Search Results (8,109)

Many children who experience speech and communication disabilities use or could benefit from the use of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Despite the potential benefits of AAC use for these children, many experience challenges in using traditional AAC systems to communicate with others, including their peers. Without effective peer interactions, children can miss out on valuable opportunities for social interaction and the development of communication skills. Video visual scene displays (VSDs) offer a unique alternative to support children in engaging in social communication. Video VSDs embed videos, a preferred activity for many children, with relevant vocabulary that is programmed as hotspots to support communication. The purpose of this study was to examine the impacts of a video VSD approach on the symbolic communication of preschool children with neurodevelopmental disabilities and delays (including autism) during a shared high-interest video activity with neurotypical peers. All three children showed increased symbolic communication frequency, with two demonstrating very large effect sizes and one a moderate effect. Future research should evaluate the use of video VSDs in a shared video activity with decreased researcher involvement and should examine change in participants’ vocabulary as a result of the video VSD activity. Full article

Digital transformation in education enables the integration of interactive tools that foster engagement, creativity, and sustainability awareness among young learners. GameOn! is a serious game using Minecraft Education Edition (MEE) to promote sustainability, inclusivity, and peace among primary school students aged 6–11. Grounded in Constructionism, Experiential Learning Theory, and Citizen Science (CS), it is designed to support connections between classroom experiences and real-world environmental actions. The project followed a co-design methodology involving international partners and educators to develop the GameOn! MEE world and a complementary teacher toolkit. The game was later tested in three Italian primary schools, involving 100 students through both guided and free play sessions. Findings show that 95% of students enjoyed the game, 89% learned new concepts, and teachers observed great focus and engagement during structured play. These results align with our observations: most children quickly engaged with the game, adapted to its mechanics, and demonstrated understanding of key tasks. Some usability challenges emerged, emphasizing the importance of facilitation. Overall, the findings suggest that GameOn!, consistent with the pedagogical potential of other serious games, could enhance sustainability literacy, active citizenship, and environmental awareness in early education. Future work will expand its implementation and further strengthen the integration of CS-based activities. Future work will expand implementation and strengthen the integration of CS-based activities. Full article

As educators play a pivotal role in advancing sustainable futures, understanding their readiness to translate sustainability-related knowledge and values into teaching practice has become an important concern in teacher education and professional development research. This study aims to develop and validate a measurement instrument assessing student teachers’ intention to implement education for sustainable development (ESD). By operationalizing intention as a proximal indicator of future-oriented professional readiness for ESD, the study addresses the need for empirically grounded tools that capture educators’ preparedness to engage in sustainability-oriented teaching. The Intention to Implement ESD Scale (IESDS) was developed through a theory-informed item construction process grounded in ESD literature, teacher agency, and competence-oriented approaches to sustainable education. The instrument was validated on a sample of 706 student teachers enrolled in the final years of teacher education programs. The findings indicate that a bifactor model provided the best fit to the data, with a dominant general factor supporting the interpretation of the IESDS as a primarily unidimensional measure of intention to implement ESD. In addition, intention to implement ESD was positively associated with teacher self-efficacy for ESD, providing evidence of convergent validity and reinforcing the role of perceived capability in sustainability-oriented professional action. The IESDS can support teacher education institutions and professional development providers in monitoring and strengthening educators’ readiness for sustainability-oriented teaching. It may be used to evaluate the effectiveness of courses, modules, and professional learning interventions aimed at promoting teaching for sustainable futures. Full article

Environmental Education (E.E.) and Education for Sustainable Development (E.S.D.) play a crucial role in fostering environmentally responsible citizens and supporting the achievement of sustainability goals. This study aims to investigate primary school teachers’ knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions regarding E.E./E.S.D., as well as the factors influencing their implementation in the educational process. A quantitative research design was employed using a structured questionnaire distributed to a sample of 500 teachers across Greece. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, content analysis, exploratory factor analysis, reliability testing, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis with the use of SPSS software. The results indicate that teachers generally demonstrate positive attitudes toward E.E./E.S.D. and recognize its importance in promoting environmental awareness, behavioral change, and students’ social development. Content analysis revealed that key environmental concerns identified by participants include pollution, climate change, and waste management, while E.E./E.S.D. is mainly associated with environmental practices and awareness. Factor analysis identified five core dimensions shaping teachers’ attitudes: (i) perceived value and impact, (ii) social and personal development outcomes, (iii) pedagogical design and evaluation understanding, (iv) institutional and structural barriers, and (v) practical implementation challenges. Significant correlations were found among these factors, particularly between perceived value and pedagogical understanding, as well as between institutional barriers and implementation challenges. Regression analysis showed that demographic and experiential variables have a modest but significant effect on perceived challenges, with age and participation in E.E./E.S.D. programs negatively associated with difficulties, while years of involvement increased awareness of implementation constraints. Overall, the findings highlight that although teachers possess a satisfactory level of awareness and positive attitudes toward E.E./E.S.D., limited training, insufficient institutional support, and structural barriers hinder effective implementation. The study underscores the need for enhanced training opportunities, stronger policy support, and systematic integration of E.E./E.S.D. into school curricula to promote sustainable education practices. Full article

