Search Results (991)

This study analysed the impact on Physical Education students of an intervention based on direct contact and multicomponent inclusive activities, with regard to their attitudes towards the inclusion of students with disabilities. A quasi-experimental design with pre-test and post-test measures was used on a sample of 144 students from a school in the province of Castellón (Spain), divided into three groups: control, direct contact intervention, and multicomponent intervention (introductory awareness session, participation in adapted activities alongside direct contact and guided reflection). Following the administration of the CAIPE-R questionnaire, the results showed that girls exhibited more favourable attitudes towards inclusion than boys at all stages, although the differences were statistically significant only for general inclusive attitudes. Furthermore, the ‘not competitive’ group reported a more positive initial attitude, whilst the ‘very competitive’ group scored lower, but with no significant differences. On the other hand, at post-test, both the direct contact and multicomponent intervention groups showed significantly more favourable general and specific attitudes towards inclusion than the control group, whereas no significant differences were observed between the two intervention groups. Thus, the quasi-experimental design and the allocation of different school years to the intervention conditions preclude conclusions regarding the causal superiority of the multicomponent inclusive approach over the direct contact intervention alone. Full article

This study aims to evaluate young people’s perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors regarding food waste in the North-West region of Romania. It seeks to identify key factors influencing awareness and practices, quantify the attitude–behavior gap, and propose targeted educational and policy interventions. A cross-sectional survey was conducted between July and October 2024 using a 17-item questionnaire. Snowball sampling via social media and educational networks yielded 955 valid responses from participants aged 14–33 across six counties. Descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, Kruskal–Wallis tests with Dunn’s post hoc comparisons, Pearson and Spearman correlation analyses, and effect size calculations were performed, guided by the Theory of Planned Behavior. Respondents showed high knowledge (89.47% aggregated positive responses) and strongly positive attitudes (>90% on all items). However, a significant attitude–behavior gap emerged: while 93.51% intended to reduce food waste, only 50.05% consistently adapted portions to appetite. Family was the primary source of awareness (42.41%), whereas formal schooling contributed minimally (3.35%), despite 92.46% supporting school-based education. Knowledge correlated strongly with attitudes (r = 0.624) but only moderately with practice (r = 0.326). Results highlight the need to integrate food waste education into formal curricula and develop targeted programs bridging the gap between positive attitudes and actual behavior change among Romanian youth. Full article

Aggressive behavior in childhood is a major developmental and educational concern, but school discipline records provide limited information about how aggression is identified and managed in everyday settings. This study used direct observation to characterize office discipline referral (ODR) events among kindergarten through fifth-grade students in 2007, with each of 14 schools observed for one designated week near the end of a randomized school-based intervention trial. Observers recorded 348 referrals involving 296 students. Aggressive or destructive behavior—physical aggression, verbal aggression, or property destruction—accounted for 46.8% of referrals, with physical aggression alone accounting for 38.5%. Aggressive/destructive referrals involved descriptively longer office stays than other referrals, although the within-school difference was smaller and imprecisely estimated after accounting for school-level clustering. Fifth grade had the highest overall referral rate, whereas kindergarten referrals were proportionally most likely to involve aggressive/destructive behavior. Exploratory matched-pair comparisons provided little evidence of differences between intervention and comparison schools in aggressive/destructive referral rates, although some differences in referral composition and prolonged office stays remained imprecisely estimated. ODRs capture a consequential but selective subset of childhood aggression: behavior that is observed, interpreted, and formalized through school disciplinary procedures. Full article

