Search Results (624)

This article introduces the concept of the digital kōan, an AI-mediated contemplative prompt that functions as a catalyst for self-inquiry rather than a source of spiritual knowledge. Drawing on Buddhist psychology, cognitive science, and contemplative phenomenology, it examines how dialogue with conversational artificial intelligence can reveal the constructed nature of identity and illuminate the processes through which meaning, selfhood, and relational presence emerge. Through a comparison of traditional Zen kōan practice and AI-generated dialogue, the article explores both the possibilities and limitations of digitally mediated contemplative inquiry. Phenomenological case examples involving kōan-based interactions with Microsoft Copilot illustrate how AI dialogue may evoke cognitive dissonance, anthropomorphic projection, and reflexive awareness in ways that resemble aspects of traditional kōan engagement. The analysis emphasizes that current conversational AI provides no established evidence of consciousness or spiritual realization and should not be treated as possessing spiritual authority. Its significance lies not in wisdom or sentience but in its capacity to occasion reflection on users’ assumptions, desires, narratives, and patterns of self-construction. The article further examines ethical concerns associated with contemplative AI, including anthropomorphism, emotional dependency, spiritual outsourcing, and the commodification of digital spirituality. It proposes practical principles for mindful engagement and contemplative technology design, including transparency, reflective prompting, embodied practices, and adaptive safeguarding mechanisms. By reframing human–AI interaction as a form of contemplative inquiry, the concept of the digital kōan contributes to emerging scholarship on AI and religion, digital spirituality, and Buddhist approaches to selfhood. It argues that AI can function as a mirror for examining the illusion of self while highlighting the importance of maintaining ethical and philosophical clarity regarding the limits of machine participation in contemplative life. The digital kōan is proposed not as a substitute for traditional contemplative practice but as a contemporary site in which questions of selfhood, projection, and spiritual meaning can be explored in technologically mediated environments. Full article

Traditional economic geography teaching has failed to effectively help students identify the sustainable development intentions contained in industrial transformation. Sustainable Development Education (ESD) has become a key path to address this challenge, but there remains a lack of empirical exploration of how to effectively integrate ESD into economic geography courses. Therefore, this study embeds place-based teaching into the course and creates a ten-week intervention module called “Observation of Hometown Industries” at a comprehensive university in Hubei Province, China, requiring 105 second-year undergraduate geography majors to conduct field research on the sustainable transformation of local industries. Based on a mixed research design, the results indicated that the most pronounced gains occurred in students’ self-efficacy for sustainability (relative increase 20.0%), closely followed by sustainability-related knowledge and sense of place belonging (19.8%), and systems-thinking capacity (18.2%), with effect sizes ranging from 0.76 to 0.89, indicating moderate-to-strong educational relevance. Qualitative analysis further revealed that this place-based teaching approach helps students recognize the complex trade-off between economic growth, environmental conservation, and social equity in the sustainable transformation of industries. This study provides empirical evidence for cultivating key sustainable literacy in higher education and offers an operational teaching model for integrating ESD into economic geography courses. Full article

As a meta-heuristic inspired by human student learning behaviors, the original Student Psychology-Based Optimization (SPBO) suffers from insufficient exploitation of historical population records, simplistic individual interaction patterns and high risk of falling into local optima. This work develops an enhanced SPBO (ESPBO) embedding three dedicated learning mechanisms. The adaptive knowledge-accumulation learning component imports personal historical best, global elite and population-mean information into position update formulas to sustain coherent search trajectories and enhance convergence precision. The multi-level peer collaborative learning module categorizes agents into excellent, intermediate and under-performing groups based on fitness values. Customized learning rules are configured for each group to enable diverse information sharing: elite individuals expand promising search regions, medium-level agents learn from counterparts, and inferior individuals move toward high-quality candidates. The progressive examination feedback component dynamically modulates search intensity by measuring the fitness improvement of each individual, so as to better balance global exploration and local exploitation. Comparative numerical experiments are carried out on CEC2017 and CEC2022 benchmark test suites against multiple advanced meta-heuristic algorithms. Results indicate that ESPBO exhibits outstanding accuracy and robustness on unimodal, multimodal, hybrid and composite test functions. To explore its real-world applicability, ESPBO is adopted for mobile-robot path-planning simulations under multi-scale grid maps. Simulation results from 20 × 20, 40 × 40 and 60 × 60 environments illustrate that ESPBO stably produces collision-free trajectories, outperforming comparative algorithms in path length, smoothness and safety performance. It is demonstrated that the three embedded learning mechanisms substantially strengthen the optimization capacity of vanilla SPBO, and ESPBO possesses considerable application potential for numerical optimization as well as mobile robot path-planning scenarios. Full article

