Search Results (160)

Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT are reshaping educational practice, yet first-year teacher-education students often lack the prompt-engineering skills and confidence required to use them responsibly. This pilot study examined whether a concise three-session clinic on prompt engineering could simultaneously boost AI literacy and reduce technology anxiety in prospective teachers. Forty-five freshmen in a Peruvian teacher-education program completed validated Spanish versions of a 12-item AI-literacy scale and a 12-item technology-anxiety scale one week before and after the intervention; normality-checked pre–post differences were analysed with paired-samples t-tests, Cohen’s d, and Pearson correlations. AI literacy rose by 0.70 ± 0.46 points (t (44) = −6.10, p < 0.001, d = 0.91), while technology anxiety fell by 0.58 ± 0.52 points (t (44) = −3.82, p = 0.001, d = 0.56); individual gains were inversely correlated (r = −0.46, p = 0.002). These findings suggest that integrating micro-level prompt-engineering clinics in the first semester can help future teachers engage critically and comfortably with generative AI and guide curriculum designers in updating teacher-training programs. Full article

Early printed books, particularly incunabula, are invaluable archives of the beginnings of modern educational systems. However, their complex layouts, antique typefaces, and page degradation caused by bleed-through and ink fading pose significant challenges for automatic transcription. In this work, we present a modular pipeline that addresses these problems by combining modern layout analysis and language modeling techniques. The pipeline begins with historical layout-aware text segmentation using Kraken, a neural network-based tool tailored for early typographic structures. Initial optical character recognition (OCR) is then performed with Kraken’s recognition engine, followed by post-correction using a fine-tuned ByT5 transformer model trained on manually aligned line-level data. By learning to map noisy OCR outputs to verified transcriptions, the model substantially improves recognition quality. The pipeline also integrates a preprocessing stage based on our previous work on bleed-through removal using robust statistical filters, including non-local means, Gaussian mixtures, biweight estimation, and Gaussian blur. This step enhances the legibility of degraded pages prior to OCR. The entire solution is open, modular, and scalable, supporting long-term preservation and improved accessibility of cultural heritage materials. Experimental results on 15th-century incunabula show a reduction in the Character Error Rate (CER) from around 38% to around 15% and an increase in the Bilingual Evaluation Understudy (BLEU) score from 22 to 44, confirming the effectiveness of our approach. This work demonstrates the potential of integrating transformer-based correction with layout-aware segmentation to enhance OCR accuracy in digital humanities applications. Full article

In 2021, the National Centre for Religious Studies in New Zealand published the new religious education curriculum for Catholic schools in Aotearoa New Zealand. While in many ways, very like other religious education curricula, from its naming in Māori before English, Tō Tātou Whakapono Our Faith shines a light on the role of culture and language in the transmission and expression of faith. This paper is written in two parts. Part 1 of this paper provides an examination of the key curriculum documents and website to find that Tō Tātou Whakapono Our Faith is unique in three ways. First, it enjoys a level of security in the dominant presence of Catholics in the Catholic school, guaranteed by the Integration Act of 1975. Second, it offers flexibility in approach, necessary for a curriculum with national status, and finally, it demonstrates an extraordinary commitment to the inclusion of Māori culture and language. Part 2 of this paper takes up the inclusion of Māori culture and language to offer a response to the call that Māori need to be allowed to develop a theology from within their own culture and language. It proposes that the introduction of a new hermeneutical lens in the study of scripture, one that would replicate the practice of the Bible authors who drew freely on their own experience and language to speak of God, could provide a simple but effective way of developing such a theology. It is in Part 2 that the significance of the subtitle of this paper will become apparent. Full article

The presence of culturally and linguistically diverse children increases in early education classrooms worldwide. In monolingual education settings, multilingual children are at a disadvantage regarding their learning opportunities compared to monolingual children. Knowledge about how monolingual educators support children in a multilingual classroom has not been systematized yet. The present scoping review aims to synthesize the existing empirical evidence on (a) characteristics of the learning environment of monolingual teachers with multilingual children and (b) how teacher characteristics relate to the learning environment characteristics in early education institutions worldwide. The inclusion criteria used in this review included articles that report empirical evidence from 1990 to 2024, with multilingual children aged 0–6 of minoritized languages and monolingual teacher practices within a naturalist environment. Subsequently, through the PRISMA-ScR method on the articles found in the WOS and SCIELO databases, 40 articles were included with qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods designs. The results showed that in the Latin American context, culturally responsive practices are scarce for bilingual children with immigrant backgrounds. In the USA and European contexts, educators are more likely to implement activities that include children’s L1, even if they have limited knowledge of that language. The international perspective of this review allows us to identify contributions and challenges in different geographic regions. Full article

