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The level of difficulty of mathematical test items is a critical aspect for evaluating test quality and educational outcomes. Accurately predicting item difficulty during test creation is thus significantly important for producing effective test papers. This study used more than ten years of content and score data from China's Henan Provincial College Entrance Examination in Mathematics as an evaluation criterion for test difficulty, and all data were obtained from the Henan Provincial Department of Education. Based on the framework established by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) for test item assessment methodology, this paper proposes a new framework containing eight features considering the uniqueness of mathematics. Next, this paper proposes an XGBoost-based SHAP model for analyzing the difficulty of mathematics tests. By coupling the XGBoost method with the SHAP method, the model not only evaluates the difficulty of mathematics tests but also analyzes the contribution of specific features to item difficulty, thereby increasing transparency and mitigating the "black box" nature of machine learning models. The model has a high prediction accuracy of 0.99 for the training set and 0.806 for the test set. With the model, we found that parameter-level features and reasoning-level features are significant factors influencing the difficulty of subjective items in the exam. In addition, we divided senior secondary mathematics knowledge into nine units based on Chinese curriculum standards and found significant differences in the distribution of the eight features across these different knowledge units, which can help teachers place different emphasis on different units during the teaching process. In summary, our proposed approach significantly improves the accuracy of item difficulty prediction, which is crucial for intelligent educational applications such as knowledge tracking, automatic test item generation, and intelligent paper generation. These results provide tools that are better aligned with and responsive to students' learning needs, thus effectively informing educational practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Knowledge of changes in the domains of physical activity (PA) during the transition period from primary to secondary education and the factors associated with these changes, are prerequisites for the design of effective PA promotion strategies. Therefore, the first aim of this study was to systematically review changes in general, leisure-time, school, transport, work, and home PA across the transition from primary to secondary education. The second aim was to systematically review the individual, social, and physical environmental factors that were associated with these changes. Methods: Records published up until September 2023 were retrieved from five electronic databases. We included longitudinal and cross-sectional studies that investigated general or domain-specific PA from 2 years before to 2 years after the transition from primary to secondary education. Information on source, study characteristics, sample characteristics, PA, and factors were extracted from the papers included. We reported the direction of change in general and domain-specific PA and the direction of association of the factors with change in general and domain-specific PA. Results: Forty-eight papers were included in the study. The evidence on changes in PA and associated factors was greatest for general PA. A limited number of the studies investigated the separate domains of leisure-time, school, and transport. Most studies on general and school PA reported a decline in PA, but there were no consistent results for the domains of leisure-time and transport. With respect to the associated factors, evidence was predominantly found for individual factors and to a lesser degree for physical environmental and social environmental factors. None of the factors were consistently associated with changes in general or domain-specific PA during the school transition. Conclusions: For the design of targeted PA promotion strategies, further studies are warranted to explore changes in the specific domains of PA across the transition from primary to secondary education, especially in the domains of leisure-time, transport, home, and work PA. In addition, the interactions between factors at different socioecological levels to influence changes in PA need to be addressed more in the future. Trial registration: PROSPERO CRD42020190204. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper in question is focused on (1) valuing the expanded and transdisciplinary approach for the definition of cultural heritage, consolidated in Brazil from the 1970s/1980s onwards, (2) and its subsequent applicability in the field of education, under the influence of a liberating pedagogy proposed by educator Paulo Freire. An important consequence of this process involves the conception of a formal education system structured to promote collectivity, equality, diversity, and educational equity, as a solution towards ensuring both the learning and development of students. (3) The paper discusses the contribution of the expanded context of cultural heritage and its relationship with the field of education in the development of pedagogical strategies that promote educational equity, through the Base Nacional Comum Curricular (BNCC), a document that parameterizes the curricula from early childhood education to high school in Brazil. From a bibliographic review, the paper presents the conjuncture on which the new look at cultural heritage has been consolidated, and the consequent redefinition of heritage education actions, and then, as a result, analyzes the approximation between this new approach and the formal educational strategies present in the BNCC, as well as the possibilities of intercommunication between both. