Search Results (19)

The pervasive underrepresentation of racially minoritized students in STEM fields and the workforce remains a concern to the scientific community. At the graduate level, underrepresented students have reported difficulties with advising, negative research group experiences, along with challenges in determining their long-term career interests. STEM intervention programs (SIPs) aid in students’ abilities to be academically successful in graduate school, expose students to career opportunities, and provide them with skills to help them be competitive and successful in those professional roles. This study centers the experiences of 25 racially and ethnically underrepresented graduate students, all of whom participated in a graduate STEM intervention program, to better understand how they gained more clarity about their post-graduate career plans, namely the professoriate. The new information presented in this study offers insights into STEM intervention programs and graduate programs to better support minoritized graduate students in the development of their faculty career clarity. Full article

The future of innovation and economic growth depends on our ability to nurture the next generation of scientists. The global shortage of qualified STEM (Science, Technology, engineering, Mathematics) teachers has led many countries to expedite the transition of subject-matter experts from industry and academia into teaching roles. These second-career science student teachers typically participate in accelerated training programs designed to address urgent shortages. This study addresses a gap in the literature regarding effective pedagogical interventions for career-changing professionals in STEM fields, focusing on the experience and transformation of second-career science student teachers. This qualitative case study explores how a Challenge-Based Learning (CBL) course fosters the development of pedagogical competences via developing an instructional unit collaboratively, among five second-career science student teachers enrolled in an accelerated teacher education program. Drawing on data collected through instructors’ field notes, iterative work-in-progress lesson drafts, and reflective final papers, the study employs qualitative content analysis to trace changes in participants’ instructional approaches and professional identity. Findings reveal that engagement with the CBL framework promoted a significant shift from teacher-centered to learner-centered instruction, as participants increasingly integrated collaborative learning, inquiry-based activities, and reflective practices into their lesson planning and classroom teaching. The iterative nature of CBL, which emphasizes real-world problem-solving and structured opportunities for reflection and peer feedback, was instrumental in supporting participants’ adaptive expertise and confidence as novice teachers. Moreover, the course experience contributed to the emergence of a professional teaching identity, with participants reporting greater self-efficacy, a stronger sense of belonging to the teaching community, and increased motivation to persist in the profession. The results underscore the potential of integrating CBL and learning sciences principles into accelerated teacher preparation programs to enhance both cognitive and affective dimensions of teacher development. Full article

Emerging adulthood, characterized by identity exploration and optimism for the future, provides a unique context for examining the interactions between psychological and environmental factors that shape career perceptions. Positive future thinking, defined as the ability to imagine and plan long-term goals, is associated with greater resilience and adaptability. Simultaneously, environmental concern emerges as a critical driver of values and perceptions, reflecting commitment to social and environmental well-being. Sustainable careers that integrate personal growth, well-being, and contributions to societal goals are increasingly relevant at this stage of life. This study aimed to investigate the mediating role of environmental concern in the relationship between positive future thinking and sustainable career perceptions in a sample of 266 Italian emerging adults (ages 18–29, M = 22.25, SD = 2.21). Structural equation modeling indicated that the hypothesized mediation model fit the data well. The results revealed significant direct effects of positive future thinking on both environmental concern and sustainable career perceptions, as well as a significant indirect effect through environmental concern. These findings highlight the psychological pathways linking positive future thinking, environmental concern, and sustainable career perceptions and provide insights for promoting adaptive and future-oriented behaviors in emerging adulthood. By doing so, this study contributes to the advancement of Sustainable Development Goals 4 (Quality Education), 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), and 13 (Climate Action). Full article

With the popularity of higher education and the evolution of the workplace environment, graduate education has become a key choice for students planning their future career paths. Therefore, this study proposes to use the data processing ability and pattern recognition ability of machine learning models to analyze the relevant information of graduate applicants. This study explores three different models—backpropagation neural networks (BPNN), random forests (RF), and logistic regression (LR)—and combines them with the firefly algorithm (FA). Through data selection, the model was constructed and verified. By comparing the verification results of the three composite models, the model whose evaluation results were closest to the actual data was selected as the research result. The experimental results show that the evaluation result of the BPNN-FA model is the best, with an R value of 0.8842 and the highest prediction accuracy. At the same time, the influence of each characteristic parameter on the prediction result was analyzed. The results show that CGPA has the greatest influence on the evaluation results, which provides the evaluation direction and evaluation results for the evaluators to analyze the level of students’ scientific research ability, as well as providing impetus to continue to promote the combination of education and artificial intelligence. Full article

