Search Results (337)

This article presents a case study from a Social and Health Care School in Denmark, where a rooftop garden was designed to promote student health and support nature-based teaching across subject areas. A novel aspect of the project is the formal integration of the garden into teaching, implying that its long-term impact may extend beyond the students to the end-users they will later encounter in nursing homes and hospitals nationwide. This study applies the Evidence-Based Health Design in Landscape Architecture (EBHDL) process model, encompassing evidence collection, programming, and concept design, with the University of Copenhagen acting in a consultancy role. A co-design process with students and teachers was included as a novel source of case-specific evidence. Methodologically, this is a participatory practice-based case study focusing on the full design and construction processes, combining continuous documentation with reflective analysis of ‘process insights,’ generating lessons learned from the application of the EBHDL process model. This study identifies two categories of lessons learned. First, general insights emerged concerning governance, stakeholder roles, and the critical importance of site selection, procurement, and continuity of design responsibility. Second, specific insights were gained regarding the application of the EBHDL model, including its alignment with Danish and international standardised construction phases. These insights are particularly relevant for project managers in nature-based initiatives. The results also show how the EBHDL model aligns with Danish and international standardised construction phases, offering a bridge between health design methods and established building practice. The case focuses on the EBHDL process rather than verified outcomes and demonstrates how evidence-based and participatory approaches can help structure complex design processes, facilitate stakeholder engagement, and support decision-making in institutional projects. Full article

Serious games are increasingly recognized as powerful pedagogical tools, often offering engaging, interactive, and practical learning experiences. This paper presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of a 3D virtual serious game specifically tailored for cybersecurity governance and policy education. In particular, the nature of the game is an escape room, drawing on military training principles: players must solve a problem to escape one room before advancing to the next. Set within a virtual company environment, the game features three interactive zones that guide students through analyzing cyber risks, aligning security frameworks, and drafting appropriate policies. This structure cultivates critical thinking and decision-making skills and strengthens practical cybersecurity competencies. The primary contribution lies in the integration of game-based learning and 3D virtual technology to create robust, hands-on educational materials. The design incorporates structural features that create barriers to generative AI delegation to address challenges related to generative AI misuse, ensuring that the activities cannot be easily replicated and thereby supporting academic integrity. A post-activity perception survey (n = 20) suggests that students found this approach both engaging and effective, with participants self-reporting enhanced understanding and enthusiasm toward cybersecurity governance and policy concepts. These findings highlight the potential of gamified environments to bridge theory and practice in cybersecurity education, equipping learners with industry-relevant skills while fostering deeper engagement and active learning. Full article

Virtual Field Trips (VFTs) have emerged as an alternative to Traditional Field Trips (TFTs), addressing logistical, financial, and accessibility constraints in geoscience education. This study presents a comparative analysis of the educational impact of a VFT and a TFT implemented with the same 10th-grade class in a Portuguese secondary school. The VFT, focused on volcanism and its socioeconomic impacts, used Google Earth to explore the island of São Miguel in the Azores. The TFT, centred on the rock cycle, was conducted at the Lavadores Beach geological site. Both interventions followed the field-based learning model by Orion and were structured around three phases: preparation, field trip (virtual or traditional), and post-activity synthesis. Data was collected through diagnostic tests, schematization, observation grids, student reports (snapshot), group projects, and written responses to a fieldwork guide recorded on Padlet during the VFT and TFT. The results showed that both VFTs and TFTs enhance conceptual understanding and student engagement, though they foster different skills: VFTs strengthen digital literacy, improve accessibility and inclusion for students with mobility or geographic constraints, allow for content revisitation, foster collaboration among students, integrate multimedia resources, and enable virtual exploration of remote locations that would otherwise be inaccessible. They also offer reduced costs, greater scheduling flexibility, and allow for individualised pacing of student learning. In contrast, TFTs provide richer sensory and practical experiences that are essential for hands-on scientific inquiry and foster stronger connections with the natural environment. The study concludes that a complementary use of both strategies offers the most inclusive and effective approach to teaching geosciences. Full article

Environmental Education (EE) is increasingly relevant in the current context of environmental crises, requiring approaches that integrate Human Ecology (HE) and Environmental Psychology (EP) due to understanding the interdependent relationship between ecological and human systems. This study emphasizes corporeity as a fundamental dimension for reconnecting humans with nature and fostering ecological awareness. The study aimed to develop and evaluate a transdisciplinary intervention project based on bodily experiences with children and adolescents in a Brazilian public school, aiming to improve their connectedness with nature and ecological values. A diagnostic survey was conducted with 103 students aged 10–13 years, including open questions, and two instruments: the Inclusion of Nature in Self (INS) and the Values for Pre-adolescents scale (EVP). The results indicated that one 5th-grade class, which presented the lowest self-transcendence mean (4.07), was selected for pedagogical interventions. In the second stage, 20 students participated in workshops held in public parks and a school green area, combining sensory awareness and playful activities. The findings suggest that these experiences stimulated pro-environmental attitudes, including group care for nature, protective behaviors, and positive emotions such as peace, happiness, and freedom. Despite the small sample size, the results highlight the importance of strengthening embodied experiences in natural environments, increasing frequency and intensity to support the development of ecological values and deeper connectedness with nature. Full article

