Search Results (7,150)

The rapid expansion of English major enrollment has exposed critical limitations in traditional academic assessment methods regarding efficiency and accuracy, constraining educational quality enhancement. This paper introduces an English proficiency assessment approach utilizing an improved RegNet architecture integrated with a dual attention mechanism. The multidimensional academic data processed by our model include attendance, online participation, language practice, and assessment scores for listening, speaking, reading, and writing from undergraduate English majors. The initial downsampling module of RegNet is optimized through a dual convolutional structure to augment shallow feature extraction. Subsequently, a deformable attention mechanism (DAT) is incorporated to enhance focus on salient features, while a graph attention network (GAT) facilitates interaction and fusion among academic node features. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves an average accuracy of 99.46% in proficiency assessment, substantially outperforming mainstream models including EfficientNet and AlexNet. Additionally, it demonstrates robust edge deployment capabilities, providing an effective technical solution for intelligent academic management of English programs within smart campus frameworks. Full article

Background/Objectives: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a major public health challenge, and several lifestyle-related factors associated with later T2DM may already emerge during the secondary school years. Socioeconomic status (SES), nutrition-related behaviors, physical activity, and basic diabetes-related knowledge may shape these early risk-related patterns. This study examined the relationships between SES, adapted FINDRISC-based T2DM-related risk patterns, and diabetes-related knowledge among Hungarian secondary school students aged 16–20 years. Methods: A nationwide, cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted among students attending Hungarian Baptist secondary schools (N = 1585). SES was classified by Two-Step cluster analysis based on parental education, parental occupation, number of books in the household, and frequency of travel abroad. Relative T2DM-related risk patterns were described using an age-adapted FINDRISC-based screening approach, and basic diabetes-related knowledge was assessed using a 12-item questionnaire. Associations were examined using cross-tabulation and regression analyses in SPSS version 27.0. Results: Most respondents fell into the lower categories of the adapted FINDRISC-based screening framework, whereas 7.4% were classified into the moderate or high adapted FINDRISC-based screening categories. SES was significantly associated with adapted FINDRISC-based screening categories (p < 0.001). Compared with the medium-SES group, students in the low-SES group had higher odds of belonging to a higher adapted FINDRISC-based screening category (OR = 1.81; 95% CI: 1.27–2.57; p = 0.001). SES was also significantly associated with basic diabetes-related knowledge profiles (p = 0.015); students with high SES were less likely to be in the low-knowledge group than in the high-knowledge group (OR = 0.62; p = 0.039). Conclusions: Social inequalities in T2DM-related risk patterns and diabetes-related knowledge are already visible among secondary school students aged 16–20 years. The adapted FINDRISC-based approach may be useful as a school-based, non-invasive descriptive screening framework for characterizing relative T2DM-related risk patterns, but it is not a validated risk prediction instrument for this age group. Full article

Background: Parental practices that support autonomy, provide structure, and foster warm relationships are associated with greater satisfaction of students’ basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. In minority educational contexts, however, students’ psychological need satisfaction is also shaped by broader sociocultural conditions that may create additional pressures and sources of chronic stress. Within such environments, parental support may function as a protective factor that helps students cope with educational and cultural demands. Objective: The aim of this study was to explore how parental support contributes to the satisfaction of students’ basic psychological needs within a minority educational context where students from the Greek minority attend a bilingual school operating within a Turkish educational framework. Methods: A qualitative design was employed using three focus groups conducted in a minority school located in Gökçeada, Türkiye: one with parents (N = 5), one with lower secondary school students (N = 6), and one with upper secondary school students (N = 6). Interview questions were developed on the basis of Basic Psychological Needs Theory. Data were analyzed thematically by five members of the research team. Results: Findings indicated that parental support influenced students’ need satisfaction through practices related to autonomy (e.g., trust, space for mistakes), competence (e.g., encouragement, comparison), and relatedness (e.g., emotional presence, empathy). However, these practices were not experienced in a uniform way. Rather, their meaning and impact were shaped by contextual conditions associated with minority status, including bilingual educational demands, limited resources, and close-knit community dynamics. Conclusions: The study suggests that in minority school settings, parental support operates not simply as a general interpersonal resource but as a contextually mediated protective process. By showing how sociocultural and institutional conditions shape the enactment and experience of autonomy, competence, and relatedness, the findings extend existing BPNT research beyond majority settings and offer a more context-sensitive understanding of students’ psychological need satisfaction. Full article

