Search Results (789)

This study analyzes the differences in the selection of teaching methodologies, assessment instruments, and educational values in Master’s Theses (TFMs) written within the Geography and History specialization of a Teacher Training Master’s program in Spain. The aim is to examine how these pedagogical components vary according to the gender of the author and the educational level targeted by the instructional proposals. A mixed-methods approach was applied combining statistical analysis (Chi-square and ANOVA tests) with qualitative content analysis of 54 anonymized TFMs. The results indicate that while gender-related differences were not statistically significant in most categories, qualitative patterns emerged: female authors tended to adopt more reflective, participatory approaches (e.g., oral expression, gender visibility), whereas male authors more often used experiential or gamified strategies. Significant differences by educational level were found in the use of gamification, inquiry-based learning, and project-based learning. A progressive increase in methodological complexity was observed from lower secondary to upper levels. In terms of educational values, interdisciplinarity and inclusion were most frequently promoted, with critical perspectives such as historical memory and gender visibility more prevalent at the Baccalaureate level. These findings underscore the TFM’s role as a space for pedagogical innovation, reflective practice, and value-driven teacher identity formation. Full article

Digital competence refers to the integration of digital technology in teaching and learning, as outlined in the national curriculum of Estonia for upper secondary schools. This study presents original research findings on Estonian science teachers’ use of digital tools and materials, their digital competence, and the main benefits and challenges they face. The findings emphasize the need for continued professional development, accessible digital resources, and equitable digital infrastructure to maintain Estonia’s leadership in digital science education. A survey of 58 secondary school science teachers revealed that computers (desktops, laptops, and tablets) are the primary digital tools used. The article explores digital literacy advancements in secondary science education, research methodologies used to assess digital tool usage, and key findings from recent studies. However, challenges such as digital equity, technological barriers, and digital fatigue persist. Additionally, discrepancies were found in teachers’ responses regarding digital tool effectiveness, implementation strategies, and perceived barriers. While some teachers reported a successful integration and improved student outcomes, others highlighted difficulties in aligning digital resources with curriculum requirements and pedagogical approaches. Full article

This study examines how Ontario’s Health and Physical Education curriculum addresses the needs of young adults with disabilities. A total of 54 individuals aged 18–35 years old with developmental, learning, or physical disabilities who had completed secondary school in Ontario participated in a cross-sectional mixed-methods survey. Participants were recruited through disability-focused community networks and a university psychology participant pool. They completed the Sex Education subscale of the Sexual Knowledge, Experience, Feelings and Needs Scale, a 35-item sexual knowledge questionnaire, and open-ended questions. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and independent samples t-tests; qualitative responses were examined using thematic analysis. Participants reported limited factual knowledge, minimal classroom representation, and heavy reliance on independent learning. Barriers included inaccessible materials, teacher discomfort, and the absence of disability narratives in sexuality units. Findings point to three priorities: revising curriculum content, expanding educator training, and creating disability-affirming resources. These measures will help ensure comprehensive and rights-based sexuality education that supports the autonomy and well-being of students with disabilities. Full article

The growing integration of technology in education has heightened awareness of global risks, such as the spread of disinformation. This awareness is vital for fostering the well-being of individuals, especially teenagers, by promoting critical thinking and responsible digital practices. By cultivating these skills, sustainable education empowers individuals to identify potential threats, protect themselves, and advocate for informed, positive change. As part of a European project, this study aims to analyze the current level of awareness among secondary school students (12 to 17) and their teachers. Differences between both are analyzed in how they deal with disinformation in terms of (1) perceptions, (2) feelings and practices, and (3) knowledge and management. A quantitative approach was adopted for this study, which surveyed 1186 minors and 166 teachers. The analysis was based on non-parametric statistics; the Mann–Whitney U statistic was applied as the appropriate measure for comparing independent samples (teachers and students) with a non-normal distribution (p < 0.05). The results were surprising in that they highlighted that minors were more expert than expected in their use of technology and their awareness of the risks of disinformation. These conclusions make it clear that technological tools have the potential to raise awareness of the dangers of disinformation and improve the sustainability of education. Full article