Mathematical creativity is positioned as a key competency for sustainable development, yet its classroom enactment often remains episodic and teacher-dependent. This qualitative study examines how prospective teachers conceptualize and organize the dynamics between divergent thinking (DT) and convergent thinking (CT)—analyzed through continuity, complementarity, and interaction—across a semester-long course involving textbook critique, task design, and microteaching. Twenty-seven prospective teachers critiqued textbooks, transformed tasks, and enacted microteaching lessons on five middle-school topics. Data included recordings, lesson plans, transformed tasks, and reflection journals. During textbook critique, participants diagnosed an authoritative CT bias and emphasized inquiry/DT, but rarely articulated how DT should transition into CT for justification and generalization. In task design, inquiry and content goals were listed in parallel, yielding a role split between teacher and students and weak complementarity. In enactment, added CT prompts remained largely teacher-directed; DT episodes were more multi-authority, whereas CT episodes concentrated authority in the teacher, producing monotonous continuity and unrealized complementarity. Findings suggest teacher education should explicitly scaffold goal-bridging routines, DT–CT transition prompts, and mechanisms for distributing authority—contributing to ESD aims by enabling creativity-oriented instruction to operate continuously rather than episodically in everyday mathematics classrooms. Full article

This study examined how digital equity conditions and bundled professional development policies are associated with sustainable teacher learning, self-efficacy, and student engagement in Greek primary schools. A total of 460 in-service teachers from urban, suburban, and rural areas participated in the study. Data were collected through Likert-scale measures assessing information systems use, TPACK-aligned professional development outcomes, teacher self-efficacy, implementation challenges, and student engagement. The analysis included ANOVA, MANOVA, OLS regression with interaction terms, and theory-informed indirect-pathway models. The findings indicated that infrastructure funding alone was not significantly associated with teacher capacity or student engagement after the introduction of relevant controls. More consistent associations emerged when funding was combined with mandated and time-protected professional development, together with minimum connectivity standards. Teacher self-efficacy was consistent with a partial indirect pathway between information systems use and student engagement, while stronger indirect associations were observed among early-career teachers. In addition, a bundled governance index was associated with narrower urban–rural disparities in teacher capacity. The findings suggest that sustainable digital equity in primary education depends not only on access to resources but also on coherent professional support structures that are associated with teacher confidence, instructional continuity, and long-term engagement. Implications are discussed for the design of sustainable professional development policies in teacher education and primary schooling. Full article

Many South African schools face educational resource shortages that hinder effective teaching and learning. This study investigates a community-driven Open Educational Resources (OER) initiative implemented within a teacher education programme at a South African university, where Bachelor of Education (BEd) students (n = 400) from first to fourth year across the Vanderbijlpark and Potchefstroom campuses were engaged in designing sustainable Learning and Teaching Support Materials (LTSM) from recyclable materials. A purposively selected qualitative subsample (n = 53) participated in the study. Framed within an interpretivist and qualitative phenomenological design, data were collected through structured written reflections capturing participants’ experiences of the project. The findings show that creating OER from recyclable materials strengthened resourcefulness, collaboration, and awareness of educational inequality, while also encouraging more accessible and context-responsive teaching practices. The study contributes to understanding how Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)-aligned operational innovation can foster self-directed learning and sustainable teacher education in under-resourced contexts. Full article

