Search Results (89)

This study investigates the development of cognitive, emotional, and social skills in pre-service teachers through extracurricular activities, addressing 21st century challenges in preparing educators for diverse learning environments. It was hypothesized that extracurricular activities would positively influence cognitive skills (self-efficacy, self-regulation), emotional dimensions (professional interest), social competencies (teacher–student relationships), and academic achievement. This study employed predictive correlational methodology based on an integrated theoretical framework combining Social Cognitive Theory, Self-Determination Theory, Self-Regulation Theory, and Interpersonal Relationships Theory within formal–informal learning contexts. A psychometrically robust instrument (“Scale on the Contribution of Extracurricular Activities to Professional Development”) was developed and validated through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, yielding a five-factor structure with strong reliability indicators (Cronbach’s α = 0.91–0.93; CR = 0.816–0.912; AVE = 0.521–0.612). Data from 775 pre-service teachers (71.1% female) across multiple disciplines at a Turkish university were analyzed using structural equation modeling (χ²/df = 2.855, RMSEA = 0.049, CFI = 0.93, TLI = 0.92). Results showed that extracurricular participation significantly influenced self-efficacy (β = 0.849), professional interest (β = 0.418), self-regulation (β = 0.191), teacher–student relationships (β = 0.137), and academic achievement (β = 0.167). Notably, an unexpected negative relationship emerged between self-efficacy and academic achievement (β = −0.152). The model demonstrated strong explanatory power for self-efficacy (R² = 72.8%), professional interest (R² = 78.7%), self-regulation (R² = 77.2%), and teacher–student relationships (R² = 63.1%) while explaining only 1.8% of academic achievement variance. This pattern reveals distinct developmental pathways for professional versus academic competencies, leading to a comprehensive practical implications framework supporting multidimensional assessment approaches in teacher education. These findings emphasize the strategic importance of extracurricular activities in teacher education programs and highlight the need for holistic approaches beyond traditional academic metrics, contributing to Sustainable Development Goal 4 by providing empirical evidence for integrating experiential learning opportunities that serve both academic researchers and educational practitioners seeking evidence-based approaches to teacher preparation. 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

This study presents the redesign of a career development course at a science and technology university in Taiwan aimed at enhancing student engagement and employability through blended and cooperative learning strategies grounded in constructivist and social constructivist learning theories. Using a qualitative, practitioner-led case study approach, data were collected from 94 students, including interviews with 16 participants, reflective logs, group worksheets, and classroom observations. Thematic analysis identified four key outcomes: (1) strengthened student–teacher interaction through collaborative group work, (2) enhanced self-efficacy via simulated interviews, (3) increased career motivation through real-world exposure, and (4) deeper reflection supported by digital tools. Findings suggest that integrating experiential, collaborative, and technology-enhanced pedagogies can promote meaningful engagement and transferable skill development in applied higher education. Full article

Background/Objectives: Early care and education programs promote children’s social–emotional development, predicting later school success. The COVID-19 pandemic worsened an existing youth mental health crisis and increased teacher stress. Therefore, we applied an infant and early childhood mental health consultation model, Jump Start Plus COVID Support (JS+CS), aiming to decrease behavioral problems in children post-pandemic. Methods: A cluster randomized controlled trial compared JS+CS to an active control, Healthy Caregivers–Healthy Children (HC2), at 30 ECE centers in low-income areas in South Florida. Participants were not blinded to group assignment. Teachers reported on children’s social–emotional development at baseline and post-intervention using the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. We assessed whether teacher stress, classroom practices, and self-efficacy mediated the relationship between JS+CS and child outcomes. We also explored whether baseline behavior problems moderated JS+CS effects on child protective factors, relative to HC2. Results: Direct group-by-time differences between JS+CS and HC2 were limited. However, JS+CS demonstrated significant within-group improvements in teacher-reported child protective factors, behavior support practices, and classroom safety practices. Classroom safety practices consistently mediated positive changes in child behaviors, including the DECA total protective factor score and subdomains of initiative and self-regulation. Additionally, teacher perceptions of behavior support mediated gains in child attachment. Conclusions: JS+CS shows promise in building protective systems around children through intentional support for teachers, underscoring the value of whole-child, whole-environment approaches in early intervention. Full article

