Educ. Sci., Volume 13, Issue 8 (August 2023) – 91 articles

PBL is a widely used teaching approach that is increasingly incorporating digital components. Although, by its nature, a face-to-face approach is the preferred mode of delivery, its digital counterpart is gaining ground. The current paper discusses the digital redesign of PBL in an MSc in Biomedical Sciences. Face-to-face and online PBL followed the seven steps of the PBL process, and each case was completed in three sessions. For the delivery of online PBL, collaborative tools were utilized, including CiscoWebex, the online platform for synchronous meetings, and OneDrive, shareable PPT, and Moodle for synchronous and asynchronous self-directed learning. Three cohorts were followed, and students had both face-to-face and online PBL experiences. Student feedback was obtained using focus groups, and data analysis utilized a deductive and inductive approach. Our data indicate that CiscoWebex is a suitable and user-friendly platform for synchronous online PBL. The students enjoyed both formats and stated that online PBL is an effective teaching approach for promoting student learning. In regards to student interaction, the face-to-face mode was preferred, while online PBL was perceived as more organized. The redesign allowed for effective student learning and could pave the way forward for a fully online MSc program in Biomedical Sciences. Full article

Today’s challenges, such as climate change, require developing geographical literacy, which includes discussion and argumentation around scientific results. One important geographical method and competency is comparison. However, learning geographical methods, such as comparison, can be a challenge for students if they rarely solve open tasks that do not require simple answers. In this study, we analysed group discussions that took place during an intervention, aiming to develop comparison competency with 44 German and French students from the experimental group. Through the use of the documentary method, students’ main orientations and strategies to solve the open comparison tasks were reconstructed. We related the implementation of the comparison method during group discussions to students’ individual progress during the intervention and explored differences between French and German students. Results show that students’ main task completion orientation was challenged by their uncertainty towards the comparison task. Groups developed strategies to solve the task, showing, in a few cases, competency acquisition processes. Only a few differences were found between German and French students. Overall, implementing scientific literacy means to operate a shift in task culture at schools towards more open tasks aiming to enhance geographical competencies and argumentation. Full article

CAPBL is an example of a student-led, Creative Arts/Project-Based Learning (CAPBL/PBL) curriculum approach to working with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) learners. This mixed-methods, quasi-experimental study seeks to explore staff and student perceptions of working in this way and establish key themes for practice in relation to equity and inclusion. Although the literature on PBL is widespread, CAPBL is novel in that it brings these ideas to a specialist SEND, post-16 context, Further Education (FE), with a particular focus on arts education currently absent from the existing literature. This small-scale research project is positioned as a participant-led action research project involving qualitative/quantitative mixed-method instruments, bassline testing, questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews. Preliminary findings indicate that students and staff experience several benefits to working this way, including positive engagement with learning, self-efficacy, and ownership. This paper attempts to provide workable conclusions for practice located within theoretical frameworks that offer professional resistance to prevailing preoccupations with prescription in curriculum design and pedagogy both nationally and internationally. Specifically, civic compassion and pedagogical partnership are considered in relation to the experiences of learners and staff attempting to work this way. By challenging dominant paradigms of knowledge-led learning at a national level, CAPBL seeks to actively include SEND learners in the global processes of curriculum design itself. Full article

The goal of the Maximize Program is to collaborate with educators to develop resources and procedures to facilitate teachers’ use of equity-focused behavioral supports. In this study, we describe teachers’ responses to the first iteration of the interactive Maximize Technology Platform. Ninety elementary school teachers from three schools were encouraged to use the platform to learn about the foundational concept of equity literacy, complete a self-assessment of practices, and set a goal for improvement. We observed teachers’ platform use, self-reported use of 10 behavior support strategies, goals set for improving equity-focused features of these strategies, and reported progress during the first quarter of the academic year. Over 70% of teachers reported frequent use of four strategies: Classroom Expectations, Praise, Greetings, and Community Circles. Fewer teachers reported using Student Choice, Effective Questioning, and Corrective Feedback. Variations in use between general education and other teachers were observed. Over 60% of teachers set an equity-focused goal. Variability in the types of goals set and rates of reported improvement highlight the complexity of this work. Results offer promise about the use of interactive technology to facilitate professional learning and goal-setting about equity initiatives and offer insights for leveraging interactive technology to facilitate teachers’ implementation of equity-focused practices. Full article

