Search Results (324)

Cooperative multi-UAV path planning under dynamic and adversarial conditions demands simultaneous satisfaction of safety, efficiency, and coordination constraints, yet existing swarm-intelligence and RL–swarm hybrids rely on deterministic switching rules, tabular states, and ad hoc training schedules. This paper proposes RL-JSO, a hybrid framework in which a dueling double deep Q-network with prioritized experience replay adaptively selects among the drift, passive, and active phases of a jellyfish search optimizer, replacing the deterministic time-control rule with a learned policy. The framework integrates a five-layer hierarchical safety control mechanism, a mastery-gated nine-stage curriculum, and a shared reward module that architecturally enforces fairness between RL-JSO and a paired RL-PSO counterpart. Evaluation across four progressive campaigns with 160 independent runs per algorithm shows that, within the evaluated JSO/PSO family, RL-JSO is the only method that sustains a 100% collision-free rate across all four progressive difficulty campaigns, its Cliff’s delta over standard JSO grows monotonically with difficulty from medium to large, and under a composite cooperation metric its coordination score remains nearly invariant while comparators degrade by 17–23%. A paired inference-time ablation on the trained checkpoint provides controlled inference-time evidence that adaptive phase switching is a principal contributor to the observed test-time performance within the trained system, rather than the heuristic fallback layers. Full article

Urban informality is a defining feature of Latin American urbanisation, with estimates suggesting that up to 80% of the urban landscape has been informally built. Despite its centrality in urban development, its integration into architectural education remains limited, revealing a gap between the realities of city-making and the professional training offered by universities. This study examines how architecture programmes in Chile, Peru, and Ecuador address urban informality and the extent to which they prepare future professionals to engage with the dominant modes of urban production in the region. Using a qualitative and comparative methodology, the curricula, course descriptions, and academic lines of 50 universities were analysed across three dimensions: (1) the thematic presence of concepts related to informality, (2) the degree of curricular integration—core, transversal, or tangential—and (3) pedagogical orientation, classified as technical–normative, social–critical, or interdisciplinary. The results reveal a fragmented and uneven incorporation of urban informality. Chile shows the highest relative presence, though often embedded indirectly within broader themes such as inequality or sustainability and framed through technical–normative approaches. Peru and Ecuador display even more limited integration, generally confined to isolated courses or electives. The study argues that this marginal incorporation weakens the preparation of professionals working in contexts where informality is a structural urban condition and calls for an “informal turn” in built-environment education. Full article

Lesson planning is a core professional practice for pre-service teachers, yet opportunities for timely, individualized feedback are frequently constrained by educator workload. While generative AI has the potential to enhance planning processes and expand opportunities for individualized feedback, the provision of comprehensive lesson plans may lead to excessive reliance. This conceptual design paper details the development and theoretical underpinnings of an artificial intelligence-assisted feedback tool that provides self-efficacy-strengthening feedback on lesson plans for pre-service teachers. To promote constructive feedback, the AI-assisted feedback tool integrates principles from educational feedback research and structures feedback to foster teachers’ lesson-planning self-efficacy through mastery-oriented affirmations, vicarious examples, social persuasions, and emotional reassurance. Curriculum alignment is incorporated to support content validity and contextual appropriateness. While the initial implementation of the feedback tool focuses on Western Australian teacher education, an explicit transfer perspective is considered for the German vocational education context. The paper describes the iterative development process that follows a design-based research approach including platform evaluation, internal refinement, and expert review by teacher educators in Western Australia. The resulting system prompt architecture comprises 11 dimensions including general baselines, the interaction between the Lesson Planning Coach and PSTs and the theoretical foundations mentioned above. The tools’ environment, including examples for provided feedback on lesson plans, is presented and discussed. Finally, an outlook is given on the planned empirical research to evaluate the effectiveness of the tool. Full article

