Search Results (397)

This research examines the impact of the project ‘Development of Science Experiential Education Programs and Science Experiential Centres’, implemented by the Mobilis Science Center in Győr between 2017 and 2021. The professional and societal relevance of the program and research lies in the growing importance of STEM disciplines and careers worldwide in recent decades, ensuring a long-term supply of skilled workers. A vital tool for this is the development of curricula that meet the needs of the 21st century, as well as the innovation of teaching methods in science subjects. The research involves a review of the literature on experiential science teaching and subject attitudes, the role of science centers, and relevant project documents. The present research, involving 592 students, focused on attitudes toward technology and science, openness to STEM careers, and the experiences and memories of participants in the student lab theme days. The results of the statistical data analyses confirm the effectiveness of the experiential education methods used in the theme day sessions, as the students’ openness to STEM careers is higher for those who participated in the sessions compared to the non-participants. There are significant differences in the attitudes of girls and boys participating in the program toward science subjects. The results suggest that the success in stimulating interest in science was mainly due to the experiential nature of the sessions. Moreover, the research found that the project led to the strengthening of the participants’ personal and social skills. This study is the first to look at the impact of the project. The results shed light on how teaching STEM subjects using experiential pedagogical methods can contribute to the long-term effectiveness of Széchenyi István University’s enrollment efforts and lead to the economic success of companies in a region facing a significant labor shortage in STEM careers. Full article

Reading and writing in the 21st century have evolved from traditional text-based formats to multimodal literacy, integrating linguistic, visual, auditory, and spatial modes to enhance communication and comprehension. While multimodal reading has been widely studied, multimodal writing remains underexplored, despite its growing importance in K–12 education across disciplines. Multimodal composing demands advanced self-regulation as students navigate multiple digital tools and platforms. Self-regulated learning strategies, particularly the self-regulated strategy development model, offer a promising approach to support students in planning, monitoring, and revising multimodal compositions. However, a comprehensive framework linking self-regulation and multimodal composition is lacking. This article addresses this gap by synthesizing findings from two studies—one in preservice teacher education and another in a first-grade classroom—along with existing research to propose a self-regulated multimodal composing framework. This framework aims to guide educators in fostering students’ autonomy and competence in multimodal composing. By integrating self-regulation strategies with multimodal composition processes, the SRMC framework provides actionable insights for instructional practices, helping teachers support diverse learners in today’s digitally mediated classrooms. The article discusses implications for pedagogy and future research, advocating for greater emphasis on self-regulated multimodal composing in literacy education. Full article

In the globalizing world, raising individuals equipped with 21st-century skills is very important for the economic development of countries. Educational practices that support 21st-century skills are also gaining importance. In this context, STEM education, an interdisciplinary educational practice that develops 21st-century skills, emerges. STEM education aims to contribute to sustainable development by training individuals equipped with 21st-century skills and competencies. In a globalizing world, countries must set sustainable development goals to gain a foothold in the global market. In today’s world, where artificial intelligence also shows itself in every area of human life, it is possible to discuss the importance of artificial intelligence-supported STEM education. This study aims to reveal the educational needs of primary school teachers regarding artificial intelligence-supported STEM education. The study was conducted according to the phenomenological design, and the data were collected using a semi-structured interview form and literature review techniques. The thematic analysis method was used in the analysis of the data. According to the research results obtained from the findings of the study, teachers need training on 21st-century skills, interdisciplinary thinking, technology integration into courses, and artificial intelligence practices in courses to develop their knowledge and skills in the context of artificial intelligence-supported STEM education. Full article

This paper presents a novel, multi-stage modelling approach for integrating Generative AI (GenAI) tools into design-based STEM education, promoting sustainability and 21st-century problem-solving skills. The proposed methodology includes (i) a conceptual model that defines structural aspects of the domain at a high abstraction level; (ii) a contextual model for defining the internal context; (iii) a GenAI-based model for solving the STEM task, which consists of a generic model for integrating GenAI tools into STEM-driven education and a process model, presenting learning/design processes using those tools. A case study involving the design of an autonomous folkrace robot illustrates the implementation of the approach. Based on Likert-scale evaluations, quantitative results demonstrate a significant impact of GenAI tools in enhancing critical thinking, conceptual understanding, creativity, and engineering practices, particularly during the prototyping and testing phases. This paper concludes that the structured integration of GenAI tools supports personalized, inquiry-based, and sustainable STEM education, while also raising new challenges in prompt engineering and ethical use. This approach provides educators with a systematic pathway for leveraging AI to develop STEM-based skills essential for future sustainable development. Full article

