Search Results (1,434)

Given the persistent challenges in promoting pro-environmental behavior and student engagement in higher education, particularly in environmental courses, this study examines the effects of creative teaching strategies—specifically icebreaker games and activities—on cognitive understanding, attitudes, and pro-environmental behaviors among first-year university students in environmental education. Grounded in the Green Competency framework and game-based learning theory, the study addresses an empirical gap concerning the sustained impacts of active learning approaches. A Solomon four-group experimental design was employed with 200 students enrolled in the Environmental Society course at Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi (RMUTT). Pre- and post-tests assessed changes across the three learning domains. ANOVA and Scheffé post hoc analyses revealed statistically significant improvements in cognition, attitudes, and behaviors among students exposed to the intervention, particularly those receiving both pre-testing and innovative instruction. Regression analysis indicated that cognitive understanding was the strongest predictor of pro-environmental behavior (β = 0.531, p < 0.001), while demographic variables showed no significant influence. The findings demonstrate that well-designed icebreaker activities can enhance student engagement and foster lasting behavioral change when aligned with course objectives. This study contributes to the sustainability education literature by linking active pedagogy, emotional engagement, and behavioral outcomes and offers practical implications for student-centered curriculum design in higher education. Full article

Understanding how learners engage with immersive sign language training environments is essential for advancing virtual reality-based education and inclusion. This study analyzes behavioral engagement in SONAR, a virtual reality application designed for sign language training and validation. We focus on three automatically derived engagement indicators (Visual Attention (VA), Video Replay Frequency (VRF), and Post-Playback Viewing Time (PPVT)) and examine their relationship with learning performance in a sample of 117 university students. Participants completed a self-paced Training phase with 12 sign language instructional videos, followed by a Validation quiz assessing retention. We employed Pearson correlation analysis to examine the relationships between engagement indicators and quiz performance, followed by binomial Generalized Linear Model (GLM) regression to assess their joint predictive contributions. Additionally, we conducted temporal analysis by aggregating moment-to-moment VA traces across all learners to characterize engagement dynamics during the learning session. Results show that VA exhibits a strong positive correlation with quiz performance (r = 0.76), followed by PPVT (r = 0.66), whereas VRF shows no meaningful association. A binomial GLM confirms that VA and PPVT are significant predictors of learning success, jointly explaining a substantial proportion of performance variance ($pseudo-R^2$ = 0.83). Going beyond outcome-oriented analysis, we characterize temporal engagement patterns by aggregating moment-to-moment VA traces across all learners. The temporal profile reveals distinct attention peaks aligned with informationally dense segments of both training and validation videos, as well as phase-specific engagement dynamics, including initial acclimatization, oscillatory attention cycles during learning, and pronounced attentional peaks during assessment. Together, these findings highlight the central role of sustained and strategically allocated visual attention in VR-based sign language learning and demonstrate the value of behavioral trace data for understanding and predicting learner engagement in immersive environments. Full article

This study examines how a voice-recognition project may support vocational secondary students’ AI literacy. In this applied scenario, students used Arduino hardware and an AI tools platform to collect data, train models, and deploy a basic voice-recognition device, linking introductory AI concepts with practical engineering applications. A mixed-methods design combined pre–post self-report assessment using the AI Literacy Questionnaire (AILQ) with post semi-structured interviews. Emerging gains were associated with the maker-learning pathway, particularly in the affective, behavioral, and cognitive AI literacy domains, whereas ethical outcomes were limited within this intervention window. Qualitative insights provided complementary interpretive context, suggesting that learning through making was experienced as more engaging and personally relevant, while hands-on linked with emerging understanding of AI model behavior and limitations. Overall, the study extends AI-literacy research to a vocational classroom setting, where evidence remains limited. It also highlights a domain-level AI literacy analysis for identifying which components strengthen through making and which may require more explicit instructional scaffolding in this specific vocational context. The exploratory nature of the study offers evidence that maker activities can provide a feasible approach for engaging vocational learners with multidimensional AI literacy. Full article