In this paper we describe the processes and challenges involved in the design, implementation, and assessment of a small-scale intervention in four primary schools in Ghana’s Central Region that aimed to enhance learners’ mother tongue and bilingual literacy practices whilst at the same time strengthening their sense of cultural identity. Within the framework of Educational Design Research (EDR), this paper describes the steps that were involved in the development process, from context analysis to the design of a locally developed Fante–English bilingual storybook, as well as the formative evaluation of this prototype. This paper shows how to translate contextual findings into a final product, while sharing with the reader important findings for each phase in the process. Formative evaluation in the form of a teacher workshop, surveys, and classroom observations was used. Results showed that, in the opinion of teachers, Fante–English bilingual books can promote learners’ cultural identity, self-awareness, and a sense of prestige when they speak the language. Not only do the books preserve the Fante language and culture, but they show learners that Fante is just as important as English. A second round of formative evaluation showed that additional teacher manual and training could benefit the outcome of the bilingual method. Full article

Introduction: Racial and ethnic disparities in end-of-life (EOL) cancer care persist, leading to lower rates of advance care planning (ACP), reduced access to palliative care, and poorer patient outcomes for minority populations. While previous research has documented these inequities, less is known about the specific interventions developed to address them, necessitating a comprehensive review of existing strategies aimed at improving EOL care for racial and ethnic populations. The objective of this scoping review is to examine the extent and characteristics of interventions and their outcomes designed to address racial and ethnic disparities in EOL cancer care in the United States. Methods: A comprehensive search of EOL cancer care interventions for minority populations was conducted in Ovid MEDLINE, CINAHL with Full Text (EBSCOhost), and Scopus (Elsevier) in September 2024. Two independent reviewers screened titles, abstracts, and full texts following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines, with inclusion limited to studies conducted in the US and published in English. Results: Of 3104 screened studies, 10 met the inclusion criteria. Participants enrolled were only from Latino (n = 6 studies) or Black (n = 4 studies) populations. We identified four types of interventions, including communication skills for patients, caregivers, researchers, and clinicians (n = 2), education programs for patients (n = 1), navigation and support programs for patients and caregivers (n = 3), and training programs for health workers and community leaders (n = 4). The most effective interventions were those that addressed linguistic barriers, integrated cultural values, and involved trusted community figures. Faith-based models were particularly successful among African American patients, while bilingual navigation and family-centered ACP interventions had the greatest impact in Latino populations. Conclusions: This review highlights (1) the importance of culturally tailored interventions for specific minority populations and (2) the limited number of such interventions, which primarily target only the largest minority groups. Full article

Drawing on data from a three-year longitudinal study of 56 Chinese–Canadian families with early elementary school-aged children, this study explores Chinese immigrant parents’ lived-through emotional experiences of heritage language maintenance (HLM). Informed by Vygotsky’s concept of perezhivanie, thematic analysis of annual interview data reveals the mixed and refracted nature of parental emotions involved in Chinese language preservation and bilingual child-rearing. These emotional experiences were profoundly shaped by the intersection of environmental, personal, and situational factors and were deeply entangled with parents’ perceptions of and attitudes toward their children’s heritage language learning and use at home. The emotional work involved significantly influenced the parents’ language and literacy planning and HLM practices. By foregrounding the emotional dimensions of heritage language education, this study offers important implications for educational stakeholders seeking to support immigrant parents both emotionally and practically in raising bilingual children in the host country. Full article

Background/Objectives: Preschool children from low-income, ethnically diverse communities face disproportionate rates of behavioral challenges and early expulsion from early care and education (ECE) programs. This study evaluated the efficacy, feasibility, and utility of Jump Start on the Go (JS Go), a bilingual, AI-enabled mobile application. JS Go is designed to deliver a 14-week early childhood mental health consultation model in under-resourced ECE settings. Methods: This mixed-methods study compared JS Go to the standard in-person Jump Start (JS) program. Participants included 28 teachers and 114 children from six centers (three JS Go, three JS). Quantitative measures assessed teacher classroom practices and child psychosocial outcomes at baseline and post-intervention. App usability and acceptability were only evaluated post-intervention. Seven semi-structured interviews were conducted post-intervention with JS Go directors/teachers to assess the app’s feasibility for implementing the four program pillars: safety, behavior support, self-care, and communication. Results: JS Go was more effective than JS in promoting teacher classroom practices related to behavior support and resiliency. Both programs were similar in improving children’s protective factors and reducing internalizing behaviors, with consistent effects across English and Spanish-speaking children. Teachers rated the JS Go app with high acceptability, though predicted future usage showed greater variability. Rapid qualitative analysis showed that participants found the app easy to use, frequently accessed its resources, and considered it helpful for reinforcing key strategies across the four program pillars. Conclusions: JS Go is a novel approach to providing mental health consultation. It represents a promising mobile adaptation of the established JS consultation model, with important implications for future practice and research. Full article