Oral tradition stories hold a vital place in language education, offering rich repositories of linguistic, cultural, and historical knowledge. In the Spanish as a Foreign Language (SFL) context, their inclusion provides dynamic opportunities to explore diversity, foster critical and creative thinking, and challenge dominant epistemologies. Despite their pedagogical potential, these narratives remain largely absent from formal curricula, with most SFL textbooks still privileging canonical works, particularly those from the Latin American Boom or European literary texts. This article aims to provide practical guidance for SFL instructors on designing effective, culturally responsive materials for the teaching of vocabulary. Drawing on a methodological framework for material design and a cognitive approach to vocabulary learning, I present original pedagogical material based on a Colombian oral tradition story about the witches of La Jagua (Huila, Colombia) to inspire educators to integrate oral tradition stories into their classrooms. As argued throughout, oral narratives not only support vocabulary acquisition and intercultural competence but also offer students meaningful engagement with the values, worldviews, and linguistic diversity that shape Colombian culture. This approach redefines language teaching through a more descriptive, contextualized, and culturally grounded lens, equipping learners with pragmatic, communicative, and intercultural skills essential for the 21st century. My goal with this article is to advocate for teacher agency in material creation, emphasizing that educators are uniquely positioned to design pedagogical resources that reflect their own cultural realities and local knowledge and to adapt them meaningfully to their students’ needs. Full article

Medical education is the paradigm of 21st century education and the current changes involve the adoption of integrative and comprehensive patient-centered teaching and learning approaches. Thus, curricular developers from George Emil Palade University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Sciences, and Technology of Targu Mures (G.E. Palade UMPhST of Targu Mures) have recently designed and implemented an innovative medical curriculum, as well as two valuable assessment tools for both theoretical knowledge and practical skills. Thus, during the first three preclinical years, the students will benefit from an organ- and system-centered block teaching approach, while the clinical years will focus on enabling students to achieve the most important practical skills in clinical practice, based on a patient bedside teaching system. In terms of theoretical knowledge assessment, the UNiX center at G.E. Palade UMPhST of Targu Mures, a recently designed center endowed with the latest next-generation technology, enables individualized, secured multiple-choice question-based assessments of the student’s learning outcomes. Moreover, an intelligent assessment tool for practical skills was also recently implemented in our branch in Hamburg, the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (O.S.C.E). This system uses direct observations for testing the student’s practical skills regarding anamnesis, clinical exams, procedures/maneuvers, the interpretation of laboratory tests and paraclinical investigations, differential diagnosis, management plans, communication, and medical counselling. The integrative, comprehensive, patient-centered curriculum and the intelligent assessment system, implemented in G.E Palade UMPhST of Targu Mures, help define innovation in education and enable the students to benefit from a high-quality medical education. Full article

Teachers’ 21st century technological pedagogical content knowledge affects their performance self-evaluations, and it is considered that their attitudes towards sustainable education disposition and their digital competencies may also have an impact on their performance self-evaluations and thus may significantly affect these relationships. In this study, it was aimed to examine the effect of teachers’ 21st century technological pedagogical content knowledge on their performance self-evaluations, and the moderating role of digital competencies mediated by sustainable educational disposition in the model established for this purpose was examined. The research sample consisted of 478 teachers (305 female (63.8) and 173 (36.2) male teachers) working in various fields in schools in Türkiye. Within the scope of the research, data analyses were carried out in SPSS 21 and PROCESS Macro package programs using Model 4 and Model 58 developed by Hayes (2022). As a result of the analyses, it was seen that sustainable education tendencies had a mediating role in the relationship between teachers’ 21st-century technological pedagogical content knowledge and their performance self-evaluations. In addition to this, it was seen that 21st-century technological pedagogical content knowledge, sustainable educational dispositions and performance self-evaluations depend on the level of digital competencies. Full article

