Search Results (162)

In the present qualitative study, we first synthesize research to clarify the concept of error in science as developed by epistemologists, philosophers, and historians. We also examine the concept of error in educational science, drawing from studies on science learning and teaching. To do this, we analyzed references found through a systematic review of books and journals. We also selected published articles on the history of physics and chemistry and consulted documents authored by scientists in English or in official translations. We guided our selection by choosing sources relevant to conceptualizing error in scientific and educational contexts. Our key findings show two categories of scientific error: those that have contributed to scientific progress and those that have hindered it. Some renowned scientists, such as Aristotle and Buridan, put forward theories of force and movement that were later shown to be false. However, these errors did not always impede scientific advancement. This research highlights how scientific errors have shaped the evolution of science and reveals insights into the scientific process and the resilience of the scientific community. In science education, researchers use various terms such as “student naïve reasoning,” “students’ alternative conceptions,” “students’ alternative theory,” and “misconceptions.” Students’ errors, like scientific errors, can be classified into two categories. The first type involves errors from distractions, misunderstandings, or unintentional mistakes. The second type results from students’ interactions with many natural and man-made phenomena, the common language used in society (which differs from scientific language), and errors passed down by teachers or found in textbooks. Finally, we note that identifying errors among scientists and students supports the development of strategy-based teaching for meaningful science learning. From this perspective, students will be pleased to know that some of their conceptions of force and motion are “similar” to those developed by Aristotle and Buridan, even if these conceptions are false relative to those developed by Galileo and Newton. Recognizing both scientists’ and students’ errors is essential for creating teaching strategies that promote deeper science learning. Full article

The role of metapragmatics in maintaining interactional coherence and achieving intersubjectivity has been variously underscored in the last three decades. In particular, raising metapragmatic awareness has become increasingly salient in research on intercultural communication and foreign/second language teaching. However, the topic has not been hitherto discussed in connection with heritage languages, and this is a gap that the present paper aims to fill. Based on interviews with Greek Melburnians who belong (in triads or dyads) to the same family but to different generations, a typology of metapragmatic awareness indicators encountered in the data is presented. Quantitative examination of one type of indicators—those oriented towards the addressee—indicates a decrease in their use across three generations. Similarly, examination of the variants of second-person pronouns and/or verb endings (the T/V distinction) brought to the fore alternations in the T and V forms, indicative of linguistic insecurity, as well as an increasing preference for the informal variants across three generations. The qualitative analysis of extracts from the interviews shed further light on the insecurity regarding the T/V distinction. Overall, the results point to changes in the communicative style of Greek Melburnians, namely away from positive politeness features (typical of the Greek society) towards English interactional norms, and the fostering of a hybrid communicative style—in alignment with their hybrid identities. It is suggested that politeness issues be integrated into the teaching of Greek as a heritage language. Full article

This study analyses the variety of the language used in textbooks for teaching Italian as a second/foreign language. These books use a language much closer to written than to spoken Italian and do not consider its varieties, providing examples and exercises with a “neutral” standard that speakers rarely use in everyday speech. The aim of this study is to provide a critical review of pronunciation sections in current L2 Italian textbooks, in the light of a renewed and growing interest in the study of the Italian language, not only by students with a migrant background in Italy, but also by second and third-generation emigrants who want to learn Italian to recover their roots. Thirty-two Italian textbooks were examined, considering some geolinguistic variables. The general tendency seems to be the introduction of some neo-standard Italian features. As far as the phonetic–phonological level is concerned, this is probably still insufficient because of the complexity of the Italian linguistic repertoire. Our analysis further suggests the inadequacy of notions such as (neo-)standard Italian for teaching purposes in the linguistic space of global Italian. Full article

