.JMM.11.2.020101.
Nakayama, T., Hirai, N., Yamazaki, S., & Naito, M. (2005). Adoption of structured abstracts by general
medical journals and format for a structured abstract. Journal of the Medical Library Association:
JMLA, 93(2), 237–242.
Poviliūnas, A., & Ramanauskas, J. (2008). Vadybos ir administravimo mokslinio straipsnio savitumai
ir struktūra [Features and structure of scientific article in the management and administration
sciences]. Vadybos mokslas ir studijos – kaimo verslų ir jų infrastruktūros plėtrai = Management
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Psychological Association.
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of Lithuanian humanities and social science discourse]. Vilnius: Vilniaus universiteto leidykla.
Sousa, V. D., Driessnack, M., & Flória-Santos, M. (2006). How to write an abstract for a manuscript
publication. Acta Paulista de Enfermagem, 19(3), 5-8. https://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0103-
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Vilnius: Mykolo Romerio universitetas.
Received: June 08, 2019 Accepted: August 01, 2019
Vincentas Lamanauskas PhD, Professor, Senior Researcher, University of Šiauliai, Institute of

Education, P. Visinskio Street 25-119, LT-76351 Siauliai, Lithuania.
Website: http://www.lamanauskas.puslapiai.lt/;
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Vincentas_Lamanauskas
ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4130-7899

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PRACTICAL EDUCATION OF ADULTS WITH 463
INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES USING A

WEB COURSE
Petr Benda, Jan Pavlík, Jan Masner
Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Czech Republic
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Abstract
Education of adults with intellectual disabilities in labor activities can help them to successfully and
repeatedly carry out their work tasks and significantly help their self-realization. The problem is that
the need for frequent repetition of already learned skills requires the constant presence of a teacher
or caregiver since such a worker is not able to work independently. This situation increases the cost
of employing people with disabilities. The aim is to find a way to reduce the necessary number of
caregivers needed in this kind of activity and enable greater self-sufficiency of workers. The presented
research intended to verify whether a web course could be an effective educational tool for people with
intellectual disabilities. During the research, a group of ten participants with intellectual disabilities
was educated to acquire basic skills in horticulture. The first teaching was realized through practical
demonstrations at the workplace in the university production garden by professional gardeners. After
these demonstrations skills of all participants were verified and so the basic level for further verification
and comparison of knowledge was set. Subsequently, using three approaches of repeating the already
learned practical curriculum (verbal repetition, no repetition, and repetition using the web course) and
different time intervals, the level of knowledge of each participant was verified. Statistical methods were
used to compare the results of different repetition approaches. Research results demonstrated that a web
course, with specific content that consists of video or animation, combined with the use of pictograms for
confident navigation, can be used by people with intellectual disabilities with good results. At the same
time, in addition to practical teaching, this was the second best-rated approach of repeating knowledge.
Using a web course, participants achieved similar work results as they did in practical teaching.
Keywords: adult education, intellectual disabilities, professional education, web course.
Introduction
Education is identified as a fundamental human right and crucial to the overall

development of an individual. It transforms lives, empowers the individual and yields greater
choices and opportunities. Education can break the cycle of disadvantaged and persons with
intellectual disabilities can work as hard as anyone else. In the Factsheet of United Nations
Department of Public Information (2007), there is information about the global problem with
the employment of persons with disabilities, wherein developing countries, between 80% and
90% of people with disabilities are unemployed, while in industrialized countries it is between
50% and 70%. Specifically, in the European Union, there are around 40 million disabled people
and 43% to 54% have been working-age in 1998. People with disabilities are two to three times
more likely to be unemployed than others. Evans (2007) has found that people with disabilities
represent one-fifth of the working-age population in the United Kingdom, however, they are
more likely to be unemployed and lack skills than the rest of the population. Evans (2007)
has also found it necessary to take major steps to improve the skills of people with disabilities
because improving the employment rate of disabled people would boost the UK economy by

Petr BENDA, Jan PAVLÍK, Jan MASNER. Practical education of adults with intellectual disabilities using a web course
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464 £13 billion, which is equivalent to six months economic growth. In terms of world-leading
levels, improving the skills of disabled people by 2020 would give a boost equivalent to 18
extra months of growth over 30 years, so about £35 billion.
Other research (Kober & Eggleton, 2005; Kraemer, McIntyre, Blacher, & Taylor, 2003)
also confirmed that employment improves the quality of life in the population of people with
disabilities as well as in the general population. For more, employment can help to realize
social relations and to provide a good opportunity for people with intellectual disabilities to
meet others who are not associated with intellectual disability services (Forrester-Jones, Jones,
Heason, & Di Terlizzi, 2004). Another benefit of employing persons with intellectual disabilities
has mentioned Clarke and Clarke (2003) who state that there are often improvements in
cognitive abilities, particularly when individuals are moved from very impoverished or adverse
environments. Eggleton, Robertson, Ryan, & Kober (1999) have indicated that the quality
of life of employed persons with disabilities is significantly higher than in the situation of
unemployed people.
Intellectual disability is defined by Schalock et al. (2010) as a developmental disability
characterized by limitations in intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior, resulting in the
need for extraordinary support for a person to participate in activities involved with typical
human functioning. At present, work-based education and employment of adults with an
intellectual disability are realized mainly by two models: Sheltered and Supported (Integrated)
employment (Kregel & Dean, 2002). Although sheltered employment is preferred and supported
by many countries, the application of this program may have a number of disadvantages and
higher costs. Murphy and Rogan (1995) have presented in their research that the long-term
impact of sheltered employment on the productivity and community integration of individuals
with disabilities is very small and only very few individuals are able to progress into competitive
employment. Kregel and Dean (2002) have found that integrated employment options cost
less than sheltered workshops, activity centers or other day support options for individuals
with disabilities. Local employment programs can serve more individuals for the same amount
of money and achieve better outcomes if they adopt an integrated employment approach.
Farris and Stancliffe (2001) supported this conclusion by their research in which they have
presented that the co-worker training model in supported employment may provide a viable,
cost-effective alternative to the traditional sheltered place and train model. It is also necessary
to mention Eggleton et al. (1999) conclusions in which they have expressed that difference
in the quality of life of those individuals who had previously attended a sheltered workshop
and those who remained unemployed is not statistically significant. Many types of research
and case studies in recent years (Adam & Tatnall, 2008; Quinn, 1996; Perera, Wijerathne,
Wijesooriya, Dharmarathne, & Weerasinghe, 2012; Pillay, 2000) have also confirmed positive
use of technology and ICT equipment in teaching students with disabilities and special needs.
Problem of Research
In general, people with intellectual disabilities need re-practice to handle the task because
they have difficulty with memory, motivation, and attention (Turnbull, Turnbull, Wehmeyer,
& Shogren, 2012). Participants of the presented research demonstrated quick forgetting of
previously learned activities during the working process. Ellis (1970) and Swanson (1989)
reached similar conclusions. The need for frequent repetition of previously learned skills
requires constant presence of the teacher, assistant or a caregiver and most participants are not
able to work independently. This is not a good practice in many areas including horticulture, on
which this research is focusing. The reason is the need for diversification of work. Especially
in smaller gardening shops, it is appropriate for employees to work on different tasks and
possibly independently. If it were shown that employees with mental disabilities are capable

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to use the web courses to repeat working activities, it would be possible to let them work 465
more independently at various activities. The teacher or caregiver would then become more of
a supervisor.
According to the motto of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), “Helping
people help themselves,” (Liberman & Kopelowicz, 2002), it is appropriate to explore whether
a web course could be an effective educational tool for people with intellectual disabilities
focusing on repetition of knowledge, that these students have previously obtained during
practical teaching.
The aim of the research was to find out if the work results of employees with disabilities,
who work in the workplace with the help of an assistant or a caregiver differ from those who
use as assistance only the web course. The course was focused on the repetition of activities that
students have previously learned during the practical teaching. The research was situated in the
Production Garden of Czech University of Life Sciences Prague (CULS) to allow participants
with intellectual disabilities to work together with regular employees.
Evaluation of each employee was performed gradually in six steps by so-called Validated
Observations (Figure 1). The first observation was made at the end of the first week after the
original practical teaching. Further Validated observations were made at different weekly
intervals. All research was conducted from May to September 2017. A web course and its
content were also been produced within the first three weeks of research.
Figure 1. Validated observations schedule.
Although the main aim was to clarify the use of the web course as partial goals, it was to
find out how the use of the web course differs from verbal repetition of knowledge by caregivers
and the situation when the participant is unable to use any help, so to use no repetition of
knowledge thus to use only previously acquired knowledge. All objectives related to comparing
Validated observations can be defined as research questions. Two other research objectives were
the identification of the content type of the developed web source and selection of appropriate
navigation elements.
Research Questions
RQ1 - Are there any significant differences between Validated Observations after Practical
teaching and after two weeks with Repetition using the web course (A - C)?
RQ2 - Are there any significant differences between Validated Observations after Verbal
repetition (one week from Practical teaching) and after Repetition using the web course (two
weeks after Practical teaching) (B - C)?
RQ3 - Are there any significant differences between Validated Observations with No
repetition (in the seventh week) and original Practical teaching (D - A)?
RQ4 - Are there any significant differences between Validated Observations after No
repetition (in the seventh week) and after final Repetition using the web course (in the thirteenth
week) (D - F)?
RQ5 - Are there any significant differences between Validated Observations after one

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466 month and one week with verbal repetition and after two months with repetition using only the
web course (E - F)?
RQ6 - Are there any significant differences between Validated Observations between
both Repetitions using the web course (C - F)?
Research Methodology
General Background
A group of ten participants with intellectual disabilities was educated to acquire basic
skills in horticulture. In May 2017, within one week of their studies (first week of the research),
they were able to learn four basic skills. Planting seeds in pots, Planting seedlings in pots,
Watering using a watering can, Weeding the flowerpot. Teaching was realized through practical
demonstrations at the workplace in the production garden. These demonstrations were also
recorded in the form of a video for future use in the web course.
Sample
Research participants were people with various levels of intellectual disability (formerly
called mental retardation). The specific level of intellectual disability of each participant is
described in Table 1. For a more detailed understanding of various intellectual disability levels,
it is appropriate to use a description published by Gluck (2014):
• People with mild intellectual disability are slower than typical in all developmental
areas, they have no unusual physical characteristics, they are able to learn practical
life skills and blend in socially;
• People with moderate intellectual disability have noticeable developmental delays
(i.e. speech, motor skills), they may have some physical signs of impairment (i.e.
thick tongue), they are able to communicate in basic, simple ways and complete
self-care activities;
• People with severe intellectual disability have considerable delays in development,
they are able to understand speech, but they have little ability to communicate, they
are able to learn daily routines and tasks and may learn very simple self-care;
• People with profound intellectual disability have significant developmental delays
in all areas, they require an attendant to help in self-care activities, they may respond
to physical and social activities, they are unable to live independently.
During the research, all participants were not employed and previously worked only in
sheltered workshops. The research was regularly attended by ten participants described in Table 1.

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Table 1. List of participants. 467
Level of intellectual
Age Kind of disability Associated disability
disability
Participant A 60 Mild Perinatal hypoxia–ischemia Moderate visual impairment

Participant B 47 Moderate Perinatal hypoxia–ischemia -
Participant C 48 Moderate Down Syndrome -
Participant D 52 Mild Down Syndrome -
Participant E 62 Mild Perinatal hypoxia–ischemia -
Participant F 53 Moderate Down Syndrome -
Participant G 46 Mild Down Syndrome Hearing impairment
Participant H 41 Mild Down Syndrome Hearing impairment
Lower extremity motor
Participant I 37 Moderate to severe Perinatal hypoxia-ischemia
function
Participant J 49 Severe to profound Perinatal hypoxia-ischemia Motor disability
Ethics
Data of all participants were anonymized and summarized in a table so that the work
results could also be evaluated on specific types and degrees of disability. Level of intellectual
disability of each participant was taken from medical records with the permission of doctors
by caregivers to serve as complex aggregate data adapted according to the amount and type
of intervention needed (Gluck, 2014) and classification of American Psychiatric Association
(1994), which categorizes mental retardation (intellectual disability) into four main categories:
mild (IQ score of 50-55 to approximately 70), moderate (IQ score of 30-35 to 50-55), severe
(IQ score of 20-25 to 35-40), and profound (IQ score of less than 20-25). Individual levels are
based on the result obtained by standardized IQ cognitive tests.
No concrete data of any participant were used. The information showed in Table 1 was
not known to the researchers until the end of all observations. Until the end of the research
process, the results of the observations were assigned to the real first names of participants.
All research was done in the university production garden therefore, it was a part of university
legally binding contracts and agreements.
Instrument and Procedures
As it was mentioned before, the evaluation of each participant activity was performed
gradually in six steps by Validated Observations (Figure 1). Observational research and more
concretely Participant observations were used. The first observation was made at the end of the
first week after the original practical teaching. Further Validated observations were made at
different weekly intervals. After each step (Validated Observation), all participants were tested
to verify their obtained skills. Individual activities were divided into sub-tasks. Each sub-task
was assessed on an interval scale of 0-4 points. The better the participant has mastered the
sub-task, the more points were awarded (0 - inadequate, 4 - excellent). Tasks were evaluated in
terms of quality, speed, and precision of execution. The sum of points obtained in various tasks
reflects the level of activity for each participant. The training and testing of participants were
conducted by an expert in the field of horticulture. Data collection for Validated Observations

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468 was realized through Systematic observation (Fraenkel, Wallen, & Hyun, 2015), also known as
Structured observation method.
For example, during the sub-task “soil gathering” each participant was evaluated based
on the way they gathered soil into the pot in terms of conducted education - whether they pick
it up directly using the flowerpot (correct procedure) or if they fill the pot up gradually by hand,
etc. For the sub-task “Seed placement“ it was evaluated whether the participant placed the seed
at the center of the pot, if the seed is placed to a sufficient depth and so on. All tasks and sub-
tasks were formulated and verified in a similar manner. In order to maintain the same scoring
system across tasks, each task was divided into exactly four sub-tasks.
Table 2. Planting seeds in pots task results (consists precisely of four sub-tasks).
Planting seeds in pots after Seed

Soil gathering Pot preparation Soil flattening Total Average
Practical teaching placement
Participant B 3 2 3 4 12 3
Participant B 3 3 4 3 13 3.25
Participant C 3 2 3 3 11 2.75
Participant D 3 3 4 4 14 3.5
Participant E 3 3 3 3 12 3
Participant F 1 0 1 1 3 .75
Participant G 2 3 3 4 12 3
Participant H 3 3 2 2 10 2.5
Participant I 3 3 2 3 11 2.75
Participant J 1 1 0 0 2 .5
The total score of each participant within each task is used for the summation of all task
per each Validated Observation. For example, Participant 1 received the following total score
after the first week of practical teaching:
• Planting seeds in pots - 12;
• Planting seedlings in pots - 14;
• Watering using a watering can - 3;
• Weeding the flowerpot - 12.
So, the total score of Participant 1 after the first Validated Observation “Practical teaching”
was 41. The same method was used for all participants and all Validated Observations. The data
obtained in this manner was used to compare the overall results of all six Validated Observations.
Intervals between observations were selected with regard to the problems of people with
intellectual disabilities and their memory. Long-term memory functioning in individuals with
mental retardation has been extensively investigated. Studies performed by Ellis (1970) and
Swanson (1989) in which mentally retarded patients have been compared with chronological
age-matched subjects have consistently documented impaired memory performance in the
mentally retarded groups.
The first Validated Observation was carried out at the end of the basic practical teaching
week. The second observation was prepared one week later in the same concept as all participants
were used to from the work in sheltered workshops. In these workshops, they were working
supervised by caregivers with frequent verbal repetition and repetitive demonstration. During

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the second step, the research continued in the same way but using only verbal repetition with 469
no real demonstrations. Two weeks after verbal repetition the next repetition of already learned
activities using a web course was conducted. Use of the web course is described below.
After the Validated Observation using the web course activities with participants were
suspended and participants did not visit the working environment in the garden. Four weeks
later participants were taken into the garden again and exposed to the performance of tasks
without any repetition and help. After the next two weeks, the situation was repeated but with
verbal repetition of all sub-tasks. The last Validated Observation used a web course again. All
observations were conducted under the same conditions and in the same working environment.
Web Course Design and Interface
Web technologies were used because of their platform independence and ease of use.
The simple HTML web page may be used on almost any device (Connor, 2012). More important
than the technology for content development itself is the way participants interact with that
technology, based on each individual background of users and their previous experience (Šimek,
Vaněk, & Pavlík, 2015). According to the conducted research, (e.g., Benda & Šmejkalová,
2015; Denaes, 2012; Huguenin, 2000; van de Ven & de Haan, 2003) people with intellectual
disabilities prefer to use the touch screen as a very convenient tool to control the computer and
a web page.
Team of Alonso-Virgos, Pascual Espada, Rodríguez Baena and Crespo R. G. (2018)
have presented research with the important result that persons with Down syndrome may have
motor problems using the mouse. 70% of those tested individuals have these problems, which
means that their response time was slow. Although the use of computers cannot completely
overcome the difficulties and limited functions associated with a mental disability, research
has proved that this device improves performance and reduces memory usage, as demonstrated
by other studies (Andrich, Gower, & Vincenti, 2012; Brown et al., 2011; Foshay & Ludlow,
2005). Using mobile technologies and multimedia increases student interest and helps them
learn while they are fun. In the case of students with disabilities, training exercises must be
individualized to meet their special educational needs (Fernández-López, Rodríguez-Fórtiz,
Rodríguez-Almendros, & Martínez-Segura, 2013).
The web course, which was developed and used for the research, was formed by simple
buttons with a short text description and a pictogram representing the given activity. Once
the participant clicked on the button, short video material, which was acquired earlier in the
education of participants and subsequently adapted to the needs of the web course, or narrated
animation was displayed, showing any given activity. This participant was allowed to simply
repeat the operation and then perform it without the assistance of a caregiver.
Research participants use pictograms in everyday life, e.g. for determining the types and
intensity of pain. This use of pictograms is also mentioned by de Knegt, et al. (2016) or Mirenda
(2003). Other studies confirm that the use of pictograms for the education of people with mental
disabilities is appropriate, reducing their uncertainty, improving their ability to read, facilitating
communication and allowing them to make decisions independently (Falck, 2001; Guerrier,
Kolski, & Poirier, 2013; Rodríguez-Fórtiz et al., 2009; Smithers & Puffett, 1996). This type of
navigation should also be used with regard to other studies (Caria, Paternò, Santoro, & Semucci,
2018; Pereira & Archambault, 2016; Rodríguez, Pérez, Cueva, & Torres, 2017) identifying
potential problems using the classic web interface. Alonso-Virgos et al. (2018) have confirmed
in their research that people with Down syndrome may have troubles for understanding the
meaning of icons, also common icons and may have troubles for understanding a complex text.
In the research, there were always used the same pictograms to show specific activities.
These pictograms were used not only in the web application, but they were also stationed directly

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470 at the areas for performing activities, they were part of video-materials and animations and they
were placed on certain tools. These pictograms have become an integral but unobtrusive part of
the everyday working life of participants.
Like it was mentioned already, the research was situated in the University production
garden. The garden is quite large therefore it was necessary to enable mobility of equipment
used. Mobile devices (e.g. tablets, smartphones) are shown to be effective tools for empowering
people with intellectual disability to live and work with greater independence (e.g., Kagohara et
al., 2010; Mechling, Gast, & Seid, 2010; Wade & Troy, 2001). As it is described above the touch
screen is the most suitable technology for controlling the web page. Benda and Šmejkalová
(2015), add that for the persons with intellectual disabilities it is also appropriate to use touch
screen by one hand only without a need using the other hand to hold equipment and for the
simple control of an application it is suitable not to use or create applications that require multi-
touch, zooming or scrolling. It also implies that the application should display all the content at
once which then adapts to the device. Several studies, e.g. Brown et al. (2011) or Kwon and Lee
(2016), also demonstrate that people with intellectual disabilities are able to use more complex
interfaces.
Data Analysis

T-Tests were used to compare means where Validated Observations data was assumed to
be normally distributed. Kolmogorov-Smirnov test indicated that all Validated Observations in
Table 3 follow a normal distribution (p < .05). In the case of small data sets, a test of significance
for normality may lack the power to detect the deviation of the variable from normality.
Therefore, non-parametric statistical tests were used despite the fact that prior research has
shown that data does not violate the normality assumption on which the t-Test relies (e.g., Rock,
Webb, McNaughton, & Bell, 1987; Siegel & Castellan, 1988). For that reason, the equivalent
non-parametric Wilcoxon signed-rank test for statistical hypothesis testing was used.
Table 3. Descriptive statistics and Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) test for normality

result.
Validated Observations n M Mdn SD Min Max K-S test

A - Practical teaching 10 35.3 39.5 13.65 7 47 .196
B - Verbal repetition 10 31.9 36.0 16.24 3 51 .112
C - Repetition using the web course 10 33.2 36.5 15.73 0 49 .158
D - No repetition 10 19.5 24.5 11.17 0 33 .157
E - Verbal repetition 10 27.2 32.5 12.08 3 39 .164
F - Repetition using the web course 10 34.0 40.5 14.67 6 48 .170
Research Results
From the values contained in Table 4, it is possible to determine that the application of
Parametric and Non-parametric tests leads to the same results.

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Table 4. t-test and Wilcoxon’s signed-rank test effect sizes (r) results. 471
t-test Wilcoxon’s signed-rank test

Research Observations Result Result
t-value p-value n W-value Z-value p-value r
question comparison (p≤.05) (p≤.05)
RQ1 A-C 2.2150 .0540 no dif. 10 8 -1.7838 .0751 no dif. .40
RQ2 B-C 1.3291 .2165 no dif. 10 14.5 -1.3251 .1833 no dif. .30
RQ3 D-A 9.0952 - dif. 10 0 -2.8031 .0051 dif. .63
RQ4 D-F 6.3017 .0002 dif. 10 0 -2.8031 .0051 dif. .63
RQ5 E-F 4.3732 .0018 dif. 10 0 -2.8031 .0051 dif. .63
RQ6 C-F .5794 .5766 no dif. 8 16 -.2801 - no dif. .06

The results of the tests confirmed that there are no statistically significant differences
in research questions RQ1, RQ2 and RQ6 at p ≤ .05. It means that during the first part of the
conducted research, there was no statistically significant difference between results of Validated
Observations which were measured after Practical teaching and results after Repetition using
the web course, which was performed 3 weeks after original Practical teaching (A - C). No
statistical evidence also suggested that Verbal repetition and Repetition using the web course
differ (B - C). An important result is that there was no statistically significant difference between
both Repetitions using the web course. Accordingly, the results of all participants during
observations after Repetition using the web course in the third week and in the thirteenth week
were not significantly different (C - F).
On the contrary, there were statistically significant differences in Research questions
RQ3, RQ4 and RQ5 at p ≤ .05. When the participants had to perform activities without any
repetition, their results were significantly different from those measured after the Verbal
repetition or the Repetition using the web course (D – A and D – F). Interesting results were
obtained by comparing the Verbal repetition in the ninth week with Repetition using the web
course in the thirteenth week (E - F). Despite the lack of any contact with participants for four
weeks, there could be a statistically significant difference observed, so based on the measured
results, it is possible to declare the Repetition using the web course was a better method than
the simple Verbal repetition only.
The effect sizes for the Wilcoxon’s signed-rank tests were also computed using the
formula given in Pallant (2007) and Rosenthal (1991, p. 19; 1994). The suggestion of Cohen
(1992) that effect sizes of .20 are small, .50 are medium, and .80 are large allows the researcher
to compare the experiment’s effect size results in known scales.
The effect size for Research questions RQ1, RQ3, RQ4, and RQ5 acquired values from
.40 to .63, which can be considered as medium effects. Research question RQ2 with r=.3 can
be marked as small to medium effect size. The last Research question RQ6 has small effect size
with r=.06 (Cohen, 1988; Rosnow, & Rosenthal, 1996).
The results proved that participants achieved the best results after the original practical
teaching and after the repetition using the web course when they immediately applied the
information obtained. The visual presentation of information in the web course enabled users to
obtain a comprehensive overview of individual activities and therefore they were able to better
remember the obtained knowledge and use it in practice. The reason was that most educational
materials within the course were in the form of videos that describe individual tasks very precisely
and step by step. The research also confirmed that the visual representation of knowledge and
use of pictograms was a suitable form of teaching material for people with intellectual disability
especially if these pictograms were also used further in their real environment.

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472 During the research, it was possible to observe that participants had become accustomed
to using the web course. Within the last observation, eight out of ten participants were able
to navigate and use proper material in the developed web course for the requested task
independently. Observation results and thus the quality of the performed work was the second
best after the practical teaching. Based on the findings, Verbal repetition alone appears to be
insufficient.
Two weeks after the research the participants also had to work in a common garden of
the sheltered house where they lived. This area is considerably different from the university
garden where the whole research took place. Not all the participants attended this activity thus
it was not possible to prepare observation adequately, therefore there were no observed data
for this period. There was just the computer with touchscreen prepared, the same one as was
used for all observations, and the same pictograms, which were used during all the research,
were placed to the appropriate locations. Most of the participants were able to find a location
for the required activity, identify the pictogram of the required activity, navigate the web course
on a computer nearby to find proper content and apply the refreshed knowledge into practice.
Due to differences in the working environment, the results and the quality of work were not as
good as in the last observation in university garden, but despite the change of environment, the
participants were able to carry out the necessary actions independently and only with minor
help from a caregiver.
Various difficulties in the utilization of the web course which were not present in practical
teaching were observed too. The participants mostly used the course for reduction of their
inherent uncertainty. When the participants were left without greater supervision, some of them
tried to see the required material again after each completed activity, for example after planting
of seeds in every pot. In the real working deployment, this would lead to considerable time
losses. So, despite the evidence of the suitability of the web course, the presence of a caregiver
with knowledge of the environment and given activities is a necessity.
Figure 2 shown below demonstrates the form of the web course used in the research.
Specifically, it contains a Watering sub-page with watering black and white pictogram,
embedded video material with the example of watering procedure and colored pictogram which
leads the user to the home page after a click.
Figure 2. Web course screenshot with a Watering demonstration video.