As in schools worldwide, climate change (CC) is addressed in curricula and environmental programs in Portugal. Grounded in Bandura’s human agency theory, effective CC mitigation requires the capacity to intentionally initiate, sustain, and reflect on behaviors to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, i.e., climate agency. This study aimed to map school’s role (environmental initiatives and CC teaching) in developing students’ climate agency and its determinants. Participants included 42 school representatives and 24 teachers from various subjects. Data sets, collected through online surveys, semi-structured interviews, and a focus group, were analyzed using content analysis. School representatives emphasized school initiatives requiring significant levels of student engagement (e.g., cleanups) but with limited participation. Most teachers reported employing transmissive teaching approaches, complemented by audio–visual resources and classroom discussions. Interviewees identified facilitators (e.g., family pro-environmental behaviors and municipal support), but mostly obstacles (e.g., limited instruction time and surface approach to learning) that contributed to a perceived minimal impact of CC education on their students. Overall, the data suggest that current environmental programs and CC teaching are not consistently developing students’ climate agency. The findings highlight the need to rethink formal and informal approaches to promote high-quality CC education and student agency in addressing the climate crisis. Full article

In the age of innovation, the mission of higher education is to cultivate innovative talent. Teachers’ innovative support behaviors have a significant impact on students’ emotions and creative performance. As students at art and design colleges will generally confront creative anxiety—an unfavorable emotion that affects their innovative abilities—this study aims to explore the mediating effects of creative self-efficacy and achievement motivation in the relationship between teachers’ innovative support behaviors and the creative anxiety of art and design students. Based on random cluster sampling, a questionnaire survey was used to collect 785 valid questionnaires from undergraduate art and design students attending six universities across eastern, central, and western China for the analysis of four variables: teachers’ innovative support behaviors, creative self-efficacy, achievement motivation, and creative anxiety. The results show that (1) teachers’ innovative support behaviors significantly negatively predict students’ creative anxiety (β = −0.631, p < 0.001); (2) creative self-efficacy and achievement motivation both have significant mediating effects (β = −0.241, p < 0.001; β = −0.183, p < 0.05, respectively); and (3) these two factors present a chain mediation effect. Bootstrap tests showed an indirect effect of −0.062 with a 95% confidence interval [−0.121, −0.008]; as the interval did not include zero, this chained mediating effect was significant. The results indicate that teachers’ innovative support behaviors not only have a direct effect on alleviating students’ anxiety but also have indirect effects through motivational and cognitive mechanisms, which provides a new theoretical reference with practical significance for art and design education. Full article

Sex education for students with autism spectrum disorder in Saudi Arabia remains limited and underdeveloped, raising concerns related to safety, body awareness, and healthy personal development during the school years. This qualitative study employed semi-structured interviews with four teachers and three family members and was analyzed using thematic analysis. Participants discussed school-aged autistic children educated in mainstream inclusive settings alongside peers with diverse learning profiles. All students referenced were verbally communicative, and some were reported to have co-occurring developmental or behavioral conditions. The findings revealed key challenges, including heightened vulnerability to harassment, limited understanding of bodily boundaries, and difficulties related to personal hygiene and privacy. Participants also identified substantial gaps in existing curricula, inconsistent teacher preparation, and limited access to guidance for families, resulting in fragmented approaches to sex education. The findings highlight the urgent need for culturally responsive, developmentally appropriate sex education curricula, targeted professional development for teachers and families, and strengthened collaboration between home and school. Such efforts are essential to promote safety, well-being, and protection for autistic students within the Saudi educational context. Full article

Background: Building on our previous systematic review that synthesized eight core sustainable appetitive traits central to food behavior research, the present study extends this framework through an empirical investigation of Generation Z university students in Greece. We have established the conceptual foundation by mapping emotional, sensory, and behavioral regulation drivers of eating behavior, underscoring their relevance for nutrition and sustainability. However, empirical applications of this multidimensional framework to Generation Z remained scarce. Objectives: This study addresses this gap by examining eating behaviors among approximately 800 students at the University of Ioannina using a validated post-pandemic questionnaire. Methods & Results: Results revealed heterogeneity across six domains, with consensus observed only in sensory-driven eating (M = 3.88) and openness to new foods (M = 4.00). Cluster analysis identified two distinct profiles: Exploratory and Hedonic Responders and Emotionally Regulated and Satiety-Oriented Responders. These clusters delineate a novel profile of Generation Z, portraying them as digitally immersed, sustainability-oriented, and emotionally sensitive, yet divided between impulsive exploration and regulated satiety. Conclusions: The study contributes new empirical insights into post-pandemic food behavior. It establishes a comprehensive evidence base for designing culturally sensitive wellness programs and targeted nutritional interventions that support sustainable dietary practices. The continuity between the two papers underscores both theoretical importance and the practical necessity of integrating emotional, sensory, and regulatory dimensions in advancing sustainable eating futures among young adults. Full article

