Creative teaching approaches can broaden opportunities for interaction in elementary English classrooms, yet little is known about how teachers sustain puppet-assisted instruction under institutional and pedagogical constraints. This study aims to examine how elementary English teachers use puppets and negotiate institutional, material, and pedagogical constraints in nine private schools in Jakarta, Tangerang, and Bogor, Indonesia. The study employed a qualitative design involving nine purposively selected teachers with prior experience of puppet-assisted teaching. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in person or via Zoom, audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s six-phase thematic analysis. The findings identified five interrelated themes: motivations to encourage speaking and social interaction; puppet use in storytelling, dialogues, and classroom routines; limited institutional recognition; constraints in materials and professional training; and adaptation to curriculum and assessment requirements. Teachers perceived puppets as supporting pupils’ confidence and participation, but these perceptions were not independently verified through classroom observations or pupil assessments. The findings suggest that teachers’ creative choices are negotiated within available resources and school expectations rather than determined by personal enthusiasm alone. This study contributes teacher-reported evidence on the conditions shaping puppet-assisted English pedagogy, with implications for curriculum planning, resource provision, and context-responsive teacher professional learning.
Developing coherent descriptive paragraphs requires elementary pupils to coordinate idea generation, sentence organization, and writing conventions, yet short-term changes following sequential collaborative writing in Islamic primary classrooms remain insufficiently documented. This study aims to examine fourth-grade pupils’ descriptive writing performance before and after chain writing instruction in an Indonesian Islamic elementary school. The study employed a quantitative pre-experimental one-group pretest–posttest design involving 34 purposively selected pupils at MI Plus Darul Ilmi, Banjarbaru. Across three instructional meetings, pupils engaged in sequential collaborative drafting and guided review; writing performance was assessed before and after instruction using a researcher-developed rubric. Descriptive statistics, the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, and individual normalized-gain analysis were supplemented by illustrative classroom writing samples. The findings revealed an increase in mean scores from 60.59 (SD = 7.46) to 81.62 (SD = 5.99), with all 34 paired scores increasing (Z = −5.350, p < .001; mean N-gain = 0.54, moderate). Selected writing examples illustrated clearer paragraph organization, but continued mechanical errors. However, the absence of a comparison group and incomplete scoring-reliability information prevent causal attribution. The study contributes context-specific evidence of observed writing changes, with implications for integrating collaborative drafting, explicit revision, and stronger future assessments.
Prospective elementary teachers need conceptual understanding of mathematics and the ability to monitor their own learning. Yet evidence remains limited on how explicit metacognitive strategy instruction relates to conceptual understanding and metacognitive awareness during teacher preparation. This study aims to compare mathematical conceptual understanding under metacognitive strategy-based and conventional instruction and examine its association with metacognitive awareness. The study employed a quasi-experimental nonequivalent control-group pretest–posttest design involving 68 prospective elementary teachers (34 per group) across eight instructional sessions. Data were obtained from open-ended mathematics tests, a 30-item Metacognitive Awareness Inventory, classroom observations, and reflective journals, and analyzed using t-tests, analysis of covariance, standardized mean differences, and Pearson correlations. The results showed higher posttest conceptual understanding in the strategy-based group (M = 82.35, SD = 6.78) than in the comparison group (M = 72.14, SD = 7.25), with a significant pretest-adjusted difference, F(1, 65) = 34.87, p < .001. Reported increases in metacognitive awareness were 13.21 and 3.32 points, respectively, and awareness was positively correlated with conceptual understanding (r = .67, p < .001). Classroom records also documented more planning, monitoring, and evaluation activities during strategy-based instruction. These findings contribute evidence for integrating metacognitive strategies into elementary mathematics teacher preparation, while implications for classroom teaching and pupils’ learning require further investigation.
Solving least common multiple (LCM) and greatest common factor (GCF) word problems requires conceptual reasoning and systematic verification, yet how fifth-grade students’ problem-solving processes vary across mathematics self-efficacy levels remains insufficiently described. This study aims to examine these processes through Polya’s four problem-solving stages. The study employed a qualitative descriptive design involving 39 fifth-grade students at Dabasah 3 Public Elementary School, Bondowoso, Indonesia, who completed a 16-item self-efficacy questionnaire and an eight-item constructed-response LCM/GCF assessment. Five students with contrasting self-efficacy and performance profiles were purposively selected for interviews and analysis of written solutions, supported by a teacher interview and documentation. Descriptive results indicated moderate self-efficacy among 21 students (53.8%) and moderate problem-solving performance among 32 (82.1%). Cross-case findings showed that the high-self-efficacy student selected a suitable strategy but failed to detect errors when checking. Students with moderate self-efficacy demonstrated divergent performance, including one high-performing case, whereas the low-self-efficacy student hesitated and incompletely monitored solutions. Across cases, recording given information and verifying answers posed recurring difficulties. This study contributes case-based evidence that self-efficacy and demonstrated performance did not consistently align, with implications for combining confidence-building support with conceptual explanation, procedural accuracy, and explicit checking routines.
Religious and cultural diversity in elementary schools creates opportunities for belonging within faith communities and relationships across them. Yet how religious values are expressed through school practices and associated with bonding and bridging social capital remains insufficiently understood. This study aims to explore pupils’ social identities and the practices associated with both forms of social capital in a multireligious elementary school in Gresik, Indonesia. The study employed a qualitative phenomenological approach involving 11 participants: one principal, two Islamic Religious Education teachers, five pupils, and three parents, selected mainly through purposive sampling with limited snowball recruitment. Data were gathered through in-depth interviews, participatory observations, and school documents, and analyzed through iterative data condensation, display, and conclusion drawing. The findings showed that pupils maintained distinct religious and cultural affiliations while identifying with a shared school community. Differentiated religious instruction provided space for particular identities, whereas Lunar New Year celebrations, halal bi halal, and community service offered opportunities for cross-group interaction. Bonding social capital was reflected in shared norms, trust, and mutual assistance, while bridging social capital appeared in cooperation across differences. The study contributes a context-bound heuristic linking religious values, habituated practices, social networks, and belonging with implications for school activities that recognize differences and support meaningful cross-group participation.