During the past decade, chatbots have been integrated into commercial platforms to facilitate second language acquisition (SLA) by providing opportunities for interactive conversations. However, SLA learner progress is limited by chatbots that lack the contextualization typically added by instructors to college and university courses. The present study focuses on a collaborative Digital Learning Incubator (DLI) project dedicated to creating and testing a chatbot with a physical form, or avatar chatbot, called Slabot (Second Language Acquisition Bot), in two upper-level university courses at the University of Tennessee, asynchronous online Spanish 331 (Introduction to Hispanic Culture), and in-person Spanish 434 (Hispanic Culture Through Film). Students in these two courses believe that their oral skills would benefit from more opportunities to speak in Spanish. To provide the students with more practice and instructors with a tool for assessing Spanish oral skills in online and in-person courses, the DLI project objective was to advance current avatar chatbot platforms by enabling Slabot to elicit student responses appropriate for evaluation according to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) standards. An initial test of Slabot was conducted, and the results demonstrated the potential for Slabot to achieve the project objective. Full article

This study reports findings from a nationwide replication and the second randomized controlled trial (RCT) of Strategic and Interactive Writing Instruction (SIWI), a linguistically responsive framework for teaching writing to deaf students. A total of 50 teachers and their 294 students in grades 3–6 were randomly assigned to either SIWI or business-as-usual (BAU) instruction. Writing outcomes were assessed with trait-based rubrics and the Structured Analysis of Written Language (SAWL) in two genres (recount and information report), along with the Woodcock–Johnson IV broad written language composite and genre-specific motivation surveys administered at the beginning and end of the school year. Students receiving SIWI outperformed peers in the BAU group on writing traits across both genres, with effect sizes ranging from moderately large (d = 0.70) for informational reports to very large (d = 1.11) for recounts. On the SAWL, SIWI students demonstrated significantly greater gains in grammatical clarity on recount writing, as measured by the word efficiency ratio, with a moderate effect size (d = 0.64), although this effect was not observed for information reports. Students in the treatment group also reported significantly higher motivation for both genres. Unlike the prior RCT, no statistically significant differences emerged on the broad written language measure (d = 0.27). This may reflect spurious findings in the previous study or limitations in this study caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Nonetheless, the effect size observed suggests some practical importance that warrants further investigation. Findings provide robust evidence that SIWI positively impacts deaf elementary students’ writing development and motivation, particularly for recount genres, while underscoring the importance of replication for understanding the generalizability of intervention effects. Full article

Set in the vocational education and training sector in England, this article draws attention to how top-down, centre–periphery approaches to curriculum design and development in vocational education fail for at least three reasons. First, they misconstrue the nature of knowledge. Second, they lead to perfunctory and fragmented approaches to curriculum design, coupled with mechanistic measures of quality and achievement, which often require little more than “one-off” and superficially assessed demonstrations of performance. Finally, they underplay the role and importance of the teacher as researcher and artist in putting the cultural resources of society to work in creative curriculum design and pedagogy. Teacher artistry is pivotal in animating and heightening the vitality of vocational curricula. It is through this artistry that teachers make theories, ideas and concepts in vocational subjects and disciplines accessible and meaningful to all learners in coherent ways in the contexts of their learning and their lives. The consequences of the epistemic faux pas underpinning centre-to-periphery models of curriculum design and development are highlighted in this article in vocational tutors’ accounts of experiences of problems and issues in curriculum design, development and assessment encountered in their practice. Participants in the research teach in a variety of vocational education settings, including Apprenticeships and Higher-Level Technical Education; English Language at General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) level; Health and Social Care; Information and Communications Technology; Construction (Plumbing); Digital Production, Design and Development and High-Tech Precision Engineering. Data are analysed and reported through systematic, thematic analysis This article draws upon qualitative data derived from a study funded by the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) in England over a two-year period from 2021 to 2023. The research population consists of a group of eight practitioner–researchers working in three colleges of Further Education (FE) and one Industry Training Centre (ITC) in England. All of the teachers of vocational education reported here volunteered to participate in the study. Research methods include semi-structured interviews, analysis of critical incidents and case studies produced by practitioner–researchers from across the FE and Skills sector in England. Full article