Parental involvement is widely recognized as a key component of effective schooling, particularly in educational environments that emphasize community, developmental continuity, and holistic pedagogy. Alternative education models such as Waldorf schools have expanded internationally, yet empirical evidence on how parents perceive and structure their experiences within these institutions remains limited. This study investigates parental perceptions of Waldorf education in Hungary through a nationwide questionnaire survey of 585 parents whose children attend Waldorf schools. To explore the latent structure of parental evaluations, Exploratory Factor Analysis was conducted, followed by Confirmatory Factor Analysis to test the stability of the resulting model. The analyses identified four coherent dimensions of parental experience: Trust and Pedagogy, Community and Engagement, Perceived Long-Term Educational Prosperity, and Information and Transparency. Additional analyses examined how these dimensions vary according to institutional characteristics, parental participation in school community activities, and intentions regarding long-term enrollment. The results indicate that pedagogical trust constitutes a relatively stable evaluative dimension across institutions, while perceptions related to community engagement, long-term educational prospects, and transparency are more strongly associated with institutional maturity. Parents who intend to remain in Waldorf education until the completion of upper secondary schooling report consistently higher evaluations across all dimensions. By empirically identifying the structure of parental experiences in a European alternative education context, the study contributes to research on parental engagement, school choice, and the institutional cultures of alternative schooling. Full article

Liu Mu 劉牧 inaugurated the diagram-based paradigm of Yijing 易經 interpretation in the Song dynasty and restored the Hetu and Luoshu 河圖洛書 to the center of Yi studies 易學. Existing scholarship has approached his system primarily through the lens of xiang-shu 象數 structure or semiotics, frameworks that illuminate how his numerical diagrams function as interpretive tools while leaving unaddressed a more fundamental question: what grounds their authority. This article argues that attending to the religious dimensions of Liu Mu’s system opens a new line of inquiry by revealing how his numerological framework could function as a substantive ground of political and moral order in the intellectual culture of the Renzong 宋仁宗 reign. Liu Mu’s system operates on two interconnected religious levels. First, by anchoring moral and political norms in the objective order of cosmic numerology rather than in human convention, it furnishes a sacred foundation for ethical and political life that transcends arbitrary agreement. Second, by deliberately withholding Heaven’s One (tianyi 天一) from the yarrow-stalk method, it carves out, within an otherwise calculable rational order, an irreducible space for genuine encounter with cosmic mystery. The article further demonstrates that this strategy was shaped by the specific historical and institutional contexts of the early Song. Liu Mu’s enduring contribution lies in constructing a numerological system in which sacred authority and rational order are not opposed but mutually constitutive. Full article

Background/Objectives: Steady-State Visual Evoked Potential-based Brain–Computer Interfaces face a critical trade-off between system accuracy and user visual fatigue. To address this challenge, the objective of this study was to determine how the spatial manipulation of stimulus size modulates the full spectral dynamics of the Electroencephalogram, encompassing both the periodic oscillatory response and the aperiodic (1/f) background noise. Methods: Twenty-two healthy subjects completed a sustained visual attention task using a competitive stimulus paradigm (20 Hz and 30 Hz) presented in three spatial dimensions (Small, Medium, and Big). Parieto-occipital brain signals were decomposed using the spectral parameterization algorithm (SpecParam) to extract frequency-specific visually evoked response power and the aperiodic slope, while visual fixation was continuously monitored via eyetracking. Results: Increasing stimulus size induced a statistically significant gain in the power of the attended signal (Target) without increasing the response of the peripheral distractor. Simultaneously, larger stimuli produced a significant increase in the aperiodic slope during 20 Hz attention and visual rest, suggesting increased cortical inhibition and a reduction in broadband neural activity. This aperiodic modulation was not observed at 30 Hz. Conclusions: The improvement in Signal-to-Noise Ratio with increasing stimulus size arises from a dual neurophysiological mechanism: enhancement of the periodic evoked response together with a reduction in background neural noise. Full article

This is a study of the nun as a queer archetype of femininity across Kate O’Brien’s fiction and non-fiction. Alongside characters who are actual nuns, the fiction includes characters who can be described as ‘nun-like,’ especially in their renunciation of sexual desire. In the fiction, this secular renunciation is aligned with religious celibacy as actively chosen and ethically purposeful and situated as similar to artistic creativity. The study argues that O’Brien’s nuns are paradoxical and queer figures, undermining the temporality, class politics and models of human subjectivity central to O’Brien’s own ideological commitments. Attending to these nun figures prompts significant questions about the liberal feminist politics underpinning contemporary O’Brien studies and the prevailing critical reception of O’Brien as an exemplary Irish woman writer. Full article