The concept and practice of general education have been widely discussed and debated in the Euro-American world, but its adaptation in China needs further discussion and understanding. Over the past decade, its impact on Chinese higher education is increasingly salient, with a large number of Chinese first-tier universities claiming to initiate general education reforms to their previously narrowly focused undergraduate programs. This paper explores the development, implementation, and support of general education in a new type of research university in China from an organizational perspective. Through a case study of the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper examines SUSTech’s individualized and innovation-based general education system, highlighting its institution-wide approach and innovation-centered perspective. The findings underscore the importance of integrating general education principles throughout the university to foster self-directed thinkers and cultivate students’ self-awareness, interests, and passions. This study also reveals how general education is used as an organizational solution to address a variety of historical and complicated issues that challenge Chinese universities. This research serves as a catalyst for reform and innovation in Chinese higher education, inspiring transformative practices that meet the evolving needs of students and society. Full article

A decade ago, massively open online courses (MOOCs) were heralded as the solution to universal, global access to higher education. While they failed to reach this vision, primarily because of teaching-by-telling and learning-by-listening (a PDF of the residential classroom), MOOCs provided the foundational models and infrastructure for emergency remote learning in the pandemic. Reports of remote learning’s death post-pandemic are greatly exaggerated, since the world is now irreversibly hybrid—and will stay that way because many people and organizations value the new opportunities this presents. From now on, when students leave the shelter of classrooms to interact with the world beyond schooling, they must have skills for adept performance both face-to-face and across distance. Colleges, universities, and regions that force all teaching and learning to be face-to-face are dooming their graduates to reduced agency in every other aspect of life. As discussed in recent reports from Harvard, MIT, and Stanford, innovative approaches to digital learning were developed during the pandemic that are now improving campus-based learning. Insights from these approaches offer the opportunity for student engagement at scale, taking advantage of strengths of online instruction such as collapsing time, bridging space, personalizing via rich datastreams, using AI-based instructional assistants and learning partners, delivering content and experience across universities, and sustaining online learning communities after formal instruction ends. Combined, these advances can enable next-generation massive digital hybrid learning, a means to achieve the aspirational vision of universal global access to higher education. A coalition of higher education institutions could begin to realize this vision, an essential step in enabling all learners to survive and thrive in our increasingly turbulent, disruptive global economy and civilization. Full article

This article, drawing on recent research on Language Other than English (LOTE) programs in China’s universities, examines the impact of multilingual education policy on the professional development of LOTE teachers. We argue for the mediating roles of LOTE programs as they carry the influence of education policy on teacher development. In other words, LOTE programs may influence the way in which education policy impacts teacher development. Specifically, LOTE programs seem to play three mediating roles: (1) How education policy is perceived and understood by the program designer or/and coordinator impacts how LOTE teachers who engage in the program are influenced, (2) how educational resources are allocated to teachers teaching in the LOTE program impacts teachers’ professional development, (3) how teachers actually position themselves in the LOTE program as opposed to their identities positioned by education policy and the university administration impacts their professional development. In a word, the influence of multilingual education policy on the professional development of LOTE teachers may be mediated by such meso- and micro-level factors as administration, resource, and identity work. Full article

Inquiry, an approach that departs from traditional mathematics teaching, empowers students through active participation and increased accountability in exploration, argumentation, evaluation, and communication of mathematical ideas. There is broad research consensus on the benefits of inquiry-based approaches to teaching and learning mathematics, including their potential to support equitable mathematics classrooms. While research has separately explored teachers’ conceptions of inquiry and their efforts to enact the practice, little is known about the interplay between mathematics teachers’ conceptions and enactment, and how it could be harnessed in professional development. In this study, we follow Alex, an experienced upper secondary mathematics teacher unfamiliar with inquiry, as he participates in a one-semester professional development course that draws on inquiry in multiple ways. His trajectory towards learning to teach through inquiry is revealed through patterns and shifts in his reflections and classroom actions. Our findings reveal significant developments in Alex’s conception of inquiry and in how he realizes it in his classroom, identifying three paths that illuminate his inquiry trajectory: the teacher’s role in inquiry interactions, a growing idea of inquiry, and orchestrating whole-class situations. In the interplay between enacting and reflecting, he moves from distributing authority separately between himself and ‘the students’ (as one unit) to fostering shared authority, a key aspect of empowerment, between himself and his students (as multiple voices) in both groupwork and whole-class episodes. Full article