This study aimed to examine the effects of a basketball teaching unit based on the Sport Education Model on students’ meaningful experiences in Physical Education and their perceptions of (de)motivating teaching approaches used by their Physical Education teachers. A total of 102 secondary school students (49 girls; M_age = 13.66, SD = 0.72) participated in a pre-experimental, single group pretest-posttest design. Students completed the Meaningful Physical Education Scale and the Situation-in-School-Physical Education questionnaire before and after an eight-session intervention implemented by a pre-service teacher. Data were analyzed using mixed 2 (Time: pre, post) × 2 (Sex: male, female) MANOVAs and follow-up ANOVAs. The multivariate analyses revealed no significant overall Time × Sex interaction effects for either meaningful PE dimensions or (de)motivating teaching approaches. At the univariate level, significant improvements were observed in social interaction and challenge dimensions of meaningful PE, along with increased perceptions of autonomy-supportive and structuring teaching approaches and reduced controlling and awaiting approaches. However, univariate analyses showed specific sex-related differences: boys reported greater improvements in fun, challenge, and personally relevant learning, whereas girls perceived their teacher as displaying more clarifying behaviors. These findings suggest that the Sport Education Model fosters meaningful and motivating learning environments for both sexes, though the nature of these improvements may vary slightly between boys and girls. Full article

Experiential education that connects students with nature and well-being offers a powerful approach to advance sustainability education. Beyond individual benefits, cultivating meaningful human–nature relationships is foundational to fostering environmental stewardship—an increasingly urgent global priority. Universities can play a critical role in preparing students for both professional success and civic, social, and environmental responsibility. This exploratory study examined which components of an experiential learning course most strongly influenced students’ understanding of nature as an asset for their well-being. The course, delivered at a satellite mountain campus of a U.S. university, incorporated Kolb’s stages of experiential learning through forest bathing, reflective journaling, and group outdoor activities. Semi-structured interviews with participants revealed that the coupling of course content with direct experiences in nature, learning alongside peers, and limited technology use were among the most impactful elements. These findings demonstrate that experiential learning environments that intentionally align theory with experience—and situate students in immersive, socially rich, and technology-limited settings—can deepen personal well-being and sustainability understanding. Higher education should embrace nature-based experiential learning to prepare environmentally responsible, critically reflective, and socially connected graduates capable of contributing to a more sustainable future. Full article

Intangible cultural heritage (ICH) is deeply embedded in everyday social life, yet its officially recognized spatial distribution reflects both the independent influences of cultural traditions, development trajectories, and governance practices, and the complex interactions among them. Focusing on 494 national-level ICH items across ten categories in Jiangsu(J), Zhejiang(Z), and Shanghai(H), this study adopts a social-geographical perspective to examine both the spatio-temporal evolution and the driving mechanisms of ICH recognition in one of China’s most developed regions. After rigorous verification of point-based ICH locations, we combine kernel density estimation and the average nearest neighbor index to trace changes across five batches of national designation, and then employ the univariate and interaction detectors of the Geodetector model to assess the effects of 28 natural, socioeconomic, and cultural-institutional variables. The results show, first, that ICH exhibits significant clustering along river corridors and historical cultural belts, with a persistent high-density core in the Shanghai–southern Jiangsu–northern Zhejiang zone and a clear shift over time from highly concentrated to more dispersed and territorially balanced recognition. Second, human-environment factors—especially factors such as urban and rural income and consumption; residents’ education and cultural expenditures; and public education and cultural facilities—have far greater explanatory power than natural conditions, while different ICH categories embed distinctively in urban and rural socio-economic contexts. Third, bivariate interactions reveal that natural and macroeconomic “background” variables are strongly amplified when combined with demographic and cultural factors, whereas interactions among strong human variables show bivariate enhancement with diminishing marginal returns. In summary, these findings enrich international debates on the geography of ICH by clarifying how recognition processes align with regional development and social equity agendas, and they provide a quantitative basis for category-sensitive, place-based strategies that coordinate income policies, public cultural services, and the joint safeguarding of tangible and intangible heritage in both urban renewal and rural revitalization planning. Full article

