Search Results (2,855)

In the age of intelligence, information technology (IT) education has become the focus of attention in the education sector. However, traditional teaching methods fall short in motivating students and fostering higher-order thinking and have difficulty providing a personalized learning experience. Although AI chatbots can provide instant feedback as an innovative teaching tool, it is still challenging to fully enhance learner engagement. Based on this, this study developed a digital game-based AI chatbot system to enhance students’ learning experience through digital game-based learning strategies. This study utilized a quasi-experimental design with the experimental group using a digital game-based AI chatbot and the control group using a traditional AI chatbot. A comparison was made between the two groups concerning student learning performance in IT courses, higher-order thinking (including problem-solving, computational thinking, and creativity), learning motivation, and flow experience. In addition, the behavioral patterns of high-achieving and low-achieving students in the experimental group were analyzed. The results showed that the experimental group was significantly better than the control group in academic performance, problem-solving, computational thinking, learning motivation, and flow experience, but there was no significant difference in creativity tendency. Behavioral pattern analysis showed that high-achieving students in the experimental group showed more systematic learning strategies, while low-achieving students relied more on immediate feedback and external help, but both high- and low-achieving groups were able to actively talk to the AI chatbot and actively explore problem-solving strategies in the digital game. Therefore, AI chatbots based on digital games can be effectively used in IT courses to help students construct knowledge and develop higher-order thinking. Full article

This paper proposes a redefinition of successful teaching and learning within Australia’s evolving educational system, framed by the context of global economic, societal, and environmental changes. It highlights the interconnectedness of these shifts with the Australian education system and introduces six essential habits of practice that can effectively prepare learners to navigate and shape their futures. To ensure the success of education in Australia, it is critical not only to respond to current challenges but also to equip students with the ability to make contributions to society, the economy, and the environment. The paper emphasises the importance of embedding these six habits into educational practices, which are critical for fostering the necessary skills, knowledge, and values in students. Furthermore, it discusses how the economic, social, and environmental contexts of Australia will demand specific capabilities from individuals, which can be nurtured through targeted educational practices. Full article

Innovation models are key to fostering technology-focused entrepreneurship in higher education institutions (HEIs). These models create dynamic environments that encourage collaboration, creativity, and problem-solving skills among students and faculty. HEIs face several challenges in fostering entrepreneurship, including allocating sufficient financial and human resources, integrating entrepreneurship education across disciplines, and managing intellectual property. Overcoming these challenges requires HEIs to cultivate an entrepreneurial culture and establish strong partnerships with industry stakeholders. To achieve these goals, HEIs must adopt successful innovation models proven to work. This article presents an international case study highlighting such models and the factors contributing to their success. This study explores the implementation and impact of innovation models, specifically IDEATION and DEETECHTIVE, within HEIs to foster technology-focused entrepreneurship. By implementing numerous actions focusing on online education integration and the Quintuple Helix Innovation Model, these models support shifting engineering students’ mindsets toward entrepreneurship. This research highlights the importance of academia–industry collaboration, international partnerships, and the integration of entrepreneurship education in technology-focused disciplines. This study presents two models. The first, IDEATION, focuses on open innovation and sharing economy aspects. This model underwent rigorous testing and refinement, evolving into the second model, DEETECHTIVE, which is more comprehensive and deep tech-focused. These models have been validated as effective frameworks for fostering entrepreneurship and innovation within HEIs. This study’s findings underscore the potential of these models to enhance innovation capacity, foster an entrepreneurial culture, and create ecosystems rich in creativity and advancement. Practical implications include the establishment of open innovation-oriented structures and mechanisms, the development of specialized curriculum components, and the creation of enhanced collaboration platforms. Full article