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Discussion 473
The research has analyzed whether a web course could be an appropriate tool for people
with intellectual disabilities. A partial goal was to enable people with intellectual disabilities to
be educated in the field of horticulture by repeating individual activities through a web course.
For more significant statistical verification of the web course suitability, it would be useful
to conduct research with a greater number of participants. Observations could be performed
randomly over a longer time period and preferably inside a real working environment during
a real or simulated workday. But for the first design of such research and also communication
difficulties and leadership of the participants with intellectual disabilities a relatively low
number of participants, in other similar studies, has been applied (Alonso-Virgos et al., 2018;
Caria et al., 2018; Pereira & Archambault, 2016; Rocha, Paredes, Barroso, & Bessa, 2016).
In case of the intended use of the web course that is online, it is also necessary to consider
many other associated risks. In the case of this research, the offline course in a web browser
was used and the user was not allowed to turn this application off or change the application
without a keyboard, knowing the proper combination of keys. Due to other studies (e.g. Benda
& Šmejkalová, 2015; Denaes, 2012; Huguenin, 2000; van de Ven & de Haan, 2003), the
participants were able to use just the touch screen and no other device and the computer was
not connected to the Internet. If a user with an intellectual disability was allowed to use the
computer freely and for example to turn off the web course, it often led the user getting lost or
confused and subsequently stressed by the emerged situation.
It is also appropriate to consider the actual content of the web course. In the case of the
research, it consisted of short (30 seconds at maximum) video materials or narrated animation
traceable by the use of pictograms. Video-materials were taken during real meetings and
original teaching of participants. All research participants were already accustomed to the use
of pictograms in their daily life, so the content they were most familiar with was used. But
there might be better systems for easy navigation, understanding, and connection with real
environment and practice. An example of such principle or technology might be Augmentative
and alternative communication which is most commonly used to designate mechanical and
electronic systems that provide communicative access to people with cerebral palsy and
other physical disabilities (Smithers & Puffett, 1996). Part of this type of communication is
also pictorial representation systems. These include Bliss and Rebus system and Picture
Communication Symbols also (Foreman, 1998). But these systems cannot substitute ordinary
communication and human interaction (Parsons & Wills, 2014). For example, Blissymbols
or Blissymbolics could be an appropriate extension of the developed web course in case all
the participants were familiar with this system and used it in daily life. Due to other studies
(Alonso-Virgos et al., 2018; de Knegt et al., 2016; Guerrier et al., 2013) and also as a result of
observations in presented research, people with intellectual disabilities may have troubles for
understanding the meaning of common icons.
Further expansion of this research should be focused on an extension of the use of
created web interface to other activities that people with intellectual disabilities do as their work
activities. The same solution can subsequently be used to repeat the more complex activities
that these people perform during normal day mode without the need of being supported by
caregivers in such a high level of daily care.
Conclusions
The presented research examined whether a web course could be effective educational
technology for people with intellectual disabilities focusing on repetition of knowledge, which
students (participants) have learned earlier during the practical teaching. All teaching and

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474 observations have been carried out in a university production garden by professional gardeners.
In particular, the web interface was used with regard to its platform and operating system
independence, easy portability, and editability.
Based on a selected number of research participants it has been possible to conclude that
the results have been promising. The results have demonstrated that a developed web course,
the content of which consists of short narrated video or animation, combined with the use
of pictograms for confident navigation, can be used by people with intellectual disabilities.
Conducted observations have confirmed that the working results of the participants after using
a developed web course have not been significantly different from the practical training and
the results have been better than a classical verbal repetition by caregivers. At the same time,
in addition to practical teaching, this has been the second best-rated approach of repeating
knowledge. Using a web course, the participants have achieved similar work results as they have
done in practical teaching. On the contrary verbal repetition of knowledge by caregivers has
appeared to be insufficient. In addition, this web course could be autonomously exploited by its
users at work whenever they wanted, at their own pace and without the need of being supported
by caregivers all the time. Utilization of the web course may lead to more efficient employment
of people with intellectual disabilities, their greater autonomy in the working process, lower
demands on caregivers and thus overall better work performance. The research has also
confirmed that the visual representation of knowledge and use of pictograms for navigation
have been a suitable form of teaching material for people with intellectual disabilities especially
if these types of pictograms have been also used further in their real environment. During
the last month of observations, eight participants have been able to navigate and use proper
material in the developed web course for the requested task independently, so they became
accustomed to using the web course.
The added value of this research is the opportunity to work for two research participants
with Down syndrome as real auxiliary workers in horticulture, more specifically in the garden
of a sheltered workshop.
Acknowledgements
The research was realized with the support of the Internal Grant Agency (IGA) of FEM
CULS in Prague, no. 2019B0009 - “Life Sciences 4.0 “.
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Received: April 26, 2019 Accepted: July 25, 2019
Petr Benda PhD, Assistant Professor, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Department of
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Website: https://kit.pef.czu.cz/en
Jan Pavlík PhD candidate and former Master’s Student, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague,
Department of Information Technologies, Kamýcká 129, Prague 6, 16521 Czech
Republic.
Jan Masner PhD, Postdoctoral Researcher, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Department
of Information Technologies, Kamýcká 129, Prague 6, 16521 Czech Republic.

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478
ASSESSING THE INFLUENCE OF
SERVICE RECOVERY STRATEGIES ON
DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE IN HIGHER
EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS
Steven K. Msosa, Jeevarathnam P. Govender
Durban University of Technology, South Africa
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]
Abstract
In recent times, students in higher education institutions have raised their expectations and are becoming
less tolerant to poor service. The reality is that service failures are bound to happen. However, effective
service recovery strategies could minimise the impact of service failure. The aim of this research was to
analyse the influence of service recovery strategies on distributive justice in higher education institutions.
A total of 430 students from three public universities in South Africa participated in this research as
respondents. The research adopted a quantitative, descriptive and cross-sectional approach. The findings
of this research showed that compensation and explanation have a positive and significant influence on
distributive justice. Furthermore, the results showed a positive and insignificant influence of apology
on distributive justice. The findings of this research are a wake up call to higher education institutions
to focus on the two strategies of service recovery, namely explanation and compensation to achieve
distributive justice. Thus, higher education institutions should firstly, focus on the use of an explanation
to achieve distributive justice because it is offered at no cost compared to compensation which normally
wears a financial face. This is based on the fact that higher education institutions are non profit making
institutions such that they cannot afford to offer financial compensation on regular basis to address
student problems. Ultimately, higher education institutions are advised to consider the severity of service
failure before offering any form of service recovery to avoid double deviation.
Keywords: distributive justice, field-based research, higher education institutions, service failure,
service recovery strategies.
Introduction
There is a global phenomenon of deterioration of the study conditions in response to

financial problems higher education institutions are facing. The increase in enrolments does not
match resources in different faculties. Infrastructure, libraries and laboratories are significantly
affected. This is the case even in the world’s best developed academic systems such as
Germany and France. As a result, students are now resorting to protests to voice their concerns
regarding declining budgets and poor conditions. The academic conditions are even worse in
sub-Saharan Africa and other developing countries (Altbach & Peterson, 1999). In addition, a
lack of resources has also exacerbated the problems being encountered in the higher education
sector. Service quality in higher education is based on both the quality and quantity of the
resources available in universities. Some of the factors that affect the quality of education are
the absence of infrastructure such as laboratories, student residences, libraries and electricity. In
addition, learning is not effective because of overcrowded classrooms with the majority of the
students learning while standing. The shortage of facilities in higher education institutions has
contributed to the decline in the service quality (Asiyayi, 2013).

Steven K. MSOSA, Jeevarathnam P. GOVENDER. Assessing the influence of service recovery strategies on distributive justice in
higher education institutions
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The problems students encounter in higher education have been overstated. For instance, 479
in Malaysia, students complained of university facilities such as accommodation as being
inappropriate, unsafe, poor and inconvenient. They complain that the university does not provide
enough information regarding accommodation. International students also complained that their
accommodation is isolated, they felt insecure and that the hostels are not in good condition.
Students complained of low internet speed and the style of teaching by lecturers who leave the
burden of gathering materials to students which is not ideal for bigger classes. The only problem
registered with postgraduate supervisors is a lack of time and unclear feedback. Supervisors do
not have time to hold regular meetings with students to provide feedback (Talebloo & Baki,
2013). The aim of this research was to analyze the influence of service recovery strategies
on distributive justice in higher education institutions. Thus, the three specific goals of this
research were; firstly, to analyze the influence of explanation on distributive justice in higher
education institutions. Secondly, this research analyzed the influence of apology on distributive
justice in higher education institutions. Thirdly, the influence of compensation on distributive
justice in higher education institutions was evaluated.
Literature Review
Service Recovery
Service recovery is any action and initiative taken by the institution to mitigate the impact
of service failure in an effort to restore credibility and to strengthen the bond with students.
Every time a poor service is executed, an institution has to switch into the recovery mode. The
responsibility to deliver a service that is free of errors and to respond with appropriate recovery
strategies when a service failure occurs is in the hands of the service provider (Waqas et al.,
2014). Most services are performed in full view of students. Therefore, errors are inevitable.
However, opportunities for service recovery are countless. Any problem front desk employees
unearth and resolve is an opportunity to go beyond the call of duty to satisfy the needs of
students. Sometimes, it is tempting to brush off sporadic student problems as insignificant
and view complaining students as mere cranks, but institutional managers should confront
this attitude. No service provider can afford the luxury of losing students because the cost of
replacing a student can be exorbitant. An institution that alienates and frustrates students would
have no one left to irritate or upset and those who go the extra mile to please students will entice
many students to the institution (Hart et al., 1990).
Unhappy students want higher education institutions to take responsibility or to shoulder
the burden for service failures. Furthermore, in an event of service failure, service recovery
strategies such as compensation, apology, explanation, promptness, empathy, effort, facilitation
and repatriation can be used to restore the students’ trust and loyalty to the institution (Cengiz
et al., 2007). Similarly, institutional managers should show concern for and empathy with the
students during the service recovery process (Sengupta et al., 2015).
Explanation
Customers always try to understand why service failure has occurred. Thus, whenever
a service failure incident has been reported, a proper explanation can assist in diffusing
negative reaction. For an explanation to be considered adequate, it must contain the following
characteristics. Firstly, the content of the explanation must be appropriate and must contain
relevant facts and pertinent information. Secondly, the style of delivery of the explanation
should reduce customer dissatisfaction. Explanations that are viewed as honest, sincere and not
manipulative are generally most effective (Wilson et al., 2012). An explanation given to the

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480 customer must demonstrate fairness on the part of the service provider. Wang and Mattila (2011)
argued that a fair explanation by the service provider can compel the customer to reconsider
the severity of service failure in his mind and thereby maintain the relationship with the service
provider. On the other hand, an unfair explanation triggers anger and customer defection. Even
in the absence of compensation, adequate and sincere explanation about service failure can
facilitate customer satisfaction and loyalty. Compensation is often misplaced by the service
provider in trying to recover from a service failure. While it may be key to offer compensation,
it is important to provide an explanation regarding the cause of the service failure first because
it is an essential need of the customer to know why things went wrong.
Apology
An apology is a service recovery strategy that does not address the service failure
by itself, but it implies that the service provider acknowledges the customer’s problem and
admits that a mistake was made (Iglesias et al., 2015). While several scholars have highlighted
the need for an apology, Mostafa et al. (2015) questions the use of an apology to strengthen
perceived justice. They believe that apologizing to customers may, in some cases, be construed
as an admission of guilt and exacerbates perceived interactional injustice. An apology can
be approached from two fronts. The first one is a frontline apology. This means that front
desk employees apologize to the customer. The second is upper management apology. In this
scenario, senior members or executives of the institution apologize to the customer (Gonzalez
et al., 2005). Jung and Seock (2017) advise managers to create effective strategies of apology
such as the mediums used to deliver the apology messages as well as appropriate methods of
apology to dissatisfied customers. In doing so, they may save company resources by avoiding
monetary compensation.
Compensation
One of the methods that can be used to recover from service failure is by offering
compensation to aggrieved customers. However, it is also important for service employees to
engage in pro-active behavior throughout the service recovery process. Such acts may lessen the
institution’s financial burden or loss of resources that could have been avoided if other avenues
for service recovery were explored and implemented (Inyang, 2015). Nowadays, customers
expect the service provider to deal with effects of service failure. They expect to be compensated
when they spend a lot of time and effort trying to find a solution to their complaint or when
the service provider is taking too long to address their complaint. Service providers can avoid
compensation by minimising the time customers spend to register a complaint and the time
they take to solve the complaint (Valenzuela & Cooksey, 2012). Furthermore, service providers
are warned not to use compensation as a tool for compromise against a poor service recovery
process. Compensation should be used together with other available recovery strategies at the
service provider’s disposal. Some of the forms of compensation that can be used are discounts,
refunds, replacements, coupons and upgrades of the service (Wamuyu et al., 2015). Despite
the good intentions that some service providers have in response to service breakdown, it is
a known fact that human beings are by nature selfish and accept inequity when it provides a
benefit that is positive to themselves. The perception of inequity in this scenario is considered
to be lower than the perception of inequity that results in a benefit that is negative. Simply put,
consumers who receive more value than their actual loss from service failure will not perceive
compensation to be inequitable or intolerable and have, therefore, no sense of guilt (Kim &
Ulgado, 2012).

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Equity Theory 481
The challenge facing service providers in an effort to recover from service failure is that
customers do not conform to the notion of equity consistently. They do behave consistently to a
certain extent but have different preferences for the balance between their outcome/input ratio
and that perceived in comparison to others (Huseman et al., 1987). Equity is an important theory
as far as issues of justice or fairness are concerned. When customers believe that there has been
inequality in exchange, they become upset, disappointed or regretful. The customer may choose
to adopt a form of action or response that will help him or her to restore equity with minimum
costs (Chan et al., 2016). Customers would like to strike a balance between inputs invested
and outputs received, and this is subsequently traded off against the service provider’s inputs
and outputs. Customer inputs include monetary expenses, time and effort, whereas an outcome
can be in terms of a monetary gain (De Ruyter & Wetzels, 2000). The adequacy of equity is
another technique that is useful in service recovery. Service providers are likely to compensate
customers for a service failure if adequate compensation is available rather than not. Insufficient
or inadequate and excessive compensations lack adequacy and service providers should desist
from making such compensations (Walster et al, 1976).
Distributive Justice
In the event that service failure occurs, managers should bear in mind that perceived justice
is a significant predictor of customer satisfaction and this knowledge should assist the managers
to facilitate a fair handling of customer complaints. In adopting this principle, service providers
are able to build a profile of delighted customers who, in turn, become positive advocates of the
business (De Matos et al., 2012). Distributive justice presents challenges to service employees
because customers use a set or combination of inconsistent rules (equity, equality and need) in
determining distributive justice, or if the outcome was fair. The equity rule entails that customers
invest effort, time and money such that the service provider should reciprocate proportionally,
whereas the equality rule entails that all customers should be treated the same way irrespective
of the investment. The need rule entails that customers have unique requirements as individuals
and that service providers should treat them as individuals (Schneider & Bowen, 1999). It is
noted that, in outcome or distributive justice, customers expect to be compensated by way of
a refund, replacement, and repairs. In addition, an apology is also regarded as compensation
for the customer’s inconvenience and rude treatment. Compensation packages should reflect
an amount that is reasonable and that acknowledges the cost of service failure to the customer
(Tax & Brown, 1998). Previous research on the influence of service recovery strategies
(compensation, apology and explanation) on distributive justice has been conducted in other
service sectors. The results of the research showed that compensation, apology and explanation
have a positive and significant influence on distributive justice (Casado-Diaz et al., 2007;
Matilla & Cranage, 2005). The present research aimed to investigate the influence of service
recovery strategies (apology, explanation and compensation) on distributive justice in higher
education institutions. The following research questions were examined:
1. What is the influence of an apology on distributive justice in higher education
institutions?
2. What is the influence of an explanation on distributive justice in higher education
institutions?
3. What is the influence of compensation on distributive justice in higher education
institutions?

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482 Research Methodology
Research Design
A field research was adopted to collect information from full time students across three
public higher education institutions in Kwazulu Natal province, South Africa between May and
July of 2018. Thus, a quantitative, descriptive and cross-sectional research was undertaken.
Quantitative research uses statistical methods and commences with data collection based on a
known theory and is followed by the application of descriptive and inferential statistics (Patil
& Mankar, 2016). A purposive sampling technique was adopted to select respondents based on
their service encounter experience. It was important for the researchers to only pick students
who have experienced service failure incidents and have undergone through a service recovery
initiative to address their dissatisfactory encounter. This is because service failures are rare
occurrences. According to Churchill et al. (2010), judgemental sampling uses the researcher
discretionary choice to select participants based on their service encounter experience.
Participants Selection and Sample
The sample of this research consisted of 430 students from three public higher education
institutions and 55.3% (n=238) of the respondents were male and 44.7% (n=192) were female.
This implies that there was a fairly equal distribution of the gender of the sample respondents.
Furthermore, the majority of the respondents in this research were below 24 years (79.1%).
The age category between 25 and 34 equated to 20.7% of the sample respondents, whilst
0.2% of the sample respondents were between the age category of 35 and 44. The researchers
obtained informed consent from the participants prior to the commencement of questionnaire
administration. The letters for research participants advised them that their participation is
voluntary and that they were at liberty to withdraw without providing reasons for such action.
In addition, the researchers undertook to maintain participants’ anonymity and confidentiality
with respect to their personal details and data collected.
Procedure and Instrument
This research was conducted using a structured self-administered questionnaire to

collect data. Thus, existing parameters were modified to suit this particular research, but were
adapted from previous studies on service recovery strategies viz. apologies, explanation and
compensation (Mostafa et al., 2014; Ramadan, 2012) and distributive justice (Ramadan, 2012).
The information gathered using this questionnaire assisted in ascertaining the relationship
between variables. A five-point Likert scale, with answers ranging from strongly disagree
representing scale number 1 to strongly agree representing scale number 5 was used to gauge
students’ feelings on service recovery strategies and distributive justice (Saunders et al., 2009).
Data Analysis
In this research, descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse data. Statistical
significance was used to establish whether or not a set of statistical results are likely to have
differences. In statistics (eg. one-tail or two-tail tests) results are deemed to be statistically-
significant if they are unlikely to have occurred by chance (Young & Bolton, 2009). Specifically,
this research adopted a bootstrapping approach to find t-values. With level of significance of
.01, the t-value that is acceptable should not be less than 2.0 (Keil et al., 2000). Data were
analysed using a statistical package called Smart PLS 3.

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Research Results 483
The first task in this research was to establish reliability and validity. To estimate how
consistently a person responds to elements of a construct, composite reliability is ascertained
(Shin, 2009). Composite reliability (CR) provides a reflective method of final reliability score
of the coefficient in the model and evaluates the reliability of each variable, together with
stability and uniformity (Roca et al., 2009; Suki, 2011). Table 1 shows that all the coefficients
of Cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability were greater than 0.7. This means that all the
reliability coefficients in this research were above the acceptable threshold (Fornell & Larcker,
1981; Henseler et al., 2009).
Table 1 Construct reliability and validity.
Average
Cronbach’s Composite Variance
Variables rho_A
Alpha Reliability Extracted
(AVE)
Apology .904 .904 .904 .702
Compensation .893 .897 .894 .680
Distributive justice .918 .919 .918 .738
Explanation .900 .905 .899 .750
To establish discriminant validity, the latent variable must show more variance in its
corresponding indicator variables than it shares with other constructs (Fornell & Larcker,
1981). Thus, discriminant validity is measured by a comparing Average Variance Extracted
(AVE), (Henseler et al., 2009) with the correlated squared root, (Spiegel, 1972).
The AVE shows the degree of variation that the coefficient records from its dimension
items (Henseler et al., 2009). Table 2 illustrates the values of AVE and the association
among variables, with the square root of the AVE in bold along the diagonal (Apology=
.838; Compensation= .824; Distributive Justice= .859; Explanation= .866). Since the values
highlighted in bold along the diagonal exceed the inter factor correlations, it can be concluded
that discriminant validity was acceptable.
Table 2. Factor AVE and correlation measures (Fornell-Larcker criterion).
Variables AG CN DJ EN
Apology .838
Compensation .706 .824
Distributive Justice .530 .719 .859
Explanation .504 .608 .515 .866

Note: the values in bold along the diagonal are the square root of AVE for each factor. AG (Apology), CN
(Compensation), DJ (Distributive justice), EN (Explanation).
In this research, stringent tests of validity and reliability were conducted. This implies
that the results can generally be trusted as free from data measurement problems. Overall, the
measurement properties of both reflective and composite constructs had good measurement
properties.


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484 Table 3 illustrates the results of the tests conducted to ascertain the influence of service
recovery strategies (explanation, apology and compensation) on distributive justice. The
influence of compensation on distributive justice was evaluated and the findings show a positive
and significant influence (β=0.628, t-value =8.569, p=.001).
In the same vein, the test was conducted to assess the influence of an explanation on
distributive justice. The findings reveal that there is a positive and significant influence (β=0.219,
t-value=2.025, p=.043). Another test was conducted to ascertain influence of an apology on
distributive justice. The findings show a positive and insignificant influence (β=0.025, t-value=
0.337, p=.736).
Table 3. Results of the relation between service recovery strategies and

distributive justice.
Original Sample Standard

t-Statistics
Variables Sample Mean Deviation p-values
(|O/SD|)
(O) (M) (SD)
Apology -> Distributive justice .025 .023 .074 .337 .736
Compensation -> Distributive justice .628 .628 .073 8.569 .001
Explanation -> Distributive justice .121 .122 .060 2.025 .043

Note: SE (standard error), ns (not significant), *p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001 (two-tailed t-tests)
Table 4 shows a summary of the tests that were conducted on the hypothised relationship
between service recovery strategies and distributive justice. The results of the tests between
compensation -> distributive justice and explanation -> distributive justice were supported
hence significant. On the other hand, the results of the test between apology -> distributive
justice were not supported hence not significant.
Table 4. Summary of the tests of the relation between service recovery strategies
and distributive justice.
Original t-Statistics (|O/

Factors p-values Result
Sample (O) SD|)
Apology -> Distributive justice .025 .337 .736 ns Unsupported
Compensation -> Distributive justice .628 8.569 .001*** Supported
Explanation -> Distributive justice .121 2.025 .043** Supported

Note: SE (standard error), ns (not significant), *p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001 (two-tailed t-tests).
Discussion
The aim of the current research was to evaluate the influence of service recovery
strategies (explanation, apology and compensation) on distributive justice in higher education
institutions. The findings indicate that compensation has a significant and positive influence
on distributive justice. The finding in this research corroborates Shin et al. (2018) who found
a positive and significant influence of compensation on distributive justice. In addition, the
results show that compensation has the strongest influence on distributive justice compared to
other service recovery strategies. This means that the use of compensation is highly preferred

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by students in higher education institutions to achieve distributive or outcome justice. With 485
respect to the influence of an explanation on distributive justice, the results show a positive
and significant influence. The findings of this research are in accordance with the findings of
research conducted by Casado-Diaz et al. (2007) who found that an explanation has a positive
and significant influence on distributive justice.
The findings of this research further show that an apology has a positive and insignificant
influence on distributive justice. A possible explanation to this is that while an apology is the
right strategy for addressing service failures, it may not be adequate to achieve distributive
justice because students are expecting compensation due to the magnitude of the loss incurred.
Therefore, it is important for employees to evaluate the severity of the failure before deciding
the type of recovery strategy to use in response to service failure to avoid exacerbating the
reported problem. In addition, students respond differently to service recovery efforts. Their
response will depend on a number of resources lost and gained during the exchange. However,
any form of recovery is better than no recovery at all. In this regard, institutions are advised
at least to use an apology as a recovery tool when the circumstances do not allow them to do
much or to go the extra mile. Furthermore, when a service failure is a core, a perceived low
service recovery initiative such as an apology may be deemed as a poor service recovery and
can subsequently lead to double deviation. A core service failure requires sufficient recovery
initiative such as monetary compensation to cover the loss suffered (Yi & Lee, 2005). The
finding in this this research is contrary to previous research which found that an apology has
a positive and significant influence on distributive justice (Mattila & Cranage, 2005; Cohen,
2016).
Conclusions and Implications
Service failures are inevitable, however effective service recovery strategies can
minimise the impact of service failure. The findings of this research have a lot of implications
for higher education institutions, particularly, the institutional managers and employees. In
order to address the gaps in this research, it is recommended for employees to consider the
severity of service failure when offering service recovery to students. In this regard, members
of staff should offer compensation that is commensurate with the loss suffered. For example,
students whose marks were erroneously captured by employees should be granted the correct
marks (refund). It is suggested that employees should be honest and truthful when explaining
service failure incidents to students and the reason behind the failure and steps being taken
to correct the failure should be provided. In addition, employees should provide adequate
information to the students to remove any elements of doubt in the process being undertaken to
address the failure. Normally, compensation is the traditional service recovery strategy used to
achieve an outcome or distributive justice. Therefore, the use of an explanation as an outcome
or distributive justice offers an alternative approach to higher education institutions to offer
a solution at no cost or without squeezing the limited resources at their disposal. However,
this must be exercised with caution depending on the severity of the failure to avoid injustice.
Simply put, where a student has incurred a financial loss as a result of university negligence, a
financial compensation will be appropriate. If the financial loss can be proven to be occasioned
by the student’s own negligence or self-induced failure, an explanation will be ideal to achieve
distributive or outcome justice. Similarly, where a student’s examination results have not been
released on time, an explanation will be feasible to achieve distributive justice.
This research is one of the pioneering efforts in assessing the influence of service
recovery strategies on distributive in higher education. The limitation of this research is that
the sample was adopted from three universities in South Africa such that the results cannot
be generalized beyond the current scope. However, the results may be useful to other higher

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486 education institutions with a similar operational set up. In addition, this research has contributed
to literature on service recovery strategies and distributive justice in the education sector. Future
researchers should broaden the scope of research by measuring service recovery strategies with
other forms of justice such as procedural and interactional justice in the higher education sector.
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488
Received: April 25, 2019 Accepted: August 05, 2019
Steven K. Msosa PhD, Researcher, Department of Marketing and Retail Management,

Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa.
ORCID iD: 0000-0001-9074-5644 Web of Science ResearcherID:
E-5654-2019.
Jeevarathnam P. Govender PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Marketing and Retail

Management, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa.