In this study we describe the refinement process from the first to the second phase of a teaching–learning sequence development and implementation. The TLS comprises several experimental activities that aim to support understanding of Control of Variables Strategy (CVS) reasoning in the context of floating/sinking and properties of magnets. The research was carried out during a science laboratory course in a department of early childhood education. The participants numbered 67 in the first phase of the survey and 45 pre-service early childhood teachers (referred to as student teachers) in the second phase. The analysis is theoretically grounded in Pickering’s model of scientific practice, as adapted in science education, which provides the analytical framework for identifying and categorizing refinement changes. The results showed that the refinements are differentiated from each other according to the factors that guide them. Specifically, the three refinement changes guided by the educational factor were local-guided, i.e., related to a specific activity dealing with the student teachers’ educational needs, and the other two, also driven by the scientific factor, were holistic-open refinements, i.e., related to a set of activities adjusting the TLS to the new scientific trends. These findings contribute to the literature on Teaching-Learning Sequence development by illustrating how theoretically grounded analysis can make refinement processes more explicit and analytically interpretable. Full article

Generative AI tools are increasingly being adopted in education, where they function as collaborators that can provide feedback, suggest alternatives, and scaffold learning. In this paper, I conducted an autoethnographic study by examining my experience as a teacher-researcher integrating generative AI tools as a More Knowledgeable Other (MKO) within the context of game design education. Drawing on Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, this study documents how generative AI can facilitate creative learning by extending learners’ capacity to ideate, iterate, and reflect on their design processes. This study further reflects on instructional practices and observations of learners engaging with AI-supported creative activities across workshops and training programs. My reflections reveal that generative AI tools enhance feedback loops, accelerate prototyping, and democratize access to mentorship by providing context-aware guidance. However, they also introduce challenges related to illusions of competence, a lack of internalization, and reduced iteration design depth. Future work will explore structured pedagogical models that balance human mentorship with AI-assisted guidance, aiming to establish ethical, adaptive, and creativity-centered frameworks for using generative AI in game design education. Through this lens, this study contributes to an emerging understanding of AI-enabled learning partnerships and their implications for cultivating innovation and talent in the creative industries. Full article

According to “queer pedagogy”, schools must show and address different forms of family relationships if they wish to reflect the society we live in and contribute to a world that is more respectful of differences. Based on the hypothesis that reading and producing texts with LGTBQ+ content from the earliest stages of education allows students to be shown and to develop awareness of the different realities of affective-sexual diversity so that they understand and respect them, a study was conducted in the sixth-grade classroom of two public schools in Spain, with 77 students, to verify the students’ acceptance of this diversity. This study followed the reading of the literature with LGTBQ+ themes throughout the school year and creative writing practices. The quasi-experimental research provides concrete data that highlight the usefulness of reading and writing these types of texts in the experimental group, confirming the hypothesis that students who have read and written texts on this topic show greater acceptance of the possibility of having a diverse identity, on the one hand, and, on the other, they also show greater acceptance of diversity in others. Students who read and write about diversity are better able to address issues of inclusion. Full article

This study examines the perceptions of Palestinian Arab students enrolled in teacher training colleges regarding their religious, ethnic, and educational identities and investigates the associations between these identities and life orientation, self-mastery, and self-esteem. In addition, the study evaluates a hypothesized model in which life orientation is posited to mediate the relationship between religious identity, ethnic identity, self-esteem, self-mastery, and educational identity. The research includes a sample of 512 Arab Palestinian Israeli students studying in Israeli teacher training colleges who filled out an online questionnaire. The findings show that participants reported clear and coherent perceptions of their religious, ethnic, and educational identities, along with a generally positive life orientation and moderate levels of self-esteem and self-mastery. Significant correlations were found between the variables. Furthermore, religious and ethnic identity, self-esteem, self-mastery, and life orientation were all directly associated with educational identity. Bias-corrected bootstrap analyses confirmed significant indirect effects through positive life orientation, supporting the hypothesized mediation model. These findings help to illustrate the extent to which the religious and ethnic identities of indigenous multi-religious and multicultural minorities contribute to the growth and development of individuals and advocate for their strengthening, contrary to claims that belittle these identities or call for ignoring and suppressing them. Furthermore, the study underscores the potential role of identity awareness in fostering adaptive psychosocial adjustment and reducing social polarization. Full article