The growing number of public one-way and two-way immersion schools (French/German) in the Swiss cantons of Bern, Jura, and Neuchâtel has resulted in an increased need for teachers who are explicitly prepared for those schools. This need led to the thoughtfully conceptualized two-way immersion curriculum “Cursus bilingue/Bilingualer Studiengang,” jointly offered by two universities of teacher education located in the French- and German-speaking areas of Switzerland. This study explores the professionalization process of future primary teachers from Bern, Jura, and the bilingual program who are confronted with professional requirements. A scientific tool, used in a longitudinal perspective (2020–2023), documents how students of the two-way immersion and the French and German programs (n = 1021) weigh these requirements in the competence and challenge dimensions. A linear mixed-effects model was used to analyze their appraisal within each dimension across time and context. Independently of the context, the competence weighting increases for all students between t₁ and t₃. However, the challenge weighting exhibits a peak at t₂ in all contexts, maybe due to the consciousness-raising of faced challenges after half of the program. With teaching internships in two linguistic regions, two-way immersion students demonstrate a capacity for adaptability. Research-based and practitioner-informed implications for an induction program aiming to foster the further professionalization needed to master the new complexities during the career-entry stage are presented. Full article

For the purposes of this entry, special educational needs (SEN) refers to a condition where a student requires additional support to access education due to a disability, learning difficulty, or other developmental challenges. In this entry, an overview is provided of the prevalence of and categories of SEN in Irish-immersion primary and post-primary schools across the island of Ireland. This entry examines the prevalence and categories of SEN in Irish-immersion (IM) primary and post-primary schools across the island of Ireland. With immersion education playing a significant role in fostering bilingual proficiency, understanding SEN prevalence within these settings is critical for ensuring inclusive educational practices. The entry analyses trends over the past two decades in SEN prevalence, highlighting an increase in SEN identification, particularly in IM post-primary schools. It also explores regional disparities, comparing Gaeltacht and IM schools outside of the Gaeltacht, as well as differences between IM and English-medium education sectors. Factors such as socio-economic disadvantage, diagnostic advancements, and policy developments are considered when interpreting SEN trends. The findings contribute to the limited international research on SEN prevalence in immersion education and offer insights into recommendations in the areas of policy and practice to further support students with diverse learning needs in bilingual settings. Full article

The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated an urgent shift to emergency remote learning, significantly affecting the education of bilingual students. This study examines the use of technology-enhanced drama-based methods, specifically digital Readers Theater, as an emergency measure to enhance reading literacy and psychosocial support during the pandemic amid multiple concurrent crises. Using an action research approach, 37 Greek teachers implemented remote literacy activities involving digital drama in their virtual classrooms over a period of four weeks. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews, teachers’ reflective journals, and student participation and were analyzed through Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior. The findings indicate that, despite technological challenges and adaptation difficulties, the creative use of digital drama activities contributed to improvements in students’ reading skills, motivation, and engagement. The intervention also fostered students’ emotional expression and social connection, contributing to their psychosocial support during the disruption. This study highlights the dual role of technology as both an enabler and a barrier, emphasizing the need for better digital infrastructure and comprehensive teacher training for effective emergency response. The results stress the value of technology-supported, arts-based approaches in maintaining student engagement and promoting bilingual literacy in crisis contexts. These findings provide useful guidance for teachers and school leaders on how to support students’ learning and well-being, both during crises and in everyday practice. Full article