Because of the substantial class disparity and the intricate interactions between academic, behavioral, and socioeconomic characteristics, anticipating student academic performance and dropout rates continues to be a major issue for institutions of higher learning. To improve the dependability and credibility of multiclass student outcome prediction, this study suggests a strong, multi-objective, and uncertainty-aware predictive framework that combines the Random Forest (RF) classifier with Holistic Swarm Optimization (HSO). The suggested method creates a multi-objective optimization problem that simultaneously maximizes macro F1-score, controls model complexity, and lessens inter-class performance disparity. Thereby, the model promotes fairness across student outcome categories, in contrast to traditional optimization strategies that only concentrate on predictive accuracy. Furthermore, by utilizing ensemble-based probability dispersion, the framework integrates uncertainty-aware prediction, making it possible to identify high-risk students with different degrees of confidence to assist practical academic interventions. According to the results of experiments, the suggested HSO-RF framework greatly reduces the performance gap between outcome classes while achieving the best overall predictive performance, reaching an accuracy of 77.74%, a macro F1-score of 0.69, and a weighted F1-score of 0.76. The analysis shows that academic, socioeconomic, and administrative characteristics serve as significant markers of student motivation, stability, and vulnerability in addition to computational benefits. The suggested architecture advances appropriate and trustworthy educational data mining and offers a dependable decision-support tool for early warning systems. Full article

Background: Teamwork promotes the quality and safety of care. The TeamSTEPPS^® program enhances communication and teamwork among healthcare professionals and students, as well as the associated benefits. Currently, there are no studies that comprehensively explore the benefits achieved through the implementation of TeamSTEPPS^® across different contexts (educational and clinical practice). Objective: This scoping review aimed to map the existing evidence on the benefits of implementing TeamSTEPPS^® in educational and professional settings, emphasizing its contribution to sustainable teamwork, patient safety, and organizational learning. Methods: A scoping review was conducted following the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology and reported according to the PRISMA-ScR guidelines. Searches were performed in CINAHL Ultimate, Medline Ultimate, Scopus, the Portuguese Open Access Scientific Repository, Web of Science and Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection, with no time restrictions. Studies were selected based on the PCC framework, focusing on healthcare students and professionals (Population), TeamSTEPPS^® implementation (Concept), and academic or clinical settings (Context). A descriptive and thematic analysis was used, enabling the identification of emerging categories and recurring patterns among the included studies. Results: Twenty-eight articles published between 2009 and 2025, predominantly from the United States of America and conducted in hospital settings, were found. The included studies comprised quantitative (n = 11), qualitative (n = 4) and quasi-experimental study (n = 13) designs. From the analysis, four thematic categories emerged: academic education, interprofessional education and simulation; professional transition and professional development; clinical implementation of the TeamSTEPPS^® program in real-world settings; and patient safety culture as a central focus. Conclusions: The available evidence suggests that the TeamSTEPPS^® program may strengthen teamwork and promote safe and high-quality care in both educational and clinical settings. While short-term training leads to immediate improvements in team dynamics, continuous training demonstrates greater long-term effectiveness. The consolidation of the TeamSTEPPS^® methodology relies on organizational commitment, leadership engagement, and the integration of interprofessional training from the academic level onward. Full article