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PROBLEMS OF NARCISSISM IN 489
EDUCATION: THE CULTURE OF

NARCISSISM AS A DANGEROUS
GLOBAL PHENOMENON FOR THE FUTURE
Michal Podzimek
Technical University of Liberec, Czech Republic
Abstract
Modernism, which appeared as a result of industrialization, has since then developed further, resulting in
a postmodern society, characterized by a significant change in values. This shift in values is particularly
evident in the quality of education, and man's subsequent relation towards work as a result. Schools have
become social institutions in which learners spend their time in the role of served clients. The teacher
is therefore assigned the social role of the servant, in which he is to primarily satisfy the pupil in his
personal needs. This kind of relationship stems from the phenomenon of narcissism, which is already a
cultural phenomenon. Studies of cultural narcissism are presented here, sampling relevant research of
American provenience (with special focus on the USA). These studies suggest that cultural narcissism
may become a global phenomenon in the future.
Keywords: cultural narcissism, contemporary individualism, narcissistic pathology, learning difficulties,
pedagogical research.
Introduction
The late professor Christopher Lasch claimed that to liberate humanity from such
outmoded ideas as love and duty has become the mission of Post-Freudian therapies, and
particularly of their converts and popularizers (Lasch, 1980, p. 13). He labelled this pathological
"liberation of humanity" the problem of narcissism: a form of self-absorption analogous to that
of the mythological figure Narcissus. Professor Lasch was one of the firsts who attempted
to grasp this topic as a social phenomenon and described it from a historical-anthropological
perspective in a coherent way.
For the first time ever, Tom Wolfe covered this topic in his famous newspaper article in
1976, “The Me Decade and the Third Great Awakening.” In like manner, in the 1980s, Lasch,
in his influential monograph entitled The Culture of Narcissism, discussed narcissism as one
of the manifestations of contemporary culture. In this work, narcissism was grasped for the
first time as not simply a personality disorder in the psycho-pathological sense, but rather as
a characteristic lifestyle of our current, hypermodern times (Lipovetsky, Hypermodern Times,
2005). In fact, this issue is discussed as a topic of popular science probably most intensively
by Gilles Lipovetsky, who claimed already in 1983, in his first major publication entitled L'ère
du vide: Essais sur l'individualisme contemporain that through personalization individualism
changes into what could be called the culture of narcissism using the terminology of American
sociology (Lipovetsky, 1983, p. 16).
The theme of cultural narcissism has therefore become urgent, especially during the last
two decades with the so-called “Me, Me, Me Generation” (Stein, 2013), a term that shows a

Michal PODZIMEK. Problems of narcissism in education: The culture of narcissism as a dangerous global phenomenon for the
future
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490 further intensification of the issues of Tom Wolfe's (1976) “'Me' Decade.” This generation, also
frequently referred to as Millenials or Generation Y (Lyons, 2016), has grown up in the last two
decades of the 20th century, while the phenomenon itself can be shown to have continued in the
generation of their children. Given the threat of cultural narcissism as an intensifying social
phenomenon, people responsible for education and upbringing should logically be interested
in this form of lifestyle. Since narcissism as a lifestyle and excessive narcissistic behavior
in the sense of a psychological disorder are not mutually exclusive, but on the contrary, are
overlapping phenomena which can constitute different phases of development of the trajectory
of human life, it is necessary to approach this topic not only from a psychological, but also
from a pedagogical point of view, drawing on pedagogical research. As it will be shown below,
this is still a relatively “uncharted territory” both in sociological and pedagogical research.
Nevertheless, some pioneering studies can be found, published during the first decade after the
millennium in the United States, most typically in the form of research conducted by university
lecturers and psychologists. This study is based on this research, even if one has to acknowledge
that there are not many of them so far.
Defining Narcissism
The whole concept of the phenomenon of narcissism has developed naturally from
psychology, respectively from the environment of Freudian psychoanalysis. Thus, at first,
narcissism was defined as pathologic, more specifically as the psychological disorder of
hedonists.
Yet, as this is generally known by professional psychologists, it is necessary to emphasize
that the phenomenon of narcissism may not always be pathological. Sigmund Freud himself
has distinguished in his work Totem und Tabu: Einige Übereinstimmungen im Seelenleben
der Wilden und der Neurotiker two types of narcissism. The first one belongs to the natural
development of children, who have to, at an early development stage of their personality, cope
with the problem of self-centeredness besides hysteria. Only if the child does not resolve this
problem by the end of the third year of his life does one talk of so-called secondary narcissism,
which is, however, already considered pathological. In other words, being convinced of one's
omnipotence during early childhood is a natural part of one's normal psychological development.
However, in order to avoid these attitudes becoming excessive, and thus pathological,
children must gradually lose these beliefs, realizing that the objects of his narcissism are not
dependent on him, on the contrary, the opposite is true. Freud also points out that even if one
manages to cope with these facts of life normally in childhood, to some extent, one always
remains somewhat narcissistic even in adulthood. This natural narcissism evokes the human
will to learn to deal with self-centeredness (Freud, 1934).
Similarly to Sigmund Freud, Erich Fromm uses the term narcissism to refer to asocial
individualism (Fromm, 1964, 52). He also takes into account the fact that narcissism has its
important socio-biological function in the entire mentally healthy population by ensuring
the fulfillment of individual desires, and it thus, paradoxically, helps to develop relationships
through competitiveness. Therefore, in Fromm's view, narcissism is necessary for the quality,
and sometimes for the very preservation, of life. Fromm nevertheless points out in his book,
The Heart of Man: His Genius for Good and Evil, that narcissism can also be dangerous if it
develops to a pathological form (Fromm, 1964). Fromm, in his historical analysis of some of
the personalities of the past, does not hesitate to say that their excessive behavior was the result
of the strong influence of a pathological narcissism: “From Caligula and Nero to Stalin and
Hitler we see that their need to find believers, to transform reality so that it fits their narcissism,
and to destroy all critics, is so intense and so desperate precisely because it is an attempt to
prevent the outbreak of insanity” (62).

future
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What, however, is new in the contemporary understanding of narcissism, compared to 491

Freud's psychoanalysis, is its perception as a group phenomenon: a so-called cultural narcissism.
If, at the time of Freud, pathological narcissism was the phenomenon of only the minority
population of the rich, today virtually the whole majority of Western society is permeated
by it. In terms of Consumer society not only provides individuals, but also groups, with the
opportunity to achieve a malignant type of narcissistic gratification in their pursuit to avoid
dissatisfaction. In turn, for those who are economically and culturally too poor to participate in
this pursuit, the only source of satisfaction, and often a very effective one, is their narcissistic
pride in belonging to a group (Fromm, 1964, p. 89). In other words, the ancient Roman motto
“panem et circenses” can be said to be resurrected, figuring among the leading phenomena of
consumerism.
The area of cultural narcissism, as perceived by Erich Fromm or Zygmunt Bauman,
as well as similar thinkers, such as Heinz Kohut, Otto Kernberg or Irvin Yalom, has been
grasped in its full complexity professor Lasch, mentioned above, describing some of the main
characteristics of narcissistic society in his introduction to his book, The Culture of Narcissism:
American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations. These are:
- a general loss of historical continuity (indifference to the past and the future);
- dependence on bureaucracy;
- inability to empathize;
- decline in institutional authority;
- overfocusing on psychotherapy;
- tendency to hypochondria (cult of health);
- experiences without a deeper search for meaning;
- identification with celebrities;
- diverting attention only to one's own person;
- identity crisis and a crisis of relationships.
These points summarize what essentially belongs to the concept of cultural narcissism
and what is its most common manifestation (Lasch, 1980).
The Character of Cultural Narcissism
Sociologists understandably ask where the origin of this social dimension of narcissistic
behavior is. Lasch, as an American, had a relatively simple and logical theory for the genesis of
social narcissism. He recalled, based on Max Weber's reference that throughout the history of
the United States the ideal citizen was one who identified himself with the so-called protestant
ethics. Protestant ethics was based on the Calvinist theology of predestination. The white
people who came in the early phases of colonization from England to the New World, the future
United States, were mostly all Calvinist believers and professed faith in their predestination for
salvation after death, for which they had been previously designated by God's will. However,
recognizing one's predestination is difficult under this theological concept. Practically, it can be
done only in one, relatively certain manner, which is identifying one's ability to live a virtuous
life, in accordance with biblical moral commandments. Being able to fulfill, in the power of
God's grace, the order of a good life, poured into the heart of the destined, gives the believer
hope that he is predestined for heaven. Someone incapable of moral quality (an idler, a fool,
someone addicted to vice, etc.) can then identify his reprobation, his predestination to eternal
damnation.
Although this theist faith has been gradually transformed into deism or has been
often denied by the ideology of scientific atheism under the influence of the Enlightenment,
protestant ethics has implicitly further determined the civil and social discourse of all white
Americans. A law-abiding citizen has continued throughout history to live continuously for the

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492 future of his family and his country, work hard, invest wisely, and for their investment has been
able to tighten their belt and above all to submit their will and emotions (desires) to reason.
The American citizen has continued to be a type of self-made man. It is then understandable,
that this orderly working citizen has accumulated many assets during the period of industrial
capitalism, and the USA has become the objectively wealthiest country of the Western world.
Through the process getting rich, mostly as a result of their own hard work, however, citizens'
aspirations have begun to gradually turn to prosperity as a goal in itself. This, in turn has
been progressively redefined to mean prosperity in a purely material sense. Thus, the originally
poor, tough and humble citizen, has become a wealthy one, and often, in turn, a hedonist. Rich
American society has thus gone through considerable development and contemporary society
looks like the underworld of the past (Lasch, 1980, p. 53).
The American economist, Richard Easterlin, formulated the notion in the 1970s that
the growth of society's prosperity does not increase the populace's satisfaction with life. This
observation, known as the Easterlin paradox, stands at the beginning of the development of the
concept of the quality of life (Murgaš, 2009). The analysis of the quality of life incorporates the
division of human behavior into two basic forms: hedonism and eudaimonia, first described by
Aristotle (1996) in The Nicomachean Ethics. The quality of life, especially in its eudaimonic
understanding, is strongly associated with the concept of a good life.
Acquiring wealth has meant a major cultural transformation of capitalism. The American,
and eventually also the European citizen, at the latest from the 1970s, has had no intention to
be a modest self-made man, but has rather stylized himself as a “happy hooker”, who tries to
captivate others through his image (Lasch, 1980, p. 64). Pleasure has become his truly desired
goal: a fast and pleasant delight, a modern awakening of hedonism. This reversal from efficient
diligence in the past to contemporary hedonism, which has been realized dizzyingly fast during
the first two post-war generations, also involves resisting all things old as being outdated.
This resistance also has its repercussions in the philosophical field of the ideas. Post-war man,
overwhelmed by the horrors of the last great ideologies of society (Communism and Nazism),
becomes a being existentially stripped of all external certitude, left at the mercy of the general
nonsense of the world. Philosophical existentialism, as presented by J. P. Sartre in the postwar
period, casts man into an existential void. For example, the Czech philosopher Radim Palouš
has expressed this ideological shift, respectively the liberation of man from the mandate of
great ideas, as follows: “Subjectivity is embraced here as dropping man into the strangeness
of the world. Human freedom is the projection of meaning into an absurd universe” (Palouš,
1990, p. 94).
As a result of this absence of great societal goals, postmodern man has gradually closed
up in his mortal finitude, stripped of all metaphysical support in religion (in the original
Calvinist theism) or in categorical moral imperatives (the Enlightenment ideal of autonomous
morality). This loss of an overall meaning of life goes hand in hand with another phenomenon
that causes many problems today, especially in the field of education and people’s attitude to
work: indifference. Indifference is apathy of a new style (Lipovetsky, 2005, p. 51), stemming
from the fact that our society does not recognize any priority, definitive codification or center,
but only a ceaseless selection from a chain of equal stimulations (Lipovetsky, 2005, p. 53). This
new kind of apathy toward learning anything new is not caused by any distress, but rather by an
excess of constantly alternating stimuli, which ultimately causes that the more rights, comforts,
possibilities and information society gives us, the less we care about them (Lipovetsky, 2005,
p. 53).
As far as education and upbringing is concerned, it is important to realize that postmodern
man's radical departure from modernity and its values has caused a new kind of illiteracy during
the last two generations. This is not merely a crisis of knowledge or some set of difficulties
learning about their own cultural history or about abandoned ideas. This new illiteracy reaches

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deeper, and especially so in the case of elementary knowledge in the exact sciences. Their 493
acquisition is inherently demanding and is linked to the requirement of discipline, patience
and tenacious modesty in the process of learning. However, very few young people today are
willing to sacrifice their time and will to acquire knowledge in areas such as mathematics,
science, the knowledge of another language, etc. If one has not learned the necessary degree
of discipline at an early age, he often suffers from a pathological inability to concentrate and
to have a deeper interest in serious subjects and questions, which is naturally relevant from the
perspective of education and training.
Narcissism has been recognized by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) as an
official mental personality in their Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)
as a personality disorder since 1968, mentioning similar phenomena and similar pathological
manifestations, as professor Lasch in his book on the same topic published 12 years later.
The problem, however, is that even though narcissism has been recognized as a personality
disorder, individuals suffering from narcissism usually function in normal life in an ordinary
way. From this perspective, there is an interesting book by the therapist Heinz Peter Röhr,
Narzissmus: The Dem inneren Gefangnis entfliehen (Narcissus, 1999), in which he dedicates his
attention not only to the question of the origin and course of narcissism as a disease, but he also
outlines the possibilities of overcoming the challenges of narcissism for people with borderline
narcissistic disorder, who are living a normal life. He describes narcissism here through the
Grimm Brothers' fairy tale, “The Iron” (Röhr, 2018). Similarly, the American Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) admits that narcissism can be found in normally
functioning people, as well, therefore, out of its nine symptoms, at least five have to be found
for a diagnosis of narcissism:
(1) has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents,
expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements)
(2) is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal
love
(3) believes that he or she is "special" and unique and can only be understood by, or
should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)
(4) requires excessive admiration
(5) has a sense of entitlement, i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable
treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations
(6) is interpersonally exploitative, i.e., takes advantage of others to achieve his or her
own ends
(7) lacks empathy; is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of
others
(8) is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her
(9) shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes
However, the problem is even more complicated. In 2010, the Association for Research
in Personality discussed whether all of the above-mentioned signs necessarily correspond to
narcissistic disorders (Schmeck, Schluter, Foelsch, & Doering, 2013). Most of the manifestations
of this disorder can also be observed in antisocial or obsessive personality (Skodol, Bender, &
Morey, 2014). And finally, the majority of researchers holding a membership in the International
Society for the Study of Personality Disorders concluded that narcissistic personality disorder
would be kept as a distinct type of disorder, but with four characteristic traits, namely:
pathological disposition, a grandiose or on the contrary, vulnerable phenotype; expressivity
or, on the contrary, being unable to properly express oneself verbally; and a specific overall
structure of personality (Morey & Stagner, 2012).
Many related research projects which are based on the above-mentioned APA typology
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494 which is measurable. This measurability has also become the basis of those research projects,
carried out amongst university lecturers in the United States, which are to be mentioned on the
following pages. The reason for this is that Narcissistic Personality Disorder can be measured by
methods, which detect, above all else, the presence of the following character traits: arrogance,
self-centeredness, desire for attention, exploitation, charm, cunning, malice, disdain, revenge,
boastfulness, uneasiness, grandiosity, reserve, inaccessibility, insecurity, indifference, anxiety,
supremacy, coldness, aggression, day dreaming, shyness, sexual inhibition and others (Paris,
2014).
The Phenomena of Narcissism
From the above mentioned summary, it is clear that the influence of postmodern man's
departure from their past in modernity has created a new, narcissistic way of life. Narcissism
is now a social phenomenon, though it was originally diagnosed only as the psychological
pathology of individuals. The narcissistic demand for the least possible limitations and, on
the contrary, the opening of space for freedom threatened by nothing and by no-one, has
become a social phenomenon of a perfectly personified society (Lipovetsky, 2005). This social
phenomenon is evident in people from early childhood, and first of all, in addition to their
parents, teachers and educators encounter it in their pedagogical work. Teachers are often forced
to adapt to the hedonistic demands of the learners, the latter becoming clients who, above all,
want to feel comfortable at school.
Besides the deep transformation of society's approach to upbringing and education,
social narcissism has first become manifest in the transformation of the functioning of the
family. Just as the ideal of the individual in the sense of the above-mentioned self-made man
has been abandoned, the model of the so-called traditional family has also been left behind.
Of course, the process of deviating from the traditional concept of the family has started much
earlier, already in modernity, in connection with the rise of industrial society. The family,
which in premodern times spent the time of work, rest and family time primarily in agricultural
communal togetherness, in the industrial society has become unprecedentedly dependent on
the bureaucratic institutions of the state, such as education, health care, or government control
over many areas of the private life of the secularized citizen as if various social institutions had
weakened the internal relationships of the family, and imprisoned them in their own hierarchy.
On the so-called principle of biopower, on the formerly natural ties, the so-called dictate of
normality was superimposed, enforcing conformity. This phenomenon was already elaborated
by Michel Foucault in the 1970s, whose work should be summarized here by mentioning only
one, albeit poignant thought from his otherwise extensive work:
the new technology that is being established is addressed to a multiplicity of men, not to the
extent that they are nothing more than their individual bodies, but to the extent that they form,
on the contrary, a global mass that is affected by overall processes characteristic of birth, death,
production, illness, and so on. So after a first seizure of power over the body in an individualizing
mode, we have a second seizure of power that is not individualizing, but, if you like, massifying
(Foucault, 2003, p. 242-3).
Precisely these attempts to create a homogeneous mass, which often accepts the
dictatorship of normality as "herd", are particularly noticeable in the weakening of internal
family bonds. The current small, nuclear family, often incomplete, for example only a biological
mother with one or two children, easily succumbs to the dictate of compliance in the form of
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studied changes in behavioral patterns in American society, commented on this in the book The 495
Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism as follows:
Though at first the changes were primarily in manners, dress, taste, and food habits, sooner or
later they began to affect more basic patterns: the structure of authority in the family, the role of
children and young adults as independent consumers in the society, the pattern of morals, and the
different meanings of achievement in the society (Bell, 1978, p. 69).
And here, narcissism is revealed as a direct product of the modern “happy hooker”
hedonism. The natural link between this hedonism and narcissism is consumption, which is the
primary propelling force of the society of consumerism. While it is true that the symbiosis of
narcissism and hedonism is largely dependent on the particular economic situation of a given
society, nevertheless the same applies even to poorer Western economies where the cultural
transformation of modern society has resulted in an increase in mass consumption, including
the expansion of goods previously considered to be luxury amongst middle and lower classes
of society. It is a process within which getting more and more goods is defined as an urgent
need (Bell, 1978, p. 64). The contemporary family, as the first social unit for upbringing and
education, is therefore an environment in which cultural narcissism finds fertile soil and is
firmly embedded.
In addition to this family crisis, there is another important phenomenon: the postmodern
transformation of the relationship of man to his own psyche, mental state. “The psychoanalyst
is silent, he died, and we all psychoanalyze ourselves in a vicious and impassable circle. Don
Juan died and a new, more disturbing figure emerged: Narcissus, enchanted by himself in his
throughout transparent chamber” (Lipovetsky, 1983, p. 63; my translation).
Thus, in his book, L'ère du vide, Lipovetsky defines a totally individualized hedonist
who completes cultural narcissism by wanting to express his emptiness to the emptiness of
others who are like him. And because of the rapid development of communication technologies
has made sharing more than easy, the narcissist communicates his opinion to anyone, only for
his own narcissistic pleasure, that is, without any ambition to change or improve anything. “In
this narcissistic hedonism, the basic value is the person who is the measure of all things, only
he matters...” (Lipovetsky, 1983, p. 63).
This pronounced focus on narcissistic self-observation is often manifested precisely
through the way in which psychotherapy is currently used. People suffering from cultural
narcissism often attend therapies, but often not to analyze and understand the depths of their
problems, which would then be solved by them under the guidance of the therapist. The basic
intention of people seeking a psychotherapist is often only to learn something new about
themselves.
Another identifiable phenomenon of narcissism, related to the previous one, is the
explicit disclosure of the subject’s existential emptiness, and shutting society out, through
seeking the anonymity of the virtual world of the Internet, social networks, shared online
gaming communities, or through limiting interactions to the closed world of hobby groups. In
them, his narcissism is accepted and mutually shared, as sociologist Richard Sennett describes
in detail in his book, The Fall of Public Man. Here he explores the fact that the public space in
which people meet and solve social problems together has virtually disappeared, or rather, it has
been replaced by a mutual communication of intimate feelings. Current experience from social
networks confirms that the most common question that people in contact with each other ask is
what they feel or how they feel (Sennett, 1977). The pleasantness of a given experience, or just
merely feeling good in itself has become the only measure of reality for the narcissist.
The most visible phenomenon of narcissism, which also causes socio-economic
problems in society, is indifference to work as an instrument of personal growth. After the

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496 completion of compulsory education, as edutainment that had to be pleasant for the narcissist
and “cool” at the same time, the phenomenon of narcissistic indifference is being transferred by
the present, second generation also to the dimension of employment, to work. Being employed
is understood by the narcissist mainly at an instrumental level. It is the necessary evil which
is needed to make the money as easy and as fast as possible in order to obtain enough funds
to experience the narcissistic relationships of leisure-time. Work is perceived by the narcissist
as burdensome duty, albeit necessary from a strictly utilitarian perspective: it makes enjoying
free time possible. Employment is the necessary evil of the week, preparation for real life at the
weekend. In order to make the unpleasant period of the work week more tolerable, the pressure
to make work maximally enjoyable is growing in the atmosphere of cultural narcissism. There is
a growing demand for flexible working time, and more and more efforts to reduce the rigidity of
the organization, to replace uniform and rigorous working patterns with flexible arrangements,
and to give preference to communication over coercion (Lipovetsky, 1983, 32). For example,
Simon Winlow and Steve Hall’s well-known and often-commented research, entitled “Living
for the Weekend: Youth Identities in Northeast England,” published in Ethnography (2009),
claims young respondents do not feel any relationship to the products of their work. Their only
profit from their work is money itself, which they want in order to fund their real life. This life
is lived only at the weekends. Simon Gottschalk, based on his own research, also describes
cultural narcissism in a similar way. He has analyzed some of the hypermodern trends leading to
narcissism in his article entitled “Hypermodern Consumption and Megalomania: Superlatives
in Commercials” (2009). He discusses such features as acceleration, surveillance, visibility and
abundance, and their transformation in the economic, cultural and political spheres, manifested
in passive interest in employment (Gottschalk, 2009).
Lipovetsky likewise refers to narcissistic mentality as hypermodernity in Hypermodern
Time (Lipovetsky, 2013) as a period which follows the ideals of modern ad absurdum: at the
top of the desert of society a sovereign, informed and free man stands, prudently managing his
own life (Lipovetsky, 1983, p. 16). The individualization of hypermodern man, narcissistically
self-absorbed in himself only, then prevails over all other social aspects, especially interest
in work and the public sphere. This creates a kind of zero sociality (Lipovetsky, 1983, p. 19),
which is referred to as the second phase of consumerism (Lipovetsky, 1983, p. 26). One of the
most visible signs of such behavior is, on the one hand, exaggerated activity towards one’s own
person, with passivity and indifference to the outside world and its events on the other hand. The
individualized person has become a passive observer of public affairs, which he only considers
from a distance, often without his own opinion; well-entertained, irresponsible for anything else
than his own spacetime, perfectly personalized, condemned to narcissist self-service.
The State of Research on Narcissism
The phenomena of cultural narcissism described above, which have often overreached the
boundaries of what Freud would tolerate as “natural narcissism”, are most frequently encountered
by those who are responsible for education, regardless of which stage of the educational system
they work in. These people often feel helpless in their position of teacher or educator. What
the teacher says has ceased to be sacred, it has profaned to the level of what the media say, and
the educational system has become a component whose performance is undermined by apathy
resulting from a lack of attention and open skepticism towards knowledge (Lipovetsky, 1983,
pp. 61-62). This, however, has caused severe learning difficulties and the above-mentioned new
illiteracy in the last two generations. It is therefore appropriate to point out where and by what
methods narcissism is already studied in the field of education. The question that will now be of
interest to us is how the narcissistic tendencies in the present generation of younger and senior
students are specifically expressed, and by what methods they can be measured. The possibility

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to detect the rough level of narcissism in specific school groups seems particularly important for 497
a pedagogue, who wants to better orientate in this environment affected by narcissistic disorder.
The issue of measuring the level of narcissism in school groups has been tackled since
2003 by just a few research teams in the US, led by psychologist W. Keith Campbell, professor
of psychology at the University of Georgia. Professor Campbell with his colleagues (Rudich,
Sedikides, Foster, Goodie and others) worked between 2002 and 2008 on investigating the rate
of narcissism amongst their high school and college students. Thus, their respondents were
mainly students, answering as a part of their school duties.
Campbell’s definition of contemporary narcissism does not differ from the definitions
above. The rate of narcissism is determined here through the respondent’s perception of their
own personality. A narcissistic respondent is, to a measurable extent, entertains a belief in their
own greatness, a result of their exaggerated ideas of their attractiveness and uniqueness.
In terms of self-regulatory strategies, empirical research demonstrates that narcissists
use both intrapsychic and interpersonal strategies to maintain their positive self-views. On the
intrapsychic side, narcissists fantasize about fame and strategically attribute responsibility for
their own success to abilities. On the interpersonal side, narcissists differentially brag and draw
attention to the self, and strive to compete with and dominate others. Narcissists also desire
to associate with high-status others in order to gain esteem. Not surprisingly, narcissists shift
the blame for failures onto colleagues or evaluators. In the simplest terms, one can think of
narcissists as individuals for whom enhancing the positivity of the self (specifically, to achieve
status and esteem) is overwhelmingly important. Much of their psychological and social lives
is directed toward this goal. In the present research, we look at decision making as one of the
domains of narcissists’ behavior that may be differentially distorted by the striving for status
and esteem. One might suspect that narcissists have a particular long-term interest in making
reasonable and measured decisions, based on the causal reasoning: good decisions. Success
status and esteem, and the fact that status and esteem have heightened salience for narcissists.
However, we suspected that narcissists’ decisions may be undermined by their short-term
interest in maintaining an inflated self-image. Narcissists’ grandiose self-views may preclude
the realistic appraisal of one’s likelihood of success needed for successful decisions, resulting
in overconfidence and risk-taking (Campbell, Glori, & Foster, 2004, p. 298).
Campbell, Glori and Forster have published their research on self-confidence in the
current generation of young people in an article entitled “Narcissism, Confidence, and Risk
Attitude” (2004) the Journal of Behavioral Decision Making. They established a scale of
narcissism ranging from non-narcissists on one end to narcissists on the other.
The first of their three studies was based on the answers of 104 university students
from Georgia around the age of 18. They completed an electronic questionnaire in three
computerized classrooms, and the completed form was perceived by the respondents as a part
of their normal study duties in their current course. The questionnaire was composed of two
types of questions: knowledge questions, and questions focusing on respondents’ evaluation of
their self-confidence in their response to the knowledge questions, in other words, confidence
assessment. For example of one of the 150 similar knowledge questions, randomly selected
from about 300 general knowledge questions: Who was the first ruler in the Holy Roman
Empire? Possible answers: a) Charlemange or b) Zeus? After answering the question, the
supplementary question follows: If you answered a) Charlemange, how confident are you that
the answer is correct? The respondent then checked one of the seven options (a to g), expressing
in percent their confidence in the correctness of their response: a) 50-52% b) 53-60% c) 61-
70% d) 71-80% e) 81-90% f) 91-97% g) 98-100%. The results of this research have shown that
respondents mostly believe in themselves more than their factual knowledge would warrant.
This has confirmed the Campbell team’s hypothesis that narcissists believe in themselves more
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498 has therefore demonstrated that the rate of narcissism is directly proportional to the excess of
self-confidence.
The second one of these three research papers focuses on the extent to which a narcissist
is able to take risks. The study is based on the answers of 97 respondents, similar to those in
the first study. The study’s method of ascertaining respondents’ willingness to take risks was
based on the strategy that after answering 101 knowledge questions, respondents were given
the opportunity to choose or bet on another answer. The conclusion of the study has shown that
narcissists are more able to take a risk and gamble – they bet and guess more often.
The third of these three studies had the highest number of participants, namely 607
respondents. The study has focused on the relationship between self-confidence, self-beliefs
and self-presentation in risky situations. The aim has been to verify the hypothesis whether a
narcissist, in his exaggerated self-esteem and feeling of exceptionalness, brings so much positive
belief into a risky situation that in the end they often increase their chances of success. And if
a narcissist fails on the ground of facts, are they able to keep their faith in themselves in the
face of objective failure. Campbell’s team has found that in such cases narcissistically-oriented
individuals use the so-called top-down strategy. They seem to repeat to themselves that they are
good and great, and therefore they cannot fail at the task. Because of this internal narcissistic
strategy, they remain proud and self-confident even when factually their performance is low or
truly bad.
The study, which again asked participants to do knowledge tasks, was accompanied by
three questions for the respondents (one before and two after the assignment):
A: How does the respondent evaluate their expectation of success at the task before
doing it?
B: How does the respondent rate their success after the task?
C: What does the respondent think about their success in the future with the same or
similar assignment?
The evaluation of individual questions was expressed on a scale from 1 (the lowest)
to 10 (the highest). The result of this study’s assessment has found that narcissists not only
uncritically assume that they would certainly succeed at the next similar task, but also that they
have been successful at it (often unrelated to the actual outcome) and that they will be much
more successful in the future. This has confirmed the original hypothesis that narcissists often
consider their abilities to be great completely contrary to the external reality and even if the
exact opposite is true. In addition, their future performance expectations have been heavily
influenced by their inflated performance estimates performed prior to the commencement of the
task (Campbell, Glori, & Foster, 2004).
In their summary of these published studies, they have concluded that narcissists are
influenced in their own decision-making: with both too much self-assurance and willingness
to take a chance, especially where success depends not primarily on knowledge or skill, but on
taking a risk and a bet. Even though they have lost a lot of points because of their riskiness,
they have still judged their performances according to their expectations and not according
to external reality. In addition, it has been shown that a narcissistic individual can, due to his
uncritical optimism, self-love and absence of fear of failure or depression, draw emotional
benefits from remaining in such an emotional state. The authors have thus confirmed the results
of older case studies on narcissism and they confirmed the hypothesis that narcissists are in fact
generally happier than others as they have higher self-esteem and suffer less depression and
anxiety (Watson & Biderman, 1994). A different team of Campbell, composed of Campbell,
Rudich, and Sedikides, has published another interesting study under the title “Narcissism, Self-
Esteem, and the Positivity of Self-Views: Two Portraits of Self-Love” in the journal Personality
and Social Psychology Bulletin.
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executed under Campbell’s lead, this time with Miller and Buffanri. Their results were published 499
in 2008 under the title “Narcissism and Social Networking Web Sites.” Their research shows
that narcissists on social networks, especially on Facebook, present much greater self-esteem
than they really have. It shows that even though narcissists have lower self-esteem in the real
world, they are more creative in online activities and can do whatever it takes for better self-
presentation and an improved online image. A typical feature of narcissistic behavior is thus the
exaggeration of information about one’s own person and showing off.
Professor Campbell, together with his colleague, San Diego psychologist Jean M.
Twenge, has also published the results of some of the above-mentioned studies on cultural
narcissism in their monograph, The Narcissism Epidemic, which, although is aimed more at the
general public than specialist researchers aptly summarizes and discusses the results of these
interesting empirical studies that testify about the state of narcissism in Western society:
Understanding the narcissism epidemic is important because its long-term consequences are
destructive to society. American culture’s focus on self-admiration has caused a flight from reality
to the land of grandiose fantasy. We have phony rich people (with interest-only mortgages and
piles of debt), phony beauty (with plastic surgery and cosmetic procedures), phony athletes (with
performance-enhancing drugs), phony celebrities (via reality TV and YouTube), phony genius
students (with grade inflation), a phony national economy (with $11 trillion of government debt),
phony feelings of being special among children (with parenting and education focused on self-
esteem), and phony friends (with the social networking explosion). All this fantasy might feel
good, but, unfortunately, reality always wins. The mortgage meltdown and the resulting financial
crisis are just one demonstration of how inflated desires eventually crash to earth (Twenge &
Campbell, 2009, p. 6).
The book’s authors then describe the trend of cultural narcissism, which is still on the
rise, affecting the values of an increasing number of people who are trapped in this pitfall of the
social trend. In the authors’ opinion, the first area where the trend of narcissism is increasingly
manifested is the area of education. Parents less and less instill traditional western values, such
as freedom, equality and hard work in their children. Instead, in this type of family upbringing,
the cult of the child is growing; of the child who wants to be and has to be admired, and who
has to be raised in the faith that he can do anything for his self-development. Parents who are
themselves affected by narcissism thus pass on narcissism to the next generation.
The second area where narcissism manifests and causes destruction is the area of the
uncritical admiration of celebrities. Modern celebrities often earned their fame with hard fight
and tenacious, continuous work. Today’s celebrities are rather “made celebrities,” such as actors,
or people interesting for the media, often eccentric, whom Twenge calls “Superspreaders”. But
they often spread only superficiality and arrogance. One of the classic examples of how these
celebrities influence the lives of their narcissistic admirers is that there is the growing fashion
among young people to employ their very own paparazzi to follow them in their private lives.
These privacy shots are then narcissistically shared on social networks, and everyone can feel
like a celebrity at least in the circle of their acquaintances. In addition, these people have a
growing desire for luxury, to which ultimately every admirer has the right, as well as having the
right to behave only according to their own ideas, similarly to their admired celebrities.
The third area in which narcissism is increasingly visible is a trend that penetrates into
all areas of life, including science, is often expressed by the phrase “You have to be hot!” It is a
certain social obsession with the cult of physical beauty. It is taken to extremes by the over use
of plastic surgery, fitness clubs, etc. The narcissist “metrosexual” is thus born, one who always
wants to be luxurious, beautiful and dressed in designer clothes according to the latest fashion,
in short always “in” and never “out”.