Preschool teachers’ self-efficacy is essential to improve their professional development and the quality of early childhood education. This study adapted and validated the Scale for Chinese Preschool Teachers’ Self-Efficacy (SCPTSE) based on the Ohio State Teacher Efficacy Scale (OSTES), in accordance with Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory. Following a rigorous four-stage cross-cultural adaptation procedure, the 21-item SCPTSE was administered to 882 in-service preschool teachers from Zhejiang, Henan, and Shaanxi provinces in China (M age = 30.41, SD = 6.05). Both CTT and IRT frameworks were employed to evaluate the scale’s psychometric properties. Under CTT, the SCPTSE demonstrated high internal consistency (α = 0.980), and CFA supported a robust three-factor structure—instructional strategies, classroom management, and child engagement—with excellent model fit (RMSEA = 0.079; SRMR = 0.025; CFI = 0.953; TLI = 0.947; NFI = 0.945; IFI = 0.953; PNFI = 0.837; PGFI = 0.700). Under IRT, all three sub-scales demonstrated strong unidimensionality (H_IS = 0.812, H_CM = 0.800, H_CE = 0.818), the SCPTSE’ items demonstrate excellent discrimination capabilities(all a > 1.70), overall reasonable difficulty(b₁ < b₂ < b₃ < b₄), and balanced information distribution. Nevertheless, the relatively low-difficulty design (e.g., b₁) indicates room for improvement. Notably, cultural adaptation efforts ensured the scale’s contextual relevance to China’s preschool education system. The SCPTSE thus offers a valid, reliable, and culturally responsive tool for assessing self-efficacy of Chinese in-service preschool teachers and holds promise for informing targeted professional development and comparative international research. Full article

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may face significant challenges in general education settings, particularly in the absence of support from skilled teachers. One of the most frequently reported challenges in the literature involves difficulties in the social domain, specifically in peer interactions. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the efficacy of a behavior analytic intervention in improving the social skills of three preschoolers with ASD during recess. The efficacy of the treatment, which included prompting, social reinforcement, and self-management procedures, was assessed using a multiple-baseline across-participants experimental design. Results demonstrated that the intervention was effective in promoting appropriate social behavior of the three preschoolers with ASD, whereas self-management strategies contributed to further improvement and maintenance of the treatment outcomes even in the absence of support from a shadow teacher. Full article

The teaching profession is consistently ranked as one of the most stressful occupations worldwide, creating an urgent need for teacher education programmes to prepare highly skilled and reliant educators. Rooted in social cognitive theory, this study aims to explore preservice teachers’ social self-efficacy beliefs and examine its associations with institutional belonging and perceived ostracism. Social self-efficacy describes one’s confidence in one’s ability to engage in interpersonal relationships, and institutional belonging reflects the extent to which one feels valued and accepted within an institution, while ostracism reflects one’s experience of social exclusion. Two hundred and seventy-one preservice teachers from Greece were recruited to participate in this study via convenience sampling. The measures used were the Perceived Social Self-Efficacy scale (PSSE), Institutional Belongness questionnaire (IB), and Workplace Ostracism Scale (WOS). The results of descriptive statistics showed that preservice teachers’ levels of sense of belonging and social self-efficacy were moderate to high, while they experienced low levels of perceived ostracism. The results of regression analyses indicated that institutional belonging positively correlated with social self-efficacy and negatively with perceived ostracism. The mediation analysis results demonstrated that social self-efficacy partially mediates the relationship between institutional belonging and perceived ostracism. Collectively, the findings highlight the importance of developing a supportive educational environment that promotes both a sense of belonging and efficacy beliefs. Enhancing these factors could support preservice teachers’ wellbeing and commitment to the profession and inform policies and practices that promote inclusive educational environments. Full article

Education is essential for sustainable development. However, the social and emotional dimensions of learning—fundamental for building resilience and fostering prosocial behavior—are often overlooked. This study aims to examine the direct and indirect effects of teacher resilience on prosocial behavior and feelings, mediated by self-efficacy beliefs, in a sample of Chilean elementary school teachers (N = 1426; average age = 41.5; 77.3% women). The proposed model fit the data well (χ² = 7337.051, CFI = 0.956, TLI = 0.954, RMSEA = 0.054, SRMR = 0.051). Results showed that, as modeled, resilience had significant direct and indirect positive effects on prosocialness, mediated by self-efficacy. These findings suggest that strengthening resilience and self-efficacy in teachers is a key strategy for advancing socioemotional competencies and building inclusive, collaborative, and sustainable educational environments aligned with the goals of Education for Sustainable Development. Full article