To effectively nurture the talents of elementary students with mathematical talent they need to be challenged with an advanced curriculum that is designed with their specific needs in mind. The purpose of this paper is to describe an effective model for developing such a curriculum and explore effective, research-based examples of curriculum and instruction using this model. The paper begins with a review of literature covering a broadened definition of mathematical talent that showcases the need for a more complex and multi-dimensional curriculum to nurture their talents. Next, evidence-based curriculum considerations for talented students at the elementary level are explored. Essential characteristics of mathematics curriculum for talented students are detailed including a focus on advanced content, conceptual development and higher-level processes akin to those used by mathematicians. Accompanying research-based instructional strategies to increase challenge, complexity, and creativity are outlined. Examples at the primary and elementary grade levels are provided to illustrate effective, research-based curriculum and instruction that develop mathematical talent in advanced students. Full article

Project-Based Learning (PBL) is positioned as a pedagogical approach to support authentic, discipline-rich STEM curricula. However, much of the research has focused on the effectiveness of researcher-created curricula rather than teacher-created curricula. In this manuscript, we seek to illuminate the ways in which teachers create discipline-rich STEM projects. Drawing on the theory of the curriculum enactment process, we analyzed curricular artifacts from our teaching practices that we created as secondary STEM teachers who designed and enacted project-based learning. From the analysis, we propose a framework grounded in disciplinary standards to support teachers in creating discipline-rich STEM projects by attending to (1) the Elements of PBL; (2) Content Storyline; (3) Practice Pathway. Full article

Background: Skin disease is a significant contributor to the global disease burden, with dermatologic health disparities adding to this burden. Internists, general practitioners, and other medical professionals often manage skin disease with limited exposure to dermatologic education in medical school. Objective: This study evaluated a brief educational intervention for medical students to improve dermatologic knowledge, diagnostic and communication skills, and comfort in performing dermatology-focused physical exams. A secondary focus of the intervention was to promote awareness of skin disease, detection, and prevention for patients with a variety of skin tones. Methods: Sixty-five first through fourth-year students at Rutgers RWJMS participated in a pre-test–post-test within-subject study. Students described images using open-ended responses followed by multiple-choice identification questions. Students watched a one-hour self-paced module created by a licensed dermatologist and completed a follow-up assessment. Results: At pre-test, descriptions were brief and often inaccurate but significantly improved post-intervention to include descriptors such as primary morphology and demarcation. Accuracy on diagnostic and management questions significantly improved and comfort in advising patients and performing dermatologic exams significantly increased. Conclusions: A low-cost, brief, self-paced module can augment dermatologic education for medical students while increasing exposure to multiple skin tone presentations of lesions. Full article

Since 1964, Japan has been conducting a wide fitness and athletic skills evaluation among 2000–3000 school children. This study used data made public by the Japan Sports Agency from four events that have continuously been evaluated from 1964 to 2021—grip strength, 50 meter dash, repetitive side jumps, and softball throw—to depict a secular trend over the course of 58 years. This is to statistically categorize these into generations, establishing secular contrast by identifying high and low scores for each event within the categorized generations, with the intent to examine the factors embedded within the background. The generations that had the highest average across all four events were the measurements made in 1970–1993 for males and in 1972–1994 for females. Changes made to the curriculum guidelines may have played a role in the differences found within each event. The goal of physical education and its syllabus and assigned hours in the curriculum guidelines are revised approximately every 10 years to meet social demand. Changes in the social and living environments surrounding children may be exhibited in the form of secular contrast in the measured physical fitness and athletic skills. Full article

This study evaluated the usability of a content literacy curriculum designed for graduate students’ practicum experience in a virtual after-school tutoring program for U.S. third-grade multilingual students during the COVID-19 pandemic. We explored teacher perceptions of the successes and challenges encountered while implementing the curriculum. This study involved 12 elementary school teachers enrolled in a graduate school professional development program to fulfill their practicum requirements. The curriculum emphasized a thematic unit that utilized conceptually coherent texts across science and social studies, comprehension monitoring, academic vocabulary network building, and academic conversation. An analysis of teachers’ written reflections revealed that a significant success was the enhancement of students’ engagement in learning concepts and building vocabulary through high-interest informational texts. Teachers also recognized critical teaching moments that underscored the importance of developing interconnected knowledge structures for effective text comprehension and learning. However, the study identified a need for targeted and individualized scaffolding to support students with reading comprehension challenges, making complex texts more accessible. Additionally, the shift to remote teaching necessitated the development of a new pedagogical model for professional development to effectively address the evolving needs of teachers in virtual learning environments. Full article