Background/Objectives: Short video addiction (SVA) has become a matter of public health concern, impacting the well-being of college students. However, previous studies have largely treated SVA as a homogeneous phenomenon, overlooking the potential heterogeneity in addictive behaviors among individuals and their underlying mechanisms. This study aims to identify distinct SVA subtypes and explore the mediating role of inattention (IA) in the relationship between these subtypes and negative emotions. Methods: The present study recruited a sample of college students through a multicentre online survey conducted from January to August 2025. Latent profile analysis identified distinct SVA categories among college students, and further examination of the mediating role of IA between SVA and negative emotions (anxiety, depression) was undertaken. Results: Latent profile analysis stratified SVA into three cohorts: “Healthy short video use” (8.9%), “Short video dependence” (55.8%), and “Short video addiction” (35.3%). The subtypes differed in levels of IA, anxiety, and depression (p < 0.05), with IA functioning as the link between SVA and negative emotions. It is noteworthy that IA demonstrated a complete mediating effect in the anxiety model, thereby indicating that the adverse impact of SVA on mental health is predominantly mediated by impaired attention function. Conclusions: This study deepens the understanding of students’ SVA from a heterogeneity perspective and provides empirical evidence for exploring the potential cognitive mechanisms through which SVA influences mental health. It is suggested that targeting attention function may hold great value in alleviating SVA-related psychological issues. Full article

Background/Objectives: Suicidal ideation and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) among elementary school students represent critical public health concerns that require develop-mentally appropriate, evidence-informed school-based interventions. This study con-ducted a retrospective comparative analysis of two school-based approaches—Sandplay Therapy with Suicidal Ideation and Self-Injury-Focused Engagement (SPT-SAFE) and a School-based Dialectical Behavior Therapy-informed Brief Intervention (DBT-BI)—for elementary school students presenting with suicidal ideation and NSSI. The objective was to describe pre–post-changes in key outcomes within each intervention and to explore whether outcome trajectories differed between the two approaches in a non-randomized, real-world school-based setting. Methods: This retrospective study analyzed archival clinical records from 109 elementary school students (SPT-SAFE: N = 59; DBT-BI: N = 50) who received services at a school-based suicide prevention center in South Korea between 2022 and 2024. Seven validated outcome measures assessed suicidal ideation, NSSI frequency, depression, anxiety, aggression, impulsiveness, and self-concept at pre- and post-intervention. Pre–post-changes and exploratory between-group differences were examined using 2 × 2 mixed-design ANOVAs (Group × Time interaction), with baseline-adjusted ANCOVAs conducted as complementary analyses. Suicidal ideation was operationalized using the SIQ-JR total score, and NSSI was operationalized using the FASM summed frequency index. Results: Both interventions were associated with significant reductions in suicidal ideation (F = 29.98, p < 0.001, partial η² = 0.219) and NSSI frequency (F = 15.95, p < 0.001, partial η² = 0.130), with large within-group effect sizes and no significant Group × Time interactions. Accordingly, between-group differences were limited and should be interpreted as exploratory rather than comparative–effectiveness evidence. Modest between-group differences favoring DBT-BI were observed for self-concept outcomes (F = 4.14, p = 0.044, partial η² = 0.037; d = −0.39). Conclusions: These findings suggest that both interventions were associated with pre–post-improvements in suicidal ideation and NSSI frequency within a school-based clinical context. Full article

With the development of the digital intelligence era, generative AI is being widely used in scientific research, and its impact on graduate students’ research competence has attracted much attention from the academic community. Based on cognitive distribution theory and self-efficacy theory, this study classifies AI applications into three levels from basic to advanced—technical support AI use, text development AI use, and transformation AI use—explores their effects on graduate students’ research competence, and examines the mediating effect of critical thinking and the moderating effect of research self-efficacy. The results of the empirical analysis show that all three types of AI use behaviors are significantly correlated with research competence, with the strongest correlation for text development type and the weakest for technical support type. In the relationship between the three types of AI use behaviors and research competence, critical thinking plays a significant positive mediating role, and research self-efficacy plays a significant moderating role. Universities and tutors should guide students to focus on higher-order AI use behaviors in the text development and transformation categories, promoting the use of critical thinking to avoid technology misuse and improving research self-efficacy to help students accumulate confidence and support their research. Full article