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals is to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education that promotes lifelong learning opportunities for all citizens. In this context, promoting communicative competence is crucial. It enables individuals not only to understand oral and written texts in the school environment but also to function effectively in society and in interpersonal relationships. Improving the communicative ability of students is particularly important in contexts of social exclusion, where it is crucial to provide comprehensive education based on principles of quality and equity. This paper examines the adherence of Secondary Education teachers to principles and practices related to classroom methodology in environments where there is a risk of social exclusion, with special attention to the development of communication skills. To conduct the study, 407 teachers completed a 60-question questionnaire. The results provide insight into the participating teachers' perceptions of communication skills in contexts of exclusion. These findings have implications for the organizational model of schools and the training of teachers, both pre-service and in-service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shares the first insights of the Digital Storytelling Hubs research project held by the School of Primary Education, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, funded by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation. It is a still in-progress action research study that comprises two action research cycles. The aim of the present paper is to outline the dynamic role that digital storytelling could play in building learning communities. The research program includes the creation of three hubs, one digital and two physical, for transferring higher education research practice to primary and secondary education, and for disseminating digital storytelling as an innovative learning tool. During the pilot cycle, digital storytelling was implemented in two experimental schools in Greece, while during the main cycle, a total of 50 elementary and secondary teachers were involved. Data sources include students' and teachers' participation statistics, the digital stories created by students so far, the students' answers in questionnaires and teachers' semi-structured interviews after the pilot interventions in class. The findings suggest the dynamics of digital storytelling workshops to create vivid and powerful learning communities that foster both classic and new literacies and enhance a creative and critical attitude towards modern media culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a four-year longitudinal study analysing what teachers who participate in a non-formal scientific activity think they will learn during the activity. Unlike previous studies, this paper is focused on a long-term activity. The answers given by the teachers to an open-ended question were subjected to an interpretative-descriptive analysis which allowed the emergence of five main categories of response and five teacher profiles. These categories and profiles allowed the characterization and interpretation of teachers' responses. It is concluded that the teachers perceive the activity as a multidisciplinary training opportunity with which to expand and diversify their formation and, especially, to acquire new teaching learning strategies that can be transferred to their classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a growing policy interest in establishing connections between heritage and education. Nevertheless, there seems to be very little evaluation or critical reflection on what actually happens in practice, and it remains unclear how heritage education is employed in countries throughout Europe. The aim of this paper is to assess the current status of heritage education in Flanders (the Dutch-speaking northern part of Belgium) via a literature review and an exploratory case study. The perceptions and opinions of pre-service teachers (n = 17) were investigated using three instruments: a questionnaire, document analysis, and the think aloud method. The results show that the pre-service teachers had a traditional interpretation of heritage, mainly relying on well-known and monumental examples and following a rather historical–artistic conception. However, it was found that their opinions were positive towards the use of heritage as an educational resource, and their evaluations of educational materials from the heritage and museum sector provided detailed information concerning teachers' desires and needs in this regard. The implications of this study should encourage initial teacher training in Flanders to further consider the epistemological and methodological challenges in the emerging field of heritage education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One in five child deaths under age 5 are a result of severe wasting. Malnutrition at early ages is linked to lifelong consequences, such as reduced cognitive skills, reduced earnings in adulthood and chronic health conditions. Countries worldwide have committed to addressing child undernutrition, and ending hunger is foundational to the Millennium Development Goals. In this paper, we study the intergenerational effect of providing free tuition in secondary school on future children’s nutrition. We combined a novel longitudinal dataset that captures educational policies for 40 African countries from 1990 to 2019 with the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS). We identified three countries that introduced free secondary education several years after implementing free primary education. Exploiting this variation in timing we estimate the additional impact of providing free secondary education over free primary education. Using a difference-in-difference approach, we find that introducing free secondary education significantly reduced wasting. Cohorts exposed to free secondary had an 18% relative decrease in wasting. The impact on cohorts exposed only to free primary was smaller and not statistically significant. Expanding free secondary education has long-term, intergenerational benefits and is an effective path to reducing malnutrition. Results are robust to different specifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intensive consumption and massive waste generation are considered some of the most important current socio-environmental issues. In view of this, education is considered key. In this paper, we analyse one of the most widely used teaching resources in secondary school