Engineering curricula offer students few structured opportunities to practice reasoning about problems whose social, political, and economic dimensions are as consequential as their technical ones. This paper reports an exploratory qualitative study of an undergraduate engineering elective in which students investigate a wicked problem of their choice using multiple systems mapping tools, with an explicit emphasis on problem exploration over solution convergence. Drawing on semi-structured post-course interviews with 13 purposively sampled students across three cohorts, including a case-based transfer task set in an unfamiliar sociotechnical context, we examine what capacities students describe developing and how specific mapping tools mediate their reasoning. Interviews were analysed through a combined deductive–inductive coding approach organized by the STOP (Systems Thinking for Opportunity) framework, an analytic scaffold that links Richmond’s systems thinking competencies, the KEEN entrepreneurial mindset dimensions, and Ardichvili et al.’s opportunity identification model. Students described a shift from solution-first thinking toward systemic inquiry, characterized mapping tools as scaffolds that externalized assumptions and structured prior knowledge, and displayed reasoning patterns consistent with adaptive transfer in the case task. These capacities did not develop uniformly: students’ accounts foregrounded structural and causal reasoning far more than reasoning about system behaviour over time, opportunity identification rarely progressed into formal opportunity development, and students were candid about where individual tools constrained their analyses. We therefore interpret systems mapping pedagogy as an amplifier of opportunity-relevant cognition rather than a direct producer of entrepreneurial outcomes. Reflecting the purposive, high-performing sample and the interview-based design, findings are offered as exploratory and bounded to this course context. The study contributes a transparent, tool-level account of how mapping practice mediates sociotechnical reasoning, a case-based transfer task with explicit criteria as a model for assessing sociotechnical learning, and design guidance for educators seeking to build sociotechnical capacity in engineering curricula. Full article

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is becoming embedded in adult professional education, yet its capacity to accelerate academic work may also remove cognitive processes that underpin professional judgement. This qualitative study explored how educators working in Dutch academic medical settings perceive GenAI’s implications for students’ critical thinking and how they believe it should be integrated into medical curricula. Seventeen educators from Dutch academic medical settings participated in semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed thematically using a mixed inductive–deductive approach informed by the Technology Acceptance Model and the Paul–Elder critical thinking framework. Three themes were identified: educational value and efficiency; threats to independent critical thinking; and conditions for responsible integration. Educators valued GenAI for personalised learning, writing support, research assistance, accessibility, simulation, and administrative efficiency. However, they associated low-friction use with cognitive offloading, weaker source appraisal, reduced information filtering, possible erosion of foundational knowledge, and difficulties verifying authentic student understanding. Participants proposed AI literacy, transparent use, institutionally governed models, comparative human–AI tasks, simulation, staged access, and AI-free oral or in-class assessment. The findings suggest that adult professional education should design GenAI as co-intelligence rather than cognitive substitution, preserving productive friction while verifying unassisted competence. Full article

During roll-on load-out of a semi-submersible barge, ballast-water regulation directly affects floating-state accuracy, operational safety, and longitudinal structural response. Conventional ballasting relies heavily on predefined plans and operator experience, making it difficult to simultaneously ensure stern-draft matching, engineering operability, and structural safety under continuously changing heavy-load conditions. This study proposes an engineering-oriented two-stage ballast-water optimization framework incorporating field-derived expert knowledge and coordinated floating state–deflection control for a 45,000-ton semi-submersible barge. Ballast adjustments in individual tanks are used as decision variables subject to physical, floating-state, operational, and structural constraints. In Stage I, an NSGA-II-based population search explores the feasible ballast space using stern-draft deviation as the primary ranking criterion while enforcing trim, heel, tank-capacity, and operational constraints. In Stage II, PSO performs local refinement of the selected feasible solutions; trim and heel are included in the fitness evaluation and remain subject to hard operational limits. Hull longitudinal deflection is subsequently incorporated to form coordinated floating state–deflection optimization. Field measurements from the Module-001 load-out process are used for validation. Compared with standalone PSO, the proposed two-stage method reduces the maximum stern-draft error from 0.103 m to 0.019 m and decreases the average optimization time from approximately 18 min to 4 min. Additional validation using the more complex Module-002 load-out case yields stern-draft errors of approximately 0.001 m for most conditions and a maximum error of 0.007 m. Under coordinated optimization, stern-draft deviations remain within ±0.02 m, trim and heel satisfy the prescribed operational limits, and the maximum relative hull deflection is controlled within approximately 0.06 m. The optimized strategy evolves from fore-and-aft-dominated regulation to coordinated whole-tank regulation, with midship tanks contributing to longitudinal deformation control. The proposed method therefore provides a practical framework for intelligent ballast regulation during heavy-load roll-on operations. Full article