Background/Objectives: Dental caries is the most prevalent chronic disease of childhood, and untreated caries in the primary dentition affects an estimated 514 million children worldwide. Children are the principal target of oral health outreach through school dental screening, community camps, and charitable events for children with special healthcare needs, yet these programmes are evaluated largely by what is most visible: the number of children examined and the photographs disseminated. This measurement substitution dissociates activity from impact, so that children are screened but not treated, counted but not cared for. The objective was to determine what works, for whom, in what contexts, and through what mechanisms in converting children’s oral health screening contacts into sustained care, with primary applicability to low- and middle-income, community-outreach-oriented health systems and, in particular, to India and South Asia, while the configurational logic is offered as transferable rather than universal. Methods: A realist synthesis was conducted and reported in accordance with the RAMESES publication standards. An initial programme theory was developed and refined through purposive iterative searching, appraisal of relevance and rigour, and the extraction of Context, Mechanism, and Outcome (CMO) configurations across the diverse literature. Searching ran from initiation to theoretical saturation; complete strategies, dates, and a document-selection flow diagram are provided. Results: Eight configurations were derived, six enabling and two antagonistic, organised around three thematic constellations, Prevent, Promote, and Promulgate, and navigated by a compass of competency-based education. Thirty-six documents were retained as the principal contributors to the final synthesis. The refined theory holds that the intervention is not the camp but the configuration of conditions that allows it to convert into care for the child. Conclusions: Children’s oral health outreach should be evaluated as a multi-level health-systems configuration rather than a discrete event; competency-based education is the generative lever that reorients practice from optics to outcomes. The eight configurations are theoretical propositions that require prospective empirical testing through realist evaluation before they are treated as confirmed causal claims. Full article

Students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often experience difficulties in mathematics related to attention, working memory, and executive functioning. Although technology-based interventions (TBIs) and emerging artificial intelligence (AI) technologies offer opportunities for personalized support, evidence concerning their use in mathematics education for students with ADHD remains fragmented. This scoping review mapped the literature on technology-supported mathematics interventions, focusing on intervention types, targeted cognitive barriers, educational outcomes, and evidence gaps. Following JBI scoping review methodology and PRISMA-ScR guidelines, 37 peer-reviewed studies published between 2010 and 2026 were identified and categorized into four tiers according to their alignment across technology, ADHD, and mathematics. Findings revealed a bimodal technology landscape, with established computer-based interventions showing modest empirical support, while AI-supported approaches remained largely theoretical and lacked empirical validation. Reported mathematics-related outcomes were heterogeneous across the included sources and were not directly comparable across intervention classes. Because of substantial methodological heterogeneity and the absence of formal risk-of-bias assessment, no comparative conclusions can be drawn across intervention classes. Major evidence gaps include limited empirical evaluation of AI-driven mathematics interventions, scarce longitudinal research, and underrepresentation of secondary-school populations. Full article

This qualitative study addresses a significant gap in existing literature concerning the emotional, psychological, and academic consequences of gender-based violence (GBV) among high school learners in Eswatini, a context where culturally embedded norms and systemic challenges may shape how GBV is experienced, disclosed, and addressed. While prior research underscores the detrimental effects of GBV, limited attention has been given to learners’ accounts within Eswatini’s socio-cultural landscape. Employing a qualitative descriptive design, data were collected from 36 learners (18 girls and 18 boys) across six high schools. Thirty learners participated in six focus group discussions, with five learners in each group, while an additional six learners participated in individual semi-structured interviews. No participant participated in both methods. Data were analysed using Braun and Clarke’s reflexive thematic analysis. Three overarching themes were developed inductively: (1) emotional trauma and demotivation, characterised by feelings of worthlessness, fear, anxiety, and withdrawal; (2) psychological effects, including anxiety, shame, isolation, and psychological distress; and (3) a decline in academic performance and engagement, reflected in perceived difficulties with concentration, attendance, participation, motivation, and academic performance. Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Model was subsequently used as an interpretive lens to examine how individual, interpersonal, institutional, community, and broader societal contexts shaped participants’ accounts. The study also considers similarities, differences, and contradictions in girls’ and boys’ accounts and recognises that participants occupy different positions in relation to GBV, including experiences of victimisation, witnessing, and acknowledgement of harmful behaviour. Because the study is qualitative and cross-sectional, the findings describe participants’ perceived relationships between GBV and educational and psychosocial experiences rather than establishing causal effects. The study highlights the importance of trauma-informed school environments, accessible psychosocial support, effective safeguarding and referral mechanisms, gender-responsive prevention, and coordinated interventions across ecological levels. Full article