Background/Objectives: Endometriosis, a chronic and debilitating gynecological disorder, exacts a heavy clinical and socioeconomic toll on women’s lives. Despite its prevalence, its timely diagnosis and effective management are hindered by pervasive knowledge gaps among frontline nursing professionals, and these are especially pronounced in under-researched regions such as Al-Jouf, Saudi Arabia. Aim: Guided by the Knowledge–Attitude–Practice model, this study aimed to assess the level of endometriosis-related knowledge among nurses in the Al-Jouf region of Saudi Arabia and to identify the sociodemographic and professional determinants of knowledge levels. Methods: A cross-sectional, descriptive-analytical design was employed between January and July 2024, enrolling 215 nurses from a principal maternity and children’s hospital and two primary healthcare centers in Sakaka. A rigorously validated, bilingual 20-item questionnaire assessing four domains (definition, risk factors, clinical manifestations, and treatment goals) was administered. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, multiple linear regression, and binary logistic regression to elucidate predictors of knowledge. Results: A concerning picture emerged: 61% of participants scored below 60% (indicative of low knowledge), with only 6% achieving high scores. Higher educational attainment proved the strongest predictor (β = 0.415, p < 0.001), followed by age (β = 0.232, p < 0.001), years of experience (β = 0.149, p = 0.041), and direct patient care exposure (β = 0.168, p = 0.021). Collectively, these factors explained 37.6% of the variance in knowledge scores, underscoring a critical deficit in endometriosis management preparedness. Conclusions: The stark deficiencies in endometriosis knowledge among nurses in Al-Jouf call for immediate, tailored educational and policy interventions. Strengthening clinical competencies is essential for fostering early diagnosis and improving care outcomes for women burdened by this complex condition. Full article

This paper explores the critical role of bilingual Latina educators as cultural mediators in fostering inclusive and effective parent engagement within schools. It calls for a shift from traditional, deficit-oriented approaches to parent engagement towards a strengths-based model that recognizes the valuable knowledge and contributions of families and for the incorporation of parent engagement courses in teacher education to better prepare educators for this critical work. Drawing from teacher reflections, this paper examines the unique ways in which these educators navigate cultural, linguistic, and systemic barriers to create spaces where Latinx families feel seen, heard, and valued. This paper highlights four key themes: (1) the role of bilingual educators as cultural and linguistic translators, (2) the challenge of reframing the deficit-based perspectives of Latinx families, (3) the importance of relationship-building through home visits, and (4) the emotional labor involved in advocating for marginalized families. Through these reflections, this paper advocates for systemic changes, emphasizing the need for formal institutional support for bilingual educators. It concludes by urging schools to adopt flexible, culturally responsive strategies that build long-term partnerships between educators and families. Full article

Australia’s aging migrant population experiences higher rates of chronic disease and social isolation, highlighting the need for culturally appropriate health promotion programs. This study evaluated the effectiveness of “Move Together”, a culturally adapted community-based group exercise and education intervention for Mandarin-speaking Chinese Australians aged 65+ years. The Model for Adaptation, Design, and Impact framework guided the adaptation of this program. This single-arm pre–post-intervention was delivered bilingually by accredited exercise physiologists over nine weeks to 101 adults (mean age: 72.3 ± 5.3 years; 38% male). The physical health assessments measured waist circumference, aerobic capacity, strength, flexibility, and balance, while the questionnaires evaluated quality of life and social connectedness. The results showed significant improvements in all physical health measures (p < 0.001), with more participants meeting fitness standards for healthy independent living. Participants also reported significant improvements in self-perceived quality of life and social connectedness. The Move Together program effectively improved physical health and psychosocial well-being among older Chinese Australians through its culturally adapted, bilingual delivery model. These findings provide valuable insights for health professionals and policymakers adapting and implementing programs for culturally and linguistically diverse older populations to address chronic disease risks and social isolation. Full article

The concept of gaming is universal and familiar to students worldwide. Gamification involves integrating game elements and mechanics into non-game environments, making it a valuable tool for enhancing user engagement and motivation in Human–Computer Interaction. This approach is particularly valuable for primary school education. Students are exposed to a great deal of information daily. This contains several inaccuracies and misinformation regarding the tourism sector. Our research is being conducted as part of the Computer Science course to help students aged 9 to 12 understand the concept of fake news in the context of tourism. Bilingual students brought valuable perspectives to the classroom, especially during discussions about cultural representation and media bias. Incorporating intercultural communication into learning activities helped these students enhance their language and critical thinking skills while navigating various cultural contexts. We used an application with gamification elements to engage the students and enhance their learning experience. We evaluated user experience and usability using quantitative methods through questionnaires. The results revealed that students found the application easy to use and had a positive experience with it. This study assessed the effectiveness of the educational intervention by comparing pre-test and post-test scores on a Likert scale on four key questions. The intervention was largely successful in enhancing student outcomes. These findings suggest that participants not only maintained stable information literacy behaviors over time but also showed improvements in critical evaluation and skepticism. Full article