Text-Picture-Material in science education: A comparison of Omani and German teachers’ attitudes, motivational orientations and self-regulatory skills

ABSTRACT

Texts and instructional pictures are widely used for facilitating students’ understanding of complex content, especially in science subjects. International large-scale assessments repeatedly reveal differences in students’ science achievement between countries. Since text-picture material (TPM) plays an essential role in science education, it is reasonable to investigate TPM-related distinguishing characteristics. In general, teachers need professional competences such as attitudes, motivational orientations, and self-regulatory skills for supporting student learning. It is plausible to assume that this also applies for teaching and learning with TPM. This article reports on comparisons of (a) Omani and German science teachers (country comparison), and (b) German science and language teachers (domain comparison). In a cross-sectional design, data was collected from 450 secondary school teachers. Structural equation models revealed country-specific and domain-specific differences in teachers’ TPM-competences. This study contributes to the body of research on teacher professionalism in different cultural settings, providing implications for teacher education.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher attitudes
• teacher motivation
• teacher self-regulation
• text-picture-integration
• science education
• country comparison

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The Omani subsample, presented here in this article, was a subsample of a previous study that focused on Omani science teachers from elementary to upper secondary schools.

Additional information

Funding

In Germany, this work was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) under Grants BA 1461/7-1, BA 1461/8-1, SCHN 665/3-1, SCHN 665/5-1 and MC 67/7-2. In Oman, this work was supported by the Sultan Qaboos University under Grant RF/EDU/CUTM/20/1

Notes on contributors

Annika Ohle-Peters

Annika Ohle-Peters currently works as a senior researcher at the Center for Research on Education and School Development at TU Dortmund University. She completed her PhD at University Duisburg-Essen, Germany in the department of Physics in 2010 and before that, she obtained her qualification as a primary school teacher.

Mohamed A. Shahat

Mohamed A. Shahat is currently working as an Assistant Professor at Sultan Qaboos University, Oman and an Associate Professor at Aswan University, Egypt. He earned his PhD from the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, and he received the qualification as a middle and secondary school science teacher.

Abdullah K. Ambusaidi

Abdullah K. Ambusaidi is currently working as Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education for Education, Oman. He completed his PhD from the University of Glasgow, UK, and he received his Master from Warwick University (UK) and BSc. as Biology teachers from Sultan Qaboos University