English argumentative writing is a cornerstone of academic and professional communication, yet it remains a significant challenge for second-language (L2) learners. While Large Language Models (LLMs) show promise as components in automated feedback systems, their responses are often generic and lack the structural insight necessary for meaningful improvement. Existing Automated Essay Scoring (AES) systems, conversely, typically provide holistic scores without the kind of actionable, fine-grained advice that can guide concrete revisions. To bridge this systemic gap, we introduce ARGUS (Argument Understanding and Structured-feedback), a novel neuro-symbolic system that synergizes the semantic understanding of LLMs with the structured reasoning of Graph Neural Networks (GNNs). The ARGUS system architecture comprises three integrated modules: (1) an LLM-based parser transforms an essay into a structured argument graph; (2) a Relational Graph Convolutional Network (R-GCN) analyzes this symbolic structure to identify specific logical and structural flaws; and (3) this flaw analysis directly guides a conditional LLM to generate feedback that is not only contextually relevant but also pinpoints precise weaknesses in the student’s reasoning. We evaluate ARGUS on the Argument Annotated Essays corpus and on an additional set of 150 L2 persuasive essays collected from the same population to augment training of both the parser and the structural flaw detector. Our argument parsing module achieves a component identification F1-score of 90.4% and a relation identification F1-score of 86.1%. The R-GCN-based structural flaw detector attains a macro-averaged F1-score of 0.83 across the seven flaw categories, indicating that the enriched training data substantially improves its generalization. Most importantly, in a human evaluation study, feedback generated by the ARGUS system was rated as consistently and significantly more specific, accurate, actionable, and helpful than that from strong baselines, including a fine-tuned LLM and a zero-shot GPT-4. Our work demonstrates a robust systems engineering approach, grounding LLM-based feedback in GNN-driven structural analysis to create an intelligent teaching system that provides targeted, pedagogically valuable guidance for L2 student writers engaging with persuasive essays. Full article

This article explores Ludwig Wittgenstein’s conception of the will through close engagement with his primary texts, the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Notebooks 1914–1916, and Philosophical Investigations, demonstrating profound resonances with Catholic mystical theology and social teaching. By integrating insights from Peter Tyler’s analysis of mystical strategies, Richard McDonough’s defense of Wittgenstein’s persistent mysticism, and the grammatical Thomism of Herbert McCabe, David Burrell, and Fergus Kerr, this study shows how Wittgenstein’s distinction between empirical and ethical will enriches Catholic theology in three crucial ways: First, it provides a philosophically rigorous account of the transcendental dimensions of moral agency that avoids both determinism and Pelagianism. Second, through Wittgenstein’s analysis of language-games and forms of life, it offers resources for articulating how Catholic doctrine operates within distinctive practices of prayer, sacrament, and ethical commitment. Third, by revealing the grammatical constraints on God-talk, it strengthens the apophatic tradition’s emphasis on divine transcendence while grounding concrete ethical action in subsidiarity and solidarity. Drawing upon Continental philosophy’s emphasis on responsibility and transcendence, this article demonstrates that Wittgenstein’s mystical philosophy, far from being merely speculative, provides essential conceptual tools for contemporary Catholic theological method and pastoral practice. Full article

Increasingly, scholars are attending to questions of identity and power in French as a second language (FSL) education. An underdeveloped area of research is the experience of queer, trans, and nonbinary FSL teachers in Canada. Understanding how marginalized teachers navigate building inclusive and equitable learning spaces is the focus of this study. To this end, this study used narrative inquiry and photo elicitation methods to understand how—if at all—participants embody inclusivity in their classroom practices. Four themes emerged from this study: (1) (in)visibility of queerness, (2) performing a balancing act, (3) urgency to disrupt, and (4) navigating the teaching of a gendered language. These findings suggest that while participants in this study strive to build inclusive spaces for themselves and their students, external factors, such as fear of opposition and being reprimanded, abound. These findings offer insights into discursive moves to facilitate a meaningfully queered and inclusive FSL learning space, and contributes to the growing body of queer applied linguistics by revealing how queer teachers’ embodied practices can reshape inclusivity in FSL education. Full article