Background/Objectives/Methods: Atopic dermatitis (AD) impacts various aspects of patients’ lives including personal life, psychological aspects/disturbances (e.g., depression, anxiety, or even suicidal thoughts), school, and work-related activities, including career advancement. The aim of this narrative review is to present the latest information available on how to best approach AD patient management, as well as decisions regarding standard/advanced systemic therapy, by gathering evidence from the relevant medical literature (PubMed and other prominent medical databases). Results: Thus, AD patient management and decisions regarding advanced/systemic therapy are complex, requiring the consideration of multiple disease-related factors: age; disease severity; patient medical history and comorbidities; previous topical therapy use and any adverse reactions; treatment efficacy concerns; patient preferences, expectations and fears; pregnancy planning; ability and willingness to adhere to the treatment regimen; impact on related risks; and any associated psychological or psychiatric issues. Current guidelines and systematic reviews support the safety and efficacy of systemic therapy including conventional drugs (cyclosporine, methotrexate, and azathioprine), biologics (dupilumab and tralokinumab), and JAK inhibitors (baricitinib, upadacitinib, and abrocitinib) recommended for treating moderate and severe AD. Recently, additional biologics have been evaluated in clinical trials, including lebrikizumab, nemolizumab, eblasakimab, and OX40/OX40L, among others. Conclusions: The most recently suggested approach to treating AD patients suggests focusing on therapy that targets and achieves minimal disease activity (MDA), where therapy decisions are informed by both the patient and the clinician. Available data also indicate the importance of a personalized, stepwise, and multidisciplinary approach. This type of approach promotes patient compliance, satisfaction with therapy, and increased engagement, which all lead to better patient outcomes. Full article

This study analyzed the relationship between environmental and cognitive factors and the entrepreneurial intentions of business students from the perspective of the Planned Behavior Theory. Data were collected in the classroom through a questionnaire that was distributed to 229 freshmen in the first year of the Accounting, Economics and Administration course, and the analysis was carried out using the Partial Least Squares - Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM). It was found that education and conducive business environments are predictive of cognitive factors, such as a favorable evaluation of an entrepreneurial career choice and social pressures, with indirect effects on intentions to undertake entrepreneurship (EI). In addition, entrepreneurial intentions are influenced by cognitive factors, such as a positive evaluation of an entrepreneurial career and perceived entrepreneurial ability. This demonstrates that environmental factors potentiate cognitive factors and, indirectly, the intention to undertake entrepreneurship (EI). It was identified that public policies do not influence the perceived entrepreneurial capacity and that social pressures are not predictive of the surveyed students’ intentions to undertake entrepreneurship. These data require the attention of universities and governments to create environments that are conducive to entrepreneurship and students’ decisions to engage with sustainable projects and business models. It is concluded that environmental factors are predictive of cognitive aspects with positive and significant effects on the entrepreneurial career intentions of university students. An entrepreneurial attitude and the ability to transform ideas into actions create space for the promotion of a student micro-entrepreneur and the cultivation of a sustainable entrepreneurial culture in higher education. Full article

In schools and universities, we instructors carry the responsibility of informing and inspiring students. Traditional and more theoretical educational programs (here referred to as passive learning) may be tied to projects and activities (active learning), in which students gain hands-on practical experience with planning, development, implementation, maintenance, and presentation of different solution-focused activities. Complementary to passive learning, the needs for active learning activities and living laboratories have become more pertinent as global trends, such as climate change, weigh heavily on the shoulders of young people. Unless properly guided and given tangible sources of inspiration, the sense of being overwhelmed and incapable of effectively contributing to a more sustainable future may cast a dark shadow over students, their ability to engage in active learning, and their long-term career aspirations. Schools and universities are being evaluated for their “greenness”. Accordingly, operational improvements (carbon, water, waste, and nutrient footprints) to meet sustainability targets are being implemented. Structural sustainability improvements represent unique opportunities for students and instructors to engage in active learning. As a broader message to school and university administrators, it is argued that efforts to plan and implement sustainability initiatives should also involve transformations of educational curricula. It is argued that educational institutions could and should be more than sums of buildings and infra-structure and represent living laboratories. Descriptions of topics taught, learning outcomes, and links to examples of student assignments of a specific course, Urban Food and Society, are included and discussed in the broader contexts of urban food sustainability and active learning. The main purpose of this article is to promote the notion that active learning activities and the need for improved sustainability of schools and universities can go hand in hand and provide compelling educational opportunities. Full article