STEAM approaches create new opportunities for students to develop thinking skills connected to technical and scientific education. By combining different areas of knowledge, STEAM encourages students to explore ideas from multiple perspectives and find creative solutions to challenges. This approach is highly relevant in teacher training, as it prepares educators to create innovative and engaging learning experiences. This study examines how an accredited teacher professional development workshop supported in-service secondary teachers in designing mobile game-based learning experiences for sustainability through the integration of STEAM, Universal Design for Learning, and Open Schooling. The study adopted a qualitative case study design based on thematic analysis of documents related to games created by teachers, implementation presentations, and teachers’ reflections. The analysis shows that teachers engaged with educational technology in an authorial and design-oriented role, creating and refining situated digital resources. Teacher authorship and mobile learning design capacity were most prominent; UDL appeared mainly through multimodal and motivational features, alongside perceived student engagement. Technological reliability, accessibility, and data-validity issues remained important constraints. This context supported professional development by enhancing teachers’ capacity to design STEAM, multimodal, and place-based digital learning experiences for sustainability, while articulating the OpenUS4ALL and EduCITY projects. Full article

This qualitative study explored the conditions that shape effective volunteer activity organisation by emerging adult university students (aged 18–25) in a religiously and ethnically diverse Thai setting. The study was conducted at Prince of Songkla University (PSU), Hat Yai Campus, where Buddhist and Muslim students form the two largest religious communities. Data were collected through in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with 30 purposively selected student volunteer leaders and analysed using a hybrid deductive-inductive content analysis approach. Four conditions emerged as foundational: (1) motivational readiness to engage across cultural boundaries; (2) substantive knowledge of cross-cultural communication, both verbal and non-verbal; (3) the capacity to examine and adjust one’s own cultural assumptions; and (4) active, structurally expressed respect for religious and cultural diversity. The findings reveal that family-transmitted stereotypes, knowledge gaps regarding Islamic practice, and the absence of institutional accommodation jointly constrain inclusive participation. Drawing on Cultural Intelligence (CQ) theory and Putnam’s social capital framework, the study advances two arguments: first, that intercultural competence among emerging adult volunteers cannot be reduced to individual skill and disposition; and second, that institutional programme design—schedules, catering arrangements, and physical infrastructure—constitutes an independent determinant of inclusion that CQ frameworks have not yet adequately theorised. The four-condition model offers a structured, trainable framework for volunteer leadership development and extends the literature on civic formation and intercultural learning during the formative years of emerging adulthood. Full article

International accreditation frameworks increasingly influence teacher education and quality assurance worldwide, yet limited research has examined their implementation in non-Western higher education contexts. This study used an explanatory sequential mixed methods design to explore faculty perceptions of how well the teacher education programs at Kuwait University’s College of Education align with the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) standards. The study also explained the institutional factors that shaped these perceptions. In the quantitative phase, a questionnaire was distributed to all eligible College of Education faculty members, and 38 faculty members completed the survey. In the qualitative phase, seven faculty members were purposively selected because of their direct experience with accreditation, quality assurance, and program evaluation. In addition, historical accreditation reports were analyzed to provide a broader institutional context. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Qualitative data from the interview transcripts and historical accreditation reports were analyzed using thematic analysis. The quantitative findings indicated moderate perceived alignment with CAEP Standards 1 (Content and Pedagogical Knowledge), 2 (Clinical Partnerships and Practice), and 6 (Fiscal and Administrative Capacity), while lower alignment was reported for Standards 3 (Candidate Quality, Recruitment, and Selectivity), 4 (Program Impact), and 5 (Quality Assurance and Continuous Improvement). The qualitative findings explained these patterns by revealing that weaker alignment was associated with challenges in candidate recruitment, curriculum alignment, school–university partnerships, evidence-based quality assurance, institutional leadership, organizational culture, communication, and resource capacity. The integrated findings demonstrate that successful implementation of international accreditation standards extends beyond technical compliance and depends on organizational readiness, institutional commitment, and sustained quality assurance processes within the local context. The study recommends strengthening institution-wide quality assurance systems, improving leadership coordination, and promoting evidence-based decision-making to support sustainable accreditation and the continuous improvement of teacher education programs. Full article