The rapid secularisation of society has made the work of religious education in Catholic secondary schools increasingly difficult. Contemporary RE teachers are often faced with wildly disparate knowledge and interest levels in their classrooms, to say nothing of their own religiosity. Many systems focus on new curricula, new forms of professional development opportunities, or tertiary courses as a means of enriching what is happening in the classroom. This article examines the approach developed in a small rural diocese in accompanying the RE teachers working in its five secondary schools. It is an accompaniment model that is grounded in the theological and pedagogical insights of Luigi Giussani and adapted to the realities of contemporary education in an Australian setting. The results are a surprising proliferation of enrichment and innovation that can be immediately shared with students in each RE classroom. Moreover, accompaniment offers a more sustainable, agile, and targeted mode of supporting the evangelising work of RE teachers working in Catholic secondary schools. Full article

This study explores English language teachers’ beliefs and practices regarding assessment and associated training needs in two diverse European educational contexts: Norway and Cyprus. Using a quantitative approach, the research employed survey questionnaires completed by 134 Norwegian and 396 Cypriot teachers. Analysis, including chi-square and Mann–Whitney tests, revealed important foundational beliefs and practices of language assessment literacy (LAL), alongside distinct practices influenced by contrasting educational systems and socio-cultural landscapes. Context emerged as a critical factor shaping teachers’ confidence, knowledge, and professional development needs in assessment. Findings highlight the importance of integrating culturally responsive frameworks into LAL development programs to better address diverse educator needs. Recommendations are also provided for designing localized, context-sensitive teacher training initiatives and fostering collaborative practices to bridge gaps in LAL. The study concludes by highlighting future research directions to expand understanding of LAL in multicultural settings. Full article

Most studies on educational sustainability focus on higher education institutions, while secondary schools, especially in the Global South, are still rarely researched. This study evaluates the sustainability performance of SMAN 21 Bekasi, a public school in urban Indonesia, by adapting the triple bottom line (TBL) framework through a quantitative rapid appraisal (RAP) approach. A total of 105 school stakeholders, consisting of teachers, principals, students, and school committees, assessed the performance based on economic, social, and environmental dimensions. The results showed that the social dimension achieved a moderately sustainable score of 62.57, while the environmental dimension scored 54.56, and the economic dimension scored only 41.46, indicating low sustainability performance. This finding challenges the assumption in the previous literature that sustainability models developed in higher education can be directly applied in secondary schools, especially in the context of educational institutions in the Global South that face various structural limitations such as lack of autonomy, access to resources, and basic infrastructure. This study offers an adaptive and contextual sustainability evaluation model based on RAP-TBL, which can be used for benchmarking between schools, as well as extending theoretical and practical contributions in the framework of sustainable education towards achieving SDG 4 and SDG 12. Full article

Over a three-year R&D project, the perception of mobile phone use in Spanish secondary schools shifted from initial tolerance to increasingly prohibitive policies. Drawing on the Actor–Network Theory, this study examines how mobile phones—alongside institutional discourses and school and family concerns—acted as dynamic actants, shaping public and political responses. The research adopted a qualitative design combining policy and media document analysis, nine semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, ten regional case studies, and twelve focus groups. The study concluded with a public multiplier event that engaged the broader educational community. The Madrid region, among the first to adopt a restrictive stance, contributed two school-based case studies and three focus groups with teachers, students, and families. Findings suggest that the turn toward prohibition was motivated less by pedagogical evidence than by cultural anxieties, consistent with what it conceptualizes as a techno-pessimistic shock. This shift mirrors the historical patterns of societal reaction to disruption and technological saturation. Rather than reinforcing binary framings of promotion versus prohibition, such moments invite critical reflection. The study argues for nuanced, evidence-based, and multilevel governance strategies to address the complex role of mobile technologies in education. Full article