In recent years, Integrated STEAM education has been positioned as an appropriate educational approach to face the challenges of today’s society. Nevertheless, to implement this approach in the classroom requires trained and productively teachers. From this perspective, the objective of this article, is to analyse the impact of integrated STEAM education on teachers through their perceptions in a group of 31 in-service Chilean teachers teaching both in early childhood and primary education, with the aim to obtain a diagnosis for the future design of training processes in STEAM. To obtain data, the adaptation of an instrument that evaluates teachers’ perceptions of integrated STEM education has been validated. Specifically, three dimensions of this instrument have been analysed: familiarity, attitudes, and confidence of teachers about this educational approach. The results show that: (1) Familiarity: only 6% of the participants consider themselves very familiar with the approach; (2) Attitude: 97% of the participants declare themselves to be very willing or moderately willing to learn more about STEAM; (3) Confidence: the data shows, in general, a moderate level of confidence to implement this approach. In relation to the impact of STEAM integrated education in the Chilean teacher’s perceptions, it can be noted that despite the familiarity of the participants is very low, the scenario seems encouraging, because they show a very positive attitude towards this approach, together with a moderate confidence to implement it. Even though these early findings are encouraging, they also show that the teacher’s formation is fundamental, because its impact in the teachers, reverberates directly in a positive impact on the students. Consequently, it is necessary to promote the professional development of teachers in STEAM through training programs that improve knowledge about the approach and deliver the necessary tools to implement it in the classroom. Full article

Europe has just established the first regulation for artificial intelligences. Large technology corporations and private educational institutions are already imagining neural networks educating us. Has anyone stopped to think about who, how and for what purpose we humans are going to educate machines? The Spanish critical pedagogy research team (PEDACRI), after participating in international conferences on digital education, robotics, ethics in the metaverse and cartography of hyperreality and participating in various publications on the challenges of pedagogy and ethics in the technologisation of educational processes, reflects in this essay on the challenges and questions we need to ask ourselves to imagine the post-human or trans-human community to come. Reviewing works coming from philosophy and those plays, series and films that address the future and the relationship between humans and machines, we analyse the opportunities and threats that can humanise machines or programme them as soulless weapons, which can civilise us or return us to a state of barbarism. The word robot, let us not forget, is derived from the Polish word roboca, which means “slave”. Will we be able, as the replicant in Blade Runner wonders, to programme silence? What can philosophy and pedagogy contribute to the ethical programming of algorithms? Full article

In the face of global issues such as climate change, the world needs action competent, transformationally gifted citizens, who are willing to step up and take responsibility for a better future. However, empirical evidence on what supports the development of transformational giftedness is limited. Furthermore, the relationship between academic giftedness and transformational giftedness has not been clearly pronounced. The purpose of this study is to address this research gap by examining students’ climate competencies. A total of 1703 students from five Finnish high schools (grades 10–12) participated in this study. Using a questionnaire, students’ climate change knowledge, values, willingness to take action, sense of responsibility, environmental concern, and perceptions on how climate change issues are dealt with in school were examined. Four of the schools were general education high schools, while one was for students formally identified as gifted students. The findings indicate that academically gifted students in both general education schools and the gifted school show more climate competencies than average-ability students. Furthermore, gifted students that attended the school for gifted students show more climate competencies than the gifted students from general education schools. Based on the findings, the paper discusses how the development of transformational giftedness can be better supported in education. Full article

The increasing interest in early childhood mathematics education for decades has increased the need for empirically supported pedagogical strategies. However, there is little agreement on how early math might best be taught. We draw from the empirical literature to paint a picture of research-based and research-validated pedagogical approaches and strategies for teaching early math. Most approaches share core characteristics, including concern for children’s interests and engagement and for working on content matched to children’s level of thinking. Learning trajectories are an especially useful organizing structure because they combine and integrate educational goals, development of children’s thinking, and empirically supported pedagogical strategies. Therefore, they help teachers interpret what the child is doing, thinking, and constructing, and offer instructional activities that extend children’s mathematical thinking. Simultaneously, teachers can see instructional strategies from the child’s perspective, offering meaningful and joyful opportunities to engage in learning. Full article