This research is focused on exploring the importance of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education in the development of critical competencies among secondary school students in the 21st century. This was aimed to assess the impact of STEM-based activities on students’ creative and computational thinking skills. A quasi-experimental design that included 77 secondary school students from public and private schools in Bandar Lampung, Indonesia, who participated in STEM interventions for over 5 weeks, was adopted. Data were collected through creative thinking tests and questionnaires on CT and STEM attitudes. The results showed that students who participated in STEM activities exhibited significantly higher creative thinking scores compared to peers taught with the traditional curriculum. Specifically, the experimental group showed a progressive increase in weekly test scores, suggesting that STEM methods improved students’ performance over time. Structural equation modeling (SEM) disclosed strong positive associations between attitudes towards STEM, CT, and creativity. The implications of these results outlined the need to integrate STEM education into curricula to foster essential skills for future challenges. This research contributes to the understanding of effective educational strategies and also advocates for a shift towards more interactive and integrative methods in secondary education to meet the demands of the contemporary workforce. Full article

This study investigates the development of cognitive, emotional, and social skills in pre-service teachers through extracurricular activities, addressing 21st century challenges in preparing educators for diverse learning environments. It was hypothesized that extracurricular activities would positively influence cognitive skills (self-efficacy, self-regulation), emotional dimensions (professional interest), social competencies (teacher–student relationships), and academic achievement. This study employed predictive correlational methodology based on an integrated theoretical framework combining Social Cognitive Theory, Self-Determination Theory, Self-Regulation Theory, and Interpersonal Relationships Theory within formal–informal learning contexts. A psychometrically robust instrument (“Scale on the Contribution of Extracurricular Activities to Professional Development”) was developed and validated through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, yielding a five-factor structure with strong reliability indicators (Cronbach’s α = 0.91–0.93; CR = 0.816–0.912; AVE = 0.521–0.612). Data from 775 pre-service teachers (71.1% female) across multiple disciplines at a Turkish university were analyzed using structural equation modeling (χ²/df = 2.855, RMSEA = 0.049, CFI = 0.93, TLI = 0.92). Results showed that extracurricular participation significantly influenced self-efficacy (β = 0.849), professional interest (β = 0.418), self-regulation (β = 0.191), teacher–student relationships (β = 0.137), and academic achievement (β = 0.167). Notably, an unexpected negative relationship emerged between self-efficacy and academic achievement (β = −0.152). The model demonstrated strong explanatory power for self-efficacy (R² = 72.8%), professional interest (R² = 78.7%), self-regulation (R² = 77.2%), and teacher–student relationships (R² = 63.1%) while explaining only 1.8% of academic achievement variance. This pattern reveals distinct developmental pathways for professional versus academic competencies, leading to a comprehensive practical implications framework supporting multidimensional assessment approaches in teacher education. These findings emphasize the strategic importance of extracurricular activities in teacher education programs and highlight the need for holistic approaches beyond traditional academic metrics, contributing to Sustainable Development Goal 4 by providing empirical evidence for integrating experiential learning opportunities that serve both academic researchers and educational practitioners seeking evidence-based approaches to teacher preparation. Full article

The study examines how individual skills influence adolescents’ and young adults’ commitment to climate protection and global health. Based on 21st-century skills and transformative education, it focuses on competences in science, geography, mathematics, religion, ethics, and media. A representative online survey of 783 participants in Germany assessed topic relevance, information-seeking behavior, and active engagement. The results show that subject-specific skills significantly affect engagement, especially when closely related to the topics. Scientific, mathematical, and geographical competences enhance all three engagement dimensions. Media competence primarily increases perceived importance, while religious and ethical competences positively influence all areas. Structural equation modeling reveals a process: perceived relevance leads to information search, which then drives engagement. Thus, competences have both direct and indirect effects on active involvement. The findings highlight that long-term engagement is not only driven by campaigns but also by education that equips young people with the skills to recognize important issues, seek information, and take action independently. Full article

At the beginning of the 21st century, rapid technological developments significantly impacted the field of education. As a result, university professors in recent years have been constantly searching and implementing teaching methods, such as blended learning, to increase the interest of their students and retain them in their courses. It is a matter of many academic discussions to create educational practices to reduce student dropout, especially in social sciences courses that are considered by students to be difficult subjects, such as accounting. The blended learning approach is based on constructivist theory and specifically on the Community of Inquiry model, where the educational experience of students is related to social, cognitive, and didactic presence, and it is orientated towards a more student-centred approach that maximises retention rates. The present study employs an exploratory blended-methods design. A questionnaire and individual interviews of students were used to collect data. The study was carried out in the context of an Advanced Financial Accounting course at a Greek university, through the implementation of an experiment with undergraduate students. Important findings include higher retention rates of undergraduate accounting students in the blended class compared to the traditional one, as the redesigning of content for the needs of blended learning, the incorporation of videos, the development of group work, and the good organisation of the course constitute the optimal mix for reducing student attrition. Full article