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500 It seems that these trends are strongly related to the issue of increasing consumption
and hence also to the preservation of economic growth. The authors of the studies have also
pointed out that, although their research only concerns the United States, the same trend is
either beginning to be seen or has already been influential for a longer time everywhere in the
developed and developing world, even in China, which until recently was a closed culture, to
some extent outside the range of Western ideas.
Conclusions
It is true that so far very few scientists or expert teams have been involved in the research
of cultural narcissism in the Euro-Atlantic area; and, if they have, then only at the local or
national level. This brief summary of books, articles and professional studies cannot, of course,
aim at an exhaustive discussion of all texts discussing the phenomenon. Nevertheless, it is
not misleading to claim that cultural narcissism has not yet become a subject as frequently
discussed at international expert forums and in academic journals as its influence on human life
would warrant. As far as Western Europe is concerned, only a few occasional articles and case
studies have been published, such as Severe Personality Disorders, published by Cambridge
University Press in 2007. In terms of larger scale publications, only two monographs by Arnold
Rothstein, The Narcissistic Pursuit of Perfection (2015), and Joseph H. Berke’s Why I Hate You
and You Hate Me: The Interplay of Envy, Greed, Jealousy, and Narcissism in Everyday Life
(2012) have been published, and those only relatively recently. This contribution is therefore
also offered as an invitation for new efforts in this field, for joining forces and for common
initiatives in the field of pedagogical research into the culture of narcissism in Europe.
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Received: May 07, 2019 Accepted: August 09, 2019
Michal Podzimek PhD, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Science, Humanities and Education, Technical
University of Liberec, Studentská 1402/2, 461 17 Liberec, Czech Republic.
Website: https://kfl.fp.tul.cz

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502
THE DEVELOPMENT OF STUDENTS’
MATHEMATICAL LITERACY PROFICIENCY
Heri Retnawati, Nidya F. Wulandari
Yogyakarta State University, Indonesia
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]
Abstract
Improving the proficiency in mathematical literacy is one of the efforts to improve the human resources
quality. Its development describes the students’ strengths and weaknesses to support the improvement.
The research tried to describe the development of students’ proficiency in mathematical literacy, based on
the school level and the students’ gender. The research was a cross-sectional developmental study. The
population was all of students ranging between 13 and 16 years old in the Province of Yogyakarta Special
Region, Indonesia. In the sample were 1,001 students in the 8th, 9th and 10th grade, determined to use the
combination of stratified and the cluster random sampling technique. The data were collected using 30
items. The data analysis was conducted by estimating students’ ability through the item-response theory
approach under the Rasch model and by using the parameters that had been adjusted to the international
study item parameter under the concordance model for the linking score to interpret the students’
development. The research results showed that there has been improvement of literacy proficiency among
the 8th, 9th and 10th grade students. The development would generate higher scores utilizing multiple choice
test items. There was a tendency that the school level, gender, the form of items, content, context, and
process literacy would influence the mathematical literacy score. The efforts for improving proficiency in
mathematical literacy were discussed.
Keywords: ability development, mathematical literacy, PISA released items, cross-sectional
developmental study
Introduction
The efforts of improving the human resources quality, improving the literacy proficiency
still becomes the focus of attention for all nations. Similarly, Indonesia as a developing
country has also been pursuing the improvement of the human resources quality and that
includes the students’ proficiency in the schools. The proficiency development, especially
that of the students, has still been pursued in order to overcome the learning results that have
not been satisfying based on the results of TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and
Science Study) (Mullis, Martin, Foy, & Arora, 2012; Mullis, Martin, Ruddock, O’Sullivan, &
Preuschoff, 2009), PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) (OECD, 2014) and
the results of national study such as the national examination (Kemendikbud Balitbang, 2014;
2015; 2016) and to recollect the importance of mathematical literacy mastery that correlates to
another proficiency such as the statistical ability (Lai, Tanner, & Stevens, 2011).
Literacy proficiency has been an international issue in education. The proficiency has
been assessed by an international study of PISA. The objectives of PISA international study
are to assess the students’ knowledge and skills in the real world and to prepare the students
in the long-life learning and the community participation (Shiel, Perkins, Close, & Oldham,
2007). The PISA international study might be implemented by the government to, for example,
monitor the educational system (Stacey, 2011). In the PISA international study, there are three
aspects of literacy that will be measured, namely the reading literacy, the mathematical literacy
and the scientific literacy (OECD, 2014).

Heri RETNAWATI, Nidya F. WULANDARI. The development of students’ mathematical literacy proficiency
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Mathematical literacy relates to the individual ability in formulating, identifying, 503

understanding and implementing the mathematical foundations in multiple contexts that an
individual will need to deal with in the daily life problems (OECD, 2014). The mathematical
literacy includes the mathematical reasoning, the mathematical concept, the mathematical
procedure, and the mathematical fact and these aspects will be used for explaining and predicting
a phenomenon by emphasizing the competencies of process, content and context. The process
competencies in mathematical literacy are formulating, employing and interpreting (OECD,
2014). Then, the substances of the content that will be assessed include change and relationship,
space and shape, quantity, uncertainty, and data. Next, the context proficiency relates to the
personal, the occupational, the societal and the scientific context. In order to measure the context
competencies, a researcher should implement several types of test items. Shiel, Perkins, Close
and Oldham (2007) stated that the test item designs for the PISA assessment format were the
multiple-choice (MC) and constructed response (CR) items. After the students’ responses have
been analyzed, the individual ability will be classified into 7 levels, starting from below Level,
Level 1 to Level 6.
Kariuki, Kibet, Muthaa, and Nkonke (2012) stated that the lack of students’ performance
could be caused by teachers’ and students’ factor such as motivation, quality of teaching and
learning, and teaching aids and material. The students’ gender also influenced the performance
in mathematics. The males’ performance was higher than the females’ performance (Hall,
2012; Zhu, 2007). However, these opinions are different than the results of a study by Ajali and
Imoko (2015), who stated that there was indifferent achievement significantly between male
and female. Furthermore, there is another factor that might influence the learning achievement
namely the quality schooling (Bohlman & Pretorius, 2008).
There are multiple efforts that might be pursued in order to improve the literacy
proficiency. These efforts are pursued by the government, the institutions and even the
researchers themselves. Starting from the strategy for developing the literacy programs, the
Indonesian government has implemented multiple principles, benefitted the local context, the
local design, the participatory process, the action outcome (Department of National Education
Indonesia, 1999), and benefitted the scientific approach (Nurhariyanti, Waluyo, & Wardono,
2015). Another effort that might be pursued is integrating the classroom literacy learning
(Steihiliber, 2011) and suggesting the integration of mathematical literacy into other school
subjects (Bowie & Frith, 2006).
Problem of Research
Within the learning process, mathematics should be mastered by the students gradually
from one year to another. Similarly, the students develop the mathematical literacy proficiency
gradually from one year to another. The expectation is that the students’ literacy proficiency
will be increasing over time. The development of literacy proficiency should be noticed in
order to provide feedbacks for the teachers and the policymakers and to evaluate and perform
the improvement toward the learning process that has been conducted and the importance of
policy refinement including the curriculum for improving the students’ mathematical literacy
and educational literacy in general. Because multiple factors influenced the low students’
achievement in learning mathematics such as school level, test type, and students’ gender, the
development of mathematical literacy is described based on the factors.

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504 Research Focus
The research was to describe the development of junior and senior high school students’
mathematical literacy proficiency by considering the variables of school level, test type, and
students’ gender.
Design
The research was an explorative descriptive research with the cross-sectional type of
developmental research design. In the research, the researchers would like to describe the
development of 8th, 9th and 10th grade students’ mathematical literacy proficiency based on the
data. The data was collected in 2015 and analyzed in 2017-2018.
Population and Sample
The population in this research was all of the junior high school students ranging between
13 and 15 years old and the senior high school students ranging between 15 and 16 years old
in the Province of Yogyakarta Special Region, Indonesia. The sample collecting technique was
the combination of the stratified random sampling technique and the cluster random sampling
technique. The sample members in the research were the 8th and 9th grade students from junior
high schools and the 10th grade students from senior high schools; the schools consisted of high-
performance, moderate-performance and low-performance category based on the scores in the
Mathematics National Examination. The number of the sample members was 1,001 students
consisting of 155 students of 8th grade who were between 13 and 14 years old, 386 students of
9th grade students who were between 14 and 15 years old and 460 students of 10th grade students
who were between 15 and 16 years old.
When collecting data, the researchers told the students about the research. The result
of the test that was finished by the students was only to measure the students’ proficiency in
mathematical literacy. The result of the test wouldn’t influence anything in relation to students’
achievements and judgments. All of the students’ identities were hidden to guarantee the
objectivity of the research and students’ safety and confidentiality.
The data were collected by administering the test. The test items in the test instrument
were designed by adopting the PISA test items that had been released; the length of the test was
30 items. The PISA test items from 3 periods (2003, 2007 and 2011) that had been released were
translated into Indonesian language and the contexts were replaced to the ones that govern in
Indonesia. The validity of the test items had been validated while the reliability of the test items
had been estimated.
The validity of the test instrument had been validated using the content validity that
was conducted in order to identify the relevance and the representativeness of the instrument
toward the domain under assessment. The validation toward the test instrument was conducted
by consulting the text instrument to the experts (professional judgments) in relation to the
domains of content and context and the domain of process in the PISA test-item models. The
experts also provided feedbacks regarding the material truth, the composition of substances in
each domain, the test item readability and the relevance between the test item context and the
students in Indonesia.

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In order to estimate the reliability of the test in the form of essay or multiple choices 505
with the dichotomous data, the researcher implemented the Cronbach’s Alpha. The test was
administered toward 30 students from the 7th Grade in the 1 State Junior High School Bantul,
Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The index of reliability was equal to 0.707 and the standard error of
measurement (SEM) was equal to 2.81. Based on the SEM score, the researchers implied that
if the PISA test item model had been administered again then the score that the students would
attain would be from XT – 2.81 to XT + 2.81.
Data Analysis

For the data analysis, the researcher estimated the students’ literacy proficiency by
implementing the item response theory under the Rasch model and by using the parameters that
had been equalized into the international study test item with the concordance model for the
linking score. The concordance was conducted by implementing the Mean and Mean Method
and then the researcher interpreted the inter-year proficiency literacy development.
The steps of data analysis were as follows: (1) estimating the item parameters and the
ability parameters by operating the Rasch model proposed by Masters (2010) both for the
students’ response from the multiple-choice test items and the dichotomous and polytomous
constructed response test item with the assistance of CONQUEST program (Wu, Adam, &
Wilson, 1997) and the calibration concurrent model for the 8th, 9th and 10th grade; (2) adjusting
the test item parameters to the international test item parameters by means of Mean and Mean
method (Hambleton & Swaminathan, 1985) until the researcher attained the adjustment of the
item parameter to the international scale for the 8th, 9th and 10th grade and the results of the
adjustment are displayed in Table 1; (3) implementing the adjustment equation from the second
step in order to adjust the ability parameter for each grade; (4) performing a descriptive analysis
in order to present the students’ proficiency development for the 8th, 9th and 10th grade; and (5)
categorizing the participants’ proficiency in accordance with the data analysis within the PISA
model for each classroom by using the estimation results of participants’ ability.
To categorize the participants’ proficiency based on the data analysis within the PISA
model, the students’ proficiency scale should be transformed using a mean that was equal to
500 and the standard deviation that was equal to 100. The results of the transformation then
would be recoded into 7 levels that consisted of below level 1, level 1, until level 6 similar with
what stated in the Technical Report (OECD, 2014). Utilizing the results of transformation and
the categorization of literacy proficiency, the researcher monitored the development trend. The
literacy development trend then was described by referring to the grade and by considering the
variables of the school level, gender and item form.
Table 1. The adjustment of the proficiency parameter into the PISA international
parameter.
International Equation of
Mean of Difficulty
Mean of Proficiency
Domain Sub-Domain Parameter Resulted Beta
Difficulty Scale
in the Research
Parameter Conversion
General
Mathematical -0.235 -0.446 0.211 0.021
Literacy Proficiency
Test Item Design Multiple Choice -1.287 -2.293 1.006
Constructed
0.567 0.520 0.045
Response

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506 Research Results
The development of students’ mathematical literacy within 8th, 9th and 10th grade,
overall, was presented in Figure 1.
Figure 1. The development of students’ mathematical literacy proficiency based

on grade.
Based on Figure 1, the score of the 8th grade students’ mathematical literacy is equal
to 314.53, the score of the 9th grade students’ mathematical literacy is equal to 430.97 and
the score of the 10th grade students’ mathematical literacy is equal to 450.62. These scores
showed that there had been improvement in the students’ mathematical literacy proficiency as
the students got promoted to the higher grade. Then, the researchers elaborated the students’
mathematical literacy proficiency according to the types of the test that had been administered.
The test model PISA that had been administered consisted of the multiple-choice test items and
the constructed response test items (the test items which answers were structured). Based on
the type of the test, the description on the 8th, 9th and 10th grade students’ mathematical literacy
proficiency would be as follows.

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507
Figure 2. The development of students’ mathematical literacy proficiency score

based on the grade and test item type.
Based on Figure 2, there are differences among the students’ mathematical literacy
proficiency in completing the constructed response-type multiple choice (MC) test items. The
8th, 9th and 10th grade students are more inclined to complete the multiple-choice test items than
the constructed response (CR) ones. It was found that the students got high scores after they
completed the multiple choice test items; the score was higher than the international median
which equals to 500. The situation was very contrast and significantly different from the time
when they completed the constructed response test items in which they scored below 200.
However, the 8th, 9th and 10th grade students had the similar mathematical literacy proficiency
in completing the constructed response test items. The mapping on the students’ mathematical
literacy proficiency was analyzed based on the type of the test administered and differentiated
based on the category of each school level (low, moderate and high). Based on the school level,
the development of the students’ mathematical literacy proficiency for the 8th, 9th and 10th grade
students would be as follows.
Figure 3. The development of students’ literacy proficiency based on the grade

and school level.

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508 Figure 3 explains the students’ mathematical literacy proficiency based on the school
level. The development of the 9th and 10th grade students improve along with the school level;
the higher the school level, the more improved their development of mathematical literacy
proficiency. The students’ mathematical literacy proficiency in the high school level is better
than that in the moderate school level; similarly, the students’ mathematical literacy proficiency
in the moderate school ability is better than that in the low school level. However, based on the
figure above, the 8th grade students’ mathematical literacy proficiency in the moderate school
level is higher than that in the high school level. The mapping on the development of the
students’ mathematical literacy proficiency based on the grade and gender would be displayed
in the Figure 4.
According to the results of PISA International Report (Technical Report), the data from
the students’ mathematical literacy proficiency were also presented based on the students’ gender.
Figure 4 showed that the female students’ mathematical literacy proficiency is higher than the
male students’ mathematical literacy proficiency for the 8th, 9th and 10th grade. However, the
higher the school level was the more equaled the male and the female students’ mathematical
literacy proficiency in the Province of Yogyakarta Special Region in Indonesia. Moreover, the
development of the students’ mathematical literacy proficiency based on the type of test and the
school level altogether in the Figure 5.
Figure 4. The development of students’ literacy proficiency based on the grade

and gender.
Figure 5 explained the students’ mathematical literacy proficiency based on the school
level for the multiple-choice test items and the constructed response test items. The 9th and 10th
grade students’ mathematical literacy proficiency had improved along with the school level
both for the two types of the test items; the higher the school level was, the more improved
the 9th and 10th grade students’ mathematical literacy proficiency. The students’ mathematical
literacy proficiency is higher in the high school level than that in the moderate school level and,
similarly, the students’ mathematical literacy proficiency is higher in the moderate school level
than that in the low school level both for the two types of the test items. However, based on the
figure above, the 8th grade students’ mathematical literacy proficiency in the moderate school
level is higher than that in the high school level. The reason was that the moderate school level
that had been sampled was the best moderate school and almost belonged to the high school
level. In addition, the students’ mathematical literacy proficiency in completing the constructed

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response test item in the low, moderate and high school level was lower than that in completing 509
the multiple-choice test items.
Figure 5. The development of students literacy proficiency based on the type of

test, grade and school level.
Figure 6. The level of students’ mathematical literacy proficiency.
The development of the students’ mathematical literacy proficiency based on the level
of literacy proficiency is presented in the Figure 6. Based on that figure, most of the 8th grade
students’ mathematical literacy proficiency is Below Level 1 in comparison to the 9th and 10th
grade students. Meanwhile, most of the 9th grade students’ mathematical literacy proficiency
is Below Level 1 in comparison to the 10th grade students. These findings showed that the 10th
grade students’ mathematical literacy proficiency was higher than that of the 8th and 9th grade
students. However, there were only 10% of the total students who approached the Level 6
amongst the 8th, 9th and 10th grade students.
The mapping on the development of the students’ mathematical literacy proficiency
based on the combination of the type of test and the level of literacy proficiency is presented

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510 in Figure 7. There were more than 70% students of grade 8 and 9 who scored the literacy
proficiency in the Level 6 under the multiple-choice test items. On the other hand, there were
only more than 40% students who scored the literacy proficiency below the Level 1, while there
were only few students who had scored the literacy proficiency in the Level 4, Level 5 and
Level 6 under constructed response items.
Figure 7. The level of literacy proficiency based on the type of test.
In addition to observe the pattern of development of students’ literacy proficiency through

graphics, the next step was to test the development of these abilities using statistical analysis.
The analysis used for this purpose was analysis of variance (ANOVA), with the dependent
variable that was literacy proficiency and the independent variables were the students’ grades
(8, 9, and 10). This analysis tested the null hypothesis that there was similarity means in literacy
proficiency in grades 8, 9 and 10, with the alternative hypothesis at least one pair was different.
The results of the analysis with significance level .05 are presented in Table 2. The results of
this analysis indicate that p-value = .0001 <.05, which indicates the null hypothesis is rejected.
This represents that there was average students’ literacy proficiency of pairs that were not the
same between grades.
Table 2. The analysis of variance result.
Sum of Squares df Mean Square F p-value

Between Groups 140.674 2 70.337 66.731 .0001
Within Groups 1050.880 997 1.054
Total 1191.554 999
To know the different pairs, as well as the sequence of average of students’ literacy
proficiency, post-hoc analysis was carried out. In this research, post-hoc analysis was carried
out with Scheffe-test. The full results are presented in Table 3. Based on these results it can be
obtained that the average literacy proficiency of grade 8 was significantly lower than grade 9
and grade 10, but students’ literacy proficiency of grades 9 and 10 was not different significantly.
These results indicate that students’ literacy proficiency from grade 8 to grade 9 increased
significantly, while from grade 9 to grade 10 it didn’t increase significantly.

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Table 2. The post-hoc result. 511
Multiple Comparisons
95% Confidence Interval
(I) Grade (J) Grade Mean Difference (I-J) Std. Error p-value
Lower Bound Upper Bound
9 -.9315173 *
.0976629 .0001 -1.170931 -.692104
8
10 -1.0887356 *
.0953502 .0001 -1.322480 -.854991
8 .9315173 *
.0976629 .0001 .692104 1.170931
9
10 -.1572183 .0709166 .0860 -.331065 .016629
8 1.0887356 *
.0953502 .0001 .854991 1.322480
10
9 .1572183 .0709166 .086 -.016629 .331065
*. The mean difference is significant at the .05 level.
Discussion
The research results showed that in general there had been an improvement on the
mathematical literacy proficiency from 8th grade to the 9th grade and to the 10th grade. However,
the development from 9th grade to 10th grade was not significant. In relation to the test item
design, the literacy proficiency development generated a higher score if it was measured by
administering the multiple-choice test items than the constructed response test items. Regarding
the school level, there was a tendency that the school level might influence the achievement
of mathematical literacy score; the higher the school level was, the higher the mathematical
literacy score that the students achieved would be. In relation to the gender, within the 8th
grade, the female students achieved a higher score but in the 9th grade and the 10th grade, the
achievement of literacy score was almost similar. The 8th grade students were more dominant in
the “Below Level 1’” “Level 1” and “Level 2” category, while the 9th grade and the 10th grade
students were more dominant in the “Below Level 1”, “Level 1,” “Level 2,” “Level 3” and
“Level 4.”
There was an improvement of literacy from the 8th grade to the 9th grade and to the
10 grade. The higher the grade was, the higher the students’ achievement was in the score
th
of mathematical literacy proficiency. The achievement level of the students’ mathematical

literacy proficiency was also influenced by the grade. The reason was that the mathematics
learning materials that the students studied in the 9th grade and the 10th grade are more abundant
and containing many topics in accordance with the Standards of Content for the Educational
Implementation issued by the government (Menteri Pendidikan Nasional Indonesia, 2006;
Menteri Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia, 2015). As a result, the higher the
students’ grade was the more learning materials that supported the improvement of mathematical
literacy proficiency would be.
The students’ score of mathematical literacy proficiency would be higher if the score
was assessed by administering the multiple-choice test items than the constructed response
test items. The reason was that within the mathematical examination in the school, the teachers
preferred to administer the multiple-choice test items more than the constructed response test
items. The multiple-choice test items were administered in the mid-semester examination, the
final examination, the school final examination, and even in the national examination.
The school-level indeed influenced the achievement of the students’ mathematical
literacy proficiency score. The schools that had a high achievement of national examination
score also had a high score of mathematical literacy proficiency. These results might be caused

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512 by the situation that the schools with high achievement usually possessed better input of
students, better learning process and, as a result, better learning achievement. These findings
are in line with the opinion of Bohlmann and Pretoria (2008). The tendency that the students’
mathematical literacy proficiency in the content of change and relationship, and of uncertainty
and data was higher than that in the content of quantity, and of shape and space, both based on
the grade and the school level which might be caused by multiple factors. The reason was that
the material contents in the 8th grade and the 9th grade dominated by the content of change and
relation and of uncertainty (Menteri Pendidikan Nasional Indonesia, 2006; Menteri Pendidikan
dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia, 2015). In addition, the content of shape and space
belonged to the material contents that had been difficult to study than the other contents based
on the result of national examination (Balitbang Kemendiknas, 2014; 2015; 2016). Regarding
the influence of gender towards the achievement, in this research, the 8th grade female students
earned higher score than the 8th grade male students. However, the achievement of male and
the female students in the 9th grade and the 10th grade was almost similar. These findings are in
line with the opinion of Ajali and Imoko (2015) but are not quite similar to the opinion of Zhu
(2007) and Hall (2012).
Low students’ achievement should be a matter of attention. Several related studies might
be conducted in order to overcome the low students’ achievement. Since the school quality
influences the quality of learning achievements (Bohlman & Pretorius, 2008), the improvement
towards the learning quality and the learning assessment can be pursued through the integration
of the literacy into the mathematics learning process (Steihilber, 2006) and other subjects.
Conclusions and Implications
The results of the research showed that in general there has been the improvement of
literacy proficiency among the 8th, 9th and 10th grade students. The literacy development would
generate higher scores if the development had been measured by means of multiple-choice test
items. There was a tendency that the school level, gender, the form of items, content, context,
and process literacy would influence the mathematical literacy score. The 8th grade, 9th grade
and 10th grade students’ literacy proficiency tends to improve although the literacy proficiency
is still under the mean of mathematical literacy proficiency in the international study.
In relation to strengthening mathematical literacy proficiency, both the teachers and the
researchers may develop a test instrument that contains literacy. The learning set contains the
lesson plan, the student’s worksheet and the assessment sheet. In terms of school assessment,
the teachers should be benefited by the constructed response test items in that the students will
be trained to perform critical thinking. By doing so, the quality of literacy learning process
might be improved and the assessment system that has been applied might drive the students to
learn about literacy.
Several strategies can be done to improve literacy skills, so that students’ proficiency
increase from year to year. The teaching and learning that train literacy can be carried out
by teachers in schools, starting from elementary school. Of course, the teaching and learning
literacy needs to be integrated with the curriculum. The various contexts of literacy need to be
introduced to students, so that students get used to solve many problems. In addition to learning,
the competence of teachers to train students’ literacy in their schools needs to be considered.
This is related to the teachers’ role that is the spearhead of the literacy learning.
The future researches about literacy proficiency can be carried out by other researchers
related to the results of this research. The students’ difficulties in solving literacy problems
need to be revealed in detail. Utilizing known difficulties students can follow up and determine
strategies to overcome them. To identify whether learning that has been carried out by the
teacher to integrate literacy is also important. The ability of the teacher to carry out learning

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that trains literacy also needs to be described. In addition, research related to the development 513
of students’ literacy proficiency starting from elementary school needs to be conducted, so that
there is comprehensive progress starting from grade 1 to grade 12. These studies can then be a
reference for policies to improve students’ literacy skills at various levels of education.
References
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Mullis, I. V. S., Martin, M. O., Foy, P., & Arora, A. (2012). TIMSS 2011 international results in
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Education, Boston College.