Objectives: The objective of this study was to investigate metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD)-related awareness, health literacy (HL), and illness perception among patients at risk of MASLD in European primary care settings. Methods: Participants aged ≥50 years with either obesity, metabolic syndrome (MetS), or type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and attending general practices (GPs) in Greece, Spain, or The Netherlands were included in the study. The participants completed surveys to collect data on their socio-demographic characteristics and health habits, including the European Health Literacy Survey (HLS-E-Q16), the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire [B-IPQ], and the Public Awareness of NAFLD Questionnaire. Results: Overall, 234 patients participated in the study (mean age: 66.5 ± 9.5 years; 45.7% were male). Among the participants, 64.5%, 66.2%, and 59.8% had a diagnosis of diabetes, obesity, and MetS, respectively. Almost one-third (27.9%) had never heard about MASLD or discussed MASLD with their GP. Twelve percent (12.1%) had never heard about cirrhosis, and 20.5% were unaware that liver disorders may cause serious health problems. Overall, 43.6% of the patients had a sufficient level of HL (score >13) with a mean score of 11.5 ± 3.3. Illness perception (B-IPQ score) was low at 41.6 ± 11.6. Significantly higher B-IPQ scores were documented for female compared to male respondents (43.1 vs. 39.8; p < 0.01). Multivariate analysis found that knowledge about MASLD was associated with higher HLS-E-Q16 (p = 0.017) and B-IPQ (p = 0.028) scores. Conclusions: Despite being at risk, a significant proportion of the study participants were unaware of MASLD, its risk factors, and their personal susceptibility. This study underscores the importance of enhancing patient HL and promoting prevention and risk reduction, particularly among high-risk patient populations. Full article

Extra-curricular activities (EAs) have become a billion-dollar industry in Asia, and many parents in Singapore enroll their children in enrichment classes to improve English and mother tongue language performance. Despite the heavy investment, it remains unclear how much children could benefit from such exposure. The present study examines this issue with 123 English–Mandarin bilingual children aged four to five. The number of hours children spent in language-related EAs, together with a set of internal factors (e.g., nonverbal intelligence) and external factors (e.g., home input), were used to predict children’s receptive vocabulary and word-reading skills in both languages using path models. Results show that 36% of the children attended English or Mandarin enrichment classes. Participation in English enrichment classes was not significantly associated with children’s English receptive vocabulary or English word-reading skills. In contrast, Mandarin enrichment classes were significantly associated with better Mandarin word-reading performance. The differential effects of enrichment classes may reflect the bilingual context of Singapore, where English dominates daily communication while Mandarin is mainly learned as a subject in preschool and receives relatively limited exposure outside school. The findings highlight the importance of considering sociolinguistic context when evaluating the effectiveness of language enrichment programs. Full article

A sense of school belonging predicts NEET outcomes for adolescents. However, young people from marginalized groups often have a lower sense of school belonging than their majority peers. Emerging understandings of belonging as a complex, agentic process shaped by multiple relational, contextual, cultural and structural factors have posed problems for real-world applications of belonging. NEET young people tend to be viewed through a lens of risk factors, with a lack of research accounting for their experiences and feelings. While recent research recognizes the intersectional effects of disadvantage, or ‘compound disadvantage’, on NEET outcomes for young people from certain social groups, there is a lack of viable alternatives for educators and policymakers to account for these differential experiences of belonging in order to be able to respond to them. Connected Belonging is a relational and identity-building approach to enhancing young people’s wellbeing through supporting their connectedness and sense of self across the eight social domains of their lives. This paper outlines the development and validation of a young people’s survey, which enables education professionals to attend to and respond to the differing belonging experiences of diverse groups, operationalizing an intersectional lens on school belonging. After introducing the views of young people about systemic priorities to better support their engagement in education, training or work (EET), gathered through a youth voice event as part of a parallel research project, the paper outlines the process of developing, piloting and validating the tool. We argue that this survey tool has the potential to support improved attention to the views and experiences of diverse young people in a systematic, regular fashion. Furthermore, it offers potential for the evaluation of supportive actions grounded in youth voice. Full article