The development of higher education worldwide must be integrated in the context of sustainable development in order to ensure environmental sustainability, social sustainability, and economic sustainability. Knowing that the digitalization process within higher education institutions is continuously expanding, while the digital tools and online learning environments enhance accessibility, flexibility, and efficiency, the purpose of the present paper is to highlight how the use of e-Learning platforms can help sustainable education development from the point of view of students from two universities: a university from Romania and a university from the USA. In order to reach this objective, a quantitative research method was used, aiming to identify the students’ opinion on a series of facilities offered by e-Learning platforms that serve as the learning process. Data processing and analysis were conducted by means of specific tests supplied by the SPSS software. The obtained results showed that Moodle users spend approximately 26% more time on the platform than Blackboard users, with a small effect size (d = 0.284), while non-engineering students spend approximately 45% more time on the e-learning platform than engineering students, also with a small effect size (d = 0.458). The evaluation of the efficacy of different educational resources varies based on the e-learning platform used, with a large effect size found for editable files (d = 1.017) and PPT or similar formats (d = 1.2). Also, the efficacy of various applications on the e-learning platform varies by platform type, with a large effect size observed for two-way student–teacher communication (d = 0.819), self-assessment grid tests with immediate feedback (d = 1.072), synchronous online meetings with teachers (d = 1.117), and access to information from previous years (d = 0.89). We conclude that institutions should prioritize platform adaptability and student engagement strategies when implementing e-learning solutions for sustainable development. Full article

Research has demonstrated that social–emotional learning (SEL) positively influences myriad domains of children’s development. However, the underlying mechanisms influencing teachers’ adoption of SEL remain underexplored. Guided by the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), this quantitative cross-sectional study sought to elucidate the factors that motivate teachers to adopt SEL teaching practices. The study’s sample included 166 volunteer teachers in Luxembourg, recruited as part of a nationwide educational survey. Of these, 82.5% were women. Participants were recruited through convenience sampling, ensuring diversity in socio-economic backgrounds, grade levels, and student needs. Although these findings are based on self-reported data, they offer novel insights by quantifying teachers’ engagement with SEL, with over 50% already implementing related activities. Structural equation modelling shows that the TPB model accounted for 49% of the variance in teachers’ intentions and 44% of the variance in the adoption of SEL practices. Higher intention and self-efficacy predicted more frequent SEL implementation. Teachers with positive SEL attitudes and higher self-efficacy showed greater intention to implement SEL. These findings underscore the significance of cultivating positive attitudes and self-efficacy to facilitate the effective implementation of SEL in educational settings. The role of teacher gender and audience, as well as implications for teaching, professional development, and SEL research, are discussed. Full article

In the context of the increasing digitization of education, online teachers’ competence and the affective factors of digital competence, psychological resilience, and self-efficacy have become prominent areas of academic inquiry. However, there is a dearth of extant research addressing the interactions between these variables in an online teaching Chinese as a foreign language (TCFL) environment. This study investigated the relationships among the digital competence, psychological resilience, and self-efficacy of online TCFL teachers via quantitative research methods. The questionnaires were administered to 610 online TCFL teachers, and the data were analyzed via structural equation modeling. The results indicate that digital competence and psychological resilience can significantly predict online teachers’ self-efficacy, and that the relationship between psychological resilience and self-efficacy can be significantly moderated by digital competence. This finding not only provides novel perspectives and insights for enhancing online teaching effectiveness, particularly in the domain of online foreign language instruction, but also complements and extends self-efficacy theory from the perspective of social cognitive theory. Full article

The present study examines professionals’ knowledge of autism as well as perceptions of potential outcomes and attitudes about education and the inclusion of autistic children in Greece. One hundred and eighty mainstream school teachers, special needs teachers and health/social care professionals, all working in the education sector, responded to self-reported questionnaires. Results showed between-group differences in the knowledge of autism prognosis and in self-efficacy in supporting autistic children, with health/social care professionals outperforming teachers. Mainstream school teachers, however, achieved higher scores compared to health/social care professionals in their perceptions of life and literacy outcomes and in their attitudes about the use of modified assessment methods for autistic children. The present findings support the need for improving perceptions for autistic children, promoting inclusive practices and a multi-disciplinary shared understanding of autism among professionals within the education sector and beyond. Full article