Personalized lesson planning is time-consuming and demands simultaneous alignment to curriculum standards, classroom constraints, and individual teacher style. Although large language models (LLMs) can draft lesson plans, their outputs often remain generic, lack verifiable grounding in official curricula, and require substantial teacher revision to become classroom-ready. We present TeachPlanAlign, a dual-profile lesson plan generation framework that (i) models both teacher preferences and class learning context, (ii) grounds generation in curriculum evidence through retrieval-augmented fine-tuning designed for open-book generation, and (iii) iteratively improves pedagogical coherence via a constraint-guided self-refinement loop. The framework produces structured plans with explicit time allocation, differentiation strategies, and an evidence-linked rationale that supports traceability to standards and instructional resources. We evaluate TeachPlanAlign on a multi-subject benchmark of lesson requests paired with curriculum documents and human-authored plans, and we further validate its usability through teacher-in-the-loop evaluation. Results show consistent improvements in curriculum alignment, evidence faithfulness, and teacher preference satisfaction, while reducing teacher editing effort. These findings suggest that dual-profile alignment with traceable curriculum grounding can improve the usability and auditability of LLM-based lesson planning on this benchmark, but they should not yet be interpreted as evidence of deployment readiness. Full article

Greening, as a concept, is becoming an essential component of contemporary urban planning worldwide, and universities have begun adopting green policies. While there are numerous studies on climate change, green infrastructure, ecology, and sustainability in planning practice, limited scientific research explores how these concepts are embedded within the educational landscape. This paper aims to develop a methodological framework for mapping the “educational greenscape” by evaluating three levels of higher education in a top-down manner: (01) university, (02) faculty, and (03) subject. The research methodology relies on: an extensive literature review and content analysis; a multi-level case study of the University of Belgrade, focusing on an expert survey based on the European University Association framework; curriculum content evaluation at the Faculty of Architecture, using predefined keywords; and the identification of green interventions and their implementation within the subject “Sustainable Territorial Development,” at the Faculty of Architecture. The specific findings indicate that green activities at the institutional level lack resources, communication, and governance. At the faculty level, there is an apparent need for a more even distribution of green urban planning approaches across different faculty courses. However, subject-level assessment showed the successful implementation of the green urban planning concept into teaching and learning methodologies, with it showing transformative potential and providing a universally applicable methodological framework for mapping the educational greenscape. Full article

Education plays a crucial role in climate adaptation and mitigation, specifically in the current context of environmental challenges and disasters. This article analyzes initiatives to integrate content on sustainability, climate change, and disaster risk reduction into Spanish educational legislation and other specific regulations, such as civil protection. It reviews the alignment of Spanish legislation with international frameworks such as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sendai Framework, as well as the incorporation of environmental and climate education into regulations related to climate change and civil protection. The article highlights the importance of teacher training and the recent implementation of a mandatory disaster education plan following a devastating rainfall and flood disaster in 2024 (known in Spanish as the DANA disaster), which aims to strengthen the resilience and preparedness of the entire educational community. It concludes that significant progress has been made in integrating this content into the curriculum. However, the challenge of consolidating a culture of climate change awareness in Spanish society remains. Full article

Large language models (LLMs) offer new opportunities for lesson planning, remediation, and personalized practice, but deploying them in real educational settings remains challenging for two reasons. First, direct use of learner interaction traces can expose sensitive information about student knowledge states and behavioral patterns. Second, unconstrained generation can produce recommendations that are pedagogically inconsistent with the adopted curriculum, such as skipping prerequisite concepts or drifting outside the prescribed textbook scope. We propose PrivPath, a stage–subject–textbook-aligned framework for privacy-preserving curriculum planning that explicitly separates on-device learner modeling from server-side content generation. Its core module, Tri-Index Private Path Planning (TIPP), first restricts planning to a scoped curriculum graph defined by the target educational context, then privatizes learner mastery summaries under local differential privacy before transmission, and finally computes a curriculum-feasible instructional path that is coupled with evidence-grounded constrained generation. This design preserves personalization while reducing reliance on raw student traces and improving controllability of the generated teaching sequence. Experiments on three educational interaction datasets paired with open-textbook curriculum graphs show that PrivPath substantially improves structural validity and privacy robustness. In particular, it raises graph feasibility from 82.5% to 99.2% relative to TriIndex-RAG, improves the offline pedagogical utility proxy $\Delta$AUC from 0.013 to 0.018, and lowers membership inference AUC from 0.74 to 0.52 at ${\epsilon }_{\mathrm{loc}}=1.0$. These results suggest that curriculum-aligned path planning, privacy-preserving learner adaptation, and practically useful LLM-based educational generation can be achieved within a unified framework. Full article