In England, there are proportionately more White British teachers than White British pupils, and so there is a mismatch between the proportion of teachers and pupils of each ethnic minority group. This mismatch may reduce the number of appropriate role models for some pupils and has been linked to differences in school processes and the behaviour and treatment of ethnic minority pupils. The evidence is weaker regarding any link between ethnic disproportionality and attainment. This paper uses school-level school workforce and pupil attainment data to assess this link. The results are presented as correlations between teacher/pupil characteristics and attainment scores at ages 11 and 16 and as regression models predicting attainment scores using teacher/pupil characteristics. There is no evidence here that ethnic (dis)proportionality is linked to discernible differences in pupil attainment once relative poverty is taken into account. However, as the data are linked at the school level rather than the individual level, we cannot separate the attainment of pupils of different ethnic origins, and the ethnic classification for teachers is simply binary. We are working to overcome these data limitations and hope to present future analyses based on individual data with more detailed ethnic groupings to provide a more definitive result. Full article

Critical Thinking is considered a key component of Higher Education that supports graduates’ preparation for the labor market. However, in the field of teacher education more research is needed to support student-teachers with regard to the complexity of schools. It is considered that a teaching practicum can set the stage for the cultivation of Critical Thinking skills and dispositions, as student-teachers have to face real problems and be led to decision-making. The paper presented here describes the curriculum transformation of courses offering theoretical lectures and teaching practicum in the Department of Primary Education, University of Western Macedonia. After focus group discussion with in-service teachers, the Critical Thinking skills and dispositions considered necessary for teacher education were thoroughly described and utilized for the course design. The courses were modified to include a variety of teaching strategies following the direct infusion approach for training in Critical Thinking with the aim of promoting reflective practices for fostering student-teachers’ critical reflection. In this way, they can be empowered regarding their professional development. Full article

Flight has become a common everyday occurrence. We have engineered ever more efficient and reliable aircraft, facilitating safe transportation around the world. However, from the education literature on the topic of lift, online discussions, and YouTube, it becomes apparent that there are underlying pedagogical issues. The 2003 New York Times article by Chang and the 2020 Scientific American article by Regis conclude that no one really understands flight. These claims are made without regard for the underpinning science and engineering responsible for the modern aviation industry. Although, it does beg the question, why is there confusion about how wings work? Several factors have conspired together, resulting in this confusion. Fluid mechanics is a complex topic that stumped legends of physics and mathematics for centuries. It also contains paradoxes, exacerbating the complexity. However, the central thesis of this work is that knowledge about aerodynamics is not easy to construct due to two main factors. First, there are epistemological traps that directly lead to fallacious conclusions. Second, representativeness heuristics incorrectly apply behaviors of visible water to invisible air. While many assume they know how wings work, if they do not understand why there is confusion, rather than dismissing it, confusion will endure. Full article

The discussion about first-year engineering students’ difficulties in mathematics is continuous in the fields of engineering, mathematics and higher education. The present study aimed to examine the initial barriers academic math teachers need to have in mind if they want to improve students’ performance in engineering math courses through appropriate teaching practices in order to face their initial interindividual differences. During the first phase of the study, we examined first year engineering students’ initial beliefs about the nature of mathematics, their self-efficacy beliefs about mathematics and their basic mathematical knowledge. The math school grade was used for their previous mathematical performance. Results indicated the predominant role of the previous mathematical knowledge and the important role of the formalistic disposition toward mathematics. The lack of experience of using mathematics for problem-solving situations within an engineering framework prevented students from recognizing and appreciating the value of mathematical courses during the engineering studies. The second phase of the study examined, through an interview with a group of students, their perceptions of the teaching practices which were introduced after their teacher attended a training program. The discussion concentrates on how academics can use teaching processes for equity and not equality in order to motivate their students. Full article

The study aims to determine whether the images of a teacher in the normative document and the minds of student teachers coincide, as well as to identify the differences. A total of 236 students of the Faculty of Philology and History participated in the associative experiment. The words “ability”, “readiness”, and “possession” are the most common words used in the normative documents of the Russian Federation in the context of higher education. The concept of “teacher” is the main stimulus word in the associative experiment. The results of the associative experiment revealed a group of the most frequent associative words. In addition, based on the quantitative indicators of the associative experiment, nine thematic groups of associative words were formed. A comparative analysis of the indicators of an associative experiment involving students from different countries can make it possible to compare the features of national education systems and show their effect on the formation of a teacher image in the minds of student teachers. Full article