Earners from Native American communities in the U.S. experience unfamiliar curricula that are designed and implemented by educators from the dominant culture who are often unprepared to meet the needs of diverse leaners. Consequently, teacher education programs have a responsibility to equipe preservice teachers with knowledge and skills essential to integrating culturally relevant contents. Therefore, this collaborative autoethnography conducted as a teacher-educator professional development program, explored the perspectives of Native Peoples on preferred pedagogical approaches for Indigenous learners. Data were collected through autobiographical notes, written reflections, focus groups, interactive activities with study participants, and structured interviews. A thematic analysis resulted in two findings, that is, importance of contextually appropriate curriculum and the value of community-based collaborative learning professional development activities in supporting authentic culturally responsive lessons for teacher educators. Among other recommendations, the data support the enactment of teacher education programs that support intentional culturally collaborative Community-Based Professional Development activities between educators and Indigenous Peoples. Full article

The massive relocation of international students calls for a thorough investigation of diverse difficulties faced by them, among which language-related barriers are reported to have serious consequences. The main goal of this research is to investigate accent-related challenges as barriers to comprehension and effective communication faced by international students in the United Kingdom (UK), along with the factors that helped or could help the students in terms of having better experiences. The scope of this study is limited to native British accents. The study relies on data collected to analyse the impact of native-accented speech, both qualitatively and quantitatively, on the listening experiences of currently enrolled or recently graduated international students in a British university. The underlying mixed-method approach is comprised of a survey and an interview. Analysis of data collected from the survey (n = 33 participants) revealed that 42% of the participants considered native-accented speech as the biggest factor affecting their listening comprehension. This is followed by a fast speech rate, which was selected by 36% of the participants. Regarding mitigation of the difficulties, participants showed mixed responses in terms of adopting various strategies. During the interview, participants (n = 6) shared their listening comprehension experiences, particularly those encountered during the initial months after their arrival in the UK. The results obtained are potentially useful in terms of students’ support, English as a Second Language (ESL) curriculum design, English language teachers’ training and establishing learning pedagogies. Full article

This article explores the topic of meditation hindrances and breakthroughs. In the traditional literature, meditation hindrances are seen as phenomena counteracting meditative activity. However, hindrances are also seen as grounds for meditative growth and breakthroughs. In current meditation research, there is an effort to understand negative effects, sometimes referred to as challenging, adverse, or harmful effects. Little is known about how people experience and deal with meditation hindrances, and especially how they experience the dissolution of hindrances (breakthroughs). The method applied to shed light on this is an innovative and multilevel phenomenological method, which includes biographical exploration, daily notetaking and reflection, and micro-phenomenology. The participants consisted of a group of five people, and the setting was a 6-day meditation retreat. We offer a new perspective on this research not only by developing the concept of meditation hindrances but also by suggesting and showing how negative effects may be part of a process leading up to a breakthrough, where the negative aspect dissolves, potentially giving rise to positive outcomes. Full article