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514 Mullis, I. V. S., Martin, M. O., Ruddock, G. J., O’Sullivan, C. Y., & Preuschoff, C. (2009). TIMSS 2011
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Achievement (IEA).
Nurhariyani, T. M., Waluyo, S. B., & Wardono (2015). Analysis of literacy abilities and self-efficacy
mathematics through PBI-Synectics Gordon with scientific approach. International Conference
on Mathematics, Science, and Education (ICMS). Retrieved from http://icmseunnes.com/2015/
wp-content/uploads/2016/03/15_ME.pdf.
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Department of Education and Science.
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Education, 2(2), 95-126.
Steinhilber, R. A. (2011). How secondary mathematics teachers are incorporating literacy in their
classrooms and to what extent? Education Masters, 268. Retrieved from fisherpub.sjfc.edu/cgi/
viewcontent.cgi?article=1269&context=education_ETD_masters.
Wu, M. L., Adams, R. J., & Wilson, M. R. (1997). ConQuest: Multi-aspect test software [computer
program]. Camberwell: Australian Council for Educational Research.
Zhu, Z. (2007). Gender differences in mathematical problem-solving patterns: A review of literature.
International Education Journal, 8(2), 187-203. Retrieved from files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/
EJ834219.pdf.
Received: June 08, 2019 Accepted: August 12, 2019
Heri Retnawati Doctor, Lecturer & Researcher, Mathematics Department, Mathematics and Science
Faculty, Yogyakarta State University, Jl. Kolombo Karangmalang No. 1 Yogyakarta 55281
Indonesia.
Website: http://staffnew.uny.ac.id/staff/132255129;
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=7CzPTYIAAAAJ&hl=en
ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1792-5873
Nidya F. Wulandari Master, Alumnae, Mathematics Department Graduate School,

Yogyakarta State University, Jl. Kolombo Karangmalang No. 1 Yogyakarta 55281
Indonesia.
Website: https://scholar.google.co.id/citations?user=TCH-r5AAAAAJ&hl=en

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THE INFLUENCE OF DIFFERENT 515
EDUCATIONAL CONTEXTS ON TUTOR

PRESENTATIONS OF VISUAL ARTS IN
TEACHER COLLEGES IN UGANDA
Julius Ssegantebuka
Makerere University, Uganda
Abstract
Different educational contexts or learning environments differently influence visual arts tutor’s
performance and pre-service teachers’ learning. The purpose of this research was to examine the role
the college context plays in the tutors’ presentation of knowledge and the pre-service teachers’ learning
in visual arts in National Teacher Colleges in Uganda. The researcher used interviews, observations,
document reviews and focus group discussions to collect data. The results revealed that there were
inadequate teaching resources, poor infrastructure and limiting educational policies and administrative
support. The research recommended that the ministry of education and sports provide adequate teaching
resources, review the limiting educational policies and conduct refresher courses and professional
development programs for tutors in National Teacher Colleges in Uganda.
Keywords: educational context, pre-service visual arts teachers, teachers’ learning.
Introduction
Different educational contexts, teaching contexts or learning environments (used

interchangeably) differently influence the visual art tutors’ performance and pre-service
teachers’ learning. According to Shulman (1986), knowledge of context refers to knowledge of
schools, classrooms and all settings where learning takes place. Yet for Tunner-Bisset (1999)
teaching context focuses on a physical and psychological environment in terms of the type
and size of school; the catchment area; the class size; the extent and quality of support for
beginning teachers; the amount of feedback teachers receive on their performance; the quality
of relationships in the school; and the expectations and attitudes of the head teacher. Teaching
context within research terms includes the size of the college, the number and size of studios,
and the nearby areas such as the college compound and the trading centres. Therefore, this
research concentrates on the physical learning environment generally grouped as infrastructure,
teaching resources and educational policies and administrative support.
Tutors’ presentation of Visual Arts (VA) in National Teacher Colleges (NTCs) in Uganda
refers to the tutors’ ability to facilitate learning and increase achievement levels amongst
learners. Increased achievement levels of pre-service visual arts teachers (PVAT) is measured
in terms of their ability to use visual language appropriately, use art-materials and tools, see
and make use of the environment in visual arts. It should be noted that the presentation of VA
in NTCs that results into desired learning happens within a conducive learning environment. In
this case Konings, Brand, and Merriënboer, (2005) observed that rich contexts or environments
enhance teachers’ ability to apply the required knowledge, while poor contexts reduce the

Julius SSEGANTEBUKA. The influence of different educational contexts on tutor presentations of visual arts in teacher colleges
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516 teachers’ opportunities to develop the required knowledge. Therefore, examining how the
learning environment influences tutors’ presentations of VA in NTCs in Uganda is the interest
of this research.
Background to the Research
There are five government aided NTCs in Uganda and three of these are authorised to
teach visual arts. These NTCs provide training leading to an award of a Diploma in Secondary
Education (DSE), which is the minimum qualification for teaching in secondary schools in
Uganda. The NTCs use a visual arts curriculum (VAC), which is prepared by Kyambogo
University, as they have the mandate to supervise DSE training in NTCs. The next section
describes the nature of the VAC used in NTCs in Uganda.
Visual Arts Curriculum in NTC
The VAC in NTCs is comprised of eleven disciplines. These disciplines are grouped
into three categories. The first category is known as two-dimensional artworks (2D), and it is
composed of graphic design, printmaking, painting, textile decoration, weaving and drawing
(nature, still-life and human figure). The second category is the three-dimensional artworks
(3D). This category includes; sculpture, pottery, multimedia and interior decorations. The third
category focuses on the theory which comprises history of art and art appreciation, marketing
and principles and methods of teaching art.
Teaching of VA in NTCs in Uganda
Pre-service visual arts teachers (PVATs) join NTCs to train as art teachers after successfully
completing their Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) (Ssegantebuka, 2016).
These teachers then spend two years training and then graduate with a Diploma in Secondary
Education. During their training in NTCs, the teachers are prepared by the tutors to use VAC. On
top of learning visual arts content, PVATs are expected to acquire knowledge of art-materials,
tools and equipment. What is important to note is that some of the art-materials and tools needed
for teaching and learning of these disciplines can be locally accessed, from the environment
around and within the college premises. Some of these art-materials include: clay for pottery
and sculpture; earth, leaves and natural dyes for painting and surface decoration; raffia and
sisal for weaving; natural and artificial objects for drawing. During the teaching sessions, the
tutors send the PVATs to the environment to look for specimen to refer to, art-materials or
tools. For example, when tutors want to teach motif development for textile decoration, they
instruct PVATs to pick leaves, fruits or insects to serve as specimen in developing motifs for
use in textile decoration. Tutors also ask PVATs to look for objects from the environment such
as dead wood, discarded objects or natural dyes for drawing and painting or dig clay from the
swamps for use in modelling sculpture or making pottery. In the same way, tutors ask PVATs to
draw and paint from the activities within their surroundings, i.e. the market place, at the garage
or bus park. After producing the artworks, PVATs have to submit their artworks to the tutors
concerned for assessment and awarding of marks.
In reference to the above information, this research focuses on examining the influence
of the different educational context on tutors’ presentations of visual arts in teacher colleges in
Uganda. Therefore, the research seeks to answer the question below: How does the different
educational context influence tutors’ presentations of visual arts in NTCs in Uganda?

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Literature Review 517
A quality learning environment is important in focusing students’ attention on their

learning. Students’ learning improves in an environment that is positive and supportive
(Konings et al, 2005). Hargreaves and Fullan (1992) argue that teachers’ adaptation to changing
contexts is only possible when teachers during their preparation are equipped with appropriate
knowledge and skills. Such knowledge and skills increase the teachers’ ability to provide
improved opportunities to learn for all pupils, work with different class sizes and settings.
According to Passos (2009) knowledgeable teachers can adjust the curriculum to suit specific
contexts and to their learners’ interest and motivation in order to achieve the educational goals.
On the contrary, it is common practice by some of the graduate teachers who are equipped with
the very best knowledge during teacher preparation, instead of adapting to the changing context
they decide to lose what they had learned and adopt the teaching practices regular teachers
practice in the particular schools they are teaching in (Handal, 2003; Kalra & Baveja, 2010).
Fradd and Lee (1998) identified three components of educational context: classroom
context, the school context and the community context. They consider classroom context as
involving the interaction between teachers and students. In line with this research therefore,
tutors must have knowledge of the learning situation in order to identify PVATs’ learning
support they need if they are to function actively and effectively. Fradd and Lee (1998) believe
that teachers’ knowledge of school context is essential in that it enables teachers to understand
school policies and practice, which they use to make informed educational decisions. Another
context worth knowing is the community context. Teachers’ knowledge of the community
context helps them to understand the role of the community and the school in developing their
informal knowledge, which plays an important part in their classroom instructions. Therefore,
knowledge of classroom, school and community gives teachers an opportunity to make
pedagogical decisions based on “multiple data sources” (Fradd & Lee, 1998, p.769).
According to Education for All-Global Monitoring Report (2005), educational context
includes resources such as; books, equipment, availability of materials and space; political,
socio-economic status, and institutional culture and beliefs. It is further noted that government
educational policies and availability of teaching and learning materials also provide an
influential context, for example, goals and standards, curricula and teacher policies set the
enabling conditions within which educational practice occurs (EFA-Global Monitoring Report,
2005). In any effective teacher education system such subsystems must coordinate and interact
with each other in an improved environment if effectiveness in teacher preparation is to be
realized.
Physical and psychological environments have been confirmed as having a very strong
influence on teaching and learning. Ainley (1987) in Anderson (2004) stated that there is enough
evidence to conclude that the physical environment of the school or classroom greatly influences
learners’ behaviour and attitude towards school and learning. The importance of understanding
and using the environment is further stressed by Anderson (2004; pp. 50-52), “teachers should
create attractive and functional classrooms”, claiming that “part of the functionality of the
classroom concerns the availability of the necessary equipment and materials”. The researcher
further stated that a “classroom environment should be warm yet business like…emphasizing
the academic and socio-emotional needs of the student” and “establish a classroom culture
based on explicit values and beliefs-provide the basis for the way in which teachers and
students relate to one another as well as the expectation for behaviour, effort and learning”.
However, this research focuses on the physical environment in NTCs. In support of Ainley,
(1987) and Anderson, (2004), Mullis, Kennedy, Martin and Sainsbury (2004) found that the
college environment includes a number of factors that impact on pre-service teachers’ learning.
They further observed that the college environment can be improved if tutors are motivated to
develop a positive attitude towards learners.

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518 Although, this research focuses on infrastructure, teaching resources and educational
policies and administrative support as educational contexts, it recognises other educational
contexts that impact tutors’ presentations of visual arts in teacher colleges in Uganda. They
include: school facilities, teacher education, qualification and experience, class size and
learners’ background and many others. The quality of appropriate infrastructure and availability
of resources also relate to PVATs’ performance. In VA, the appropriateness of infrastructure
and availability of resources such as studio space, furniture, and art-materials and tools,
greatly impact on PVATs’ acquisition of necessary practical skills. Zhang (2006) noted that
infrastructure and resources might be available, but it’s important to put into consideration their
quality, as it also has an effect on PVATs’ performance. For instance, PVATs cannot learn colour
theory effectively if the paints are of a poor quality. Likewise, PVATs cannot effectively learn
pottery making when they do not have clay, a potters’ wheel or the kiln. Chowdhury (1995)
confirmed the negative effects of poor infrastructure and the lack of resources on learners’
performance. He found that learners in urban schools perform better compared to learners in
rural schools. The reasons are that the urban schools have better infrastructure and resources
such as buildings, instructional materials and experienced human resource compared to schools
in the rural areas. Quoting Fuller, Elley, (1992) emphasised the role relevant textbooks play
towards learners’ performance. Elley advocated for the availability and accessibility of relevant
textbooks both in the classroom or library and at home, as having a positive impact on learners’
performance.
Several researchers have also identified a number of challenges the pre-service generalist
teachers face. These challenges include lack of confidence in their own artistic ability and their
ability to teach the arts to children, lack of resources, priority, time, knowledge and experience
and the reduced face to face time for pre-service teachers during training (Russell-Bowie,
2012). The literature reviewed indicated that different contexts influence teaching practices
differently. Rich contexts enhance teachers’ ability to apply the required knowledge, while poor
contexts reduce the teachers’ opportunities to develop the required knowledge (Konings et al,
2005). Other contextual factors discussed in the literature include school facilities, teacher
education, qualification and experience, class size and students’ background and many others.
Also a relationship between appropriate infrastructure and availability of resources to students’
performance has been discussed in the literature. It was therefore necessary to examine the
influence of the college context on tutors’ presentations of visual arts in NTCs in Uganda.
Situated learning is an instructional approach said to have been developed by Jean Lave
and Etiene Wenger in the early 1990s.The theory looks at learning as a social activity where the
apprentice actively participates in the learning experience. This social interaction is between the
apprentice (who is the learner) and the community of experts (where tutors are) (Herrington &
Oliver 2000). The situated learning theory takes into account the provision of authentic context
and activities and the provision of access to expert performances and the modelling of processes
(Herrington & Oliver, 2000). Therefore, through the lenses of situated learning theory one can
understand the influence of different educational context on tutors’ presentations of visual arts
in NTCs in Uganda.
General Background
The researcher used a qualitative approach to find out the influence of the different
educational context on tutors’ presentations in VA in NTCs in Uganda. The qualitative approach
was chosen because the research sought VA tutors’ perceptions, feelings, attitudes and their
personal interpretation of educational contexts of their colleges.

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Sample Selection 519
The research was carried out in three NTCs purposively selected from three regions in
Uganda namely; Eastern, Central and South Western Uganda. The three NTCs are the only ones
out of the five government aided colleges currently and officially assigned to prepare PVATs
in Uganda. There were six purposively selected tutors because they were the main subjects
of the research and major source of data. Since tutors were the main actors in the preparation
of PVATs, therefore they held valuable information about the college different educational
contexts in which they work. Many of these tutors had over five years teaching experience, a
sign of experienced tutors in the teaching. Also the six tutors were selected for this research due
to their willingness and readiness to participate in this research. In other words, the researcher
worked with only those tutors who willingly signed the consent forms. The thirty five randomly
sampled PVATs were second years that had at least done one school practice. These PVATs were
in position to provide information on their tutors’ teaching practices in such a poorly resourced
environment. Their responses were used for triangulation purposes.
Data were collected using interviews, focus group discussion, observations and
document analysis. Interviews were the main instruments used with tutors in selected NTCs.
Semi-structured interviews permitted flexibility in probing the respondents’ practices while at
the same time giving the researcher and the respondents an opportunity to adjust questions
and answers (Bryman, 2012; Fraenkel & Wallen, 2006; Gray, 2009). Interviews with tutors
in selected NTCs revealed their understanding of the nature of learning environment, how to
work in an under resourced environment and its role on tutors’ practices in teaching visual
arts. During the focus group interviews, the researcher focused mainly on soliciting PVATs’
own perspectives about tutors’ practices in such a poorly resourced educational context.
Focus group discussion (FGD) method was used because of its ability to enable the researcher
gather valuable information in detail, from a group of people understudy or being researched.
Similarly, FGD are recommended where a given program is being assessed (Morgan, 1997).
The researcher formed at least one FGD in each teacher college composed of six to seven
PVATs. The researcher formally sought all the respondents’ willingness to participate in the
study by signing consent forms. With the respondents’ permission, the researcher tape-recorded
all the interviews. The researcher made some field notes to capture the main points as they
arose and important areas to re-visit during data analysis (Rubin & Rubin, 2005). The researcher
employed a semi-structured non-participant observation method because it permitted flexibility
and interaction with the research context in a natural mode (Robson, 2002). During the
observation sessions the researcher recorded aspects in the lecture room/art studio that affected
the teaching and learning of visual arts, these included the studio arrangement, the available
art-materials, and the art studio size, the art content, teaching strategies and evaluation and
assessment. Documents are written sources of data and they support data from other methods
of research. The documents the researcher focused on were, 1) Tutors preparation notes; 2)
Teaching Timetables; 3) Institutional Policy documents which included; college VAC, UNCP,
UNESCO, Education act….and 4) PVATs’ notes and practical artworks.
Data Analysis
The data analysis started during the process of data collection. Transcribing of interview
recordings were done immediately and during fieldwork visitations. This gave the researcher
the opportunity to revisit participants for further information and clarity in some research

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520 issues. The researcher consistently made a reference to tape recorded interviews to keep abreast
with respondents’ views during data analysis. The transcribed data was important in validating
the tape recorded data to ensure accuracy in reporting the findings. To avoid bias towards the
data collected from all the selected respondents, the researcher constantly and contemplatively
consulted all the interviews and observation schedules. The researcher developed themes by
identifying ideas that kept on emerging from the data (Miles & Huberman, 1994).The researcher
carefully examined the themes with the aim of getting those that explained the relationship
between different educational contexts, tutors’ presentations of VA and PVATs learning in VA
in NTCs in Uganda.
Research Results
The research focused on assessing the influence of different educational contexts on

tutors’ presentations in VA in NTCs in Uganda. During the research, it was found that a number
of issues influenced tutors’ presentations in VA in NTCs in Uganda.
Teaching Resources
Teaching resources in this research focussed on availability of art-materials, tools and

equipment, and textbooks. Tutors were asked to describe the teaching resources in the NTCs
where they worked. Tutors commented on the role art-materials, tools and equipment play in the
teaching and learning of VA. Art-materials, tools and equipment serve as a media of expression
in any art activity. They range from improvised to refined ones. Most of the disciplines in VA
use similar art-materials and tools with a few exceptions. Besides, during the interview with
tutors, they revealed that colleges were ill-equipped with art-materials, tools and equipment, for
example; for sculpture the main material was limited to clay, peppier Mache, and broken glass.
They missed exposure to other materials used in sculpture such as metal, wood, stone, cement
and wire mesh. For pottery PVATs were not able to use plaster of Paris, glazes, ceramic colours
and equipment like potter’s wheel, kilns and many others. Paper and lead pencils were the
common materials for drawing. “We use cotton cloth as canvas, coloured pencils, water colour,
brushes, paraffin and pastel for painting”
Due to inadequate art-materials, tools and equipment, tutors were compelled to expose
their PVATs to the same assignments throughout the years: still-life, domestic utensils, natural
and artificial objects. They paint from themes like motherhood, wildlife, imagination and
human figure, landscape, plants and leaves. For pottery, they make reference to natural objects
and make candle stands, and flower vases. For textile decoration, PVATs mentioned; “Tutors
tell us to design motifs and then we print using screen printing in textile decoration.” With such
comments, PVATs stressed the need to expose them to a number of different assignments that
would help them develop the desired knowledge and skills; manipulative and practical skills
and appreciation of the environment. The assignments should also expose them to a number of
art-materials and tools including themes. Therefore, lack of variety in the assignments explains
PVATs’ limited knowledge in using a number of art-materials, tools and their low abilities to
use the environment.
One of the curriculum resource materials this research was interested in was the
availability of textbooks in colleges used as reference materials. PVATs indicated that there was
a general lack of necessary textbooks and the few that were there were very old. PVATs relied
heavily on unpublished reading materials and tutors’ notes. To support this observation PVATs
stated; “We have no textbooks for us to consult……be in 2D or 3D. We are using hand-out
and notes from our tutors. We also get information from our peers from other universities. At

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times madam comes with her own small textbook and she gives us notes …” In reference to 521
the above comments on lack of reference materials especially the textbooks, impedes PVATs’
development of skills needed for independent reading and conducting discipline-based research
in VAE.
Given such circumstances, the researcher concluded that limited teaching resources
influenced tutors’ presentations in VA in NTCs in Uganda. For example, inadequate art-
materials, tools and equipment limited PVATs’ acquisition of practical skills in using them and
led to lack of variety in the assignments administered to PVATs by their tutors. Still, lack of art-
material, tools and equipment, led to limited tutors’ supervision of the artworks and omission of
some disciplines i.e. jewellery, leather, mechanized pottery and metal casting.
Infrastructure in NTCs
The infrastructure was limited to furniture, library, computer laboratory, and studio
and storage space. Both tutors and PVATs agreed that the infrastructure was inadequate. For
example, PVATs in one of the colleges referred to their library as a store. It had a limited space
that they could not sit in and read in it. For the teaching space, tutors unanimously agreed that
the teaching space was inadequate. For example, in one of the colleges a tutor stated,
“We only have one lecture room and one studio. There is no electricity in the lecture and studio
rooms, they are incomplete they don’t have windows. We have a store which doubles as the office
of the head of department…. the only art-room we have is used in shifts between years one and
two. We lack storage space for artworks in progress or finished artworks. we don’t have facilities
were clay can be kept, no store to keep the works of PVATs who have left for reference purposes.,
the numbers of PVATs is big, and no appropriate furniture meant for art.”
There was a general feeling that tutors lacked knowledge of the necessary equipment
that is why they do not endeavour to acquire some. For instance a PVAT explained; “The two
years we have been in college we have never seen any equipment...we also do not have kilns
for baking pottery and sculpture,”
Each college had one room serving as a computer laboratory. These computer laboratories
were small rooms and heavily stuffed with non-functional computer sets. There were very few
working computers compared to the number of PVATs who needed to use them. PVATs noted
with concern that they had limited information on how to use internet to search for information.
Priority to use the computer laboratory was given to PVATs who were doing computer science
as a subject. Therefore, limited access to library, computer laboratory and equipment had a
great effect on PVATs learning. This meant they never acquired skills needed for information
search and presentation. The foregoing statements implied that the inadequate teaching space
simply limited the presentations of VA in NTCs. Limited space also reduced opportunities of
using active teaching methods i.e. demonstration, exhibition and critiquing. Limited space
too, reduced PVATs’ exposure to ideal assessment approaches in VA i.e. exhibition and oral
or critiques. Inadequate teaching space was also observed limiting formative assessment as a
result tutors opted for summative assessment basically.
Education Programs’ Policies in NTCs
A number of Education program policies were seen limiting tutors’ presentations of

VA in NTCs. For example, by policy, the VAE program is a two year diploma and follows a
secondary school academic calendar. The secondary school calendar is based on a term system,
yet the VAE program was designed based on a semester system. Given the VA content and the

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522 two years of training, tutors could not cover the required content that would equip PVATs with
knowledge and skills needed in VA teaching in secondary schools where they are preparing to
get employment. The PVATs on this VA program are trained as generalist teachers; they are not
specialists of any discipline.
It was mandatory for PVATs to provide their own art-materials, tools and equipment
needed for VA learning. It was noted that when PVATs are left to provide their own materials,
they purchase cheap, and poor quality ones. They also buy art-materials for a few disciplines
and others do not buy at all. This implied that tutors could not cover the required content per
term and at the same time only those PVATs who could afford buying art-materials were the
ones who were able to practice art.
Another policy is about PVATs sitting for end of academic year examinations after
carrying out school practice. In the actual sense, it was discovered as one of the major causes
of poor performance in VA. PVATs lose a term without tutor/learner interaction which affected
their content coverage. Such educational policies were the major causes of disparity in content
acquisition amongst PVATs from different colleges.
Also, the assessment policy of exhibiting practical artwork done throughout the academic
year for examinations was seen encouraging relaxation, double marking of artworks and
presenting bought artworks. It was observed that tutors only had one day to mark the exhibition
examination, regardless of the numbers of PVATs in a given college. Such a practice lacked a
critical approach and it encouraged subjectivity in awarding marks.
College Administrative Support
Administrative support included: training, monitoring and mentoring staff. This is

done through provision of a supportive working environment, staff professional growth,
monitoring staff, PVATs’ academic performance and administering examinations. Discussing
tutor participation in refresher courses, tutors unanimously agreed that there were no refresher
courses. “For sure I have been here for some good years I have not seen refresher courses being
carried out, either by NTCs or the Ministry of Education…….” They noted that they meet once
in an academic year when they are preparing to go for school practice supervision and they
wondered whether school practice briefing was part of refresher courses.
In this research, a number of contextual issues that influenced tutors’ presentations
of visual arts in NTCs have been discussed. The contextual issues included: inadequate
teaching space, lack of appropriate infrastructure, teaching resources, educational policies and
administrative support.
Discussion
The research question was designed in order to establish the influence of the different
educational contexts on tutors’ presentations of visual arts in NTCs in Uganda. The findings
presented revealed that what tutors knew and could do with PVATs was greatly influenced by
the educational contexts.
There was a severe shortage of the art-materials, tools and equipment in all the three
teacher colleges visited. The only available art-materials and tools were those that were cheap
and simple PVATs could afford buying. They differed greatly in quality due to differences
in monetary levels of the PVATs. Besides, data revealed that variations in the quality of art-
materials PVATs were able to buy affected the quality of the artworks they produced as observed
by Okanlawon and Akanni (2009).
Lack of art-material, tools and equipment, determined the nature of assignments tutors
used to administer to their PVATs as well it limited tutors’ supervision of the artworks in progress.