Innovative digital technologies, together with new sustainable practices, push for new business models and skillsets, pressuring companies to adapt to external change in order to gain competitive advantage. Higher education institutions could offer support. More than 20% of university graduates in the European Union study “business, administration or law”, with some of them being future top-level managers and entrepreneurs. This paper aims to provide an understanding of the factors shaping business students’ perspectives and decisions in the modern business landscape. It reunites their career preferences, personality characteristics and knowledge regarding technology’s utility for business and compares them between two cohorts (i.e., first year bachelor students and second year master students). The results of an online survey with a sample of 154 respondents show that business students’ entrepreneurial intention is influenced by their entrepreneurial confidence, their boldness when considering risks, as well as by being further along their educational journey. While almost 80% of business students are daring, oriented toward results and confident in their entrepreneurial abilities, and around 50% would feel most comfortable having their own business, approximately half of first year bachelor students and 14% of second year master students tend to be “not sure” regarding how eight out of ten modern technologies mentioned in this paper (i.e., robotic process automation, big data, artificial intelligence, computer vision, industrial robots, internet of things, virtual reality, enterprise resource planning) could improve a company’s innovation and performance. Full article

For the majority of people, bursaries are a significant concern during their academic careers. This research focuses on how satisfied subsidized students are with the program and how it affects their ability to learn after receiving disadvantaged students’ bursaries. The study analyzes the 1788 questionnaires returned by students who received the “Dream. Set Sail. Turn Life” Underprivileged Learning Scholarship for three academic years from 2019 to 2021. The data were collected from a university in Taiwan. The primary purpose is to explore the students’ satisfaction with implementing the plan and provide a further analysis of satisfaction and learning effects. The research shows that the rest of the questions are significant, except that applicants can learn more professional skills. The following are the priorities: positive impact on the life and future of subsidized students, expanding personal horizons, improving employability, learning more professional knowledge, reducing the economic pressure of studying, and eliminating the need for work-study. In addition, the overall satisfaction of the recipients with the program will also affect their learning outcomes (academic performance). While using the overall satisfaction of the program to perform regression on the learning effect, it was found that the subsidized recipients significantly impact the overall satisfaction of the program and their learning effects. The higher the subsidized recipients’ overall satisfaction with the program, the more significant the learning effect. Full article

Project-based learning (PBL) promotes increased levels of learning, deepens student understanding of acquired knowledge, and improves learning motivation. Students develop their ability to think and learn independently through depending on themselves in searching for knowledge, planning, exploration, and looking for solutions to practical problems. Information availability, student engagement, and motivation to learn all increase with mobile learning. The teaching process may be enhanced by combining the two styles. This paper proposes and evaluates a teaching model called Mobile Project-Based Learning (Mobile-PBL) that combines the two learning styles. The paper investigates how significantly Mobile-PBL can benefit students. The traditional lecture method used to teach the software architecture module in the classroom is not sufficient to provide students with the necessary practical experience to earn a career as software architects in the future. Therefore, the first author tested the use of the model for teaching the software architecture module at Philadelphia University’s Software Engineering Department on 62 students who registered for a software architecture course over three semesters. She compared the results of using the model for teaching with those results that were obtained when using the project-based learning (PBL) approach alone. The students’ opinions regarding the approach, any problems they had, and any recommendations for improvement were collected through a focus group session after finishing each semester and by distributing a survey to students to evaluate the effectiveness of the used model. Comments from the students were positive, according to the findings. The projects were well-received by the students, who agreed that it gave them a good understanding of several course ideas and concepts, as well as providing them with the required practical experience. The students also mentioned a few difficulties encountered while working on the projects, including student distraction from social media and the skills that educators and learners in higher education institutions are expected to have. Full article

Postsecondary institutions worldwide generally provide career development courses or similar courses to better prepare undergraduate students for healthy and quality future careers. Understanding whether these career development courses positively affect students’ career-related outcomes is crucial. Utilizing survey data collected from a large research university located in the eastern part of China, we found that students who have taken at least one career course exhibited career awareness and career planning abilities that were 0.096 and 0.147 units higher, respectively, than those of students who have not taken career courses, with other variables held constant. More specifically, an additional career course was statistically significantly associated with a 0.099, 0.084, and 0.175 unit increase in students’ career awareness, job search self-efficacy, and career planning ability, respectively. A student’s college major and annual family income seemed to be good predictors for a student’s career awareness, job search self-efficacy, and career-planning ability. Furthermore, the more career courses that a student took, the higher the career awareness, job search self-efficacy, and career planning ability that the student had. With these findings in mind, our study recommends postsecondary stakeholders to leverage such courses to help students better prepare for a healthy and quality career development. Full article