The COVID-19 pandemic forced institutions of higher education into an emergency remote teaching practice. In this study, the researchers utilized a convergent triangulation mixed-methods study design to investigate the technological challenges and growth that faculty experienced in seven schools at the University of Mississippi Medical Center as a result of the transition to emergency remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. Quantitative data were collected through an anonymous online survey that asked faculty to rate their competency in each of the 14 technology-related tasks twice—once for the pre-pandemic period and once for the current period. Qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews conducted virtually or in person. One hundred faculty participated in the quantitative survey. A significant difference between faculty self-rated competency levels in the pre-pandemic period and the current period was observed, suggesting technology knowledge growth from the forced transition. Qualitative interviews of 19 faculty revealed five overarching themes: inconsistency in instructional support, pandemic-induced technological growth, power of togetherness, maintaining continuity through flexibility, and resilience against adversity. This study provided faculty with the experience to perform effective self-reflection and gain insights into their pedagogical practices. Future research should focus on professional development that can help faculty remain up-to-date on technology utilization and establish a contingency plan to better prepare for the unknown. Full article

Scotland is a small country with an education system whose roots lie within an inclusive and egalitarian approach to the education of young people. Subsequent legislation, policies, and curriculum frameworks have been influenced by this, and also by the international move toward equitable, inclusive, and quality lifelong learning for all. Supporting those who are highly able/gifted and talented against such a backdrop offers both opportunities and challenges. In this qualitative study, the Global Principles for Professional Learning in Gifted Education are used to interrogate recent key legislation; the current curriculum framework, Curriculum for Excellence, and the National Framework for Inclusion; to ascertain the extent to which this inclusive approach, on paper, affords in-class and school-based support for gifted and talented/highly able learners. The results indicate that the legislative and policy frameworks coalesce with the Global Principles. While legislation does not change practice, it does influence and shape practice, and so can be used as a springboard for developing dynamic, culturally appropriate opportunities for Scotland’s gifted young people. Full article

Striving toward goal completion and achieving objectives is one of the motors of personal advancement. The path to goal completion is fueled by many reasons, among which motivation stands out as one of the core impulses. Motivation acquires a particularly high relevance in learning, prompting educators to mind its substance when designing not only the material to be imparted but also the approach and the mechanisms to assess knowledge acquisition. The intrinsic nature of motivation might stem from self-realization, thriving in specific goals, or even exploring unknown ground. One of the main teacher–student interactions is the provision of adequate tools to achieve learning outcomes. One of the tools available to teachers is the exercise of extrinsic motivation. This paper proposes and assesses the initial implementation of a student-involved extrinsic motivation method. A pilot group in the Junior year of a Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering program was selected, in which the evaluation system was slightly modified with respect to the system that is normally used. The course selected for the study was a compulsory six European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) course covering production and manufacturing technology. Students were asked to partake in the drafting of questions to assess their own knowledge, hence indirectly increasing their motivation to learn the content. The tentative results obtained with the pilot group appear to be positive and relevant. Students showed a higher engagement during class and reported needing fewer hours of preparation at home (32% reduction). In addition, global satisfaction with the course was improved. Full article

Kindergarten’s physical and social environment influences preschoolers’ physical activity (PA) and impacts their development. This study aimed first to describe the quality of the opportunities provided by the physical attributes and social guidelines to promote PA and, second, to investigate the relationship between design attributes and daily practices to support PA in sixteen Portuguese kindergartens (15 public). The Children’s Physical Environment Rating Scale was used to rate the quality of the design attributes. Sixteen directors and teachers filled out surveys to quantify the equipment available and assess the quality of the written policies and daily practices to promote PA. Correlations between design attributes and daily practices to support PA were analyzed. The results emphasize the need for improvements in indoor settings that facilitate a wide range of gross motor activities for children. Similarly, outdoor environments should be designed to enable play opportunities regardless of weather conditions, encouraging children to engage in diverse and challenging physical activities. Providing more times per year for teachers’ PA training is also necessary. The design attributes and daily practices to support children’s PA were related. In kindergartens with a room only for PA, children spent less time sitting and more time in teacher-led PA. In kindergartens with large and challenging outdoor areas, children engaged in more intense PA. However, having a roofed protection area outdoors was not sufficient to decrease indoor sitting time. These findings highlight the need for ongoing review and assessment of the physical and social environment in kindergartens to ensure preschoolers have the best opportunities for PA. Full article