English learning buoyancy is a proactive and adaptable capacity that allows academic growth. However, the relationship between buoyancy, burnout, engagement, and achievement in English learning remains complex and underexplored. Grounded in the control–value theory of achievement emotions and the situated expectancy–value theory, this study investigated the impact of buoyancy and academic achievement in language learning, especially the multiple mediating roles of burnout and engagement in between. The study involved 522 senior high school students in China, who learn English as a second language. Questionnaires were employed to assess their English learning buoyancy, burnout (i.e., demotivation and exhaustion), and engagement (i.e., behavioral and agentic engagement). Academic achievement was represented by their most recent English scores. The results demonstrate that English learning buoyancy predicts academic achievement through multiple indirect paths. Specifically, exhaustion and behavioral engagement each independently mediate this relationship, and a sequential mediating pathway was identified from burnout components to behavioral engagement. The study provides pedagogical implications for English teaching. Full article

Despite increased interest in embodied learning, the role of sensorimotor activity in shaping students’ probabilistic reasoning remains underexplored. This design-based study examines how high school students develop key probabilistic concepts, including sample space, certainty, and event probability, through whole-body movement activities situated in an authentic classroom setting. Grounded in embodied cognition theory, we introduce a two-axis interpretive framework. One axis spans sensorimotor exploration and formal reasoning, drawing from established continuums in the literature. The second axis, derived inductively from our analysis, contrasts engagement with distraction, foregrounding the affective and attentional dimensions of embodied participation. Students engaged in structured yet open-ended movement sequences that elicited intuitive insights. This approach, epitomized by one student’s spontaneous question, “Can I use my leg too?”, captures the agentive and improvisational character of the embodied learning environment. Through five analyzed classroom episodes, we trace how students shifted between bodily exploration and formalization, often through nonlinear trajectories shaped by play, uncertainty, and emotionally driven reflection. While moments of insight emerged organically, they were also fragile, as they were affected by ambiguity and the difficulty in translating physical actions into mathematical language. Our findings underscore the pedagogical potential of embodied design for probabilistic learning while also highlighting the need for responsive teaching that balances structure with improvisation and supports affective integration throughout the learning process. Full article

The growing application of artificial intelligence in education has created new avenues for second language learning. The following research explores the impact of learning with the help of chatbots on English conversation among secondary students in the Northern Borders Region in Saudi Arabia. The quasi-experimental design involved 30 students divided into two groups: an experimental group that interacted with an intervention using a GPT-powered chatbot for three weeks, and a control group that underwent traditional teaching. Pre- and post-tests were given to assess conversation competence. At the same time, students’ attitudes toward the chatbot-assisted learning experience were measured through questionnaires, teacher observation, and usage logs in the chatbot. Results showed statistically significant improvement in the experimental group’s speaking competence (mean gain = 5.24, p < 0.001). Students showed high motivation, elevated confidence, and high satisfaction with the learning experience provided through the chatbot (overall attitude mean = 4.35/5). Teacher observations testified that the students were much more engaged and spontaneous, and using the chatbot was positively correlated with score gain (r = 0.61). The outcomes indicate that chatbot-based learning is a practical approach for facilitating the development of spoken English, particularly in low-resource learning environments. The research provides empirical proof in favour of the incorporation of interactive AI into EFL teaching in all the secondary schools in Saudi Arabia. Full article