Humanity is at a critical juncture in its response to environmental issues. Coastal land spaces are under threat from rising sea levels and storm surges accelerating erosion and degradation. Children have an important role in sustaining a viable environmental future. Education for sustainability in early childhood (EC) nature-based settings has the potential to disrupt the current crisis by deepening children’s understanding of the environment. Many educators who practice nature pedagogy in early childhood education (ECE) shy away from using technological tools despite our existence in a time of artificial intelligence and digitalisation, some of which is becoming evident in EC sustainability education. This paper will consider the use of blue spaces that incorporate the waters, sands, and coastal land adjacent to the water’s age for EC sustainability teaching and learning. It will focus on questioning the role of technologization, particularly technological tools, on the forms of sustainability education that preschool children experience while in nature-based settings. Interrogating recent research of nature-based kindergartens undertaken at Australian coastal contexts, and drawing on seminal international documentation, it will focus on the development of young children’s empathy and ‘ethos of care’ for living things, their considerations of local ecosystems, and their growing understandings of the interrelationships between elements of their environment. The paper will then consider how the application of technological tools intersects with sustainability education in the context of blue spaces. The research highlights the importance of the educator in the development of interactive, learner-centred opportunities that not only enable investigative, action-adapted learning but also fosters independent learners who are responsive to their natural environment. The implication of this research is that further considerations of technologization and children’s environmental agency through a play-based, emergent curriculum are necessary. Full article

This narrative review examines the complexities of medical uncertainty in veterinary practice, highlighting its significant implications for clinical reasoning and decision-making. Veterinary professionals face inherent uncertainties due to factors such as biological variability, incomplete knowledge, and the pressures of rapidly evolving practices. The distinction between clinical ambiguity and medical uncertainty is crucial, as it informs the coping strategies employed by veterinarians. While uncertainty is often viewed negatively, it can stimulate curiosity and enhance problem-solving capabilities. This review categorizes uncertainty into aleatoric and epistemic types, offering insights into their origins and impacts on veterinary professionals and client interactions. The dynamic nature of uncertainty influences both immediate clinical encounters and long-term professional development, with varying effects based on individual tolerance levels and situational stakes. Despite the growing body of literature on uncertainty, veterinary education often neglects to address this critical aspect, leading to a gap in metacognitive competencies among practitioners. We have included a case example that offers explicit guidelines on the application of the Five Microskills model of clinical teaching. This model is proposed to assist veterinary professionals in effectively managing uncertainty. To enhance the quality of veterinary care, there is an urgent need to integrate uncertainty management into veterinary curricula and ongoing professional development. By fostering an environment that acknowledges and addresses uncertainty, veterinary professionals can improve their clinical reasoning, strengthen client relationships, and ultimately enhance patient outcomes. This review advocates for the adoption of evidence-based practices and collaborative approaches to navigate the complexities of uncertainty, ensuring high standards of care in veterinary medicine. Full article

The increasing complexity of the built environment—encompassing three-dimensional spatial dynamics, environmental footprints, and socio-cultural dimensions—necessitates innovative educational tools. Serious games have emerged as immersive platforms bridging theoretical knowledge and practical application in this domain. This narrative literature review examines the extent to which serious games effectively integrate and reflect sustainability principles within the context of the built environment, as well as their strategies for engaging learners. A comprehensive search was conducted across multiple databases using keywords such as “serious games,” “built environment,” and “sustainability.” The review identifies that while many games address tangible challenges like retrofitting simulations and resource management, their incorporation of sustainability concepts is often superficial. Critical aspects such as inclusivity, stakeholder engagement, and alignment with SDGs are frequently underrepresented. Furthermore, a lack of a common language among stakeholders and the tendency to focus on isolated aspects of sustainability, rather than adopting a holistic approach, were noted. Despite these limitations, the engaging nature of these games that are based on real scenarios offers potential for impactful learning experiences. However, challenges persist, including technical constraints, pedagogical limitations, and deeper epistemological and ethical tensions in game design. The findings underscore the need for a more integrated and comprehensive approach to embedding sustainability in serious games, along with more effective engagement strategies to ensure they function as impactful tools for education and learning in the built environment domain. Full article

Within the context of pedagogical renewal in Physical Education, Game-Based Learning (GBL) has emerged as a pedagogical model that can foster students’ motivation and engagement. This study explored university learners’ perceptions of a playful activity in a natural environment, entitled Autolycus’ Game, and its perceived contributions to their holistic development. A total of 114 undergraduate students enrolled in Early Childhood and Primary Education degrees participated in a two-hour session designed as a Breakout EDU in a university park. After the experience, their perceptions were collected through an online semi-structured questionnaire and analysed using qualitative coding techniques in Atlas.ti. Findings indicated that participants perceived Autolycus’ Game as motivating, creativity-enhancing, and supportive of social interaction and cooperative work. Most participants highlighted that this methodology helped them strengthen social and communication skills, while also valuing the use of the natural environment as a didactic resource. At the same time, participants identified areas for improvement—such as repetitive tasks, uneven difficulty across challenges, and limited supervision—that may reduce engagement if not carefully planned. Overall, participants described Autolycus’ Game as a valuable pedagogical strategy that may enrich learning experiences in Physical Education and support socio-emotional and motor competences, although the findings should be interpreted in light of the study’s limitations (single-institution sample, self-reported data, intact class groups taught by the researchers). Future work could examine outdoor Breakout EDU with mixed-methods and longitudinal designs to assess motivational processes and learning outcomes over time. Full article

