This paper reports on a study exploring the in-service elementary school teachers satisfaction as far as the design and implementation of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), which took place during the second wave of pandemic COVID-19 and prepared in-service elementary school teachers how to teach biological concepts in Primary School with the utilization of digital educational content and Open Educational Recourses (OER). A total of 251 teachers enrolled in this MOOC of whom 142 completed the course and were asked to fill-in a questionnaire. The findings indicated that the majority of the participants were satisfied both with the specific learning experience and the participation in a learning community in which interaction, support and active participation were developed. Recommendations are made for future research.

<p>The role of the teacher is of great importance in learning and his beliefs affect effectiveness of teaching in every cognitive object. This paper deals with the personal self-efficacy beliefs and the outcome expectancy of in-service teachers teaching biological concepts in Primary School. The study was conducted with 509 in-service elementary teachers and the bio-STEBI-A, which is an adaptation of STEBI-A, was used as the data collection instrument. The results of our survey indicated that in-service elementary teachers scored moderate self-efficacy and their personal self-efficacy beliefs were found to be greater than their outcome expectancy. Recommendations are made for future research.</p><p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0620/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Teachers' Professional Development Massive Open Online Courses (TPD-MOOCs) are a new form of MOOCs and have influenced an intense research interest. This study reports on the design and implementation of a TPD-MOOC which utilizes digital educational content and Open Educational Recourses (OER) and supports in-service elementary school teachers to enhance their self-efficacy beliefs. In the design framework we take into consideration the findings of previous research and the educational needs of the participants. We conducted an experimental design research and compared the teachers' self-efficacy beliefs before and after their participation in a TPD-MOOC. A total of 251 teachers enrolled in this course and 142 of them completed it. We used quantitative data to measure the enhancement of teachers' self-efficacy beliefs and the effectiveness of the course. The results provide evidence that our TPD-MOOC improved in service elementary school teachers' self-efficacy beliefs in teaching biological concepts. Recommendations are made for future research.

This paper highlights the importance of teaching biological concepts in Primary Education and the need for enhancement in students of scientific literacy in general and biological literacy in particular. The students should be aware of the reality they experience in order to make decisions as active citizens and the teachers should use the best available methods and didactic approaches to enhance students' scientific literacy and prepare them for their real life. In this regard, it is important to build curricula that utilize multiple learning resources and adopt student-centred methods and practices such as inquiry-based learning, collaborative learning and the use of digital educational content. These approaches boost the 21st-century skills through the active participation of students and improve the learning outcomes. Hence, teachers play a significant role, because they should know those methods and practices to utilize in transmitting the scientific knowledge to the students and teach effectively the biological concepts to them.

The adult educators must acquire formal and substantive qualifications and develop skills that contribute to achieving the best learning outcomes. This paper dealt with the role of the adults' educator in teacher training programs.The role of the teacher training programs is to enhance an educational relationship, based on equity, between the teacher and the learner, with respect to the learners' needs and treatment as mature personalities with independent expertise. This research intended to investigate whether adult education methods are applied in teacher training programs and to describe the profile of the adult educator. The paper used the qualitative method. The major research results highlighted teachers believe that the adult educator plays a paramount role in their training and they insist that he must have good knowledge of adult education, experience as a trainer, and respect for his learners, empathy, and tolerance and he must also understand the special features of the adult learners.