Search Results (926)

Education for sustainable development (ESD) has gained increasing attention over the last few decades, as human innovation and prevailing consumer practices have driven significant environmental degradation, resource depletion, and social inequalities. ESD must extend beyond the transmission of knowledge; it must shape mindsets, behaviors, and systems. Accordingly, fostering sustainability competencies among primary and secondary school students has become an educational imperative. The aim of the study was to identify opportunities for developing eight key competencies for advancing sustainability transformations within obligatory and elective chemistry curricula in Slovenian lower and upper secondary schools. A qualitative content analysis of chemistry curriculum documents was conducted, focusing on general learning objectives, operational learning objectives, and associated learning outcomes. The results indicate that general learning objectives of the obligatory and elective chemistry curriculum for lower and upper secondary educational levels enable opportunities for the development of all key competencies for advancing sustainability transformation, whereas the extent to which these competencies can be developed through operational learning objectives and learning outcomes varies across chemistry curricula and educational levels. However, despite the existing possibilities in curricula, teachers play a crucial role in their implementation in classrooms. Therefore, it is essential to support teachers in recognising the importance of developing these competencies and meaningfully selecting didactic approaches that foster the development of all key competencies for advancing sustainability transformation within the subjects they teach during pre-service and in-service education. Full article

Project-based learning (PBL) holds significant promise as a student-centered instructional approach in secondary mathematics, yet teachers’ capacity to leverage it for diverse learners is deeply shaped by their affective experiences during implementation. This narrative inquiry examines the affective journeys of three high school mathematics teachers as they adopted PBL in classrooms characterized by varied student readiness levels and engagement profiles. We document teachers’ affective journeys as they experience initial PBL awareness, participate in active experimentation, and work toward forming emerging commitments and facilitator identities. Analysis of focus groups and interviews reveals three affective tensions: comfort versus transformative reflection, epistemic ideals versus ontological school realities, and career risk versus identity change. The findings demonstrate how teachers can navigate iterative methods of trial, how teacher educators can better support future teachers’ use of student-centered pedagogies, and how administrators can be aware of the impact that teacher affect can have on performance and pedagogy. Implications address how this broader education community can support differentiated, inquiry-based mathematics instruction. This support can be advanced through scope-controlled projects, micro-evidence portfolios, and incremental adoption pathways. These approaches honor teachers’ emotional labor while supporting their sustained use of student-centered learning strategies intended to broaden opportunities for participation and learning in mathematics classrooms. Full article

Sustainability education has produced four major traditions, Environmental Education, Climate Education, Education for Sustainable Development, and Climate Justice Education, that have developed largely in parallel. This fragmentation prevents cross-tradition comparison and leaves the most transformative dimensions of the field systematically underdeveloped. This article proposes a four-dimensional Taxonomy of Sustainability Education Design, organized around Educational Approach (D1), Cognitive Depth (D2), Disciplinary Integration (D3), and Real-World Connection (D4), for diagnosing dimensional gaps across educational programs and traditions. The taxonomy was constructed inductively from a critical literature review and interpreted through Edgar Morin’s philosophy of complex thought, whose seven principles explain why dimensional underdevelopment is paradigmatic rather than merely programmatic. The framework is illustrated through two contrasting cases: the UNESCO Associated Schools Network and the Brazilian National Environmental Education program. The mapping suggests a structural asymmetry: the dimensions most consistently underdeveloped, D1 Criticality and Advocacy, D3.5 Community and Indigenous Knowledge, and D4 Systemic and Political, are those most closely associated with transformative and epistemically plural education. The normative and policy implications of these gaps are examined in relation to the geopolitics of epistemological authority, climate-displaced communities, the historical production of colonial vulnerability, and the risk of epistemicide at algorithmic scale in AI-mediated education. Full article