Consistent and equitable classification of students within Response to Intervention (RTI) frameworks remains a significant challenge in Qatar’s educational system, where tier-assignment decisions rely predominantly on qualitative, multidisciplinary evaluation reports rather than standardized quantitative measures. This research proposes a transformation-based framework for RTI tier classification using Qatari student evaluation reports. The framework converts qualitative clinical descriptors into structured intermediate representations through descriptor extraction, ordinal severity mapping, score translation, and composite aggregation. Seven classification approaches were systematically evaluated within this framework: direct zero-shot and few-shot large language model (LLM) classification; hierarchical prompting; rule-based transformation; LLM-assisted transformation; and a hybrid transformation-based approach. All experiments utilized OCR-extracted Arabic evaluation report text and were assessed using accuracy, balanced accuracy, macro F1-score, weighted F1-score, and class-wise F1-scores. The hybrid transformation-based approach demonstrated the strongest overall performance across evaluation metrics and was the only approach to maintain meaningful classification performance across all three RTI tiers, including the underrepresented and most challenging Tier 1 category. Direct and hierarchical prompting approaches produced lower and less consistent classification performance across the evaluated RTI tiers. These findings indicate that the introduction of structured intermediate transformation stages substantially enhances the consistency, interpretability, and equity of RTI tier classification from qualitative evaluation reports, providing a principled mechanism for standardizing classification decisions across Qatar’s schools and evaluation teams. Full article

Drawing on a design-based intervention in active European citizenship education, this article explores the extent to which participatory citizenship education equips primary pupils with the necessary democratic resilience in the digital age. It argues that teachers’ constant search for consensus in the primary classroom has become a democratic liability in a digital public era of polarisation. My Big Friendly Guide to the EU which was implemented across five Irish primary schools in 2018–2019 with 458 pupils aged five to twelve, examines what participatory European citizenship education looks like in practice. Data shows that knowledge gains were substantial, ranging from 16 to 66 percentage points across identity, institutional, and national indicator domains. Yet qualitative observation reveals a consistent finding that teachers, who largely felt they had insufficient substantive knowledge of the EU, pushed towards consensus when discussions generated unresolved disagreement. The article discusses how the piloting of this educational programme in participatory citizenship education highlights gaps in pupils’ democratic resilience. It argues that a solution could be integrating Mouffe’s theory of agonistic democracy and Ruitenberg’s application to pedagogy. This would ensure that pupils are equipped to resist platform polarisation and algorithmic selection. It further contends that this dual approach cannot be achieved without structured teacher training in powerful knowledge on the European Union and agonism, which a digitally aware civic education requires. Full article

Background/Objectives: Adolescents with intellectual disabilities may experience inequities in preventive healthcare, including HPV vaccination. This review aimed to synthesize evidence on HPV vaccination-related knowledge, attitudes and perceptions among adolescents with intellectual disabilities, parents/caregivers, educators, healthcare professionals and other stakeholders. Methods: A systematic search was conducted in PubMed, Embase and Scopus on 29 October 2025. Eligible studies reported original data on knowledge, attitudes or perceptions regarding HPV vaccination for adolescents with intellectual disabilities or relevant stakeholders. The protocol was registered on PROSPERO (CRD420251015183). Quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods studies were considered. Results: Seven studies were included. They were conducted in the USA, Australia and the UK and involved parents/caregivers, healthcare providers, school staff, immunization staff and adolescents or young people with disabilities. Direct evidence from adolescents was limited. HPV-related knowledge was often limited or uneven, and standard information materials were perceived as insufficiently accessible. Parents/caregivers were often broadly supportive of vaccination, but HPV-specific acceptance was affected by perceived low susceptibility, assumptions about sexual inactivity, safety concerns, procedure-related distress and lack of provider recommendation. Healthcare providers generally supported HPV vaccination; however, recommendations were sometimes influenced by perceived sexual activity, age or consent. School-based vaccination was considered useful but required tailored information, preparation, individual adjustments and follow-up. Conclusions: Evidence on HPV vaccination-related knowledge, attitudes and perceptions among adolescents with intellectual disabilities and their stakeholders remains limited and geographically restricted. Improving equitable access may require interventions that should be further investigated, such as accessible communication, systematic provider recommendation, flexible vaccination pathways and greater involvement of adolescents in decision-making. Full article