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PVATs in this case, did not get the opportunity to experience a number of art-materials, tools 523
and equipment. This meant that PVATs left colleges without learning how to use and using a
number of the art-materials, tools and equipment. Simpson (2000) argues that exposing PVATs
to a number of art-materials equips them with desired manipulative and practical skills in VA.
Therefore, the scarcity of art-materials, tools and equipment, had an impact on what content
tutors chose to teach and how they taught it, which was often inappropriate in terms of PVATs’
skills acquisition and fulfilling Uganda national teacher education prospects.
There was a general lack of necessary textbooks and any other reference materials. The
few that were there were obsolete. As a result, tutors taught their PVATs using “yellow notes”
and unpublished materials in form of pamphlets and hand-outs from different Universities.
Yellow notes are the very notes tutors got when they were still in teacher colleges as pre-
service teachers. It was also found out that in the disciplines were tutors had no notes or did not
study had high chances of being left out as observed by Nbina (2010). Therefore, PVATs never
acquired knowledge and skills in using textbooks and other reference materials in searching
for information and conducting discipline-based research in VAE. When PVATs do not acquire
knowledge and skills of searching for new information, upon their graduation they will resort to
using teacher-centred methods, teach as they were taught and fail to develop ability to critique
different sources of information as argued by Nbina, (2010).
Both tutors and PVATs agreed that the infrastructure was inadequate and the available
infrastructure was in the poor state. For example, PVATs in one of the colleges referred to their
library as a store, it was small, and congested with broken seats. The other two colleges had
big and spacious libraries, but had limited seats compared to the number of users who wished
to sit in and read from them. Each college visited had one improvised room which doubled as
an art-room/studio space as well as lecture room. This one room was used in shifts between
the two years for demonstration purposes that required indoor environment. Yet according
to Sánchez and Tillotson, (2008) the nature of VA requires that there is enough space that
can accommodate the number of PVATs, have appropriate working areas which are furnished
with large flat surfaces, good lighting, storage space for materials, equipment, work in various
stages, hot water, and deep sinks. It should be noted that lack of space and required facilities
does not only affect concentration but limits tutors’ presentations in VA in NTCs and also de-
motivates PVATs.
The research revealed that the colleges lacked studio space, storage space, exhibition
space, and appropriate furniture. This meant that the inadequate infrastructure simply limited
learning than favouring it as observed by majority of the respondents in this research. It is
therefore important to note that when PVATs lack space to work from, they are in most cases
forced to make their artworks elsewhere, including their hostels, which in most cases are out
of tutors’ reach. Similarly, colleges lack teaching space from which PVATs would nurture their
manipulative and practical skills needed in VA through practical production of artworks (Tarabi,
1979).
The study findings still indicated that the fewer teaching resources that were there tutors
lacked knowledge of using them in teaching and learning of VA, at the same time, computer
literacy was not part of the VAC. This finding is similar to Mutemeri (2010) who reported that
there were a considerable number of teaching resources though tutors did not bother acquiring
knowledge of using them in their teaching and learning. Yet according to Mishra and Koehler
(2006), tutors need to acquire knowledge of technology for effective information search and
presentation in teacher preparation.
According to Mishra and Koehler (2006), a technology integration-ICT resource in any
educational context is vital for knowledge search, and presentation in any effective teaching.
However, the number of PVATs in the teachers colleges was not commensurate to the number of
computers in these ICT resource centres (Ssegantebuka, 2016). In this case, training of PVATs

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524 in ICT use was poorly handled. PVATs were only exposed to ICT-computer facility for only
one week in their entire two years stay at college. The finding implied that PVATs missed the
opportunity of experiencing ICT practically as well as acquiring skills of using ICT to carryout
research in VA. Therefore, they could not teach using the available ICT resources neither could
they use ICT to carry out research in VA. This meant that having inadequate infrastructure
negatively affected the tutors’ presentations of VA in NTCs in Uganda.
Results of this research revealed that the VAE program runs for only two years. However,
respondents indicated that the time of two years PVATs stay at the college was little, leading to
exclusion or less coverage of VA content. It was observed that though the teacher preparation
program is two years, with three terms each year, the actual period PVATs have a face to face
interactions with their tutors is only two terms in a year, the third term is spent in schools
conducting school practice (Ssegantebuka, 2016). This meant that PVATs were inadequately
trained because they cannot cover the required content meant for three terms in the two terms
they spend at college for a given academic year. The PVATs on this VA program are trained
as generalist teachers; they are not specialists of any teaching and learning area. It was at this
point, respondents advocated for the extension of the teacher preparation program from two to
three years.
PVATs’ exhibitions for practical examination for year ones and year twos were given
only one day to be assessed regardless of the number of PVATs who have exhibited. Also lack
of space for displaying in PVATs’ art-works for assessment significantly impacts on acceptable
assessment practices in VA (Okanlawon & Akanni, 2009). For instance, assessment in NTCs
focuses on getting PVATs’ marks, but not assessing levels of knowledge and skills acquisition.
This was evident in the way the practical examinations exhibition was hurriedly marked and
immediately pulled down.
The policy that forced PVATs to sit for end of academic year examinations after carrying
out school practice (DSE, 2002), was seen as one of the major causes of poor performance
in VA. Simply because PVATs spend what would be their third term in schools doing school
practice, yet the examining body sets examinations covering the entire year. Such educational
policies were the major causes of disparity in content acquisition amongst PVATs from different
colleges.
Research findings revealed that teacher colleges do not have refresher courses for their
academic development. Yet refresher courses are helpful in a number of ways; tutors develop
professionally and academically, through refresher courses they can harmonize what they teach
in various colleges, keep updating their knowledge as they are acquiring more knowledge.
Sánchez and Tillotson, (2008) argue that the availability of high quality professional development
courses, give tutors the knowledge and skills to provide PVATs with the opportunity to meet
academic content as well as academic achievement standards.
Conclusions
Bearing in mind the responses of tutors and PVATs, it is critical for a positive learning
environment to be created to enable tutors’ presentations in VA in NTCs in Uganda.
Teacher college administrations and Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and
Sports (M.o.E.S.T.S) should guarantee the availability of the necessary teaching resources
(art-materials, tools and equipment and textbooks) meant for VA. Since teaching resources
equip learners with knowledge and content skills that would enable them to teach in secondary
schools when deployed to teach as well as advancing in the field of VA. Equipping NTCs with
necessary teaching materials, it will enable tutors to expose PVATs to a variety of assignments
in different disciplines, increase on tutors’ supervision of the artworks in progress and reduce on
the omission of some disciplines during teacher preparation. The availability of textbooks and

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other reference materials are said to improve tutors’ and PVATs’ performance, content coverage 525
and acquisition.
The teacher college administrations should equip VA departments with adequate and
appropriate infrastructure (studio space, storage space, exhibition space, and appropriate
furniture). Studio space in VA is used for teaching and learning as well as producing art-works
from. Storage space is used for storing art-works in progress, storing finished art-works as well
as referential art-works. Exhibition space provides space for assessment purposes, teaching and
learning purposes and teaching-aids. Provision of appropriate furniture facilitates the production
of art-works. Availability of space eases the supervision of the process of making art-works,
improves practical skills through regular practicing and serves as a resource for teaching-aids.
There is a need to review VAE programs’ policies that are limiting effective training of
PVATs. These include; - the policy of running the VAE program as a two year program should
be reviewed and be made a three year program to allow PVATs cover adequate content for their
profession. The policy of training generalist teachers who are not specialists of any discipline in
VA needs to change and allow PVATs to specialise. The policy of sitting end of academic year
examinations after school practice is seen limiting effective teacher preparation. It should be
redesigned to allow PVATs do school practice at the end of the academic year. It is hoped that
this will enable PVATs to concentrate on and learn from school practice, increase knowledge
connection and application as well as having more time for studying while still at teacher
colleges. The policy of marking exhibition examination in a day should be revisited and allow
exhibition examinations be conducted at the end of the college examinations when the rest of
the pre-service teachers for other disciplines have left for holidays and when there is enough
room for exhibition. Incorporation of refresher courses in the colleges’ activities will help
tutors develop professionally and academically. Through refresher courses they can harmonize
what they teach in various colleges, keep updating their knowledge as they are acquiring more
knowledge. Therefore, paying attention to different educational contexts is likely to support
tutors’ presentations of visual arts in NTCs in Uganda.
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Received: April 18, 2019 Accepted: August 12, 2019
Julius Ssegantebuka Researcher, Makerere University, College of Education and External Studies,

School of Education, Department of Humanities and Language Education,
P. O. Box 7062 Kampala, Uganda.

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528
FOUNDATION PHASE STUDENTS’
METACOGNITIVE ABILITIES IN
MATHEMATICS CLASSES: REFLECTIVE
CLASSROOM DISCOURSE USING AN OPEN
APPROACH
Simon Adjei Tachie
University of the Free State, South Africa
Abstract
The research findings describe a model of experiential learning that promotes the development of
foundation phase student teachers’ metacognitive abilities for mathematics through classroom reflective
discourse using an open approach. A case study was carried out on two foundation phase mathematics
classes in South Africa’s universities; data were collected through observation and focus group interviews.
The research’s main findings indicated that student teachers’ interest in reflective classroom discourse is
important using an open-approach-based mathematics class, which helped pave the way for the student
teachers to exhibit metacognitive abilities relevant to the teaching and learning steps of a foundation
phase mathematics class. Deciding on the type of problem to work on, posing open-ended problems
to colleagues for discussion in class, stimulating students’ reflective self-centred learning, whole-class
discussion, comparison of a particular problem and summarising important information for self-
development in teaching and learning through connecting students’ mathematical ideas all formed part
of reflective classroom discourse. Recommendations were made for further development of metacognitive
abilities.
Keywords: mathematics class, metacognitive strategies, open approach, preservice teachers, reflective
classroom, school learners, student teachers.
Introduction
Educating the current generation of student teachers for 21st century classroom
mathematics is part of a human activity that helps to develop students’ mental processes. This
research focused on enhancing student teachers’ critical thinking, which, in turn, contributes
to their decision-making processes and helps them to solve everyday problems. Considerable
research attention has been paid to performance in mathematics, and researchers have identified
various reasons for the poor performance of learners in mathematics worldwide. The results
of a 2011 assessment by the National Assessment on Education Progress in the United State
found that only 40% of American fourth-grade learners had achieved mathematics proficiency
standards (Ottmar, Rimm-Kaufman, Berry, & Larsen, 2015). This finding led to the American
National Reform regarding the effectiveness of teachers and their role in reversing poor
mathematics achievement among American learners. Teachers play a critical role in learners’
mathematics learning and achievement (Chetty, Friedman, & Rockoff, 2011; Hiebert &
Grouws, 2007; Ottmar et al., 2015). South Africa has developed an assessment tool, the Annual
National Assessment (ANA), to establish the cause of learners’ weaknesses in mathematics at
all levels in the country (Department of Basic Education, 2013). This tool assists teachers to

Simon Adjei TACHIE. Foundation phase students’ metacognitive abilities in mathematics classes: Reflective classroom discourse
using an open approach
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apply relevant skills and strategies for problem-solving, and supports teaching and learning 529
in schools. For teachers to solve mathematics problems successfully, they must generate
strategies, such as using metacognitive skills, to solve the problems. What the literature fails
to report on comprehensively, in South Africa and many other parts of the world is the use
of metacognitive abilities needed to develop foundation phase students’ skills in mathematics
through reflective classroom discourse using an open approach to mathematics. This research
thus reports on a study conducted in the South African context to enhance foundation phase
mathematics students’ (pre-service teachers who will be teaching the first three years of school)
use of metacognitive strategies for teaching of mathematics through reflective classroom
discourse using an open approach.
Sustainable curriculum reform and development of any country’s educational system
requires that practical professional development engages university lecturers and school
teachers in observing and reflecting on their learners’ learning as it relates to reform practices.
Some studies on curriculum reform and professional development of teachers have focused
on particular countries and on specific areas of learning that have been incorporated into
professional learning design (Beswick, 2014; Watson, Beswick, & Brown, 2012). A review
of related literature in an international context points to teaching and learning that focuses on
classroom discourse in an open approach, and which will help today’s generation of teachers
to enhance learners’ mathematics abilities (Suriyon, Inprasitha, & Sangaroon, 2013; Usiskin,
2012). Other studies have demonstrated that acquiring mathematical knowledge and skills
to improve understanding of concepts is an essential recipe for academic achievement in the
future for preparing individuals to attain economic wellbeing, and to prepare them for total
participation in democratic processes (Duncan & Magnuson, 2011; Foster, 2010; Siegler et al.,
2012; Sitabkhan & Platas, 2018).
Related studies (for example, Teaching in the 21st Century (MT21) and the Teacher
Education and Development Study: Learning to Teach Mathematics (TEDS-M); Initial Teacher
Education Research Project (ITERP), a five-year study (2012-2016), initiated by JET Education
Services, and National policy - Minimum Requirements for Teacher Education Qualifications
(MRTEQ) conducted in South Africa have attempted to establish the best way related programmes
offered by universities for training teachers for the Foundation Phase level contribute to the
development of preservice teachers’ mathematics knowledge. These programmes provide
support in preparing student teachers for teaching mathematics successfully at the foundation
phase level in schools in the 21st century (Blomeke & Delaney, 2012; Deacon, 2016; Rusznyak
& Bertram, 2013).
Statement of the Problem
An increased interest in the area of mathematics education to find out how preservice
teachers are prepared to teach mathematics in both primary and secondary schools has emerged
in recent years (Fonseca, Maseko, & Roberts, 2018). Consequently, scholars have investigated
relevant skills and strategies that can be used or applied by foundation phase student teachers to
teach learners in the future. Proper classroom management using an open-approach system and
creation of a positive social environment through classroom discussion may influence teachers’
instructional decisions, and may contribute to effective teaching, thus having a positive impact
on learners’ learning in the classroom. Most studies on strategies that facilitate good classroom
management and teacher development to enhance effective teaching and learning, as well as
social interactions among teachers, focus on teachers using a lesson study model in schools.
Nonetheless, there is scant evidence of studies on student teachers’ use of classroom discourse
using an open approach to improve their metacognitive abilities in acquiring mathematics
knowledge for teaching and learning. The absence of student teachers’ use of classroom

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530 discourse using an open approach to improve their metacognitive abilities relating to most
mathematics curricula or national standards and professional development efforts in the South
African education system led to the current study. To address the problem described above, the
following research question was posed:
In what ways do student teachers’ use of classroom discourse in an open approach help to
enhance their meta-cognitive abilities in foundation phase mathematics teaching and learning?
Conceptual-Theoretical Framework
The aim of this research was to present a model of experiential learning that could enhance
student teachers’ metacognitive abilities in reflective classroom discourse in an open approach
to mathematics classes at the foundation phase. The study involved mathematics student
teachers who participated in class discussions and applied problem-solving in a professional
development project for preservice teachers under the supervision of their mathematics lecturer.
The research was underpinned by a constructivist learning approach. Constructivism is
considered to be a theory of learning that demonstrates pedagogical practices associated with
so-called constructivist teaching, whereby a teacher encourages learners to communicate and
justify their thinking during the course of solving a problem at hand. Constructivist teaching
facilitates classroom discourse and identifies relevant pedagogical activities to help learners
develop their understanding of a particular concept (Ni Shuilleabhain & Seery, 2018; Simon,
1995). In a constructivist learning environment, learning is driven by the problem to be solved
in the classroom. Learners learn content and theory within discourse and an open approach that
is founded on knowledge that is built actively by connecting and constructing new knowledge
through reflective classroom discourse that incorporates manner and meaning from problem-
solving activities (Ertmer & Newby, 2013). The theory is, thus, conceptualised through
constructivism and metacognition, in order to change the face value of a problem through
construction of new knowledge.
As a university lecturer responsible for training teachers to teach foundation phase
mathematics, the researcher encounters student teachers who sabotage themselves before they
even walk into the mathematics classroom for the first time. They do this as a result of a fear
of intimidation by peers, based on their inadequate understanding of mathematics. It has been
the researcher’s experience that, before expecting these students to learn new concepts and
strategies for mathematics teaching in an open approach discussion, the lecturer must, first, help
students change their perspective, from “I can’t”, to “I see what I can already do, now let’s see
what else I can do”. As indicated by Jagals (2015), a constructivist teaching approach reminds
teachers how to craft strategies that embrace students/learners in an inclusive classroom, with
the aim of achieving effective learning of the subject matter. Through these practices the teacher
can become aware of and, therefore, interpret, learners’ thinking and learning in order to make
ongoing instructional decisions.
In this research, the researcher acted as a facilitator during teaching and learning of
mathematics problem-solving in a classroom discourse project that used an open approach.
Doing so enabled him to observe students (preservice teachers) in their demonstration of applied
competence for conceptual understanding in problem-solving. This was done through sharing
of ideas and reflection of their (students) own thinking. In demonstrating applied competence
and classroom practice in the teaching of foundation phase mathematics, the student teachers
were able to integrate knowledge, skills, values and attitudes in authentic, real-life teaching
contexts, while they solved mathematics problems. Researchers emphasise the importance of
involving student teachers in classroom discourse using an open approach, in order to improve
student teachers’ meta-cognitive abilities in the mathematics classroom. For example, Suriyon
et al. (2013) and Usiskin (2012) described appropriate classroom discourse using an open

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approach that focuses on issues identified by the researcher or considered to be best practices 531
for developing learners’ meta-cognitive abilities in a mathematics class.
Studies have found that learners’ academic achievement is likely to improve when they
are given the chance to engage in self-regulatory activities, such as planning and managing time,
concentrating on instruction, and coding information strategically (Schunk & Zimmerman, 1997)
in a discoursive manner. Learners have to be explicitly taught metacognitive learning strategies
for teaching and learning (Camahalan, 2006; Du Toit & Kotze, 2009; Skolverket, 2012). Recent
studies noted that it is not sufficient for learners to arrive at a correct mathematical solution of
a problem – what is important is their ability to justify and determine the reasonableness of
their solutions, the efficacy of the approach chosen, and their ability to consider other possible
strategies to arrive at the correct solution. These abilities are vital for the current generation
(Skolverket, 2012; Tachie & Molepo, 2018), and the approaches can only be justified if student
teachers actively reflect upon their work, or problem-solving strategies, in an open approach
that enhances their metacognitive abilities. Doing so helps student teachers to learn new ways
of looking at the way we teach and assess learners from a more qualitative perspective (Hill,
2012). In the same way, an emphasis on the necessity to develop student teachers’ metacognitive
abilities for dealing with foundation phase mathematics teaching and learning is advocated by
Hill (2012), Bureau of Exceptional Education and Student Services (2010), and Hawley and
Valli (1999). These researchers claimed that, in some circumstances, student teachers should not
only be involved in identifying their need to be assisted; instead, they should also be involved,
where possible, in designing the ways in which their needs might be addressed in order for them
to develop the concept of experimentation. In other words, student teachers, as individuals,
ought to perform experiments and then come together as a class to share or discuss their results.
A good mathematics classroom should be an interactive environment that encourages learners
to discover problems for themselves; discussions should not only include what must be learnt,
but also the process of why and how to learn using different strategies (Cardelle Elawar, 1995;
Department of Basic Education, 2011a; Hawley & Valli, 1999).
Importance of Metacognition
Metacognition, as defined by Flavell (1971), refers to thinking about one’s own thinking,
and metacognitive knowledge is gained through experiences shown by an individual or oneself.
The individual sets goals for the execution of a particular task to achieve understanding, and
then uses relevant strategies to monitor progress towards the set learning goals. According to La
Misu, Budayasa and Lukito (2018), a metacognition profile is a natural and intact description
of a person's cognition, which involves their own thinking in terms of using their knowledge,
planning and monitoring of own thinking processes, and then evaluating own thinking results
when understanding a concept.
The purpose of the study conducted in Kendari, Indonesia by La Misu et al. (2018)
was to produce the metacognition profile of mathematics and mathematics education students
regarding their understanding of the concept of integral calculus. Their findings indicated
that, in the summarising category, both the mathematics students and mathematics education
students used metacognition knowledge and metacognition skills to understand the concept
of indefinite integrals, while, for definite integrals, the mathematics education students used
only metacognition skills. In the explanation category, mathematics students used knowledge
and metacognition skills for understanding the concept of indefinite integrals, whilst they only
used metacognition skills in definite integrals, while mathematics education students used both
knowledge and metacognition skills simultaneously to understand the concepts of indefinite
and definite integrals. This means that, when training student teachers who will teach and
learn foundation phase mathematics, both knowledge and metacognition abilities in classroom
discourse in an open approach are important for developing students as preservice teachers.

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532 The present research established whether foundation phase student teachers were
perceived to be making use of both knowledge and metacognition in reflective classroom
discourse, using an open approach that supported their understanding of mathematics. Across the
globe, a similar study was conducted in six countries, namely, Taiwan, South Korea, Bulgaria,
Germany, Mexico and the United States. The purpose of the research was to investigate how
those countries prepared their middle school teachers for teaching mathematics to middle-
school learners. The researcher found that there were vast differences in the respective countries’
preparation programmes (Fonseca et al., 2018; Schmidt et al., 2007). This implies that, in
preparing student teachers for the foundation phase in South Africa, relevant programmes,
which help develop learners’ contextual understanding about the learning of mathematics at the
foundation level, should be applied to assist student teachers.
In this research, student teachers learned about various teaching and learning strategies
and their application thereof in mathematics classrooms. The application of this concept
(metacognitive strategies) in the current study was intended to inculcate the culture of inclusive
practices in mathematics classroom discourse among student teachers, in order to develop
their metacognitive abilities in the teaching of foundation phase mathematics. This would be
done through sharing of ideas when engaging in problem-solving and through constructive
criticism from either the lecturer or student colleagues, who served as observers. The discussion
was therefore envisioned to empower student teachers to become agents for change in the
implementation of classroom discourse in mathematics problem-solving by applying inclusive
teaching practices, and thus, catering for a diverse learner population, including learners
with disabilities, in the mathematics classroom and developing their (learners) metacognitive
abilities. Through these activities, students would learn how to embrace different opinions in an
inclusive environment for their teaching practices, and how to make their teaching and learning
accessible to all learners, including those with disabilities.
General Background
The purpose of this research was to present a model of experiential learning that would
enhance and develop student teachers’ metacognitive abilities in an undergraduate programme,
through classroom discourse and an open approach. The research presents specific examples
of skills and strategies, training practices and educational activities undertaken by the students.
These have been successfully implemented in an undergraduate programme. Acquiring
knowledge and disseminating it for human development in an education sector was a worthwhile
undertaking.
This was a qualitative, case study that comprised one university’s second-year B.Ed.
students, who were aged between 18 and 45 and who served as a target group or subject of the
study. They participated in a Professional Teacher Development Project that illustrated a new
model of experiential learning, which was designed to enhance students’ metacognitive abilities
in an undergraduate programme through classroom discourse using an open approach.
Data were generated through participatory action research (PAR). Gills and Jackson
(2002, cited by MacDonald 2012), state that PAR, as a form of action research, is the “systematic
collection and analysis of data for the purpose of taking action and making change” by generating
practical knowledge. The purpose of the research was to change the way foundation phase
student teachers learn mathematics, in order to improve their metacognitive abilities through
reflective classroom discourse using an open approach. The research was conducted among
second-year student teachers, with a population of 150. The sample comprised 50 students.
The purposive sampling method was used to select the participants as well as the class that

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participated in this study, following the guidelines indicated by Curtin and Fossey (2007). This 533
university was purposively selected for the current research.
In order to understand the context as a source of data, the researcher played the role of
a participating observer. Details of observations are explained in this section. This study was
conducted at a university in South Africa that offers extensive education opportunities, and
whose teaching management programme cuts across or covers school curricula. The innovation
of reflective classroom discourse using an open approach to develop students’ meta-cognitive
abilities for teaching foundation phase mathematics was introduced through the Preservice
Teacher Professional Development Project, which was presented in collaboration with, and
supervised and monitored by a group of lecturers involved in research into mathematics
education with the aim of developing foundation phase teachers’ teaching of mathematics in
South Africa. The applicable innovation was emphasised as an important method for developing
mathematical thinking among students in a reflective classroom requiring problem-solving.
Data were collected from two main sources: observation and student focus group (face-to-face)
interviews. The purpose of the focus group was to ensure productive interaction between the
researcher and the students in order to yield detailed, rich data sufficiently relevant to assist
foundation phase teaching and learning; the discussion focused particularly on the topic being
researched. Students were able to build on each other’s ideas and comments suggested, in
order to achieve the objective of the study. The researcher ensured that no particular group or
individuals, especially by the outspoken individuals dominated the discussion. He achieved
this by distributing questions randomly to the participants and also paying equal attention to the
participants’ discussions, in order to encourage discussion and maintain focus. Notes taking,
recording of the proceedings as well as capturing of non-verbal cues were meticulously done
by the researcher and, in some cases, the researcher combined the oral data with observation
as a techniques for data gathering and analysis with the help of an assistant (Maree, 2007). A
plan was drawn by the researcher to help him capture exactly what was said/discussed by each
group and was used for data analysis in combination with observations. Permission to conduct
the research was obtained from the relevant authorities.
Research Procedure

In this research, the researcher used a student-centred teaching and learning approach
to collect data. The lecturer (researcher) acted as a facilitator of teaching and learning, while
the student teachers occupied the central position in the teaching and learning activities. This
was done so as to ensure full acquisition and meaning-making of meta-cognition, which
was expressed by the students themselves as they performed reflective classroom discourse
activities in an open approach that aimed to ensure acquisition of conceptual understanding of
the content taught or discussed, rather than the procedural knowledge of teaching. The mode
of delivery of the lesson was primarily a face-to-face, problem-solving discourse using an
open approach; the students displayed different approaches to solving mathematical problems
and gaining conceptual understanding through discussions, challenges, constructive criticism,
open presentation and reflection in the classroom. This process enabled the student teachers to
demonstrate applied competence, commitment and responsibility, all of which are required for
academically and professionally qualified teachers in diverse education contexts in the country
in the future.
Trustworthiness of the Study
To ensure the trustworthiness of the research, the researcher approached it from an

interpretivist point of view, based on the constructivist approach that underpinned the study.

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534 The researcher, having considered the purpose of the study, selected the relevant participants as
well as the instruments. Emphasis was on the multiple realities that people might have in mind,
and the different insights they might have gained through describing their perspectives and
awareness, based on the reality constructed in relation to instruments and the group of people
selected for this study (Cohen et al., 2001). The reality construct was done through a reflective
classroom discourse that used an open approach. This, the researcher believed, enabled student
teachers to display their metacognitive abilities as they embarked on various activities for
solving mathematics problems. In their research, Cohen et al. (2001) noted that this might
indirectly assist in future teaching and learning of the foundation phase mathematics learners.
Data Analysis
Data were analysed by means of content analysis relating to the learning of foundation
phase mathematics in reflective classroom discourse using an open approach to enhance
metacognitive abilities. Data were analysed at two levels, namely, discursive practices and
the textual level. On the discursive level, the researcher analysed the student teachers thought
processes relating to problem solving, and their abilities on the textual level. Analysis was
based on what students reported about the strategy regarding reflective classroom discourse
using an open approach to the development of metacognition for teaching foundation phase
mathematics (Woodside-Jiron, 2011). Data analysis was done according to five procedural,
open-approach-based teaching steps demonstrated by the student teachers in the mathematics
class. This was based on the observation and focus group interviews. What the student teachers
demonstrated in class was used to compare with what the literature reported about reflective
classroom discourse involving metacognition development.
Research Results
After engaging in discourse with one another and with the lecturer, the student teachers
were able to create and construct appropriate learning opportunities that developed their meta-
cognitive abilities required to teach diverse learners. This was done by applying learning theories
pertaining to mathematics, as well as general theories of learning and learner development
for problem-solving. The results are presented according to the themes that emerged during
analysis of the classroom observation together with focus-group interviews data. Themes refer
to: (a) the kind or type of problem that should receive attention in classroom discourse; (b)
posing open-ended, problem-solving questions to colleagues in class for discussion, (c) self-
centred learning by students; (d) whole-class discussion and comparing methods/procedures for
a particular problem; and (e) summarising important information through connecting student
teachers’ mathematics ideas that emerged during reflective classroom discourse.
Deciding on the Kind or Type of Problem to Work on in Classroom Discourse
Deciding on the kind of problem that must be solved is a fundamental step that leads to the
solving of a problem or signals the beginning of a problem-solving situation. Students indicated
that not all mathematics problems could develop learners’ thinking abilities. According to them,
the most difficult step in learning is to come up with new ideas. It was therefore important for
the students to overcome this hurdle by deciding on the type of problem to work on. In order
for them to generate ideas that were relevant to teaching and learning in foundation phase
classes, students should encourage the solving of problems that ultimately help to develop or
improve learners’ conceptual understanding of mathematics, rather than focus on procedural
knowledge. The solving of problems included situations that emanate from real-life problems.