Accurate non-contact human height estimation is vital for large-scale growth monitoring in schools but remains challenging for monocular RGB sensors due to scale ambiguity and keypoint jitter. This study proposes a robust temporal SegPose framework for high-precision height measurement in unconstrained outdoor playground environments. We develop a multi-task deep learning model using a MobileNetV4 backbone and a novel Height-Aware Boundary Refinement (HABR) module, which utilizes nose-spatial priors to refine cranial vertex localization. To resolve scale issues, a three-way orthogonal calibration system is established using existing playground marking lines and goalposts to dynamically estimate ground plane metric factors. A linear Kalman filter is integrated to smooth keypoint trajectories, suppressing gait-induced oscillations and reducing high-frequency jitter by 64.92%. Validated on a dataset of 95 volunteers (53 males, 42 females) at distances of 6–12 m, the proposed system achieves a mean absolute error (MAE) of 1.42 cm and a mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of 0.84%, significantly outperforming recent Transformer-based state-of-the-art methods. The framework operates at 42.7 FPS, ensuring real-time performance while adhering to a privacy-preserving protocol that decouples biometric records from individual identities. These results demonstrate that our framework effectively overcomes boundary ambiguity and distance-dependent resolution loss, providing a reliable, efficient, and ethical solution for automated physical health assessments in educational settings. Full article

High-density school design has become an important challenge in rapidly urbanizing cities, where land scarcity, increasing educational demand, and evolving pedagogical models generate multiple and interrelated design constraints. Although a wealth of design experience has accumulated through the execution of numerous school planning projects, this knowledge remains fragmented across architectural publications and project narratives. Existing studies have primarily focused on evaluating built environments or individual cases, and limited attention has been paid to how dispersed architectural design reasoning can be systematically extracted, organized, and represented. This study was conducted to explore how AI-assisted semantic modeling can support the extraction and organization of architectural design knowledge from large-scale design discourse through a human–AI collaborative interpretation framework. Using a corpus of 330 documents reporting school design in Shenzhen published between 2017 and 2024, the proposed framework integrates BERTopic-based semantic modeling, scenario–strategy coding, network analysis, and document-based architectural interpretation to establish a continuous workflow from architectural discourse to structured knowledge representation and spatial interpretation. The results reveal a density-conditioned knowledge structure consisting of six interconnected design agendas, 25 recurrent design scenarios, 44 original design strategies, 17 core strategies, four strategy clusters, and four document-supported spatial response patterns. The findings demonstrate that high-density school design knowledge is organized through recurring problem–strategy relationships rather than isolated project solutions. Through human–AI collaborative interpretation, fragmented design narratives are transformed into hierarchical representations linking design concerns, scenarios, strategies, and spatial organizations. The aim of the proposed framework is not to automate architectural decision-making or generate implementation-ready design solutions but to provide a methodological foundation for AI-assisted architectural knowledge retrieval, knowledge representation, and future multimodal design intelligence systems. Full article

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes deeply integrated into teacher education, pre-service teachers’ innovative competence has become a cornerstone for fostering human–AI collaborative innovation and enabling intelligent educational transformation. This study used empirical data from 3003 pre-service teachers across 12 provinces in China. It employed difference tests, quantile regression, and structural equation modeling to examine the associations of AI technological support and school-based intelligent environment support with pre-service teachers’ innovative competence. Results showed that pre-service teachers’ innovative competence was at a medium-to-high level, with significant heterogeneity across individual, family, and school background variables. Both supports were positively associated with innovative competence. However, the patterns of association differed. The association between AI technological support and innovative competence generally increased across the middle-to-upper quantiles, whereas the association between school-based intelligent environment support and innovative competence was stronger at the lower-to-middle quantiles and subsequently declined. AI self-efficacy and self-regulated learning both showed significant model-based indirect associations linking the two supports with innovative competence. Specifically, under AI technological support, AI self-efficacy had a larger mediating association than self-regulated learning; under intelligent environment support, the opposite pattern emerged. This study systematically examined the associations and mediating paths of AI technological support and intelligent environment support with pre-service teachers’ innovative competence. These findings identify correlational patterns consistent with the proposed framework and provide empirical evidence for optimizing AI-empowered teacher innovation cultivation. Full article