Teacher mental health is a growing concern in educational and public health systems worldwide. This meta-analysis systematically examines the relationship between teacher self-efficacy—a core construct in social cognitive theory—and job satisfaction, both considered crucial indicators of occupational well-being. A total of 39 studies involving teachers across 18 countries were analyzed, yielding a significant positive correlation between self-efficacy and job satisfaction (r = 0.41, p < 0.001), with notable heterogeneity (I² = 97%). Subgroup analyses revealed that the relationship was significantly stronger among teachers in high school and post-secondary contexts, and in studies conducted in Southern Hemisphere countries, highlighting the role of contextual and systemic moderators such as educational level and geographic inequality. The findings underscore the need for school- and policy-level interventions that bolster teachers’ self-efficacy through professional development, emotional support, and improved working conditions. Such interventions are essential not only for enhancing job satisfaction and reducing attrition but also for promoting the psychological resilience and well-being of the global teaching workforce. The study provides evidence-based insights into education and health policymakers aiming to support teacher retention and mental health through scalable, targeted initiatives. Full article

Science teachers continue to face decreased motivation, lower achievement levels, and decreased enrollment in post-secondary science programs. Teachers ask themselves this question: How do I motivate my students to achieve? Student-centered pedagogies, such as an in-depth pedagogy informed by Self-Determination Theory, can improve students’ motivation by addressing students’ basic psychological needs for autonomy, competency, and relatedness. Problem-based learning presents students with relevant situations and actively engages them in developing plausible solutions to problems. Environmental sustainability encompasses issues concerning our ecological and social environments. Teachers can focus on these issues to develop authentic problem-based learning units that offer a student-relevant pathway to improve motivation and scientific literacy. We propose a pedagogical framework, drawing on Self-Determination Theory, to promote students’ motivation to engage keenly with environmental sustainability education through problem-based learning. This framework is designed for secondary science classrooms to inform science teachers’ pedagogical practice. Full article

This article presents a comparison of two qualitative case studies. The first case study is a partnership group involving two urban secondary school teachers working with one engineer and one education faculty member where they implemented several science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) lessons over the course of an academic year. The second case study is a partnership group involving undergraduate college students working together to build a data collection device attached to a high-altitude balloon to answer a scientific question or solve an engineering problem and translate the project into engaging lessons for a K-12/secondary student audience. The studies employed a socio-cultural theoretical framework as the lens to examine the individuals’ perspectives, experiences, and engineering meaning-making processes, and to consider what these meant to the partnership itself. The methods included interviews, focus groups, field notes, and artifacts. The analysis involved multi-level coding. The findings indicated that the strength of the partnership (pre, little p, or big P) among participants influenced the strength of the secondary engineering lessons. The partnership growth implications in terms of K-12/secondary and collegiate engineering education included the engineering lesson strength, partnership, and engineering project sustainability The participant partnership meanings revolved around lesson creation, incorporating engineering ideas into the classroom, increasing communication, and increasing secondary students’ learning, while tensions arose from navigating (not quite negotiating) roles as a team. A call for attention to school–university partnerships and the voices heard in engineering partnership building are included since professional skills are becoming even more important due to advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies. Full article

This study explores teachers’ understanding and implementation of inclusive education in a rural mainstream secondary school in Limpopo Province, South Africa. Grounded in the inclusive pedagogy framework, the research employed a qualitative approach, combining classroom observations and semi-structured interviews with three purposively selected teachers. Findings revealed a significant disconnect between teachers’ conceptual support for inclusion and their classroom practices, which remained largely traditional and undifferentiated. Teachers expressed narrow or fragmented understandings of inclusion, often equating it solely with disability integration, and cited systemic barriers such as overcrowding, rigid curricula, and inadequate training as key challenges. Despite emotional discomfort and pedagogical insecurity, participants demonstrated a willingness to adopt inclusive strategies if provided with contextualised professional development and systemic support. The study underscores the need for strengthened pre-service and in-service teacher training, curriculum flexibility, and resource provision to bridge the policy-practice gap in rural inclusive education. Recommendations include collaborative learning communities, stakeholder engagement, and further research to advance equitable implementation. Full article

