Enhancing the problem-solving skills of learners belonging to socio-economically disadvantaged groups is a great concern in general and particularly in the Indian context. Problem-solving skills are the most important skills of the 21st century for all learners to acquire necessary competencies. The main purpose of this work is to investigate the effect of metacognitive brainstorming strategy, gender, and residential areas, and their various interactions on problem-solving skills in physics for ninth-grade learners who belong to socio-economically marginalised groups. The pre-test–post-test, quasi-experimental design was applied to 107 learners from two government-sponsored schools of the same nature located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. The 55 learners in the experimental group were given intervention through a metacognitive brainstorming strategy, whereas the 52 learners in the control group were taught the same lessons by simply using the conventional method. Self-developed and standard problem-solving skills test with a reliability of 0.89 and validity of 0.94 were employed on them as pre-test and post-test instances. The correlated t-test, independent samples t-test, and 2 × 2 factorial design analysis of covariance were applied for data analysis through Statistical Package for Social Science. The results revealed that the brainstorming instructional strategy had a huge effect on problem-solving skills due to its large effect size value (2.23 > 1.2). Moreover, the problem-solving skills of learners in physics were found to be independent of gender and residential areas, and also of their interaction with the treatment strategy, when the pre-problem-solving skill was taken as a covariate.

Flipped classroom is a strategy in which students are given their initial exposure to ideas via instructional videos that they are told to view at home, freeing up in-class time to engage students in other student-centered activities. Although the impact of flipped classroom in higher education has been documented, it is necessary to investigate the impact of flipped classroom in K-12. As a result, a quasi-experimental research on the effectiveness of the flipped classroom strategy in mathematics is being undertaken in a secondary school in India. Flipped classroom has been proven to increase students' practical skills, analytical skills, and creative skills. Keywords: flipped classroom, secondary education, mathematics, K-12 setting, practical skills, analytical skills, creative skills

The regulation of teacher education is important to promote quality educator preparation across the world, and many countries have regulatory bodies in the attempt to ensure this. Yet, the quality of teacher education in many corners of the globe is falling. Lack of maintenance and deterioration of professional standards are found in various programs and policies, for example, in access or admission policies, appointment of personnel, infrastructure maintenance, and modes or styles of delivering pedagogical skills, among others. Teacher education programs around the world are not governed by a single system. There are various modes though which teacher education is offered, such as departments of education in universities or institutions, independent teacher education universities or institutions, and the like. Regulatory bodies regarding teacher education, which originated after the middle of the 20th century, mainly perform these prime functions: provide recognition or affiliation to the teacher education institutions based on certain criteria; set standards for the infrastructure of the institutions for running the programs; define or regulate the curricula of the programs; and formulate guidelines for the award of certificates, diplomas, and degrees. The nature and functions of regulatory bodies vary from country to country, keeping in mind the contextual demand of teacher education in the respective countries. Teacher education regulatory bodies are more visible in federal or decentralized countries because of the diverse features and complex nature of their teacher education systems. A regulatory body becomes dysfunctional when it deviates from its main concerns and objectives; for example, it is observed in some cases a regulatory body of teacher education performs accreditation-related functions, whereas in other cases the accreditation body of education performs the regulatory function of teacher education. Yet, the regulatory bodies of teacher education should work according to the mandates and objectives entrusted to them. When a regulatory body of teacher education system is free from impediments that affect it and works with zeal to achieve its mandates, it can effectively increase the quality of the teacher education system. The stakeholders of a teacher education system feel better about the system when its regulatory body is transparent, constructive, and trustworthy.

Efforts were made to verify the effect of metacognitive scaffolding as an instructional strategy on learning outcomes related to concepts of acids, bases, and salts for ninth-grade pupils in physical science. A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design was employed. One hundred and seven (107) students from two government-sponsored schools chosen using a purposive sampling technique in the city of Kolkata, West Bengal, India, were sampled. For the experiment, 55 learners in the experimental group and 52 in the control group were selected. Only the experimental group of learners received treatment via metacognitive scaffolding. To obtain data, the researcher administered a self-developed and standardised criteria test (with a reliability coefficient of 0.86 and a validity of 0.93) and a reaction scale. For data analysis, one-way ANCOVA, percentiles, means, standard deviations, and coefficients of variation were applied. Results of the study demonstrated that the students who received treatment acquired better learning outcomes than the others. Furthermore, treatment recipients responded favourably to the use of metacognitive scaffolding when learning physical science.