In recent years, concerns about youth mental health, school disengagement and territorial inequalities have renewed interest in arts-based, participatory educational practices, including participatory video (PV) and youth-led filmmaking. This scoping review, conducted and reported in accordance with the PRISMA-ScR guidelines, maps empirical studies employing PV or youth-led filmmaking with adolescents and young people (approximately 9–24 years) in school, after-school and community-based programmes, focusing on engagement, belonging, psychological well-being, agency, empowerment and socio-emotional skills. A structured search was conducted in four electronic databases (Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, PsycInfo) and complemented by manual screening of reference lists, yielding nineteen peer-reviewed articles in English using qualitative, quantitative or mixed-methods designs in which PV was a central component. Narrative thematic synthesis suggests that PV can create “third spaces” for expression and co-authorship, support participation and voice, strengthen trust, self-efficacy and relational competences, and foster school connectedness. At the same time, the literature points to limitations linked to structural constraints, power hierarchies and partial institutional recognition of youth-produced narratives. Overall, the review indicates that participatory video is a promising but context-dependent approach for supporting protective factors associated with school disengagement and early school leaving and outlines implications for integrated school–community interventions and future research on longer-term impacts. Full article

Background/Objectives: School-based food and nutrition education is an important public health strategy for developing healthy dietary behaviors during childhood and adolescence. However, limited qualitative evidence describes how nutrition teachers, who are simultaneously responsible for school meals, perceive established educational priorities and emerging needs. This study explored current and future priorities for school-based food and nutrition education in South Korea. Methods: Two online focus group interviews were conducted with eight nutrition teachers working in elementary, middle, and high schools. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using qualitative content analysis procedures. Results: Current priorities included foundational nutrition and food-related knowledge, balanced eating, environmental issues, low-sodium and low-sugar diets, understanding school meals, prevention of eating disorders and chronic diseases, and table manners and picky eating. Future needs centered on food choice and food literacy, sustainable diets, interdisciplinary education, and understanding diverse food cultures. Across themes, participants described a shift from primarily knowledge-focused instruction toward applied dietary competence, a broadening from individual disease prevention toward health and sustainability, and stronger integration of classroom education with school meals and other subjects. Conclusions: From the perspectives of the participating nutrition teachers, the findings provide formative evidence for curricula and interventions that combine foundational nutrition science with food-choice skills, age-appropriate preventive messages, sustainable dietary practices, and opportunities for behavioral application in the school meal setting. Future quantitative and intervention studies, including nationally representative samples, are needed before robust national priorities can be established. Full article

This exploratory mixed-methods study examines how an edge artificial intelligence (edge AI) gas-sensing project is associated with vocational upper-secondary students’ self-reported problem-solving attitudes in an authentic classroom setting. Thirty-eight students specializing in Electrical, Electronics, and Automation addressed the same design problem: developing a gas-sensing prototype by collecting sensor data, training a machine-learning classifier, and deploying the model on embedded hardware for local inference and real-time decision support without continuous reliance on cloud processing. Three instructional pathways were compared: (i) Maker Learning (ML; n = 12) with hands-on prototyping and on-device testing, (ii) Virtual Learning (VL; n = 13) with simulation-based activities, and (iii) Traditional Learning (C; n = 13) with teacher-guided instruction. Quantitative data were collected through three administrations of the Problem-Solving Inventory (PSI), complemented by post-intervention semi-structured interviews. Exploratory analyses indicated statistically significant changes in total PSI scores across all pathways (p ≤ 0.003), reflecting more favourable problem-solving appraisals. At post-test, the ML and VL pathways showed more approach-oriented profiles than the Traditional Learning pathway, with large effect-size estimates (ML − C: r = 0.714; VL − C: r = 0.611), while for problem-solving confidence, the pattern favoured the Maker Learning pathway (ML − VL: r = 0.496). Interviews provided complementary interpretive context, highlighting iterative debugging, feedback, collaboration, and artefact ownership. Within the limits of this exploratory vocational-school classroom implementation, the findings and effect-size estimates were interpreted cautiously. Overall, the study contributes by depicting how edge AI gas-sensing projects may support positive problem-solving appraisals and outlining a meaningful pathway for the integration of edge AI technologies in vocational education. Full article