Engineering education is increasingly shaped by two converging developments: accelerating sustainability transitions and rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI). However, in many application-oriented undergraduate programs, sustainability learning remains fragmented, methodologically limited, and weakly connected to authentic engineering decision-making. To address this gap, this study proposes AI-SEE (Artificial Intelligence-Integrated Sustainable Engineering Education), a pedagogical framework that integrates AI across the curriculum as both a cognitive scaffold and a resource for system-level analysis. Emphasizing human–AI collaboration, AI-SEE is designed to be feasible and scalable within application-oriented higher education contexts. The framework comprises four interrelated pillars: intelligence-driven, green-empowered, responsibility-leading, and practice-integrated. Drawing on an empirical case from transportation-related programs at Nantong University, the study employs a qualitative comparative design and conducts semi-structured interviews with 144 undergraduates at the end of their eighth semester (control group n = 70; pilot group n = 74). Interview data were analyzed using thematic analysis informed by constructivist grounded theory and the Gioia coding approach. The findings suggest that participation in AI-SEE is associated with differentiated patterns of sustainability consciousness. At the knowledge level, students reported more systematic and interdisciplinary understandings that extended beyond environmentally reductionist perspectives to include life-cycle thinking, social equity, and long-term considerations. At the attitudinal level, students described enhanced ethical reflexivity and evolving professional self-concepts, shifting from a focus on technical execution toward broader value-oriented roles. At the behavioral level, students reported more extensive knowledge-to-action translation across personal, academic, and career-related domains. Overall, AI-SEE provides a transferable pedagogical pathway for integrating AI into engineering education to support the development of sustainability consciousness in higher education. Full article

Endemic racism, operationalized through exclusionary discipline practices contributes to the “spirit murdering” of youth of color in schools. While the school-to-prison pipeline frames the funneling of students into the (in)justice system, the school-to-prison nexus expands this understanding by interrogating the reality that schools are prison for many. Thus, education abolitionists call for a systemic account of “schooling” to embrace creative risk and radical possibility in the pursuit of liberation. However, existing literature has not substantively centered the voices of youth directly involved in these carceral systems, nor invited them to dream. This study asks: based on formerly incarcerated students’ experiences in school and prison, what must educational systems do to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline? Guided by qualitative methods, we conducted semi-structured interviews with formerly incarcerated college students (four women, two men; majority Latinx/Hispanic) and conducted member checking. Our reflexive thematic analysis uncovered a troubling truth: schools frequently ignored and misinterpreted trauma, grief, and internalized pain among high school students. Participants described internal battles (i.e., mental health challenges) that often showed up externally as “behaviors” (e.g., fighting, skipping school, substance use) that resulted in exclusionary discipline. Equally important, participants re-imagined schools as homeplaces—sites of care, belonging, and agency. These narratives illuminate the need to dismantle punitive systems, center insights from those at the center of the experiences, and build just, loving, and equitable schools. Full article

This study aims to explore perceptions among students at Jordanian universities regarding “wasta,” defined as the use of social relations or kinship ties to pressure faculty members into granting them undeserved academic privileges, and to examine the impact of these perceptions on their academic behaviors and attitudes toward their institution. The study uses Travis Hirschi’s Social Bond Theory, which posits that the strength of social bonds is determined by four key elements: attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief. The researchers designed a survey using a proportionally stratified random sample of 748 students from two universities in the south of Jordan. The data were collected using a questionnaire whose validity and reliability were deemed suitable for analysis. The findings reveal a varying degree of erosion in social bonds as follows: while students expressed a rejection of wasta on ethical grounds, the involvement of others in such behavior to gain unearned academic advantages undermined their sense of belonging to the university. Participants also indicated that their peers’ reliance on wasta devalued their individual efforts and weakened trust in the fairness of the educational institution. Furthermore, students’ motivation to participate in campus activities was lower when they perceived that opportunities were granted based on connections rather than merit, while statistical significance was observed only for the involvement dimension in favor of the public university. Last, some students saw wasta as a practical resource in the absence of institutional justice, even if they recognized the harm it causes to academic integrity and the value of university credentials. The findings highlight the importance of addressing wasta within academic institutions by strengthening transparent decision making and academic integrity safeguards to enhance fairness and strengthen trust. Full article