The concerns about ensuring scientific literacy for all are underpinned by international recommendations from organizations such as the UN and the OECD for science education. They advocate for science education from a contextualized, sequential, systematic, and active perspective on the students’ learning process, starting from the early years of schooling. It is based on these pedagogical principles that the research project the “Experimental Science Teaching Program” (PEEC) was founded. This article aims to disseminate an evaluation of the PEEC for primary education, which includes a science teaching curriculum proposal, teaching activities and resources (e.g., digital games), and assessment record instruments for learning. This program was developed using an Educational Design Research methodological approach based on iterative cycles, with the collaboration of a multidisciplinary team (e.g., teachers, researchers, and children). For a final evaluation of the PEEC components, we consulted the ten participating teachers through a questionnaire survey one year after the end of their official collaboration. The main results highlight the relevance and appropriateness of the proposals presented for the targeted age group and the assumptions and objectives of science education in terms of the curriculum, teaching resources, and digital assessment games. Teachers also mentioned continuing to use the PEEC resources after their participation in this study. These results underscore the need to expand and promote projects of this nature to contribute to more practical science education in Portugal and, consequently, to increase children’s levels of scientific literacy. Full article

This qualitative study takes place in an urban community that has high rates of HIV among Black youth. Six faith leaders were interviewed (five identified as Christian and one identified as Muslim). Three major themes arose from the interviews, including (1) the role of sex and HIV; (2) hindrances to sexual health conversations with youth; and (3) considering religious principles to prevent HIV in Black youth. Findings from this study can be used to inform an HIV-prevention curriculum for Black youth who identify strongly with their religion and spirituality and live in high HIV-risk communities. Full article

Background: Childhood obesity is a global public health concern. Development of effective public health interventions represents the only viable option for decreasing the prevalence of childhood obesity. The objective of this study was to assess the effectiveness of a school-based “PETICA—Play for Health” obesity prevention program in urban and rural areas in Croatia. Methods: This before-and-after study included 28 elementary schools in Croatia focused on pupils (n = 753, 2nd grade) and their guardians (n = 753) during the school year 2022/2023. “PETICA” multicomponent lessons and workshops (10) were implemented in the school curriculum and home settings (parents) as part of the intervention. Knowledge and lifestyle habit changes were evaluated via the questionnaire on knowledge and habits regarding nutrition and physical activity pre-/post-education. The Wilcoxon test for paired samples, Student’s t-test (dependent and independent samples), multiple Mann Whitney U tests (p < 0.05), Spearman’s correlation, and heatmaps were used. Results: The analysis showed a significant increase in acquired knowledge among pupils (both settings) and habits in the rural setting (increase in sports activities participation, breakfast, and vegetables consumption (p < 0.001, p = 0.003, p = 0.004)), decrease of sweets and salty snacks intake (p = 0.027, p = 0.011), and also, the link between parents’ and children’s physical activity levels (p = 0.028 vs. p = 0.022), emphasizing the importance of parents as healthy lifestyle role-models. Conclusion: The study shows that “PETICA” is an efficient school-based educational model that contributes to positive changes in children’s knowledge and lifestyle habits that are a prerequisite for childhood obesity prevention. Full article

The application of biosensors in neurolinguistics has significantly advanced the detection and mapping of language areas in the brain, particularly for individuals with brain trauma. This study explores the role of biosensors in this domain and proposes a conceptual model to guide their use in research and clinical practice. The researchers explored the integration of biosensors in language and brain function studies, identified trends in research, and developed a conceptual model based on cluster and thematic analyses. Using a mixed-methods approach, we conducted cluster and thematic analyses on data curated from Web of Science, Scopus, and SciSpace, encompassing 392 articles. This dual analysis facilitated the identification of research trends and thematic insights within the field. The cluster analysis highlighted Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) dominance and the importance of neuroplasticity in language recovery. Biosensors such as the Magnes 2500 watt-hour (WH) neuromagnetometer and microwire-based sensors are reliable for real-time monitoring, despite methodological challenges. The proposed model synthesizes these findings, emphasizing biosensors’ potential in preoperative assessments and therapeutic customization. Biosensors are vital for non-invasive, precise mapping of language areas, with fMRI and repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) playing pivotal roles. The conceptual model serves as a strategic framework for employing biosensors and improving neurolinguistic interventions. This research may enhance surgical planning, optimize recovery therapies, and encourage technological advancements in biosensor precision and application protocols. Full article