Background: School-based sustainable and healthy diet (SHD) interventions often inadequately capture the multidimensional nature of sustainability, with socioeconomic and cultural dimensions frequently underrepresented. While digital interventions can facilitate the integration of multiple SHD components, maintaining user engagement remains a persistent challenge that can compromise intervention effectiveness. Digital serious games represent a promising intervention strategy that can address both limitations by delivering multidimensional SHD content through interactive and engaging learning, while enabling real-time behavioral monitoring. Objectives: To assess the feasibility, as well as the acceptability and user experience of “Sustainable ePlate”, a web-based serious game for multidimensional SHD educational interventions in schools, during school-based sessions. Methods: Sustainable ePlate integrates food-level sustainability indicators into a scaffolded nine-challenge serious game. Challenges are presented through the healthy eating plate structure, while addressing eight food-level sustainability indicators transformed into 1–5 ordinal game scores. A database of 138 food items was developed from publicly available LCA and TCA databases. The game design draws on established learning theories implemented through progressive challenge sequencing, tiered feedback, and social features. Feasibility was assessed in guided school sessions in Northern Greece using the eGameFlow questionnaire and system in-app metrics. Results: The assessment sample comprised n = 59 students from two secondary schools, of whom n = 57 completed the eGameFlow questionnaire. Mean overall enjoyment was 82.54 ± 16.33%. Mean session duration was 22.39 ± 12.68 min. Across all sessions, 6003 food selections were recorded, with 5179 correct and 824 incorrect placements, corresponding to an 86.27% placement accuracy rate. In-app metrics indicated strong technical feasibility, with all sessions completing the full game sequence. Behavioral metrics demonstrated active interaction, characterized by placement interval duration, hesitation times, and high placement accuracy. Conclusions: Sustainable ePlate demonstrated feasibility and a positive user experience as a school-based serious game for multidimensional SHD education, and as a research platform for capturing in-app behavioral metrics. Further studies are required to assess its educational effectiveness in improving knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to sustainable healthy diets through pre–post design interventions. Full article

This paper proposes a real-time physiological monitoring and biofeedback model based on the console of an indoor cycling bike, applied within high-school physical education. The system uses heart rate (HR) as a control signal for exercise intensity within a closed-loop human–machine system, complemented by the Borg Scale of Perceived Exertion (RPE 6–20) as a subjective validation of the objective feedback loop. The 12-week intervention, conducted with 48 adolescents aged 15–17 years, was evaluated using a battery of six standardized psychomotor tests from EUROFIT and cardiovascular indicators, including 1-min heart rate recovery (HRR). The results show significant improvements in balance, coordination, agility, and autonomic recovery in the experimental group, confirming the effectiveness of the integrated biofeedback system as an accessible biomedical monitoring platform in the school setting. These findings suggest that heart-rate-based biofeedback, delivered through the bicycle console, may represent an accessible and effective strategy for regulating exercise intensity and supporting psychomotor and cardiovascular adaptation in the school environment. Full article

Background: Emotional intelligence (EI) is an important component of adolescents’ psychological adjustment and social functioning. Creativity-based experiential approaches may support EI development through active emotional processing, reflection, and interpersonal learning; however, empirical evidence in adolescents remains limited. Methods: This quasi-experimental controlled pretest–posttest study included 47 adolescents who self-selected into an experimental group (n = 24) or control group (n = 23) according to their preference regarding participation in the training program. EI was assessed using the Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test (SSEIT). The experimental group completed a 12-week creativity-based experiential programme, while the control group continued usual activities. Results: At post-intervention, the experimental group had significantly higher overall EI (p < 0.001, d = 1.60), AES (p < 0.001, d = 1.34), and ERO (p < 0.001, d = 1.24) scores than the control group. Although post-intervention ERS scores were also higher in the experimental group, a large ERS difference was already present at baseline and the experimental group showed no favorable descriptive change in this dimension. Utilization of emotions in problem solving did not differ significantly between groups (p = 0.090, d = 0.50). Conclusions: Participation in creativity-based experiential training was associated with higher post-intervention overall EI, AES, and ERO scores, but demonstrated limited effectiveness for ERS and UEPS. The small sample and insufficient statistical power, together with the non-randomized design and baseline ERS imbalance, preclude firm or causal conclusions. Larger randomized controlled studies using multimethod assessments and long-term follow-up are needed to establish causality, durability, and the mechanisms underlying these associations. Full article