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For example, one student indicated that a Grade 3 learner was asked to give an answer to 535
the statement, 1+1=11, and explain why the answer was not 2. When student teachers were
asked to demonstrate how they would assist Grade 3 learners to understand the concept of
1+1, this was how some of the students, after they had undertaken certain activities with their
colleagues, expressed their views in the open-approach, reflective classroom discourse (see
Figure 1 - Activity 1).
Student 1:
Figure 1 (Activity 1). How a student explained 1+1 to Grade 3 learners.
With reference to Figure 1 above, this is what some groups as well as some individual
students had to say:
Group 1, 2 and 3 students: If not because of this study, we wouldn’t have known how we would
have solve this problem using new acquired skills.
Student 2: The other group did excellent work through demonstration by explaining how a
lecturer in the university classroom executed an activity in a conceptual manner.
Student 3: I have to come out of a model/designing an activity that would help me solve problems
in different activities.
Posing Open-Ended, Problem-Solving Questions to Colleagues in Class for Discussion
Students indicated that, in class, they always posed open-ended, problem-solving

questions related to problem situations presented by their lecturers. Students designed templates
with key points that helped them to solve the problem at hand. They explained that designing
a template was the start of the problem-solving process. The template helped them to acquire
relevant yet different skills to develop learners at all levels. This is what some participants

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536 agreed on:
Student 5:
At this stage, we have very enthusiastic in solving the problem through reflective discourse in an
open-based approach whereby each one of us in the group gets chance to contribute to the success
of the solution to the problem.
According to the students, they were not concerned about how they (student teachers)
reached the correct answer; instead, they were interested in the strategies or methods used in
activities 1 above, and how it would help learners understand the concept. In so doing, their
behaviour demonstrated the use of metacognition abilities as they embarked on trial-and-error
activities to solve the problem. All these activities were identified through observation. The
lecturer observed the students’ desire to find solutions to the problem on their own.
Students’ Self-Centred Learning
Students indicated that their self-centred learning activities started when they tried to
solve problems related to real-life situations, and compared these problems to those introduced
by their lecturers during teaching and learning.
Students 3 and 5:
It is right to compare and contrast ideas in constructive manner in an open classroom system
whereby everybody is able to critique to the success of the lesson.
The students understood that teaching of foundation phase learners should always be
activity oriented; learners’ metacognitive abilities needed to be considered and they should be
guided on how to learn. Students therefore usually grouped themselves in the classroom under
the supervision of their lecturer, and presented individual activities in turn. They were assisted
by their colleagues as well as their lecturer.
Class Discussion and Comparison of Methods/Procedures for Particular Problems
Whole-class discussion was a relevant step and reflected students’ metacognitive

strategies for problem-solving. As already indicated at the students’ self-centred learning
stage, class discussion and comparison of methods/procedures enabled them to redevelop and
restructure the lesson templates used during the self-centred learning stage. The students then had
opportunities to compare and contrast their ideas through the open approach, through reflective
discourse. This process helped them to develop their metacognitive abilities in mathematical
problem-solving; they could understand and apply different conceptual knowledge to their
problem-solving activities. Some students had this to say:
Student 2:
All lecturers should embark on this approach: develop our skills of teaching in the near future.
Student 5:
In the process, I saw that wow, I could solve some difficult problems without realising it.

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Student 1: 537
What a creative ideas! Is it me to do a, b, c without fear or favour but all with joy.
Summarising Participant Information through Connecting Students’ Mathematics Ideas That

Emerged in the Reflective Classroom Discourse
At this stage, students had to evaluate the whole activity. Learners learn better when they
know what they are supposed to learn. Students, therefore, assessed themselves based on their
individual activities or whole-class discussion during an open approach. Students indicated that
doing various activities under the guidance of their lecturer, together with an open approach,
assisted them in understanding various concepts, and this improved their thought processes.
The following sentiments support these statements:
Student 2:
What we did in class was that when the lecturer posed a problem, we, the students, try at the
beginning by saying that this what we are going to do; it’s about this particular content, apply
your theory and dramatise it for the success of your learners. And in so doing, we were able to
understand different concepts spontaneously.
Students 1 and 3:
Our lecturer never leave us alone in class. He always give us a clue of what to be learnt, then
allowed us to plan, and presents activities for the success of the lesson. Because he always wanted
us to serve the purpose of the lesson, his monitoring strategies helped us to achieve that for which
activity-based learning was the order of the day.
Student 5:
It is better for every lecturer to have a plan at the beginning then you always have a work or
engagement. For instance an ice begger [ ], so you always find someone who is an ice-begger.
So the first thing that I have to look for in my activity is the ice-begger that is linked to the theory.
In most cases, it is advisable to have a video; a YouTube video could give a brief
introduction to what will be done in class. Alternatively, learners could play a game, or change
seats so that they sit next to someone else, or the teacher could ask learners to give feedback
on the previous class in a creative way; thus they can do an activity to elicit initial engagement.
Teachers also have to provide explanations of the vocabulary that will be used in a specific
activity, because one cannot assume that learners know the meaning of specific words or
concepts. Teachers must also always have measurable objectives for activity-based learning in
class.
The final step is the conclusion, which connects students’ ideas. Behaviour and students’
metacognitive strategies involves evaluating validity and correctness of ideas and ways that
learners performed in response to the initial problem situation. For assessing ideas and strategies,
students valued effective ideas and ways, for example, of applying the idea of how to solve
the problem of 1+1 = 2 but not 11, this was considered to be a simple way to solve problems
through demonstration by making use of physical objects and it takes less time to do that.

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538 Focus Group Discussion and Observation Based Results
Eight to ten students were distributed into six groups. These students were carefully
selected into each of the six groups in order to get relevant details to supplement classroom
observation data that had already been collected. Each group was given questions based on the
themes that had emerged from the observation as discussed above. The groups were carefully
monitored when the questions were thrown at one particular group and all information given
was recorded and checked by the assistant. During the interviews, all group members under
the supervision of their group leaders, were asked to pay attention to the answers given by the
particular group in order to deliberate successfully and achieve better understanding of the
emerging themes. It continued in this way until all data collection had been exhausted. Open-
ended questionnaires were given to the students. Some of the questions included: What do you
think of the discussion?; What do you like about this discussion?; In what ways do you think
this discussion has helped you to achieve your classroom problems/objectives? Where were
you able to obtain new information for classroom improvement? In answering of the questions,
they (students) were required to start with general information and arrive at specifics. The
researcher checked the responses. In analysing the answers the students provided the way they
started from the general and arrived at the specific were thoroughly checked. For example,
when the groups were asked to comment on the discussion based on Activity 1, this is what
some of the had to say:
Group 1:
In fact, in our group, we were really very impressed by the way that student-teacher went through
that activity to convince the learner(s) in question. It was very practical and you could see what
was happening in a real-life situation, and this helps not to confuse the learners. We can now see
the different between an abstract presentation and practical presentation. This is what we need
to demonstrate at all times as future teachers. We also give challenging questions to learners and
again give them chances to think about it and relate it to the real-life situations. This will help
them to understand the real concepts the more.
Group 3:
We could now see different ways of guiding our future learners by showing different skills,
activities, concepts, models, pictures, etc. to make our teaching enjoyable and understandable
which we never knew at the beginning. Really working together as groups and planning and
sharing of ideas openly like this is really valuable and helps to build our skills and strategies of
teaching small kids. Unlike the teacher who only challenged the learner by mere talking without
any illustrations is not a good way or procedure of teaching foundation phase learners.
Group 5:
The reason why most teachers cannot develop their skills and strategies by applying practical
work in their teaching is that, in most cases, the problem may come from the Department of
Education, whereby you are being forced to complete the syllabi at all cost without taking into
consideration the cognitive level of the learners. When this happens, you will be forced to teach
abstractly without doing illustrations of this nature and this does not help you as a teacher teaching
foundation phase learners. This must in fact, be looked into by those at the management level in
order to recruit teachers with relevant skills and strategies to improve teaching and learning of
foundation phase mathematics.

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Discussion 539
The main findings of the research indicated that students’ interest and involvement in
reflective classroom discourse was important when using an open-approach-based mathematics
class, and paved the way for students to exhibit metacognitive abilities relevant to the following
teaching steps: Deciding on the type of problem to work on; presenting open-ended problems
to colleagues in class, self-learning by students, whole-class discussion, comparison of a
particular problem to already-solved ones and summarising participant information through
connecting students’ mathematics ideas. These were the themes that emerged in the classroom
discourse. The findings further illustrated the importance of reflective classroom discourse in an
open approach, which, as already stated paved the way for the development of metacognitive
abilities, and which helped to bring successful activities for students’ mathematics problem-
solving to fruition. Clearly, after the activity, students could solve problems successfully; they
could apply various problem-solving skills to create a positive mindset for problem-solving
by designing methods/procedures for future learning and teaching, and they could continue
solving problems with greater confidence. These gains support a statement by the Department
of Basic Education (DBE, 2011b) that classroom mathematics in education for the 21st century
generation forms part of human activities that help to develop the mental processes of the person
concerned, or for a learner, to enhance logical and critical thinking, both of which contribute to
decision-making processes and help to solve the everyday problems of life.
The findings, also indicated, that students’ reflective classroom discourse using an open
approach, and their metacognitive application abilities were poor before they were exposed to
this research intervention. This is because students’ responses, based on their lived experiences
shared during focus group interviews, informed the researcher that reflective classroom
discourse in an open approach was important in the teaching profession and needed attention.
Students 2 and 5 reported as follows:
Student 2: This activities that we went through during this study was a breakthrough in
our teaching career. It really serves as a guideline for us to practice as future teachers.
Student 5: Initially I felt shy to discuss my weakness in public whereby others would get to know
that I don’t know this and that but now I boldly share information or ask information from others
and this has opened my eyes to plan my future lessons with different strategies based on these
activities that we went through.
This assertion is in line with a review of related literature in an international context,

which refers to teaching and learning that focuses on current classroom discourse in an open
approach to enhance students’ abilities when teaching mathematics (Suriyon et al., 2013;
Usiskin, 2012). This finding is also congruent with the work of Ottmar et al. (2015); Chetty et
al. (2011) and Hiebert and Grouws (2007), and confirms views in international literature that
drew the attention of the American National Education Reform, and focuses on the effectiveness
of teachers and their role in reversing poor mathematics achievement among American learners
– teachers play a critical role in learners’ mathematics learning and achievement in the country.
This means that both lecturers and teachers play critical role in shaping the lives of students and
learners respectively. In this regard, Student 1 had the following to say:
I could now see different ways of guiding my future learners by showing different skills, activities,
concepts, models, pictures, etc. to make my teaching enjoyable and successful which I never knew
at the beginning. Really working together as groups and planning and sharing of ideas openly, I
think is a good idea for us to know as future teachers. Now I can see that I know what is expected
of me as future teacher; I could develop so many concepts, ideas to solve problem unknowingly
which I did not know before. This is really a hands-on information. If all our lecturers would be
doing this we would find our training very easy.

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540 The findings of this qualitative investigation suggested that students could improve
their metacognitive abilities if they are exposed to reflective discourse using an open approach.
Students who solved mathematics word problems in this study reflected metacognitively on
problem-solving processes and became aware of their person, task and strategy knowledge
(Ertmer & Newby, 2013; Little & McDaniel, 2015). It appears that metacognitive reflection
can result in more than one type of knowledge, these being, knowledge of the person and
task. Students acquired skills to challenge their colleagues in problem-solving activities; this
improved their metacognitive abilities. By doing so, they were able to shape their own thinking by
linking it to either their previous or current knowledge (Costa, 1984; Hill, 2012). When students
are exposed to such experiences, they can create activities that enhance their metacognitive
abilities for dealing with the teaching of foundation phase mathematics in schools. Because they
(student teachers) became familiar with different activities to be carried out at different stages
by learners, students indicated that through self-centred learning, planning and by monitoring
their thinking processes throughout their problem-solving activities, as well as evaluating the
results of their thinking, they were able to learn a great deal before group discourse, and this
helped them to understand different concepts simultaneously (La Misu et al., 2018).
The review of students’ responses showed, furthermore, that, through this research
intervention, they were able to propose new ideas that they had initially thought were too
difficult to execute. This, they said, was very important for deciding about the type of problem
to work on. For example, before they could design a template for solving a problem, there
were certain steps that that had to be followed and which helped them to acquire different
skills and concepts spontaneously in problem-solving. This finding supports studies that
reveal that students’ academic achievement is more likely to improve when they are given
the chance to engage in self-regulatory activities in a discursive manner, and are explicitly
taught metacognitive learning strategies for teaching and learning (Camahalan, 2006; Du Toit
& Kotze, 2009; Skolverket, 2012; Tachie & Molepo, 2018). Students also indicated that this
learning was successful because of the directives they received from their lecturers.
Student 5:
the lecturer highlighted on the difficult part first for us and later asked us to show him what we
came up with. And after the lecturer had shown you that, you could then design an activity for a
very difficult concept. He then went ahead to show you the theory.
The following sentiments were elaborated on further by Student 5:
if the lecturer had introduced the theory first to us, we would have argued that no no we would
never be able to do this, this is too difficult for us to understand and we would not be able to do
but now that he showed us how to do it, it has become very easy for us to do. This according to
me is how I would be teaching my learners in the near future in order to develop their conceptual
understanding and metacognitive abilities as mine has been developed. If you do something first
without students realising that they are engaging with the theory, and then showing them the
theory afterwards, they are far more confident when attempting whatever you want them to do.
Research Value
The purpose of this research was to enhance students’ metacognitive abilities in reflective
classroom discourse using an open-approach-based mathematics class for students training to
become foundation phase mathematics teachers. They participated in class discussion through
problem-solving in the form of a Preservice Teacher Professional Development Project effort
under the supervision of their mathematics lecturer.

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The preliminary review of the literature reflected on the conceptual and theoretical 541
framework underpinning this study and discussed the background, data collection and data
analysis procedures and implications for this research regarding innovation of classroom
discourse in an open approach to improve meta-cognitive abilities of students training to become
foundation phase teachers. Reflective classroom discourse in an open approach to improve
metacognitive abilities is a new area of study, and the results of the current research will add
to the existing literature on the way lecturers can assist student teachers to achieve teaching
and learning of mathematics by foundation phase learners. Teachers have to have measurable
objectives and must use an approach that involves activity-based learning in class.
Conclusions
In conclusion, it is obvious that students training to be foundation phase mathematics

teachers can develop the metacognitive abilities required for teaching foundation phase
mathematics through reflective classroom discourse using an open approach and must be
encouraged at all times. This was evident through the following five teaching and learning steps
that were identified by this study during observation and focus-group interviews: Deciding on the
type of problem to work on; posing open-ended problems to colleagues in class for discussion;
reflective self-learning by students; whole-class discussion; comparison of a particular problems
and summarising important information for self-development in teaching and learning through
connecting students’ mathematical ideas that emerged in the reflective classroom discourse.
For example, if teachers are able to set distinct objective(s) in their planning, it will inform the
choice or kind of teaching and learning resources to be used by teachers, as well as the form of
assessment to be administered to the learners. The objectives of the lesson can thus be achieved.
Recommendations
For further studies, the following aspects that relate to this article can be focussed on by
researchers in the future.
Investigating types of problems, whether similar or different, in an open group discussion
among students of the same cohort in a collaborative lesson study format can offer a possible
way to increase students’ metacognitive abilities for foundation phase mathematics teaching
and learning.
Since reflective discussion using an open-approach process is an effective way of
engaging students in an activity-oriented environment, and students feel positive about it, it
ought to be carried out on regularly as it helps students to participate actively when they receive
input from experienced people, such as lecturers who frequently work with different lesson
study presentations during workshops with teachers and pre-service teachers.
Mathematisation assists in mathematics problem-solving through summarising important
information for self-development in teaching and learning. This occurs by connecting students’
mathematics ideas. It emerged in the focus-group reflective classroom discourse that students
could be encouraged to embark on open-approach discourse at all times in order to develop
their metacognitive abilities for teaching and learning foundation phase mathematics.
Reflective classroom discourse in an open-approach for developing metacognitive
abilities among students training to be foundation phase mathematics teachers can be adapted
to the South African context. A number of schools, colleges and universities can, over a period,
be used for pilot studies following a design research approach by choosing a theme and a topic
in the curriculum documents. This type of research will engage students in problem-solving
discussions, stimulate them to reflect on their conceptual procedures, gain the understanding
required to arrive at the solution, and use follow-up records for improvement.

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544
Received: May 08, 2019 Accepted: August 10, 2019
Simon Adjei Tachie PhD, Lecturer, School of Mathematics Natural Science and Technology
Education, P O Box 301, Bloemfontein, South Africa.
Website: http://www.ufs.ac.za
ORCID 0000-0003-1535-7312.

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CHOOSING TEACHING AS A PROFESSION: 545
VALIDATION OF AN SMVUP-4-S
ASSESSMENT TOOL
Robert Tomšik
Research Institute for Child Psychology and Pathopsychology, Slovakia
Abstract
The aim of the present research was to validate the Scale of motivation for choosing teaching profession
(SMVUP-4-S), and to explore its basic psychometric properties on a sample of Slovak teacher trainee
students. SMVUP-4-S scale was completed by 1235 respondents with a mean age of 20.1 years. SMVUP-
4-S scale consists of 44 items arranged into 11 subscales, which are arranged into three main categories
of motivation: intrinsic, extrinsic and altruistic. A latent structure of SMVUP model that consists of two
four-factor (intrinsic and extrinsic motivation) and a one three-factor model (altruistic motivation) was
tested. Internal consistency was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was
calculated using the Maximum Likelihood estimation. To evaluate Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)
χ2-test, CFI, RMSEA, SRMR, AIC, BIC and TLI indicators were used. SMVUP-4-S scale showed an
acceptable internal consistency. Using EFA two four-factor and one three-factor model were extracted.
CFA indicated that four-factor models had a good fit to the empirical data (Intrinsic motivation χ2/df
= 4.925, Extrinsic motivation χ2/df = 4.781). Modifying indexes have shown that several items have
correlated with residual variances which leads to low fit to the empirical data in three-factor-model. After
the implementation of covariants between items this model has also shown a good fit to the empirical data
(Altruistic motivation χ2/df = 4.715).
Keywords: teacher development, teacher motivation, career choice, psychological assessment.
Introduction
Teacher motivation belongs to one of the most crucial factors in education. Scientific
resources have offered numerous studies on teacher motivation in different contexts and
time (e.g. Brown, 1992; Fresko, Kfir, & Nasser, 1997; Joseph & Green, 1986; Kyriacou &
Coulthard, 2000; Liu, Kardos, Kauffman, Peske, & Johnson, 2000) but there is a lack of
reliable measurement tool for research on this issue, which would allow comparisons across
the different settings and a variety of research samples (gender, school level, social and socio-
context, or comparison over time) in the Slovak Republic or other demo-geographic areas.
The most frequently used assessment tool for measuring motivation in choosing teaching as a
profession, based on literature review, is the validated Fit-Choice Scale (Watt & Richardson,
2008). However, primarily, the Fit-Choice scale has been constructed to detect the degree of
motivation for choosing teaching as a career among Australian teacher training students (an
assessment tool was subsequently validated in other countries as well: Casacubierta & Puig,
2016; Fokkens-Bruinsma, Canrinus, Korpershoek, & Doolaard, 2015; Nesje, Brandmo, &
Berger, 2017; Tomida & Miwa, 2018; etc.). Given the specificities of teacher job position and
education system in Slovakia, adapting the Fit-Choice model to these conditions has been
unsuccessful (Tomšik & Verešová, 2015). After an unsuccessful attempt to adapt the Fit-Choice

Robert TOMŠIK. Choosing teaching as a profession: Validation of an SMVUP-4-s assessment tool
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546 scale (Tomšik & Verešová, 2015) and its re-design (Tomšik, 2016c), the Scale of motivation for
choosing teaching as a profession SMVUP (hereinafter SMVUP) model has been developed
(Tomšik, 2016a) aiming at a more comprehensive and valid examination of the motivation for
choosing teaching in the Slovak Republic considering the above mentioned specifications and
conditions. Validity and reliability of the SMVUP-3-S scale (third edition for students) have
been verified using the Principal Axis Factoring (Varimax rotation). The scale consisted of 11
factors comprising 39 items. In the above version, the research tool had several drawbacks
regarding the content of the scales: saturation of factors by several items at a level > .400,
inadequate adaptation of the content to conditions of Slovakia and insufficient differentiation
of subscales. These deficiencies require further correction and implementation of new (or
corrected) items into the SMVUP model. The items in this tool have been adapted to the socio-
cultural specifics, the specific conditions of the educational system and more particularly the
peculiarities of the teaching profession in the territory of the Slovak Republic – significant
differences are especially indicative for the following factors: previous experience, benefits,
income and social status.
SMVUP and Fit-Choice (Watt & Richardson, 2007) models of motivation for
choosing teaching as a career are based on the theory of expectation and values (Eccles &
Wigfield, 2002) and work motivation (Holland, 1985) and self-determination theory (Ryan
& Deci, 2000). Presuming the impact of various social factors on the personality that are
the decisive factors in the career choices, the impact of socio-cultural, family environment,
peers, personality and other influences can be considered to be significant determinants of the
career choice. The model of motivation for choosing teaching as a career point to different
psychological mechanisms that are involved in the process of choosing teaching as a career,
but all parts of the model work together in the decision-making process (Tomšik, 2016b; Watt
& Richardson, 2012). Specific motives for choosing teaching as the career, theoretical and
empirical findings (Watt, Richardson, & Devos, 2013; Saban, 2003; Schutz, Crowder, & White,
2000) most often are categorized into the following three categories: intrinsic, extrinsic and
altruistic motivation. Intrinsic motivation impulse comes from the inner personality structures.
It is, therefore, more durable and effective compared to the other types of motivation (Klein,
2006). Intrinsic motives are the most frequent when teaching as a career is chosen. They are
considered the most important because they are directly related to the content of career (Watt,
Richardson, & Devos, 2013), and they are predominately good as for professional engagement
in this field (Fresko, Kfir, & Nasser, 1997). The motives connected to this issue also occur in
literature on pedagogy and psychology. The higher performance might be achieved via extrinsic
motivation, it is only for a short term, though. The worst relation is also between motivation and
a specific activity (Klein, 2006). Extrinsic motives in teaching career are undesirable because
dissatisfaction in performance may be shown in the teachers´ workplace, as well as in their
actions (Fresko, Kfir, & Nasser, 1997). We have registered the following extrinsic motives in
pedagogical and psychological literature: the desire to have steady income (Saban, 2003), a
stable working place after studies (Papanastasiou & Papanastasiou, 1997), holidays (Kyriacou,
Hultgren, & Stephens, 1999), job security (Johnston, McKeown & McEwen, 1999), more time
for family and children (Watt & Richardson, 2007), and teaching career prestige in the society
(Bastick, 1999). Altruistic motivation plays an important role when choosing teaching as a
career. The altruistic motive may be understood as the desire to improve the well-being of
other people (Klein, 2006). It is connected with the concept of prosociality and it covers doing
things intentionally to help another person or a group of people. The altruistic motives are
closely related to intrinsic motives because they correspond with the career content (Kyriacou
& Hultgren, 2000; Kyriacou, Hultgren, & Stephens, 1999; Saban, 2003).

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Research Problem 547
As already mentioned in the text above, specific motives implemented in the final version
of the SMVUP (SMVUP-4-S) model are based on theoretical origins and empirical findings of
Slovak and foreign authors (e.g. Book & Freeman, 1986; Lortie, 1975; Robertson, Keith, &
Page, 1983; Watt, Richardson, & Pietsch, 2013; Hřebíček, 1995; Kasáčová, 1996; Kariková,
2004; Schutz, Crowder, & White, 2001; etc.). Types of motivation for choosing teaching as
a career in previous research and studies can be mapped as the main design of the SMVUP-S
scale. From the previous theoretical circuits and empirical evidence in the field of teacher
motivation, the scale indicated the existence of 11 types of motivation for the choice of the
teaching profession, which were divided into three basic theoretical circuits:
• Intrinsic motivation: interest, self-perception of teaching skills, work potential and
previous experience;
• Extrinsic motivation: benefits, income, social status and significant others;
• Altruistic motivation: prosocial behavior, work with children and work with youth.
Given that in SMVUP-3-S model, final adjustments were made (content correction,
items correction, factors differentiation), the aim of the research was to verify the construct
validity of the SMVUP-4-S assessment tool, specifically: a) to measure the correlation between
the individual subscales of an assessment tool; b) to determine the reliability of the individual
subscales of an assessment tool and its main constructs; c) to identify the internal consistency
using EFA and CFA analyzes.
General Characteristics
The aim of the research was to verify the construct validity of the SMVUP-4-S assessment
tool. This aim involved measuring the psychometrics characteristics of the assessment tool. In
order to achieve this aim, quantitative oriented research was carried out, which allowed the
use of statistical procedures to measure validity and reliability of the assessment tool. Data
were collected by the psychologists at Slovak universities (paper form). All questionnaires
were anonymous, and participants submitted completed questionnaires with the consent to
process the data. The participants had approximately 45 minutes to complete the questionnaire.
The final version of the assessment tool was elaborated in March – April 2016. The data were
collected during three academic years: September 2016, September 2017 and September 2018.
In January 2019 the data were processed and analyzed.
Research Sample
The research sample consisted of the Slovak university students (Catholic University
Ružomberok, Comenius University, Constantine the Philosopher University, DTI University,
Matej Bel University, University of Prešov, University of Trnava, University of Žilina) from
all the regions in Slovakia (Nitra, Bratislava, Banská Bystrica, Prešov, Trenčín, Trnava and
Žilina). In total, 1235 students in the first year of bachelor studies were involved in the research
(teacher trainee students). A research sample consists of 478 male and 722 female respondents
(35 uncategorized), with an average age of 20.10 years. In the academic year 2015/2016 3300
adolescents were admitted into their first year of study. According to the approximation of
Morgan and Krejcie (1970), at least 1066 respondents must be included in the set, with a
percentage distribution corresponding to the size of the basic set in each region (confidence
99.00%, Margin of Error 3.50%). During the research, 1500 questionnaires were distributed,

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548 which means that the return of the questionnaires was 82.34%. This means that criterion of
Morgan and Krejcie approximation was fulfilled. The choice of the first-year students was
based on the assumption that there was a primary motivation for choosing teaching as a career.
The primary motivation of the students in the following years might be modified due to other
factors. In order to perform the EFA and the subsequent CFA, the entire set was first randomly
split into two datasets: n1 = 617 (determined for EFA) and n2 = 618 (determined for CFA). The
resulting half did not show any significant differences from the total dataset or between other
datasets in terms of gender, country, or age.
The Scale of Motivation for Choosing a Teaching Profession (fourth re-edition, version
for students (S); thereinafter SMVUP-4-S) is a research and diagnostic tool for identifying
the motives for choosing a teaching as a profession. The SMVUP-4-S scale was based on
the globally used Fit-Choice scale (Watt & Richardson, 2012), which was adapted to the
conditions of the profession and educational system of the Slovak Republic. Following the
agreement of the authors of the Fit-Choice model, the scale was translated into Slovak language
and subsequently translated by different translators into English. Based on several validations
(Tomšik & Verešová, 2015; Tomšik, 2016a, Tomšik, 2016c) of the internal consistency and
validity of the model, the final, fourth re-edition of the SMVUP model was developed for
the teacher trainee students. This model consists of three scales that are saturated with the
following factors:
• Intrinsic motivation: interest, self-perception of teaching skills, work potential,
previous experience;
• Extrinsic motivation: benefits, income, social status, significant others;
• Altruistic motivation: prosocial behavior, work with children, work with youth.
Each subscale consists of four items. The items of the range are in the form of assertions that
the respondents answer on a 5-point Likert scale. The score of the respondents can range from
4 points as a minimum score to 20 points as a maximum score. The higher score represents a
higher level of motivation factor.
Data Analysis

The data were processed using the SPSS v. 20, and module SPSS AMOS v. 22. Several
methods of descriptive statistics (number, minimum, maximum, average and standard deviation)
were used for data description and Spearman’s rho coefficient for measuring correlation between
SMVUP model’s variables. The normality of data distribution was estimated using skewness
and kurtosis, and Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. When testing the psychometric characteristics of
an assessment tool, the following tests were applied:
• Cronbach’s alpha to measure internal consistency of an assessment tool.
• Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used for factor structure identification of an
assessment tool based on Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin criterion using Principal component
method (extraction based on Eigenvalues > 1 and Scree plot).
• Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to determine parameters of extracted
factors using Maximum Likelihood method. For detecting degrees of consistency
of predicted models following statistical procedures chi-square goodness of fit test
(χ2), chi- square to degrees of freedom ratio (χ2/df), CFI (Comparative Fit Index),
TLI (Tucker Lewis Index), RMSEA (Root Mean Square Error of Approximation)
and SRMR (Standardized Root Mean Square Residual) were used. To estimate the
relative quality of statistical models Akaike information criterion (AIC) and Bayesian
information criterion (BIC) were used.