This philosophical essay reconsiders and redefines the moral attributes, virtues, and duties of an excellent secondary school teacher, emphasizing their pivotal role in the moral development of adolescents during secondary socialization. Grounded in Kantian deontological ethics, it formulates 15 maxims as categorical imperatives to guide morally acceptable teacher behavior, focusing on their function as role models in shaping students’ moral consciousness, as informed by Kohlberg’s theory of moral development. Through a multidisciplinary approach integrating philosophy, psychology, pedagogy, sociology, and anthropology, the essay provides a comprehensive framework for understanding the complexity of the teaching profession. The results offer a foundation for future empirical studies and the development of teacher training programs to enhance educational quality. Full article

Classroom management is an essential yet frequently under-practiced competency in undergraduate teacher education, with important implications for sustainable teacher preparation. This study investigated whether pre-service teachers who feel more capable of managing classrooms also engage more deeply with simulation-based training. Fifty-seven Korean pre-service teachers (15 men, 42 women), all undergraduate students enrolled in a secondary teacher education program at a college of education, completed a five-item classroom-management-efficacy scale, then experienced a 15 min branching simulation that required choosing recognition, punishment, or aggression strategies in response to a disrespectful virtual student. Interest was assessed immediately afterwards with a 24-item instrument covering the four phases of the interest-development model (triggered situational, maintained situational, emerging individual, and well-developed individual). A post-test comparative design and MANOVA revealed that efficacy level had a significant multivariate effect on overall interest (Wilks Λ = 0.78, p = 0.029, partial η² = 0.12). Scheffe contrasts showed that high-efficacy participants outscored their low-efficacy peers on maintained situational and emerging individual interest, p < 0.05, and surpassed the middle-efficacy group in three of the four phases. Repeated measures ANOVA confirmed a general decline from situational to individual interest across all groups (F (3, 52) = 9.23, p < 0.01), underscoring the difficulty of converting short-term curiosity into lasting commitment. These findings position classroom-management efficacy as a key moderator of engagement and support the use of adaptive simulations as sustainable tools for teacher education. By tailoring challenge levels and feedback to participants’ efficacy, guided simulations can foster deeper engagement and promote individualized growth—helping build resilient and well-prepared educators. Full article

With the need to ensure equitable and inclusive computer science (CS) education for K-12 students, much effort has been devoted to promoting secondary CS teachers’ practices and pedagogies. However, there is a lack of focus on elementary teachers’ experiences, especially those of teachers of color. This study stands at the intersections of Black/African American teachers teaching at an elementary school with a majority of historically underrepresented and economically disadvantaged students (Black/African Americans and Hispanic/Latinx). Using a basic qualitative approach with constant comparative analysis, this study revealed important insights regarding the professional growth manifested by six teachers of color over the course of computer science professional development and classroom implementation. Data analysis revealed five main themes reflecting the teachers’ growth: (1) Teachers reported positive outcomes including improved understanding, confidence, and intentions regarding CS integration as a result of attending PD; (2) Teachers demonstrated enhanced abilities to use a variety of tools and resources in CS teaching after PD; (3) Teachers discussed various pedagogies, including culturally and personally responsive pedagogical practices, and racial awareness to promote inclusive instruction in the classroom and used strategies to promote personal relevance more than the collective cultural values or beliefs in CS teaching specifically; (4) Teachers reported having ongoing reflections on how they can implement successful CS-integrated instruction with their enhanced knowledge and beliefs; (5) Positive student outcomes were both reported by the teachers and observed by the researchers as a result of teachers’ experimentation, which gave the teachers more confidence to enact CS teaching. Areas for improvement were also identified. This paper discussed the important implementations of fostering professional growth in teachers of color for broadening minoritized students’ participation in computing. Full article