Simulation-based learning (SBL) is increasingly used within Initial Teacher Education (ITE) to bridge the gap between theory and practice, enhancing pre-service teachers’ (PSTs) preparedness for the complexities of classroom practice. Despite its growing adoption, limited research has examined how simulation design shapes PSTs’ learning experiences. This study addresses this gap by exploring PSTs’ experiences of two low-technology simulation modalities, mixed-media and multiple-choice formats, implemented within undergraduate primary ITE programmes at two UK universities. Using a sequential mixed-methods design, quantitative data were collected from 249 PSTs through the Educational Practices Questionnaire for Teacher Educators (EPQ-TE) and the Preparing Educators for Practice in Simulation Questionnaire (PEPS-Q), alongside qualitative data from open-text survey responses and focus groups. Findings indicate that PSTs reported high levels of perceived quality, engagement, and preparedness across both modalities, with no statistically significant differences between formats or institutions. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to explore simulation design features valued by PSTs, identifying three key themes: authenticity and realism, the benefits and challenges of peer collaboration, and the role of scaffolding and feedback in supporting professional learning. These findings suggest that learning in SBL emerges through the interaction of scenario design, learner participation, and tutor facilitation, offering practical insights for teacher educators seeking to design and implement simulation-based learning within ITE, as well as recommendations for future research. Full article

This study examines the influence mechanism of Chinese ethical leadership on university teachers’ salary satisfaction by constructing a moderated mediation model. We randomly collected questionnaire data from 958 university teachers in Gansu Province, China. Key results are as follows: (1) Chinese ethical leadership, trust in colleagues and leaders, salary satisfaction, and workplace mindfulness are significantly positively correlated. (2) Trust in colleagues and leaders partially mediates the relationship between Chinese ethical leadership and salary satisfaction. (3) Workplace mindfulness negatively moderates the link between ethical leadership and trust, with higher mindfulness weakening this positive effect. (4) The moderated mediation effect is significant, as the mediating effect of trust declines with increasing mindfulness. These findings uncover the unique pathway of ethical leadership in shaping faculty salary satisfaction and provide empirical evidence and practical guidance for university management optimization. Full article

We propose an interactive approach to teaching Coulomb’s law and electrostatics in general, rooted in two complementary pedagogical methodologies: hyper-constructivism (H-C) and neo-realism. Unlike standard constructivism, our hyper-constructivist approach treats students’ prior ideas—even if incomplete or inconsistent—as essential “submerged logs” that teachers may use to guide students across the cognitive lake, toward the correct understanding. We implement a triadic model of cognitive didactics, balancing amusement (the ludic “hook”), formal teaching, and deepening scientific inquiry. Here, we present a hyper-constructivist path on electrostatics—Coulomb’s and Gauss’s laws. Through a sequential path of experiments involving plastic rods, “trained” aluminum cans, Volta’s electrophorus, and “Christmas” ornaments, we demonstrate how students can spontaneously formulate problems and bridge the gap between intuitive observations and complex effects of electrical polarization, going beyond the scholastic Coulomb’s law, via numerical modeling. The proposed interactive approach is rooted in phenomena-based learning and leverages discrepant events—surprising physical phenomena that challenge prior intuitions—as “ludic hooks” to trigger spontaneous inquiry and conceptual reconstruction. The main goal of our strategies is to trigger and develop young students’ interest in physics, which in many European countries is low. This method not only facilitates the acquisition of physical laws but also fosters “intellectual inquisitiveness” and social competencies, proving that well-rooted knowledge emerges from a synthesis of tangible experience and advanced scientific modeling. Our contribution constitutes a complex pedagogical proposal, iteratively developed and implemented in diverse didactical environments over several years. This paper presents a pedagogical proposal developed and refined through more than twenty years of educational practice. For teachers interested in implementing hyper-constructivist instruction, we provide a detailed teaching pathway on electrostatics, with didactical explanations and pedagogical notes. Full article

Digital-intelligence transformation in education has made pre-service teachers’ Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) a strategic concern in teacher preparation. Survey data from 11,818 pre-service teachers across 17 local normal universities in China were analyzed through hierarchical regression, quantile regression, and structural equation modeling to examine how perceived university ICT support and perceived AI support in education are associated with self-reported TPACK. Both forms of support showed significant direct and model-conform indirect associations with self-reported TPACK, but the quantile coefficients varied across the TPACK distribution: university ICT support showed a modestly fluctuating descriptive pattern, whereas AI support in education peaked at the median and attenuated at upper quantiles. ICT self-efficacy and AI competency expectancy each formed significant indirect pathways in the hypothesized model, although the ICT pathway was more strongly indirect and the AI pathway remained more strongly direct. Additional checks of university-level ICCs, cluster-robust standard errors, and measurement invariance across key subgroups supported the robustness and comparability of the findings. These patterns clarify how perceived ICT and AI support are differentially associated with self-reported TPACK and provide empirical grounds for more precise, human-in-the-loop support designs in teacher education. Full article