Improving the social environment conducive to learning in schools is a critical challenge globally and within the Swedish context, as education systems face persistent issues like a lack of classroom safety and a concurrent crisis in teacher well-being and professional leadership. Therefore, various intervention frameworks are implemented to address the issue. This study investigated how two Swedish compulsory schools implemented the Positive Behaviour Supports (PBS) framework. By combining classroom observations and teacher interviews, the research addresses a gap in existing research that often provides an incomplete view of actual practices. The results, based on observations and interviews with 14 staff members, confirmed that PBS successfully creates a calm and predictable school climate. Teachers consistently maintained a calm demeanour and used clear lesson structures, along with positive feedback. However, the study also revealed a significant gap between the intended proactive nature of PBS and the observed reactive behaviours of teachers. While the framework fostered a shared, collaborative approach among staff, it was inconsistently applied when it came to proactive strategies, such as explicitly teaching social and life skills. The results suggest that future professional development should focus on helping teachers shift from a reactive to a more consistently proactive and positive model of behavioural support. Full article

This paper explores the history of evolving teaching techniques in Digital Signal and Image Processing (DSIP) education with a focus on integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to close the continuing gap between theory and practice. Since DSIP has been at the center of Telecommunication, Medical Imaging, Robotics and AI, this paper examines active and student-centered learning paradigms, like collaborative, situation-based, and project-based learning (PBL) as viable pedagogical methods. The research methodology includes analyzing a survey using Data Visualization Tools in Python-3.12, 2023. This paper overviews the application of digital tools including MATLAB-R2024a, Python, Cloud-based systems, and AI-based learning analytics to promote experiential and adaptive learning to enable students to test complex signal and image processing systems. The findings emphasize the fact that these practices contribute to developing conceptual knowledge, critical thinking, and solving problems through engaging learners in real-life and data-driven scenarios. The results also indicate how the teachers can upgrade their instructional approach to technological innovations in teaching. Finally, this paper highlights the nature of AI-enriched pedagogies and practical experience to build the skills needed to operate in a more data-intensive, technologically advanced and sustainable engineering environment. Full article

The main purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of environmental (New Environmental Paradigm) and eco-recreational attitudes on environmental behavior using structural equation modeling (SEM). In the context of increasing environmental problems, individuals’ attitudinal and experiential relationships with the environment play a critical role in shaping sustainable environmental behaviors. In this context, a multidimensional model incorporating cognitive, affective, and behavioral orientations toward nature has been developed. In the study, environmental attitude was addressed in terms of environmentalist and human approaches, while eco-recreational attitude was addressed in terms of its cognitive, affective, and behavioral sub-dimensions. Environmental behavior was modeled as recycling efforts and responsible citizenship. Data were collected using validated scales and tested using SEM. The findings have revealed that both environmental and eco-recreational attitudes have direct effects on environmental behavior. The obtained results suggest that supporting individuals with nature-based experiences is considered to be an effective strategy for the development of environmentally conscious behaviors regarding environmental education and sustainability policies. Nevertheless, it bears several limitations, particularly in terms of its generalizability for diverse socio-demographic groups and cultural contexts. The contribution of this study is that it empirically demonstrates the mutually supportive and descriptive potential of environmental attitudes and eco-recreational attitudes in the process of behavioral transformation. The study makes a significant contribution to the theoretical discussions in the literature by revealing the integrated effect of environmental attitudes and eco-recreational attitudes in shaping environmental behavior. Full article

Although play naturally embeds computational thinking (CT) and mathematical learning in early childhood education, designing developmentally appropriate learning activities that purposefully nurture and extend these competencies remains a challenge. This study investigates how young children engage with foundational mathematical and computational concepts through analog (DUPLO^®) and digital (Blue-Bot) tools in a play-responsive early childhood education workshop setting. The study adopts a qualitative workshop format aimed at promoting playful exploration and active experimentation, involving eleven 4–5-year-old children and their two teachers. Based on a sociocultural perspective, the findings highlight that mathematics is a human activity embedded in everyday playful practices. In particular, unplugged analog activities, embedded within an open-ended narrative framework, guided and structured the process. Based on these findings, we suggest “computational play” as a framework for developmentally appropriate integration of computational thinking (CT) and mathematics. This framework offers implications for educators seeking to support early CT and mathematical learning in playful, exploratory early childhood education (ECE) environments. Full article