Education is continuously evolving, even more with rapid technological advances and the needs and possibilities detected from the COVID-19 pandemic experience. In the current social context for higher education students, their need to have skills and competences related to autonomy, is increasingly acknowledged, and they must be capable of conducting better self-regulated learning. Digital competence is another elementary value to tackle with quality education: not only for online and hybrid modalities, also in face-to-face teaching and learning, the use of digital tools is proven to enrich the process and make learning more efficient. Among the resources explored in education, one of the most valuable are e-portfolios or reflexive digital portfolios. Thus, this study intends to give response to the following two questions in the context of students in higher education: is the experience of the use of a digital portfolio related to the promotion of autonomous competence? How is the use of digital portfolios related to digital competence? The sample is gathered within a European project; 355 students from six universities of five countries responded to a questionnaire. The main results confirm that students that have used e-portfolios appear more likely to be autonomous and also show remarkable differences in some items of their digital competence, compared with those that have not used e-portfolios. Not all responses point at significant differences, but at least for given aspects, we affirmatively conclude that e-portfolios may ease the learning process in terms of digital and autonomous competences. Full article

Assessment is a much-discussed dimension of school life, as it is deeply connected to teacher–student power relations, where teachers’ responsibilities for individual assessment and support coexist. Moreover, children’s views are hardly investigated in the research. Studies reflecting those aspects in inclusive school systems, such as the Italian one, are still rare. Assuming assessment is a social practice that shapes classroom differences, in our research project on “Children’s Perceptions of Performance in Primary Schools” (CrisP), we conducted 35 narrative interviews with 3rd graders from six schools, framed by classroom observations, to reconstruct their perceptions of performance and assessment and develop individual case portraits through Open Coding as defined within Grounded Theory and the Documentary Method. The study was conducted in the Province of Bolzano (Italy). Children seem aware of the teacher–child power relations that emerge in the assessment field and the reciprocity and interdependence of the two roles. In the reconstruction of Alice’s case, she demonstrates she trusts adults but can also work pragmatically on her position, redefining her power role that benefits from teachers’ services. Along with a brief overview of crucial findings and the reconstruction of Alice’s perceptions, we ask for implications for appropriate assessment practices in inclusive primary schools. Full article

Students may be members of multiple disadvantaged groups whose negative effects may reinforce each other (intersectionality). In two studies dealing with elementary students’ literacy skills, we examine one negative reinforcing effect and one dampening effect of intersectionality. In Study 1, we tested the negative social resonance effect of intersectional disadvantage, which means that disadvantages in achievement of intersecting disadvantaged groups would be stronger in social judgments of achievement than in objective measurement. This assumption was confirmed with a sample of 1926 German fourth-grade students. A MANOVA showed that the disadvantages in SES, migration background, and gender were cumulative. A path analysis revealed that the negative effects were larger in teachers’ performance assessments than in objective test performance in literacy. In Study 2, the negative social resonance effect of intersectional disadvantage was replicated with a sample of 777 students from Grades 4 and 5 in the United Arab Emirates. In addition, a dampening effect of learning capital was found. This effect was comparatively larger than the negative social resonance effect of intersectional disadvantage. Full article

Within the surveys of the PISA study since 2001, large differences between the performance of the 15-year-old students in the scientific domain have become apparent. German students were able to improve their performance to a limited extent in the past surveys, despite extensive educational reforms. Despite the improvement in performance, Germany has not been able to catch up with the PISA-leading countries. Therefore, the question arises in regard to how teacher education in PISA leading countries (Canada, Finland, Japan, Singapore) is structured. The selection of the countries is based on best possible achieved results in the scientific competence area as well as in another competence area by the selected countries. A systematic review was conducted to clarify the structure as well as relevant content issues. The results indicate various possibilities for adaptation for German teacher education. Full article

This paper describes a particular teacher professional development model offered in schools on and bordering the Navajo Nation in the southwestern United States. The Diné Institute for Navajo Nation Educators (DINÉ) offers professional development across all content areas and grade levels, but here we focus specifically on our work in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) content areas. Our work is situated explicitly within the literatures on Indigenous education, Native Nation Building, and culturally responsive schooling, but we also draw broadly on research in STEM education and teacher professional development. The research question explored in this paper is: To what extent and in what ways do teachers in the DINÉ develop STEM curriculum units that evidence culturally responsive principles and STEM education best practices? We share findings from three cohorts of teachers in the DINÉ’s STEM-focused professional development seminars. Teacher-authored curriculum units developed in the DINÉ were analyzed with two specific protocols: the CRAIS Tool, and the SCOOP notebook. Finally, we look closely at the curriculum units written by a single teacher in the DINÉ across the three years in order to get a clearer understanding of the nuances and richness of the findings and themes reported from the aggregate data. Full article