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have become widely used tools for different applications including surveillance, search and rescue, and package delivery. However, autonomous path planning in dynamic environments with moving obstacles, wind disturbances, and energy constraints remains a significant challenge. This paper proposes a novel Multi-Head Attention Deep Q-Network with Prioritized Experience Replay (MA-DQN + PER) that integrates bio-inspired attention mechanisms with deep reinforcement learning for efficient UAV path planning. Our approach features a 46-dimensional state space that captures all environmental information, including static obstacles, wind conditions, and energy status. The proposed Attention-QNetwork architecture uses four specialized attention heads to selectively focus on different aspects of the environment, including obstacle avoidance, target tracking and energy management, and wind compensation. To improve sample efficiency and convergence speed, we incorporate Prioritized Experience Replay (PER) as well as Prioritized Experience Replay (PER) with a sum-tree data structure to improve sample efficiency and convergence speed. A curriculum learning strategy that includes 10 difficulty levels is designed to progressively enhance the agent’s capabilities. Extensive simulations demonstrate that our MA-DQN + PER approach reaches a 96% task success rate (defined as the percentage of episodes where the UAV successfully reaches the target without collision or battery depletion), while the convergence speed was 68% quicker than that of the baseline DQN. Our method demonstrates superior performance in path efficiency (+17%), energy consumption reduction (−26%), and collision avoidance compared to state-of-the-art algorithms. Full article

Outcome-Based Engineering Education (OBEE), a performance-driven approach at the forefront of curriculum design, offers a reliable and scalable framework for reforming engineering education. This research examines the industrial and logistics engineering major at the National School of Applied Sciences of Marrakesh as a case study to develop and implement a new hybrid model that merges the OBEE approach and Lean Management principles and methods through five layers. This paper presents the second and third layers of the Lean-OBEE architecture: the Target layer and Assessment layer, respectively. The target layer employs Hoshin Kanri’s X-Matrix in the OBEE process as a Lean strategic planning tool for visual and efficient management of the educational outcomes. Teachers and academic staff used the X-Matrix to monitor the unfolding of strategic educational objectives and progress throughout the course and curriculum. The assessment layer integrates a set of Lean principles, including PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycles, Poka-Yoke, Flow, Muri, Standard Work, Takt Time, and Collective Intelligence, to design and assess the course session. The findings of this study provide preliminary evidence that the proposed Lean-OBEE model supports the development of sustainable engineering education by continuously improving the relevance and efficiency of the curriculum and teaching practices to meet the dynamic needs of industry and all stakeholders. This study serves as a practical reference for achieving the stated outcomes. Full article

Background: Most individuals develop smoking habits in adolescence, highlighting the need for a smoking prevention program targeted at this age group. The use of “Implementation Intentions” (If-Then plans) about how to refuse a cigarette combined with anti-smoking messages has been shown to be effective in the UK. However, there is a scarcity of data regarding school-based smoking prevention interventions among adolescents available to countries with high tobacco consumption rates, like Greece. Objectives: To describe the cultural adaptation procedure and the evaluation protocol for the school-based “Implementation Intentions” program aimed at reducing tobacco use susceptibility among Greek adolescents aged 13–16 in school settings. Methods: The present study is part of the EU-funded FRESHAIR4Life Program. We will use a mixed-methods approach with a pre- and post-intervention design in six conveniently selected secondary schools in Heraklion, Crete, Greece, to measure the intervention’s Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance using the RE-AIM framework. The study plans to involve three Master Trainers (MTs), 20–25 school teachers (to be trained by the MTs), and approximately 480 students. Participating schools will receive the “Implementation Intentions” intervention, which is based on a goal-setting technique where individuals commit to perform a particular behavior when a specific context arises. The study will consist of five sequential phases: Phase I involves training three Master Trainers (MTs) using the International Primary Care Respiratory Group (IPCRG’s) Teach-the-Teacher (TtT) curriculum, specifically focused on the implementation of our intervention. In Phase II, workshops will be held to co-create and culturally adapt the intervention. Phase III will involve teachers trained by MTs on delivering the intervention. In Phase IV, teachers will deliver the intervention among students in their schools. Data will be collected pre- and post-intervention through surveys, session logs, fidelity observations, feedback forms, and follow-up interviews or focus groups (Phase V). Quantitative data will be analyzed descriptively and by using paired t-tests and multiple linear regression analyses, while qualitative data will undergo thematic analysis. Discussion: The study protocol’s potential benefits extend beyond educating Greek adolescents on the risks associated with smoking. Active participation will empower and motivate young people to make informed, healthy choices. We expect the results could help create more effective, context-specific interventions, support policy changes aimed at decreasing the prevalence of adolescent smoking in Crete, Greece, and potentially be used by other countries as well. Full article