This qualitative phenomenological study examines how CDI teachers and community mothers in Colombia experienced the implementation of a professional development program structured as a cascade model. Semi-structured interviews were used to explore participants’ accounts of implementation and the conditions they described as facilitating or constraining their engagement with the program. Participants’ accounts suggest that the cascade model operated within a workforce already differentiated by institutional roles, professional trajectories, and working conditions, with these differences being reflected in participants’ experiences of training and pedagogical appropriation. Participants also described drawing on motivation, professional judgment, and peer networks, some of which supported the continued circulation of program-related knowledge beyond the formal training structure. Together, these findings suggest that cascade models can extend the reach of professional development but may also reproduce pre-existing structural inequalities unless workforce heterogeneity and the capacities educators already bring to implementation are explicitly considered in program design. Full article

Decolonising assessment remains an underdeveloped yet essential component of higher education transformation. In research, much attention has been assigned to decolonising content knowledge and pedagogy, with limited attention to assessment. Hence, this systematic literature review examines empirical studies published between 2018 and 2025 to explore how decolonial assessment is enacted in higher education. Using the PRISMA 2020 framework, 17 studies were analysed to identify theoretical foundations, methodological trends, dominant themes, key findings, and literature gaps to make recommendations for future research. The findings reveal six interconnected practices characterising decolonial assessment: humanising learning, contextualising assessment within students’ cultural and community realities, disrupting power hierarchies through co-creation, collaborative and peer-based approaches, diversifying modes of expression, and enhancing transparency and cultural responsiveness. These practices validate students’ lived experiences, foreground multiple epistemologies, and challenge traditional assessment norms, thereby promoting deeper engagement, agency, and belonging. However, the scholarship is constrained by a reliance on small-scale qualitative designs, limited theoretical development, and regional concentration, particularly in South Africa and the United States. The review concludes that while decolonial assessment offers transformative potential, its broader institutional uptake requires methodological pluralism, stronger theoretical frameworks, and policy-level support. The paper recommends embedding decolonial principles in assessment design, expanding research across diverse contexts, and strengthening lecturer capacity to develop equitable, inclusive, and contextually grounded assessment practices that advance epistemic justice in higher education. Full article

In increasingly digital and AI-mediated educational environments, adult learners are required to navigate complex information landscapes shaped by artificial intelligence, digital platforms, and algorithmically generated content. In such contexts, digital literacy can no longer be understood solely as the acquisition of technical competencies. Rather, contemporary digital literacy requires the evaluative and reflective capacities traditionally associated with critical literacy, including the ability to question assumptions, critically evaluate information, engage dialogically with knowledge, and recognise the technological and ideological systems that shape contemporary communication and knowledge production. Consequently, critical literacy has become particularly important within adult and lifelong learning as learners seek to participate meaningfully and ethically within digitally mediated societies. Drawing on Freirean pedagogy and transformative learning theory, this paper revisits critical literacy as a reflective, emancipatory, and socially situated practice grounded in critical consciousness and perspective transformation. It explores how digital technologies can support the development of critical literacy when embedded within learner-centred pedagogies. It further examines the pedagogical potential of digital tools including digital badges, Turnitin Clarity, and Gather to foster reflection, dialogue, writing development, communicative learning, and evaluative judgement. Rather than positioning technology as inherently transformative, this paper argues that it is the pedagogical framing of digital tools that determines their capacity to support critical engagement and learner agency, preserving human criticality within AI-mediated educational systems. This paper highlights the continuing relevance of transformative learning theory in contemporary digital contexts and argues that critical reflection and dialogic learning remain central to adult education in an era shaped by artificial intelligence and digital communication. It concludes that critically informed digital pedagogies can create meaningful opportunities for learners to develop the reflective and evaluative capacities necessary for informed participation in contemporary digital society. Full article