The management of water resources is crucial for sustainable development, necessitating innovative solutions to address the increasing demand for safe water. Alternative approaches must be adopted to effectively engage young generations in understanding the importance of water resources. This chapter reports on an experiment that aimed to promote sustainability education by linking wastewater treatment and reuse with an educational garden. In particular, an undertaking was executed to establish a decentralized wastewater treatment system wherein purified water was employed for the purpose of irrigation. The study’s primary focus is on the association between urban water management, wastewater recycling, and environmental education. The study has two distinct components. The first segment discusses three examples of projects that have employed urban wastewater treatment and reuse to generate environmental education materials using various approaches. The second component features a case study of a public high school in Casablanca, where students participated in a questionnaire and participatory workshops to design an educational garden. The study’s outcomes include a proposed educational garden design that will be presented to the relevant authorities and project partners. Full article

Willingness to communicate (WTC) in a second language (L2) is one of the key concepts in L2 communication and learning. Previously, research practice in this area has been more concerned with investigating the relationship between individual negative emotions and WTC. However, insufficient attention has been given to a wide range of positive and negative emotions contributing to WTC. This study aims to address the impact of emotions (positive and negative) and self-perceived communication competence (SPCC) on WTC in an L2 in the context of Pakistan. The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions has driven theoretical reasoning. Higher education students (N = 401) were considered the participants of this study and were approached conveniently. Data were processed and analyzed in SPSS. The findings revealed that positive emotions and SPCC positively influence WTC in an L2. On the contrary, negative emotions have a negative impact on WTC in an L2. Additionally, SPCC appears to be a significant moderator in the relationship between emotions (positive and negative) and WTC in an L2. The study’s findings have important practical implications for Pakistan’s Higher Education Commission (HEC) in drafting and implementing policies to enhance students’ WTC within higher education classrooms. Full article

Climate change has become one of the major themes in the academic world, as it constitutes a socio-environmental challenge faced by society in the twenty-first century. The objectives of this study, based on the opinions of geography teachers (secondary education and baccalaureate, Spain), were to analyze the frequency of use of school textbooks in geography classes, to examine how climate change is addressed in these resources, to study how teachers impart these contents, and to review the importance of teaching global warming according to the opinions of the teachers. Based on a sample of 96 teachers surveyed between 2019 and 2022, the results show a disparity of opinions regarding textbook use, a not-altogether-adequate treatment of this phenomenon with these resources (the sum of the responses with values of 1 and 2 amounted to 44.8%), and a predominance of an explanation of climate change by teachers through everyday cases in the students’ environment (35.4%) and talks and workshops given in class by experts (27.1%). Knowing the use made by teachers of the traditional textbook in the era of the ICTs, their perception of the adequacy of the contents on climate change in these resources, and how this phenomenon is taught is highly relevant to raising awareness and educating the youngest cohorts about one of the main challenges faced by society today. Full article

Understanding the factors contributing to the persistence and retention of students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is among the main issues of concern within STEM post-secondary education. The literature suggests that teacher self-disclosure and emotional and behavioral engagement play a significant positive role in the learning process across disciplines. Such factors may lead to improved academic achievements and retention in STEM disciplines. A variety of studies examined the relationship between teacher self-disclosure and emotional and behavioral engagement within the field of humanities, but less within the fields of STEM. This study used structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the relationship between teacher self-disclosure and emotional and behavioral engagement of 208 undergraduate students enrolled in a two-year Freshman Research Immersion program. The results showed significant relationships between different aspects of teacher self-disclosure and classroom engagement. Additionally, STEM students view that high amounts of teacher self-disclosure can be related to negative aspects of classroom engagement such as emotional engagement anxiety. The study’s significance lies in practical recommendations associated with the strategic use of instances of teacher self-disclosure while teaching STEM classes and ways to support STEM undergraduate students’ levels of classroom engagement. Full article