International Journal of Education and Practice

Lesson study as a catalyst for enhancing EFL teachers’ instructional efficacy and professional development

Thu Minh Le — 2026-02-12

More recent lesson study studies have moved away from forming a judgment on teachers' competence and students' learning to focus on teachers' efficacy. This paper analyzes eight English teachers from a local university in the Mekong Delta, who are organized into four lesson study teams to enhance their professional development in teaching English as a foreign language. Using thematic analysis of qualitative data from interviews and observations, the findings indicated a positive impact of lesson study on teacher efficacy. In terms of the three important areas of instructional approaches, classroom management, and student engagement, teachers showed a rise in confidence. Particularly, they showed an improved ability to choose and modify strategies during instructional delivery in a lesson study session, while reflecting on and evolving through peer feedback. Classroom management skills are advanced by effective use of time management, positive reinforcement, and joint refinement of techniques and practices based on direct observation. Furthermore, strategies that encouraged relevance, interactive methods, and collaborative learning substantially improved student engagement. Results highlight the importance of lesson study as an effective means for teacher professional development and the improvement of pedagogy. The paper emphasizes the importance of collaborative learning, reflection, and feedback between peers in promoting teacher efficacy. These results provide clues for educators and policymakers in promoting the quality of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ practice.

Difficult concepts in chemistry as seen by Moroccan high school students: A survey in the Fez-Meknes region

Issam Habibi — 2026-02-12

This quantitative study investigates the conceptual difficulties in chemistry education among second-year baccalaureate students in Morocco’s Fez-Meknes region, focusing on identifying difficult concepts and comparing perceptions between different groups. We administered a reliable questionnaire (Cronbach’s alpha =0.86) to 250 students and 13 teachers across four urban and rural high schools, evaluating the perceived difficulty of 26 chemistry concepts on a four-point Likert scale. Results revealed that students identified nine concepts as particularly challenging (mean score >2.5), including chemical kinetics (temporal monitoring by conductometry and pressure measurement), density and mass density, electrochemistry (spontaneous transformations and batteries), organic chemistry nomenclature, and chemical transformations. Statistical analysis showed significant differences between teachers’ and students' perceptions (p=0.007) with teachers identifying 12 difficult concepts compared to students' nine, and consistently rating concepts as more difficult. The school environment had a significant impact (p=0.045) with rural students identifying 11 difficult concepts versus 9 for urban students and reporting higher difficulty levels while we found no significant gender-related differences (p=0.814). Based on these findings, we recommend adapting teaching approaches with active and contextualized methods, enhancing teacher training programs, and encouraging collaboration between educational stakeholders to make chemistry learning more accessible and effective, particularly for students in rural areas.

The impact of writing instruction based on ethnopedagogical approach assisted by GenAI and multimedia on students' writing ability

Hendra Apriyadi — 2026-02-13

This study aims to investigate the impact of writing learning based on an ethnopedagogical approach assisted by GenAI on essay writing skills. This study used a quasi-experimental method involving 250 students from Senior High School of Muhammadiyah Tegal. The groups were divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental group received an ethnopedagogical approach-based writing learning intervention assisted by GenAI, while the control group received a conventional intervention. Data analysis used in this study included ANOVA, t-test, and Post Hoc test to investigate the impact of the intervention on students' writing skills. The results showed that writing learning based on an ethnopedagogical approach assisted by GenAI and multimedia mediated by Vygotsky's theory was not only able to improve essay writing skills in the dimensions of task achievement, grammar, vocabulary, coherence, and cohesion but also able to improve the ability to develop written ideas on socio-cultural themes. Improvements in students' task achievement aspects were seen in the quality of essays in terms of completeness of information, accuracy of information, and minimum word count. Improvements in grammar use were seen in the use of essay writing grammar, vocabulary complexity and sentence use, and improvements in cohesion and coherence were seen in the organization of cohesive and coherent ideas. Thus, ethnopedagogical-based and GenAI-assisted instruction not only improved the quality of essay construction but also the quality of essay content. This study suggests that support with writing instruction and learning environments offers significant potential if designed appropriately.

Application of integrated contextual learning for developing students` terminological competence

Aigul Yessengeldinova — 2026-02-13

The growing contemporary global economic and cultural integration demands the training of highly skilled professionals with extensive proficiency in a subject-specific foreign language across various specialized fields. The significant transformation of the Kazakhstani education system within the context of multilingualism and digitalization revealed the insufficient effectiveness of teaching non-language subjects in English, a lack of a general unified system of teaching foreign language terminology, a shortage of quality textbooks, and a deficit in the quality of specialist training. The issue of developing a specialized foreign subject-content terminological competence as a secondary linguistic identity has become particularly significant. This study proposes a comprehensive integrated contextual learning approach that incorporates all essential dimensions of efficient terminology instruction, including structural coherence, innovative methods, and relevance to authentic contexts. The study explored the usage and effectiveness of integrated contextual learning in terminology teaching to enhance students’ trilingual professional terminological competence in English, Kazakh, and Russian. Literature review relies on a conceptual framework and terminological analysis within language acquisition training and its approaches. Employing a mixed-methods design, the research combines a quantitative survey and qualitative interviews to investigate learners’ experiences at different educational stages. Results confirm that contextualized, logically structured tasks supported by digital tools and interactive strategies, such as role-playing and group projects, significantly enhance the acquisition of interdisciplinary terminology in English. This approach, with cross-linguistic implementation, is suggested for a wide range of international learning settings beyond the Kazakhstani educational system.