Indigenous languages in Southern Thailand are increasingly affected by modernization, digital communication, and language contact, yet the relationship between kinship terminology, social organization, and linguistic sustainability among Indigenous Austroasiatic-speaking communities remains insufficiently explored. This study addresses three research questions: (1) how Tan’ean and Jaahaai kinship systems differ in their semantic structures and classificatory patterns; (2) how kinship terms reflect cultural worldviews, social organization, and relational values of the Manni and Mueng’ra communities; and (3) what challenges influence the transmission and sustainability of kinship-related linguistic knowledge. This study aims to comparatively analyze consanguineal and affinal kinship terminology in the Tan’ean language of the Manni ethnic group and the Jaahaai language of the Mueng’ra ethnic group, focusing on how kinship systems encode cultural worldviews, social relations, and adaptive strategies under contemporary change. Guided by Componential Analysis and Ethnolinguistic Vitality Theory, this study employed a qualitative ethnolinguistic approach. Data were collected through genealogical elicitation, in-depth interviews, and participant observation with 40 key informants from Trang, Phatthalung, Satun, Songkhla, Yala, and Narathiwat provinces. The data were analyzed through semantic feature identification and comparative interpretation of kinship structures. The findings demonstrate that, despite shared Austroasiatic heritage, Tan’ean and Jaahaai exhibit distinct kinship systems reflecting different cultural logics. In response to the first research question, the findings reveal that the Manni system resembles the Hawaiian type, emphasizing egalitarian relations, generational categories, and inclusive incorporation of affinal relatives, whereas the Mueng’ra system shows Crow–Omaha characteristics, including generational skewing, gender-specific markers, hierarchical classification, and stronger influence from dominant regional languages. Regarding the second research question, the findings demonstrate that kinship terminology functions as a cultural mechanism for organizing social relationships, identity, and intergenerational obligations, reflecting different models of Indigenous social organization. For the third research question, the study identifies language contact, changing social conditions, and reduced intergenerational transmission as challenges affecting the continuity of Indigenous kinship knowledge. Therefore, the study recommends community-based orthographies, participatory digital learning platforms, and policies supporting Indigenous linguistic rights to strengthen language revitalization, cultural continuity, and Indigenous communities’ capacity to adapt to social transformation. Full article

The high rate of the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in education is changing how teachers teach, how they are trained, and how institutions are managed. While many studies explore the use of AI in teaching and learning, there is a lack of research on how it supports capacity building for special education pre-service teachers in rural South African universities. This review examines existing studies on how AI can develop skills and knowledge in pre-service teacher education for inclusive teaching. Using the AI-Capacity-Content Interaction Model and a structured scoping review method, relevant peer-reviewed studies were selected from major academic databases. The findings reveal that AI supports capacity building through improved teaching methods, the use of data for decision-making, hands-on learning, and collaboration. It also helps teachers address diverse learner needs. However, the study also identifies key challenges in rural universities, such as limited infrastructure, lack of resources, weak policy support, digital inequality, and insufficient training for lecturers. These barriers limit the effective use of AI in teacher education. The study highlights the need for better digital infrastructure, ongoing professional development for pre-service teachers, and policies that consider local contexts. These steps are important for ensuring fair access to AI and improving teacher education in rural areas. Full article

Background: Mental health problems are common among people living with HIV (PLWH); however, the use of mental health services remains inadequate in many low- and middle-income countries. Objectives: This study aimed to explore the perspectives of health professionals on the provision of mental health services for PLWH presenting with mental health problems in primary health care in Lesotho. Methods: A qualitative descriptive approach was adopted, involving semi-structured interviews with 50 health professionals who were purposely selected, including nurses and medical officers, each with a minimum of 2 years’ primary health care experience in the Maseru district. Data were collected between December 2022 and January 2023, audio-recorded, and transcribed verbatim. Data collection continued until thematic saturation was achieved, and analysis was conducted using a thematic framework analysis. Results: The analysis revealed two main themes: (1) limited knowledge of mental health problems, encompassing an inadequate understanding of signs and symptoms, diagnosis, and management, and (2) barriers to the management of mental health problems. Key subthemes included the shortage of qualified mental health specialists and psychiatric medications, the absence of dedicated counselling services for the prevention of mental health problems, lack of a mental health department, time constraints within clinical practice, and limitations in clinical infrastructure. Cultural beliefs, stigma, and discrimination, both among health professionals and in the broader community, were also identified as significant impediments. Participants described a substantial treatment gap, driven by insufficient training and limited resources, which undermines the effective delivery of mental health services. Conclusions: The findings revealed that health professionals working in primary health care in Lesotho experience considerable knowledge gaps and systemic constraints that hinder the provision of adequate mental health services for PLWH who have mental health problems. These challenges can be mitigated through targeted capacity building, the integration of MHS into primary care, improved resource allocation, and strategies to reduce stigma, thereby enhancing health outcomes. Full article