Teaching innovation plays a central role in advancing high-quality education and fulfilling the fundamental task of fostering moral development and holistic student growth. However, the internal mechanisms through which transformational leadership is associated with teachers’ innovative behavior remain insufficiently understood. Integrating the implicit theories framework and the job demands–resources (JD-R) model, this study proposes a sequential mediation framework in which transformational leadership is associated with primary and secondary school teachers’ innovative behavior through creative growth mindset and work engagement. Data were collected from 1082 primary and secondary school teachers using validated measures of transformational leadership, creative growth mindset, work engagement, and teachers’ innovative behavior. Structural equation modeling with bootstrapping was employed to test the hypothesized model. The results indicated that transformational leadership was positively associated with teachers’ innovative behavior. Creative growth mindset and work engagement each showed significant indirect associations between transformational leadership and teachers’ innovative behavior. Moreover, the sequential indirect association via creative growth mindset and work engagement was significant, supporting a cognitive–motivational pathway linking transformational leadership to teachers’ innovative behavior. These findings suggest that transformational leadership may relate to teachers’ innovative behavior not only directly but also through a cognitive–motivational pathway involving teachers’ beliefs about the malleability of creativity and their subsequent work engagement. From a practical perspective, these results highlight the potential value of leadership practices that communicate an inspiring vision, support teachers’ growth-oriented beliefs about creativity, and foster sustained motivational engagement. Full article

Ecological civilization education has become an important component of environmental education and sustainable development strategies in China. Field-based learning in real ecological environments is essential for helping students understand ecological processes and human–environment relationships. However, limited attention has been paid to whether schools can spatially access ecological learning sites within feasible travel-time ranges, especially in plateau and mountainous regions where transportation constraints are strong. From the perspective of ecosystem service flow, forest parks can be regarded as supply sites of ecological learning services, secondary schools as demand sites, and road networks as the pathways through which such services are transformed into actual educational opportunities. To address this gap, this study evaluates the accessibility of forest-park-based ecological learning resources for secondary schools in the Tibet Autonomous Region, China. Taking 11 national forest parks and 137 secondary schools as research objects, a network-based travel-time model was constructed using road network data, and 1 h, 3 h, and 6 h service areas were generated to assess forest park service capacity and school accessibility. The results show that forest park educational service capacity is highly uneven. Nimu, Jiedexiu, and Caina Forest Parks have the highest service capacity, each covering more than 60 secondary schools within 6 h, while nearly half of the parks show relatively limited coverage. School accessibility also presents a clear core–periphery pattern, with high-accessibility schools concentrated around Lhasa and nearby transport corridors, whereas many schools in western and northern Tibet remain outside the 6 h service range. Based on the accessibility levels, differentiated field education strategies are proposed, including short field observation, one-day field trips, cross-regional fieldwork, and virtual or school-based alternatives. This study provides a spatial analytical framework for understanding the flow of ecological learning services from forest parks to schools and offers evidence for optimizing geography field education and improving equitable access to ecological civilization education in mountainous regions. Full article

This study examines how school music teachers are represented in English-language television series and considers implications for professional identity, pedagogy and recruitment. Drawing on a novel, systematically coded database of 36 on-screen music educators from 28 television series from 1952 to 2026, quantitative description maps demographic attributes (age, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status), narrative role (minor, major, protagonist), genre and institutional context. Our findings show music teachers are most often supporting characters, typically mid-career, male and predominantly white, with comedy—especially ensemble school comedy—dominating portrayals. Qualitative interpretation demonstrates persistent teacher archetypes and pedagogical tropes: the failed performer turned teacher, the inspirational mentor who singles out a talented student, and blurred teacher–student boundaries. These portrayals routinely privilege spectacle and rapid transformation over sequenced curriculum, assessment and routine labour, risking the creation of distorted public expectations about what music teaching entails. This article situates these findings within contemporary concerns about teacher shortages and declining occupational status in English-language contexts, arguing that mediated images may influence career choice, teacher retention and societal attitudes. Methodological advances include expanded time and geographic contexts of studied texts and detailed coding. The paper concludes by calling for reception and experimental studies to test causal effects on aspiring teachers and to inform teacher education curricula. Full article