In the post-pandemic higher education context, multilingual students, particularly those from widening participation backgrounds, continue to face academic, linguistic, and socio-emotional challenges that can limit their participation and sense of belonging. This study examines the use of Reflective Video Diaries (RVDs) facilitated through Microsoft Flipgrid as an inclusive pedagogical approach to support reflective engagement, communication, and socio-emotional development among multilingual undergraduate students. Adopting a qualitative iterative action research approach, the study was conducted within a UK university module and involved three cycles of implementation, reflection, and pedagogical refinement, capturing students’ lived experiences rather than measuring causal effects. Multiple methods, including RVDs, end-of-module reflective reports, an anonymous survey, and lecturers’ field notes, were deliberately combined to provide complementary perspectives on students’ experiences, allowing triangulation of data and enhancing the validity and richness of findings. Thematic analysis of this longitudinal dataset collected across the three action-research cycles explored how students experienced RVDs as a space for reflection, peer support, and engagement with learning. Findings indicate that Flipgrid-mediated RVDs functioned as a low-anxiety, flexible, and dialogic learning environment that enabled students to articulate challenges, share progress, and develop reflective awareness, confidence, and a sense of connection with peers and lecturers. Improvements in participation and reflective depth were more evident in later cycles, suggesting that benefits emerged through iterative pedagogical adjustment rather than by video technology alone. Both positive experiences and challenges are reported, providing a balanced account of engagement with the RVDs. The study underscores the potential of inclusive digital pedagogies to inform curriculum planning and policy implementation, supporting equitable learning opportunities and socio-emotional development. By conceptualizing RVDs as relational and inclusive pedagogical practices rather than technological interventions, and by demonstrating how reflective engagement developed across successive action-research cycles, this research contributes to understanding how reflective digital practices can support multilingual learners’ academic and socio-emotional development within socially just higher education contexts. Practical implications for designing inclusive reflective learning environments are discussed. Full article

Elementary music teachers in the United States face many challenges today, including an increasing cultural divide between teachers and students, worsening student behavior, and excessive exposure to technology in children’s lives. These challenges are magnified due to the hundreds of students elementary music teachers see weekly, the lack of teaching and planning time, and inadequate teaching resources, making it difficult to fully understand the culture and learning needs of every child. However, music educators may find culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) a useful tool for meeting the needs of a diverse student body. Further, when teachers engage in kid culture, the environments and activities that only children have, there is a plethora of music and media to use that children prefer that can help increase engagement and reduce behavioral problems. In this Perspective article, I provide three sample lessons that model instructional strategies that challenge current systems of power and representation in music education and center student agency through singing, chanting, moving, playing, and creating. Using repertoire that students already know and prefer, such as “Old Town Road,” Fortnite dances, and the song “See You Again”, draws from children’s funds of knowledge. Moving away from the Western art music canon and traditional formal education structures (like standard notation) in favor of learning by ear, peer collaboration, and improvisation decolonizes the curriculum. Critical reflexivity occurs when the teacher acts as a learner, constantly adjusting lessons to ensure student agency and addressing ethical issues, such as the intellectual property rights of creators whose work is used in media like Fortnite. By using melodies, songs, and video game movements children already know, music teachers can use the materials and learning processes in kid culture to engage in culturally sustaining pedagogy. I aim to inspire educators and researchers to reflect on sustaining children’s dynamic, cultural practices and better understand how to authentically bring popular music and media into elementary music lessons to provide a more engaging, relevant, and transformative music education. Full article