Ireland, historically a country of emigration, has transformed into a hub of immigration. Today, over 200 languages are spoken among its 5.25 million residents, with approximately 750,000 individuals speaking a language other than English or Irish at home. This growing linguistic diversity is increasingly reflected in Irish primary classrooms, where teachers are called upon to support students from a wide range of linguistic and cultural backgrounds). In response, Teaching English as an Additional Language (EAL) modules have expanded across initial teacher education (ITE) programs in Ireland. This study examines over two decades of teacher development initiatives, tracing a shift from an earlier bilingual model—where multilingualism was viewed primarily as second language acquisition—to a more expansive, European-informed vision of plurilingualism. Drawing on recommendations for reflexive, linguistically and culturally responsive education, this research adopts an insider/outsider discursive case study approach to explore student teachers’ preparedness to support multilingual learners in Irish primary schools. Conducted through a collaboration between an Irish teacher educator/module coordinator and an intercultural education specialist, this study employs reflexive thematic analysis) of student teachers’ self-reports from a twelve-week elective module on linguistic and cultural diversity within a Primary Bachelor of Education program. Data were drawn from surveys (n = 35) across three module iterations in 2019, 2021, and 2023. Findings indicate student teachers’ growing awareness of language teaching strategies and resources, developing positive orientations toward inclusive and plurilingual pedagogy, and emerging skills in professional collaboration. However, areas for further development include strengthening agency in navigating real-world multilingual teaching scenarios and embedding deeper reflexivity around linguistic identities, integrating students’ home language and intercultural learning. The paper concludes with recommendations to expand access to language teaching resources for diverse student profiles and support collaborative, shared EAL leadership through professional learning communities as part of teacher education reform. Full article

Progress in clinical practice, research, and teaching needs a common language. Agreement among veterinary endocrinologists on definitions of concepts related to Cushing’s syndrome (CS) and hypoadrenocorticism is lacking. After a successful inaugural cycle on diabetes mellitus terminology, project Agreeing Language in Veterinary Endocrinology (ALIVE) held a second cycle, with simplified methodology, and brought together 10 experts of the European Society of Veterinary Endocrinology (ESVE) and the Society of Comparative Endocrinology (SCE). It employed a four-round modified Delphi Method to generate draft definitions and try and achieve consensus. A final round used an endorsement survey of the expert-generated definitions distributed to the ESVE and SCE memberships, seeking a simple majority endorsement. A minimum of 20% membership participation was sought. The 10 experts achieved 100% consensus on the definition of 35 adrenal disease-associated concepts, including disease definitions, diagnostic criteria, and test definitions, a disease classification system for CS and hypoadrenocorticism, and a clinical scoring system for CS. Definitions were subsequently assessed by 78 ESVE and SCE members (26% of combined memberships). All definitions achieved a simple majority, ranging from 83.1 to 100%. ALIVE proved effective in creating a body of terminology for adrenal disease in companion animals, which met the overall approval of a majority of those participating in the endorsement phase. The prospective use of these definitions could help improve comparability and standards for adrenal disease research, education, and clinics. Full article

Active learning strategies and methodologies place the students at the core of the learning process. The objective is to engage students in their own learning through significant activities that involve active participation. These activities are designed to promote collaboration, reflection, and practical application of the knowledge acquired to develop cognitive, social, and emotional competences. These methodologies are of particular interest in STEM disciplines and vocational education, where practice is a key element in the assimilation of theoretical concepts. In this line, a case study is presented where active methodologies have been applied to two groups of Vocational Education and Training in the area of Computer Science to improve interest and commitment. The present study focuses on two groups of first-year students enrolled in the Web Application Design course, one in the Programming subject and the other in the Markup Language subject. Both groups are heterogeneous, composed of young adults with significantly different backgrounds, skills, and motivation. The teaching–learning process is based on active methodologies, such as Project-Based Learning, Design Thinking, Flipped Classroom, or gamification, which are adapted for different subjects in the field of Computer Science. These methodologies facilitate the experimental design and testing of diverse solutions for programming problems, thereby enhancing students’ motivation and interest, while promoting creativity and reflection. The results show an improvement in the interest and commitment of the students in both groups. Despite the fact that less than 50% of students successfully passed in the initial examination, more than 75% students passed after the second-chance examination. The findings have consistently suggested that the implementation of active methodologies leads to significant enhancements in the proficiency, development, motivation, and self-learning capabilities of students, and that these methodologies make students more aware of their learning process. Full article