China’s college graduates are experiencing extreme employment pressure, especially under the effects brought about by COVID-19. This study examines whether career-related psychological factors jointly affect college students’ career decision-making self-efficacy (CDMSE) to achieve sustainable career development. Leveraging self-administrated survey data with 703 undergraduate students, we find that career awareness, job search self-efficacy (JSSE), and career planning ability positively relate to CDMSE. We also find that career awareness positively correlates with JSSE and career planning ability. In addition, the results support that perceived career reality positively relates to JSSE and career planning ability. However, no evidence indicates the positive relationship between perceived career reality and CDMSE. Furthermore, mediation tests confirm that JSSE and career planning ability partially mediate the relationship between career awareness and CDMSE. Practical implications, limitations, and future directions are also discussed. Full article

To counteract the shortage of nurses in the workforce, healthcare organizations must encourage experienced nurses to extend their working lives. Intensive care (IC) has higher nurse-to-patient ratios than other settings, which includes a particular susceptibility to staff shortage. This qualitative study investigated how older IC nurses experienced their working life and their reflections on the late-career and retirement. Semi-structured interviews with 12 IC nurses in Sweden (aged 55–65 years) were analyzed using an interpretative phenomenological analysis approach. The results showed that nurses planned to continue working until the age of 65 and beyond. When reflecting on their late-career decisions, nurses considered nine areas covering individual, work, and organizational factors as being central to their ability and willingness to stay. Overall, the nurses had good health and were very satisfied and committed to their job and to the organization. They mentioned having both the job and personal resources required to cope with the physical and mental job demands, which were perceived as motivational challenges, rather than hinders. They also reflected on various human resource management practices that may promote aging-in-workplace. These findings may inform organizations aiming at providing adequate conditions for enabling healthy and sustainable working lives for IC nurses. Full article

The Engineering Education Accreditation (EEA) has been adopted in colleges and universities worldwide. As a foundational component of practical teaching, cognitive internship is a focus of EEA, with the offline mode as the common teaching method, while the online mode has been increasingly used in recent years. To meet the requirements of EEA, the effects of the online and offline cognitive internships need to be analyzed and compared. Focusing on the demand, this paper proposes a comprehensive method combining the Goal Achievement Degree (GAD) and CIPP model. The majors of the School of Automotive Transport and Engineering at Wuhan University of Science and Technology (WUST), which include the fields of vehicle engineering, traffic engineering, traffic transport, and logistics engineering, are taken as the example to conduct this research. The main findings of this paper are as follows: (1) Compared with online cognitive internship, offline internship students have a stronger ability to enhance theoretical knowledge and perceive the environment. (2) Utilizing such an online teaching method could be helpful for cultivating students’ analytical skills. (3) From the students’ perspective, the lack of funding for teaching cognitive internships, both online and offline, is the most serious problem. (4) Students perceive that the online cognitive internship helps them to understand knowledge in class and determine career planning, but it does not provide the same effect on those as the offline cognitive internship. Full article

The challenging labor market conditions concomitant with economic globalization and advanced technology have made youth career development competency (YCDC)—young people’s ability to navigate transitions through education into productive and meaningful employment—especially important. The present study aims to develop a holistic instrument to measure YCDC in Hong Kong, which has rarely been investigated in past studies. The sample consisted of 682 youths aged 15–29 years (387 male, mean age = 19.5 years) in Hong Kong. Exploratory factor analysis of the 17-item YCDC scale resulted in four competence factors—engagement, self-understanding, career and pathway exploration, and planning and career management—which accounted for 78.95% of the total variance. The final confirmatory factor analysis results indicated good model fit (CFI = 0.96, TLI = 0.95, RMSEA = 0.06, 90% CI (0.05, 0.07), SRMR = 0.03) and good factor loadings (0.78–0.91). Moreover, the results demonstrated a satisfactory internal consistency of subscales (0.89–0.93). Subgroup consistency across subsamples categorized by gender, age, and years of residence in Hong Kong was also demonstrated. In addition, correlations between the YCDC scale and subscales with other career-related and psychosocial outcomes (i.e., career outcome expectancy, career adaptability, civic engagement, social contribution, and social integration) showed good concurrent validity. The results indicated that the YCDC scale is a valid and reliable tool for measuring career development competence among youth in the Hong Kong context. Its development sheds light on how career professionals can holistically assess young people’s navigation competence during their school-to-work transitions. Full article