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Research Results 549
Descriptive Results
Table 1 shows the basic descriptive results of the scores of each SMVUP subscale and
the results of the correlation analysis (Spearman’s correlation coefficient) among all variables
of SMVUP model (N = 1235). The minimum score for all variables was 4 points, and the
maximum score in the vast majority of the variables was 20 points (except for the variable
Social status MAX = 19). Spearman’s correlation coefficient revealed significant correlations
within individual subscales. Correlations were significant at .01 of statistical significance.
Several significant correlations at a level of statistical significance of .05 and .01 were also found
between variables that were not covered by the same scale. As the part of the data description,
the normality of data distribution was also measured. In two variables, negative kurtosis was
found above > -1 (MIN γ2 = .008, MIN γ2 = -1.087, SE = .243). The skewness of data ranged
within ± 1 (MIN γ1 = .166, MIN γ1 = -.365, SE = .122). Nevertheless, the hypothesis on the
normality of data distribution was refuted based on the results of Kolmogorov-Smirnov test,
the KS test values in all variables were significant at the level of statistical significance of .001.
Table 1. Descriptive results of SMVUP subscales and Pearson correlation

coefficients between subscales (N = 1235).
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

M 13.25 14.78 14.64 11.02 9.91 11.89 10.38 10.90 14.62 12.47 14.47
SD 4.418 3.210 3.389 4.888 3.586 3.535 3.786 4.727 4.504 4.264 3.155
1 Interest 1
Self-perception of
2 .461** 1
teaching skills
3 Work potential .322** .436** 1
4 Previous experience .329** .392** .143** 1
5 Social status .092 -.043 -.006 .147** 1
6 Benefits .134** .024 -.016 .022 .353** 1
7 Income .147** .006 .008 .228** .530** .401** 1
8 Significant others -.197** -.275** -.255** .091 .099* .100* .144** 1
9 Work with children .451** .381** .382** .156** -.154** -.020 -.060 -.164** 1
10 Work with youth .097 .253** .293** .038 -.002 .046 .123* -.064 .436** 1
11 Prosocial behavior .166** .448** .602** .073 -.013 .121* .103* -.101* .294** .448** 1
* p < .05, ** p < .01, N– number; M– average; SD– standard deviation.

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550 Exploratory Factor Analysis
Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify individual factors (EFA, Principal
component analysis, statistical program SPSS ver. 22) on a sample of 617 students. EFA was
applied to each scale of SMVUP model (Intrinsic, Extrinsic and Altruistic motivation). Prior to
the EFA application, the test application criterion was tested using the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test.
The results show that our data meet the conditions for using factor analysis (Intrinsic KMO =
.801, KMO Extrinsic KMO = 0.794, Altruistic KMO = .830). The Eigenvalues (Table 1) were
used to select the final number of factors for the SMVUP-4-S tool. The Eigenvalues show that
it is realistic to consider the four factors in the scales Intrinsic and Extrinsic motives and three
factors in the Altruistic motives scale. Using the analysis, eleven factors were extracted having
values > 1. The factor loading of the individual factors is summarized in Table 2. The only items
that have loadings above the level .350 were included in the factors. However, neither item had
a factor loading below the given value, so neither item was eliminated. The Intrinsic motivation
explained approximately 54.195% of the variability in the examined dataset, the model of the
Extrinsic motivation explaining approximately 52.551% of the variability in the examined
dataset, and the Altruistic motivation explained approximately 60.476% of the variability in the
examined dataset.

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Table 2. Summarized Factor Matrix and Initial Eigenvalues. 551
Initial Eigenvalues
Scale Factor Item Loadings
Total % of Variance Cumulative %
A1 .901
A3 .663
Interest 2.341 14.632 14.632
A4 .398
A5 .571
B1 .475
B2 .753
Self-perception of teaching skills 2.176 13.600 28.233
B3 .654
B4 .735
J1 .677
J3 .731
Work potential 2.170 13.564 41.797
J4 .634
J2 .652
Intrinsic motivation
N1 .511
N2 .677
Previous experience 1.984 12.398 54.195
N3 .705
N4 .738
C1 .377
C2 .761
Social status 2.547 15.918 15.918
C3 .831
C4 .726
D1 .421
D2 .613
Benefits 1.992 12.451 28.370
D3 .770
D4 .726
E1 .589
E2 .414
Income 1.975 12.346 40.716
E3 .651
E4 .841
Extrinsic motivation
H1 .591
H2 .872
Significant others 1.894 11.835 52.551
H3 .780
H4 .769
F1 .745
F2 .722
Work with children 2.804 23.368 23.368
F3 .842
F4 .806
G1 .853
G2 .592
Work with youth 2.527 21.058 44.426
G3 .859
G4 .861
Altruistic motivation
J1 .646
J2 .679
Prosocial behavior 1.926 16.051 60.476
J3 .592
J4 .729

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552 Confirmatory Factor Analysis
A three-scale model was subjected to Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). The specific
intention was to verify the multifactor solution of the individual SMVUP models in the second
half of the research file (n2 = 681). CFA was applied using the IMB SPSS ver. 20 using the
IBM SPSS AMOS ver. 22. The first scale of the SMVUP model was called Intrinsic motivation,
which consists of 16 items accumulated in 4 subscales: Interest, Self-perception of teaching
skill, Work potential and Previous experience. The base model without modifications showed
the following values: χ2 (95) = 467.894, p < .001, RMSEA =.099, SRMR = .079, CFI =.865,
TLI =.830 (Figure 1).
Figure 1. CFA scheme of Scale Intrinsic Motivation of SMVUP model.
Likewise, the second scale of the SMVUP model is called Extrinsic motivation, which
consists of 16 items accumulated in 4 subscales: Social status, Benefits, Income and Significant
others. The base model without modifications showed the following values: χ2 (98) = 477.545,
p < .001, RMSEA = .097, SRMR =.075, CFI =.847, TLI =.813 (Figure 2).

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553
Figure 2. CFA scheme of Scale Extrinsic Motivation of SMVUP model.
In the last scale defined as Altruistic motivation, modifying indexes show that several
items have correlated residual variance. These items formed logical three couples that had a
similar formulation but were focused on measurement different factor within the Altruistic
motivation scale. G1: I like working with youth / F1: I like working with children; G2: I want
a profession that involves working with youth / F2: I want a profession that involves working
with children; G3: I want to work in an environment with youth / F3: I want to work in an
environment with children. This model converged normally after 32 iterations and showed
the following data compliance metrics: χ2 (46) = 216.913, p < .001, RMSEA = .096, SRMR
= .074, CFI = .934, TLI = .906 (Figure 3). In all the cases, the RMSEA indicator appears as
a problem, because χ2 statistics is affected by a sample size and also deviations from normal
distribution (Hooper, Coughlan, & Mullen, 2008). However, values χ2/df > 5.0 indicate that the
ratio is satisfactory (Table 3). EFA and CFA results contribute to the validity of the SMVUP-4-S
assessment tool.

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554
Figure 3. CFA scheme of Scale Altruistic Motivation of SMVUP model.
Table 3. Validate the suitability of the resulting Factor Models of the SMVUP tool
using the selected parameters.
Model χ2 df p χ2/df CFI RMSEA SRMR AIC BIC
Intrinsic motivation 467.894 95 .001 4.925 .865 .099 .079 549.894 713.749
Extrinsic motivation 477.545 98 .001 4.781 .847 .097 .075 544.540 696.406
Altruistic motivation 714.569 54 .001 13.233 .747 .175 .182 762.569 858.484
Altruistic motivation RE 216.913 46 .001 4.715 .934 .096 .074 28.913 408.799
Notes: RE = modified model by adding covariance between items, χ2 = chi-square, df = degrees of freedom, p =
significance level, CFI = Comparative Fit Index, RMSEA = Root Mean Square Error of Approximation, SRMR
= Standardized Root Mean Square Residual, AIC = Akaike information criterion, BIC = Bayesian information
criterion.
Internal Consistency
Within this research, the reliability of the whole assessment tool and its individual
subscales was measured by calculating the Cronbach alpha coefficient. The Cronbach alpha
coefficient at the subscales ranged from α = .705 to α = .891, while for the scale Intrinsic
motivation was α = .843, for the scale Extrinsic motivation was α = .833, and for the scale
Altruistic motivation was α = .818. The versions constructed on the basis of the exploratory
factor analysis were saturated with a total of eleven subscales that together had a Cronbach
alpha coefficient of α = .843. Within the scale Intrinsic motivation, to individual subscales the

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following alpha values were measured: Interest α = .778, Self-perception of teaching skills 555
α = .851, Work potential α = .783, Previous experience α = .791; Within the scale External
motivation: Social status α = .802, Benefits α = .742, Income α = .824, Significant others α =
0.891; and within the scale Altruistic motivation: Working with children α = .866, Work with
youth α = .833, Prosocial behavior α = .818. The Alpha coefficient of the individual subscales
was high (α > .8), or satisfying (α > .7), suggesting that none of the subscales was considered as
an issue in terms of internal consistency.
Discussion
The aim of this research was to verify the psychometric characteristics of the Slovak
questionnaire SMVUP-4-S, namely the fourth reedition of the Scale of motivation for choosing
teaching profession. Due to the necessity of the situation (system of education in the Slovak
Republic and topicality of this issue) the SMVUP model (based on self-termination theory
and work motivation) was created, however, lacking validation findings of the model. Despite
the fact that we register validated research instruments for measuring motivation of teaching
career (e.g. FIT-Choice scale, Watt & Richardson, 2007; Orientation for Teaching Survey
(OTS), Simić, Purić, & Stančić, 2018; The Attractors and Facilitators for Physical Education
Questionaerie (AFPE), Spittle, Jackson, & Casey 2009), some validation studies had problems
to adjust stated models to European conditions. As for example Fokkens-Bruinsma, Canrinus,
Korpershoek, and Doolaard (2015), Gratacós and Puig (2016), Nesje, Brandmo, and Berger
(2017), Rothland (2013) etc. in which the content of the profession and the school system is
different from the content of the profession through which these scales were construed (America,
Oceania). The following problems were found through validation process: translations of items,
factor structure (Brandamo & Berger, 2017); construct validity and reliability, factor loadings,
cultural differences (Nesje, Brandmo, & Berger, 2017), factor loadings, cultural differences
(Hennessy & Lynch, 2017).
In comparison with FIT-Choice scale, SMVUP model does not contain items and factors
focused on measurement as this is not typical for the schooling system in the middle of Europe,
and therefore it is irrelevant to measure these variables. Thus, it is impossible to measure
adequately the motivation in the choice of a teaching career as this can lead to incorrect results
despite the facts that these studies measuring motivation of teaching career choice (cf. Nesje,
Brandmo, & Berger, 2017) enable comparison in the rating of identified (similar and different)
motives in different demographical environments. Nevertheless, SMVUP model describes well
the conditions of the education and teaching profession not only in Slovakia and as it was
found out by this study, it shows satisfactory psychometric characteristics: questionnaire was
characterized by a high internal consistency in all three scales of the SMVUP model: intrinsic
(α = .94), extrinsic (α = .94) and altruistic motivation (α = .94). Thus, we can deduce that neither
one of the subscales of SMVUP model is problematic in terms of reliability. Indicators of
empirical validity of this model are also researches carried out using SMVUP-4-S scale (and its
reeditions). The following research facts were found with the use of this scale: gender differences
(Tomšik, 2015), the differences with regard to study programs (Tomšik & Čerešník, 2017),
demographic and geographical differences (Tomšik, 2016d), correlation with the questionnaire
NEO-FFI (Tomšik & Gatial, 2018; Tomšik, 2018a), and DZSV questionnaire (Tomšik, 2018b),
satisfaction with the choice of profession (Tomšik, 2016b) and time-dependent reliability was
also investigated and satisfactory results were found (Tomšik, 2016a).
Confirmatory factor analysis supported the assumption of the three-factor structure of
the SMVUP model, which assumes the influence of three types of motivation on the choice of
the teaching profession (intrinsic, extrinsic and altruistic). The subscales showed high factorial
saturation, and each of the 11 extracted factors consists of 4 items. The individual extracted
factors are defined as follows:

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556 A. Factor structure of the scale Intrinsic motivation: Factor 1: Interest (Self-perception
of the preference, interest and inner value of the teaching profession); Factor 2:
Previous experience (The rate of practical teaching experience); Factor 3: Self-
perception of teaching skills (Self-perception of the readiness of respondents
towards the teaching profession. Level of capability); Factor 4: Work potential (Self-
perception of the rate of interest in working with children);
B. Factor structure of the scale Altruistic motivation: Factor 5: Working with children
(Self-perception of the rate of interest in working with children); Factor 6: Working
with youth (Self-perception of the rate of interest in working with youth); Factor
7: Prosocial behaviour (The extent to which the individual is willing to centre their
profession in favour of their students);
C. Factor structure of the scale Extrinsic motivation: Factor 8: Benefits (Individual’s
view on how the teaching profession is socially awarded. Choosing the profession
because of social prestige); Factor 9: Social status (Concept of positive and negative
factors of teaching profession according to the individual’s perspective. Calculation
of the importance of positive factors related to the teaching profession (e.g., school
holidays)); Factor 10: Income (Perception of the importance of income in the
teaching profession); Factor 11: Significant others (Impact of significant others on
decision to choose teaching as a profession).
In addition to the satisfactory EFA (factor saturation > .300) and CFA results (χ2/df <
5.0, RMSEA < 1, SRMRS < .8), which suggests a good internal validity of SMVUP model, we
also highlight the results of the correlation analysis – most factors from the Intrinsic motivation
scale were correlated with factors from the Altruistic motivation scale, namely: Interest in Work
with children and Prosocial behaviour, Self-perception of teaching skills and Work potential
with all factors of the scale Altruistic motivation; and Previous experience with Work with
children. Also, positive and negative statistically significant correlations were found between
scales Intrinsic and Altruistic motivation and motives of the Extrinsic motivation scale, for
example: Significant others correlated negatively with almost all the motives of Intrinsic and
Altruistic motivation scales; Work with children correlated negatively with Social status; or
Income with previous experience.
Conclusions
Based on the results of this research, it can be concluded that the SMVUP-4-S
questionnaire has acceptable psychometric characteristics. Based on the three-step access to
psychometric verification, including correlation analysis, reliability, second order confirmation
factor analysis, the final measurement construct with 44 entries is validated. Concluding these
findings, theoretical and methodological issues are discussed in relation to the application of
the organizational innovation construct. Regarding the fact that psychometric characteristics
of the research instrument are satisfactory, the scale is possible to be used for measurement
the motivation for teaching career with the fact that the results received through this research
instruments are reliable. SMVUP model and the research instrument is the only validated
instrument for measuring the motivation for choosing the teaching career in Slovakia and
in comparison with the other already validated models in the USA or Oceania, it has been
adjusted to the conditions of the education in the Middle Europe. The prospective aim is thus
to implement also other motives into the model, such as Idols (teacher influences) stated in the
literature as a significant intrinsic motive of the teaching career choice. Another intention is
to adapt the research instrument to other social and cultural specifications or translation into
other languages. This form of cooperation with the foreign experts could help in measuring
the motivation of the teaching career choice in other conditions and enable the comparison

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of motives as well as the prediction in directing the education and personal (motivational) 557
specifications of undergraduate students in teaching programs. Following this research
intention should enable not only to predict the development of education at universities but also
the findings of attractive/unattractive factors of the teaching profession. Thus, the universities
would be able to get the feedback on the facts which prevent students from choosing teaching
career and that would enhance them to work on weaknesses of the profession and eventually
make possibilities in making it more attractive.
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Received: April 06, 2019 Accepted: July 30, 2019
Robert Tomšik PaedDr., PhD., Researcher, Methodologist, Research Institute for Child
Psychology and Pathopsychology (VÚDPaP), Cyprichova 42, 831 05, Bratislava,
Slovakia.
Website: https://vudpap.sk/

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The manuscript should be not shorter than 6 pages (including references, tables and figures).
Manuscripts should be typed on A4, in Times New Roman 12-point font size, single-spaced, 2.5 cm
with all the margins, word-document (Word 6.0 or later) format.
Acronyms
Acronyms should be defined the first time they appear.
Tables and figures
Tables and figures should be valuable, relevant, and visually attractive. Tables (made in Word or
another software) and figures must be referred to in the text and numbered in the order of their
appearance. Each table and figure should have a complete, descriptive title; and each table column
an appropriate heading. The texts in tables and figures should be 11-point (in some cases 10) and
their width should be 12 cm at maximum. The figures should be in format .jpg (unless done in Word
or Excel); resolution 1200 dpi. Figures, tables (black and white colour, without ground-colour) and
captions should be inserted within the manuscript at their appropriate locations. All the graphics
(figures) must be editable. The font size should be Times New Roman for all figures and tables.
Figures should be carefully explained in the text and cited in numerical order.
It is the author’s responsibility to obtain permission to reproduce illustrations, tables, etc. from other
publications.
Discussion
Focus the discussion to the two important questions: What is already known about your topic? What
your research adds? It is recommended that the aim and major findings of the research should be
reminded. And then the similarities and differences of the findings with previous research studies
should be exemplified in detail.
Conclusions
This part is not a summary. Bring out the significance of your research. Show how you’ve brought
closure to the research problem, and point out remaining gaps in knowledge by suggesting issues for
further research. The main research outcome should be clearly seen.

PROBLEMS
OF EDUCATION
IN THE 21st CENTURY
Vol. 77, No. 4, 2019
562 References
The title „References“ must be used. APA style for writing references in the text and in the reference
list must be used. References in the text should be presented in parentheses (Knox, 1988; Martin,
1995). If necessary, the page can be indicated: (Martin, 1995, p. 48). The list of references should
be presented after the text.
The author should make sure that there is a strict one-to-one correspondence between the names and
years in the text and those on the list. All the references should be listed in alphabeti¬cal order by
author’s name.
For the sake of accuracy, references should always be as updated as possible, also in the interest of
the readers and researchers on the topic the paper is dealing with.
Notes
Note 1: Manuscripts in which references are not in the APAstyle will be returned without review.
Note 2: References to online sources should include the type of medium (such as “serial online”
or “monograph online”), the date of that specific reference (if applicable), the uniform resource
locator (URL), and the date that the source was accessed. A source accessed online should al-ways
be referenced accordingly, even if it is also published in printed form.
Note 3: All papers must meet the criteria of originality and scientific quality. Obviously, they must
also comply with style and format requirements. The paper will not be subject to further review, if
the manuscript is NOT WITHIN THE SCOPE and/or there is POOR USAGE OF LANGUAGE (all
manuscripts must be written in clear and grammatical English).
Note 4: Submitted papers will be assessed based on their novelty, technical quality, potential impact,
and clarity of writing.
Note 5: All papers are checked by CrossCheck system.
Editorial Board
Updated: July 2018
Website: http://www.scientiasocialis.lt/pec/

PROBLEMS
OF EDUCATION
IN THE 21st CENTURY
Vol. 77, No. 4, 2019
563
ŠVIETIMAS: POLITIKA, VADYBA, KOKYBĖ
EDUCATION POLICY, MANAGEMENT AND QUALITY
ISSN 2029-1922
Dear colleagues,
EDUCATION POLICY, MANAGEMENT AND QUALITY – is a periodical,

peer reviewed, scientific-methodical journal, issued by the SMC „Scientia Edu-
cologica“ in cooperation with Scientia Socialis. It is an international journal,
wherein the scientific and methodical articles published in Lithuanian, English
and Russian languages.
The EPMQ journal welcomes the submission of manuscripts that meet the gen-
eral criteria of scientific and methodical (practical) papers.
“Education Policy, Management and Quality” ISSN 2029-1922

http://gu.puslapiai.lt/SVIETIMAS_PVK_en.htm
http://gu.puslapiai.lt/SVIETIMAS_PVK_indeksavimas_eng.htm
http://oaji.net/journal-detail.html?number=513
Responsible This journal is indexed / abstracted / listed / cited / in:

Publication INDEX COPERNICUS, OAJI, MIAR, ERIH PLUS, ESJI, Ulrich’s Periodicals
Peer Reviewed Directory, QUALIS/CAPES,, Academic Resource Index.
Open Access
This type of submission is best suited for practical/didactical work and reports, as well as position
papers raising original and provocative theoretical or practical discourses and questions (small-scale
research, applied research, didactical/methodical papers, case studies, best educational practices
etc.). Each submission is carefully reviewed by two independent reviewers and ranked based on:
quality of preparation, relevance to the educational community, didactical quality, originality, and
importance of the contribution.
Instruction for authors and other details are available on the journal`s website at:
http://gu.puslapiai.lt/Informacija-autoriams_Info-authors.pdf
EPMQ is an Open Access journal accessible for free on the Internet. Partial article processing
charges are: 5-8 EUR per one A4 page. Papers must be submitted on the understanding that they
have not been published elsewhere and are not currently under consideration by another publisher.
Optimal paper`s size: 5-8/12 pages.
For contacts, questions and papers submission: [email protected]
Sincerely yours,
Editorial Board

Problems of Education in the 21st Century,
Vol. 77, No. 4, 2019
Compiler Vincentas Lamanauskas

Designer Jurgina Jankauskienė
Paste-up artist Loreta Šimutytė-Balčiūnienė
English language proofreader Ilona Ratkevičienė
26 August 2019. Publishing in Quires 7. Edition 200.
Publisher Scientia Socialis Ltd. in cooperation with SMC „Scientia Educologica“

Donelaicio Street 29, Siauliai, Lithuania
Phone: +370 687 95668

Printing „Šiaulių spaustuvė“ Ltd.

9A P. Lukšio Street
LT-76207 Šiauliai, Lithuania
Phone: +370 41 500 333.
Fax: +370 41 500 336

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Address: Scientia Socialis, Ltd.

SCIENTIFIC ARTICLE PREPARATION: TITLE, ABSTRACT AND KEYWORDS

PRACTICAL EDUCATION OF ADULTS WITH INTELLECTUAL

ASSESSING THE INFLUENCE OF SERVICE RECOVERY STRATEGIES ON

PROBLEMS OF NARCISSISM IN EDUCATION: THE CULTURE OF NARCISSISM

THE DEVELOPMENT OF STUDENTS’ MATHEMATICAL LITERACY PROFICIENCY

THE INFLUENCE OF DIFFERENT EDUCATIONAL CONTEXTS ON TUTOR

FOUNDATION PHASE STUDENTS’ METACOGNITIVE ABILITIES IN MATHEMATICS

CHOOSING TEACHING AS A PROFESSION: VALIDATION OF AN SMVUP-4-S

INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS ............................................................................. 560

EDUCATION POLICY, MANAGEMENT AND QUALITY ................................................. 563

ISSN 1822-7864 (Print) ISSN 2538-7111 (Online)

Scientific article writing is undoubtedly an inseparable part of academic activity. Every

https://doi.org/10.33225/pec/19.77.456 ISSN 1822-7864 (Print) ISSN 2538-7111 (Online)

An Article Title 457

Table 1. Article title examples.

Appropriately formulated Inappropriately formulated

ISSN 1822-7864 (Print) ISSN 2538-7111 (Online) https://doi.org/10.33225/pec/19.77.456

Table 2. Article titles and sources.

How broadly does education contribute to job

Article abstract preparation is not an easy process, however a well-written abstract as

https://doi.org/10.33225/pec/19.77.456 ISSN 1822-7864 (Print) ISSN 2538-7111 (Online)

ISSN 1822-7864 (Print) ISSN 2538-7111 (Online) https://doi.org/10.33225/pec/19.77.456

460 Table 3. Article abstracts.

Appropriately prepared abstract Inappropriately prepared abstract

https://doi.org/10.33225/pec/19.77.456 ISSN 1822-7864 (Print) ISSN 2538-7111 (Online)

Table 4. Article keywords. 461

Article title Keywords

Communication, communicative competence,

Additive complexity, creative tasks, „critical point“,

ISSN 1822-7864 (Print) ISSN 2538-7111 (Online) https://doi.org/10.33225/pec/19.77.456

It is reasonable that every scientific article is original. In addition to general scientific

Received: June 08, 2019 Accepted: August 01, 2019

Vincentas Lamanauskas PhD, Professor, Senior Researcher, University of Šiauliai, Institute of

https://doi.org/10.33225/pec/19.77.456 ISSN 1822-7864 (Print) ISSN 2538-7111 (Online)

PRACTICAL EDUCATION OF ADULTS WITH 463

INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES USING A

Education is identified as a fundamental human right and crucial to the overall

ISSN 1822-7864 (Print) ISSN 2538-7111 (Online) https://doi.org/10.33225/pec/19.77.463

https://doi.org/10.33225/pec/19.77.463 ISSN 1822-7864 (Print) ISSN 2538-7111 (Online)

Figure 1. Validated observations schedule.

ISSN 1822-7864 (Print) ISSN 2538-7111 (Online) https://doi.org/10.33225/pec/19.77.463

https://doi.org/10.33225/pec/19.77.463 ISSN 1822-7864 (Print) ISSN 2538-7111 (Online)

Table 1. List of participants. 467

Participant A 60 Mild Perinatal hypoxia–ischemia Moderate visual impairment

Instrument and Procedures

ISSN 1822-7864 (Print) ISSN 2538-7111 (Online) https://doi.org/10.33225/pec/19.77.463

Planting seeds in pots after Seed

https://doi.org/10.33225/pec/19.77.463 ISSN 1822-7864 (Print) ISSN 2538-7111 (Online)

Web Course Design and Interface

ISSN 1822-7864 (Print) ISSN 2538-7111 (Online) https://doi.org/10.33225/pec/19.77.463

Table 3. Descriptive statistics and Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) test for normality

Validated Observations n M Mdn SD Min Max K-S test

https://doi.org/10.33225/pec/19.77.463 ISSN 1822-7864 (Print) ISSN 2538-7111 (Online)

Table 4. t-test and Wilcoxon’s signed-rank test effect sizes (r) results. 471

t-test Wilcoxon’s signed-rank test

ISSN 1822-7864 (Print) ISSN 2538-7111 (Online) https://doi.org/10.33225/pec/19.77.463

Figure 2. Web course screenshot with a Watering demonstration video.

EDUCATION POLICY, MANAGEMENT AND QUALITY ................................................. 563