Purpose: Keratoconus is a progressive corneal ectatic disorder that causes visual impairment, particularly in adolescents and young adults. Evidence on its epidemiology in Latin America and the Caribbean remains limited. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of keratoconus and evaluate associated factors, including eye rubbing, sex, family history, and allergy history, in the region. Methods: A systematic search of PubMed, Scopus, PsycINFO, and Google Scholar was conducted on 15 December 2025 for observational studies published up to December 2025. Study selection and data extraction were performed independently by two reviewers, with disagreements resolved by consensus. Study quality was assessed using the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale. Pooled prevalence estimates and odds ratios (ORs) were calculated using a random-effects model with variance-stabilizing transformation. Heterogeneity was assessed using the I² statistic, and publication bias was explored using funnel plots and Egger’s test. Results: Seven prevalence studies were included in the primary meta-analysis following exclusion of three studies from the previous version of the review, with no additional eligible prevalence studies identified in the updated search. One additional nationwide registry-based study from Colombia was identified but excluded from the primary prevalence synthesis because it reported incidence derived from administrative diagnostic coding rather than clinically assessed prevalence. Among the seven prevalence studies, reported prevalence ranged from 0.50% to 2.88%. The pooled prevalence of keratoconus was 2.07% (95% CI: 1.53–2.79), with substantial heterogeneity (I² = 71.9%). Subgroup analyses suggested that prevalence estimates varied by study design, with lower estimates observed in community- and school-based studies and higher estimates in clinic-based studies. No statistically significant associations were identified for eye rubbing, sex, family history, or allergy history; however, these analyses should be interpreted cautiously due to small sample sizes, heterogeneous exposure definitions, and wide confidence intervals. Conclusions: Keratoconus prevalence estimates in Latin America and the Caribbean remain variable and should be interpreted cautiously due to substantial heterogeneity, differences in study design, variability in diagnostic criteria, and differences in case ascertainment. The findings highlight important evidence gaps and support the need for well-designed population-based studies using standardized diagnostic criteria to inform screening strategies, early detection, and eye-care planning in the region. Full article

Background: The rapid digitalisation of healthcare, the expanding use of artificial intelligence, and the development of cross-border medical services have significantly transformed medical practice. These developments have also intensified medico-legal risks and professional liability exposure for healthcare professionals. Despite these changes, legal education remains insufficiently integrated into medical training, creating a gap between regulatory requirements and clinical practice. Methods: This study is based on a narrative analysis of the international literature addressing medico-legal challenges in healthcare, including medical errors, malpractice litigation, patient safety, digital health, and artificial intelligence. Drawing on international regulatory standards and educational frameworks, a conceptual model was developed to support the integration of legal education into medical curricula. Results: The analysis highlights persistent deficiencies in legal literacy among healthcare professionals, regardless of speciality or level of experience. Evidence from the reviewed literature suggests an association between lower levels of legal knowledge and increased professional vulnerability, including reported malpractice litigation and patient safety incidents. The proposed conceptual framework outlines a structured and longitudinal approach to integrating legal education into medical training, based on horizontal and vertical curricular integration, alignment with regulatory standards, and continuous professional development. Conclusions: Integrating legal education into medical curricula may represent a relevant strategy for supporting patient safety, strengthening medico-legal risk awareness, and promoting professional accountability. The proposed framework offers a conceptual and adaptable structure for medical schools and healthcare institutions. Full article

Public pedestrian pathways have been widely adopted in planned cities to improve walkability and strengthen connections between residential areas and public spaces. However, existing studies have largely focused on management issues and post-occupancy privatization, with limited attention given to how these pathways evolve throughout the planning and development process. This study investigates the evolution of public pedestrian pathways in Sejong City, Korea, a state-led planned city developed through a phased planning system. Based on district unit plans, design competition guidelines, detailed design documents, as-built drawings, aerial imagery, and field verification of implemented conditions, the study analyzes the changing planning objectives, spatial characteristics, and functional roles of public pedestrian pathways across five planning generations. The results reveal three major trends. First, public pedestrian pathways evolved from lot-level circulation routes into integral components of neighborhood- and city-scale pedestrian networks linking parks, green corridors, schools, and community facilities. Second, planning approaches were continuously refined through district unit planning, housing design competitions, and implementation experience, leading to increasingly integrated and strategic spatial configurations. Third, the growing integration of public pedestrian pathways with community facilities, public open spaces, and green infrastructure transformed them from simple movement corridors into semi-public infrastructure intended to support social interaction and everyday community life. The findings suggest that public pedestrian pathways function not merely as circulation facilities but as planning mechanisms that enhance urban openness, connectivity, publicness, and community integration. The study demonstrates how public pedestrian pathways can evolve into semi-public infrastructure through the cumulative refinement of planning across successive planning generations and provides planning implications for future pedestrian-oriented urban development. Full article