Executive function (EF) impairments are common in children with intellectual and developmental disabilities and have a significant impact on learning and daily life. Cognitive training programs aimed at strengthening EFs may show limited feasibility and generalization. However, recent studies suggest that ecological, curriculum-embedded problem-solving activities may be more promising. This multiple-baseline single-case study tested the feasibility and efficacy of a short computational thinking and coding intervention based on problem-solving for children with sickle cell disease, a hemoglobinopathy associated with cognitive decline and EF deficits. The trial followed the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) Version 5 guidelines for single-case research. Three 7–8-year-old children with lower-range IQ (71–82) and EF impairments completed 11 coding sessions over 5–6 weeks using code.org, with pre/post assessments of non-verbal EF (planning, inhibition, and switching), and verbal EF skills (verbal working memory, phonological fluency and semantic fluency). Results showed 100% adherence to the intervention, significant improvement in coding (IRD range = 0.69–0.79), with positive transfer effects on nonverbal planning skills (gains > 2 z-scores) and also verbal fluency (z-score gains ranging from 0.47 to 1.04). Inter-individual variability in effects was related to the child’s individual cognitive profile. Findings suggest that problem-solving, coding-based activities can be feasible and potentially beneficial for children with significant EF impairments. Full article

This article showcases an integrated educational curriculum for a senior design project course that introduced problem-based learning (PBL). Various sustainable approaches to removing plastic particles from stormwater were investigated, and one of these approaches was applied to design an optimum system for removing microplastics from stormwater. A customized learning solution (CLS), was tailored to senior students for their design project, which included a field site visit, interactive modules through PBL, assessments (project plan, preliminary design, intermediate design, and a final project report), a guest lecture, Kahoot quizzes, and hands-on experience using the FIJI software (release date 10 July 2023) program, along with an oral presentation by the student group. The PBL-integrated senior design project comprised 15 weeks of class activities. Overall, the PBL-integrated CLS approach revealed the students’ abilities to develop a successful design project to mitigate plastic pollution and allowed them to gain experiential learning in the field. Further application of PBL-integrated coursework is discussed by identifying the strengths and challenges of implementing PBL and suggestions for improvement. PBL integration into an engineering design course is recommended to create a framework for developing a curriculum in higher education, thereby exposing students to applications to real-world problems by reducing the gap between theory and practice. Full article

Authentic, situated learning experiences which mirror the collaborative nature of healthcare practice are essential in preparing students for their future professions. Feedback literacy may be thought of as the understanding, capacity, and disposition needed to make sense of information and use it to enhance work or learning strategies. This study explored how feedback literacy can be developed through situated, interprofessional peer-to-peer feedback within a community-based paediatric health screening programme. Using an exploratory Action Research qualitative design, the planning activities stage explored current practice, gathering student insights via interviews, reflections, and a workshop to co-design an Interprofessional Feedback Conversation Guide (IPFCG). The IPFCG was piloted, integrating structured feedback tools and protected time for peer exchange, within the community screening activity. Feedback regarding use of the IPFCG contributed to the gathering data stage, which was followed by the evaluation and reflection stage. Evaluation revealed four key themes: value, engagement, optimising relationships, and structuring conversations. Students valued receiving feedback from peers outside their discipline, actively engaged with the process, emphasised the importance of building rapport, and utilised structured dialogue. These findings highlight how authentic, field-based learning can foster feedback literacy, enhancing the development of professional identity. The interprofessional nature of the program reflects the complexity of modern healthcare and demonstrates how curriculum-integrated models of authentic learning can enhance student engagement and workplace readiness. This study contributes to the evolving conversation about embedding authenticity in higher education and offers a practical model for building collaborative communication within situated learning experiences at scale. Full article