This article addresses the validation of an instrument designed to measure organizational leadership practices for inclusion and evaluates the said instrument’s factorial structure and convergent validity. This work responds to the need for quantitative tools to assess how school principals promote inclusion, in recognition of its importance for guaranteeing student access to an equitable quality education at all levels, from early childhood education through high school. The above-referenced instrument was developed based on a comprehensive literature review and consultations with experts, resulting in a 36-item scale structured in six key dimensions: D1: Professional Development; D2: Inclusive Vision; D3: Support for the Teaching–Learning Process; D4: Building Networks; D5: Participation and Dialog, and D6: Resource Management. The validation process included a confirmatory factor analysis that supported the existence of a hierarchical structure of a general factor of leadership for inclusion that determines the aforementioned key dimensions, with adequate fit indices (χ²(588) = 1694.624, p < 0.001, CFI = 0.945, TLI = 0.941, RMSEA = 0.060, SRMR = 0.034) and high internal consistency in the general scale (α = 0.98, Ω = 0.96). In terms of convergent validity, the instrument showed significant and consistent correlations with related constructs such as teacher self-efficacy and pedagogical leadership. This study highlights the importance of leadership for inclusion as a central element of fostering participation and learning in diverse school contexts, by providing a reliable tool for continuous improvement of the school management team’s performance of its functions. Also, it is important input for education policymakers charged with formulating student equity, who recognize the enhanced well-being and active participation in the social environment that result from the greater inclusion of students in their educational communities. Full article

The number of English language learners, often referred to as emergent multilinguals (EMs), in schools has significantly increased over the last decade, and teachers are not fully prepared to teach this growing population because of limited training and a lack of skills necessary to address academic needs in both language and content. This mixed-methods study explored the effectiveness of an online professional development (PD) to increase teachers’ knowledge, skills, use, and self-efficacy in teaching science, technology, engineering, math, and social studies (STEMSS) content and the English language in tandem. Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory and Lave and Wenger’s community of practice theory guided the development, documentation and analysis of the impact of the professional development. Twenty-four Arizona K-12 teacher participants completed a pre-survey, an online PD, and, finally, a post-survey and interview. Dependent t-test results provided evidence the PD significantly increased participants’ self-reported knowledge, use, and self-efficacy to support EMs’ academic vocabulary in content areas. The impact of the PD on these three constructs was further supported with data-driven themes generated from the interview data. Participants overwhelmingly valued the peer interaction for increasing their knowledge and understanding of effective pedagogical practices and their self-efficacy in supporting EMs in their classrooms. Full article

This study aims to examine the combination of educational data mining and learning analytics with virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, and the metaverse, its role in education, and its impact on teaching and learning. Therefore, a systematic literature review, a bibliometric and scientific mapping analysis, and a content analysis are carried out based on 70 relevant documents identified from six databases, namely, ACM, ERIC, IEEE, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and Web of Science (WoS) following the PRISMA framework. The documents were separated into the following three categories, (i) Theoretical and Review studies, (ii) Proposal and Showcase studies, and (iii) Experimental and Case studies and were examined from different dimensions through an in-depth content analysis using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The documents were further analyzed using scientometric tools, such as Bibliometrix and VOSviewer and topic modeling through Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA). The most prominent topics, areas, and themes were revealed and the outcomes regarding the influence of this combination on learning and teaching were summarized. Based on the results, this combination can effectively enrich education, positively affect learning and teaching, offer deep and meaningful learning, and support both students and teachers. Additionally, it can support different educational approaches and strategies, various learning styles, and special education and be utilized in both formal and informal learning environments. The real-time identification, tracking, monitoring, analysis, and visualization of multimodal learning data of students’ behavior, emotions, cognitive and affective states and the overall learning and teaching processes emerged as a significant benefit that contributes greatly to the realization of adaptive and personalized learning. Finally, it was revealed that the combination of extended reality technologies with learning analytics and educational data mining can support collaborative learning and social learning, improve students’ self-efficacy and self-regulated learning, and increase students’ learning gains, academic achievements, knowledge retention, motivation, and engagement. Full article