Background: T-cell redirecting therapies (TCRTs), including CAR T-cell therapies and bispecific antibodies, have transformed treatment for relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (MM), yet real-world adoption remains limited by awareness and access barriers across patients, caregivers, and physicians. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study (June–September 2025) using IRB-approved REDCap surveys distributed to patients with MM (via MyChart), caregivers of TCRT recipients (via email), and community physicians (via email). Surveys assessed TCRT familiarity, perceived barriers, and access challenges. The primary objective was to compare TCRT utilization across racial groups among previously treated patients. Results: A total of 428 respondents participated (346 patients, 51 caregivers, 31 physicians). Among patients, 18% were Black. Overall, 26% were unfamiliar with TCRT, with higher unawareness among Black patients (32% vs. 25%) and those with ≤high school education (42% vs. 23%). Higher education was associated with twice the odds of TCRT utilization (p = 0.05). Among patients reporting prior MM treatment, TCRT utilization was similar across racial groups (39% Black vs. 38% non-Black). Among patients reporting TCRT receipt, Black patients more frequently reported receiving therapy through clinical trials compared with non-Black patients (44% vs. 34%). Among caregivers, 53% reported effects on mental/emotional wellness, 61% moderate-to-high stress during treatment, and 33% provided >40 h/week of care during month one. Among physicians, 71% referred patients for TCRT, but 48% reported <25% of referrals resulted in treatment. Patient hesitancy was the most cited referral barrier. Conclusions: Awareness gaps disproportionately affect Black patients and those with lower education. Caregivers experience substantial emotional and time burden. Patient hesitancy remains the primary barrier to TCRT referrals. Clinical trials may serve as an alternative access pathway for some patients. Multi-level interventions targeting education, caregiver support, and care coordination are needed to improve equitable TCRT access. Full article

School systems across the United States are increasingly adopting the community school strategy to strengthen connections between schools and their surrounding communities and to better address students’ academic and nonacademic needs. This nested case study examines implementation in Hamilton County, Tennessee, using the Community Schools Forward: Essentials for Community Schools Transformation Framework to describe both district-level strategy and school-level practice. Focusing on Brainerd High School, a historically significant institution in Chattanooga, the case illustrates how coordinated supports, shared leadership, and community partnerships contribute to school improvement. Findings highlight the potential of the community school strategy to advance educational equity and strengthen school–community collaboration. Full article

In the era of digital transformation and artificial intelligence, strengthening STEM education is indispensable to technological innovation and social progress. However, the scarcity of effective strategies and empirical evidence for the early identification of STEM-gifted learners constitutes a critical research gap. This study employed a systematic review approach to synthesize existing identification strategies for K-12 STEM-talent learners. Following the PRISMA framework, 26 peer-reviewed empirical and review articles were retrieved and analyzed from nine databases. Findings revealed that the majority of studies originated in the United States, peaked in 2018, and predominantly comprised empirical designs targeting high school students. Identification methods demonstrated an observed shift from holistic to more individualized approaches, encompassing intelligence and spatial ability testing, academic achievement measures, creativity and problem-solving assessments, portfolio evaluations, subject-specific competitions, and teacher or parent recommendations. Cognitive reasoning, creativity, spatial ability, and problem-solving emerged as core indicators, whereas socioeconomic status, cultural background, teacher and parental support, and gender expectations significantly influenced identification processes and talent development. Future research should empirically validate existing identification framework, account for cross-cultural variability, and examine the longitudinal efficacy of emerging artificial intelligence applications. This review synthesizes existing scholarship on K-12 STEM talent identification and delivers evidence-based recommendations to refine identification and assessment frameworks across diverse educational contexts. Full article