This paper introduces SNAP (Structure, Narrative, Activation, Process, Next), a multidimensional clinical reflection tool supporting psychotherapists in systematically attending to phenomenological, relational, and process-oriented dimensions. SNAP integrates Gestalt therapy, complex systems theory, and the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) framework, comprising 73 items across five dimensions. A pilot acceptability and perceived utility study (N = 20 psychotherapists) used a retrospective pre-post design in which participants provided retrospective pre-exposure and post-exposure ratings for each item. Post-exposure ratings were higher overall than retrospective pre-exposure ratings (T2: M = 6.69, SD = 0.54 vs. T1: M = 6.02, SD = 0.70; mean difference +0.67; Hedges’ g = 0.28, Cohen’s d = 0.29; 15/73 items p < 0.05 uncorrected; 2/73 after Benjamini-Hochberg FDR correction). The largest descriptive contrasts were observed in phenomenological dimensions: Next (g = 0.61), Activation (g = 0.49), Narrative (g = 0.43), and Process-Therapist (g = 0.41). Structural bio-psycho-social dimensions showed minimal contrasts (d = −0.02 to 0.15). Absolute post-exposure ratings were high across items (89% rated 6/9 or above), supporting good acceptability and perceived usefulness within this sample. These preliminary findings support SNAP as a promising, positively perceived framework for clinical reflection. Larger-sample psychometric validation is warranted. Full article

Politics and policy are centrally implicated in the socio-historical construction of youth justice responses, yet the contexts, mechanisms, and processes influencing the ‘making’ of youth justice policy remain under-researched and poorly understood. The limited research evidence base devoted to youth justice policy-making (YJPM) has tended towards reductionist conceptualisations of ‘policy’ as restricted, static outcomes produced by governmental policy ‘actors’. However, privileging the YJPM status and role of senior governmental policy actors serves to reify their claims to being the ‘expert’ youth justice knowledge holders. This legitimises their exercise of power and ‘governance’ over non-governmental groups (e.g., civil servants, frontline practitioners, and academics) by dominating knowledge creation and claims to expertise in policy-making contexts. This research, therefore, seeks to identify and elaborate these complex, relational, and dynamic contexts and the attendant mechanisms of change that interact to drive YJPM. Semi-structured interviews with different stakeholder groups across youth justice contexts identified distal (macro) and proximal (meso/micro) contexts—mechanism relationships that drive YJPM. We conclude that the dynamic influence of organisational and professional identity (i.e., self-identity and identity assigned to others) is significant across contextualised mechanisms of YJPM, particularly the perceived identity, status, and role of the expert who attributes the credentials to contribute effectively to policy-making processes. This, in turn, leads us to discern and discuss three distinct characterisations of the youth justice policy–evidence–expertise nexus, namely: (i) evidence-endorsed policy; (ii) evidence-based policy; and (iii) evidence-enhanced policy. Full article

This study investigates the role of naming practices as cultural repositories that preserve family, lineage, and community identity. It explores how anthroponymy encodes histories of ancestry, migration, settlement, and sociopolitical organisation in two West African societies, Dàgáárè-speaking communities and Yorùbá communities. Adopting a comparative onomastic ethnographic approach, this research analyses names among the two selected cultures. Data is drawn from interviews, school registers, attendance sheets, and cultural practices, with emphasis on how names record genealogical descent, settlement histories, occupational roles, spiritual affiliations, and ethical expectations. In Dàgáárè and Yorùbá culture, bal/baloo yoe (clan names) and lineage names identify descent from founding ancestors, document migration and settlement, mark ritual responsibilities, memorialise historical events, and regulate kinship and marriage through totemic and spiritual identities. This study argues that names in Dàgáárè- and Yorùbá-speaking societies operate as cultural texts that preserve and transmit heritage across generations. The significant implications extend to linguistics, anthropology, and heritage studies, where names can be leveraged as tools for cultural preservation and historical analysis. Full article

This study examined the effectiveness of an intensive learning model in core mathematics courses within engineering education. The model restructures the academic semester so that students study one course at a time in concentrated learning blocks, rather than studying several courses in parallel, with the aim of improving academic achievement and student engagement in engineering mathematics courses. The research employed a quantitative, quasi-experimental, longitudinal design and included 66 undergraduate engineering students who completed three mathematics courses: Linear Algebra, Calculus II, and Differential Equations. Academic performance and learning behavior data were analyzed using mixed-design ANOVA, multiple linear regression, and MANOVA analyses. The findings indicate that students who studied under the intensive learning model achieved significantly higher final grades compared with students in the traditional parallel-course structure. Engagement variables emerged as strong predictors of academic success, particularly class attendance and assignment submission. Academic performance remained stable across the three mathematics courses, and prior academic background variables did not significantly predict achievement. Overall, the results suggest that restructuring mathematics instruction into intensive learning blocks may enhance student engagement and academic performance in demanding quantitative courses, thereby supporting student success and persistence in engineering education. Full article