There are many different perspectives on what the spiritual aspect of education entails, as well as how it should be addressed in a professional context. Spirituality has been defined as a central aspect of children’s overall development in Denmark since the Primary School Act of 1993, but at the same time public schools in Denmark are secular institutions not affiliated with any particular faith and a non-confessional spiritual education. This article addresses the concept of spiritual education of children in a Danish post-secular context by presenting and discussing different studies, knowledge, and definitions on children’s spirituality, as well as spiritual education of children and spiritual care for children. We point to the importance of the concept of “dannelse” or “bildung”, Hans-Georg Gadamer’s concept of “the basic movement of spirit”, and Hannah Arendt’s concepts related to “the life of the mind”, and thus what is meant by spiritual education. We conclude how educators, parents, and healthcare professionals should facilitate spiritual education through the perspective of “dannelse”, and we present a model for doing so through spiritual dialogue and relationships. Full article

Since the launching of ChatGPT (generative) AI has been developed so much and fast that it has entered higher education (HE) and higher education institutions (HEIs). The article is meant to help HE(Is) how to deal with AI strategically and in leadership. It investigates which influences AI and the use of AI tools is having on HE(Is). Therefore 4 research questions are formulated: how does AI and AI tools influence HE(Is) in its mission, organization and context; should AI and its applications then be regarded as an strategic objective or only as a tool to realize the strategy; how is AI and the use of AI tools, as developed and described in an AI strategy, best managed to be adopted and integrated in an effective and responsible way, and finally which influence does AI and its tools have on the leadership and culture? In order to answer those questions, the article describes first our contemporary times, and the leadership needed, then delves into the history of the development of AI and its tools and investigates the current and future attitudes towards, degrees of implementation, and uses of AI and its tools among the internal and external stakeholders of HE(Is). The findings result from a global literature study of international surveys and 2 case studies. The selection is based on topical usefulness, international scope, (statistical) relevance and quality of research in general. In this way the article aims to help to develop an AI strategy and thus can be read as a policy paper underpinned by a meta-analysis. The main results are that, although the use of AI in HEIs is divided, the effective and responsible adoption and integration of AI is a new strategic objective in order to help to realize HE’s three-fold mission in a well-planned and managed way asking for a visionary leadership and a clear policy framework and guidelines, in which the words transparency, responsibility and critical thinking link AI use with an enhancement of unique human competences such as critical thinking. Full article

Polish scholarly literature has not comprehensively analysed the image of the French Revolution of 1789–1799 in history textbooks. Similarly, 20th- and 21st-century historiography has presented no exhaustive overview of these events. This article does not claim to exhaust the subject matter. In addressing the topic of the French Revolution, the author seeks to connect with ongoing research in Poland concerning the philosophical interpretation of selected themes in Polish and world history. Moreover, given that the philosophical interpretation of these events in history education compendia has been and remains consistent with historiographical approaches, the author also extends the discussion to a broader consideration of the historiography of the French Revolution from the late 19th century to the present day. The French Revolution occupies a significant place in Polish historical education. However, while contemporary historiography increasingly associates it with crisis, injustice, and oppression, textbook narratives continue to uphold the myth of the French Revolution—favoured in Poland since the late 19th century—as a crucial event perceived as beneficial for France. Full article

New teaching methods are essential to prepare 21st-century engineers for sustainable challenges. This study used project-based learning to evaluate the energy potential of water channels in fish farms in Loreto, Peru. Chemical engineering students applied theory to practice, enhancing skills like field data collection and technical assessment. The results show a practical potential of 18.37 kW and a theoretical potential of 84.19 kW, enough to power 37–244 households. This approach not only highlights renewable energy opportunities but also demonstrates the effectiveness of connecting theory and practice in real-world contexts. Despite simplified calculations, this project significantly impacts engineering education in Latin America, serving as an example of successful learning and inspiring innovative teaching techniques. All of the students (100%) agreed that the project helped in terms of practical skill and problem-solving capability development, teaching motivation, and relevance training for professional life. Full article