classrooms: the textbook (TB). The results of the analysis of 14 TB of 7th and 10th grade indicate that they do not establish adequate connections between the causes, consequences and possible solutions to the problem, nor do they contextualise them in the students' possibilities for action. Furthermore, the images used do not provide relevant information and are inoperative, while the activities do not favour the development of the responsibilities and commitments needed to promote changes in behaviours. Therefore, the TBs analysed do not contribute to the desired awareness, neither to the promotion of more sustainable attitudes and habits in the face of this socio-environmental problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent Spanish law on education (LOMLOE) gives great importance to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), following the model of the European curricula. Given this context, it is essential to assess pro-environmental attitudes among students. This paper offers a transverse quantitative study analysing the environmental attitudes of 1076 students from the Community of Valencia (Spain) at all levels of compulsory secondary education, using a ROSE (Relevance of Science Education) questionnaire. The results show a low-to-moderate pro-active attitude, in conjunction with a barely optimistic view of the future and limited confidence in science and technology to solve problems. Statistical differences were found between genders, with girls being more eco-minded, but there were no significant differences between age groups in compulsory secondary education. This fact highlights the static nature of ESD within secondary school. Therefore, a greater involvement of the educational community is needed for the development of real strategies aimed at promoting desirable environmental attitudes in the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study of curriculum plans for basic teacher training for secondary education, understood as historical-cultural artefacts that mediate teaching practice, allows us to understand what professional educators aim to teach. This paper analyses how content and skills around guidance and tutoring are handled in the guides produced by the different official Master's degree courses in teacher training for secondary education offered by 43 universities from all over the country. A documentary analysis of plans and teaching guides or programmes (as appropriate) was carried out, classifying the contents according to whether the content for guidance and tutoring is approached as a specific subject, whether it is integrated into other subjects, and whether it forms part of a generic module or a freechoice module. The results of the descriptive analyses of the 65 guides selected show that there is no single approach in how guidance and tutoring are handled in these Master's programmes. However, two groups of models are identified (a curriculum model with integrated representation and a curriculum model as specific subject), which appear in different formats, although our analysis shows that guidance and tutoring is handled in depth in only a few cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Culture of peace and education work together to shape individual with knowledge, attitudes and behaviors focused on harmony, tolerance, respect, inclusion, and peace. This paper presents a systematic review whose purpose was to identify the lines of study of the culture of peace in secondary education globally during the last decade (2012-2022). The study was based on the PRISMA methodology; 367 articles were collected from the databases of ERIC, Education Source, Academic Search Ultimate, Web of Science and Redalyc. Based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, 27 articles were analyzed. The results obtained reflect that most of the articles focus on the of the peace component in the school curriculum, although scientific production focused on identifying the effects of culture of peace programs was also identified. It is concluded, the study of this topic provides a deeper understanding of how education contributes to the development of citizens committed to peace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human consumption of scarce ecological resources is at the heart of the climate change crisis. Mitigating climate change will require changes in consumer behavior. Further, to respond effectively, policymakers need information on the environmental impact of individuals' behaviors. In this paper, we study the effect of socio-demographic characteristics and personality traits on individuals' environmental impact measured by their ecological footprint. We also investigate consumers' willingness to pay for "green" goods. Using survey data from the Netherlands, first, we construct individuals' ecological footprint. The survey also uses a 50-item personality scale developed by Goldberg (1992) to construct five personality traits. We find that individuals with higher personal income, less than a high school education, males, the employed, and people living in rural areas are associated with a higher EF. We also find that consumers' WTP and demand are responsive to price increases in high-emitting goods and personality traits. We contribute to our understanding of the influence of socio-demographic and personality characteristics on the actual ecological footprint at the individual level. Further, we contribute to the economic literature on consumers' WTP for "green" products as well as the ongoing discussion on using market-based solutions to tackle climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education has become even more dependent on information and communication technologies (ICT) in today's post-pandemic era, and there is a growing awareness of the need to promote and assess teachers' digital competence. Different techniques an d tools have been used to try to measure and assess digital competence, but there is still no specific tool that can measure it among secondary school teachers completing their initial training. The aim of this paper is to validate a tool that is able to obje ctively assess the digital competence and knowledge of future secondary school teachers. In this paper, therefore, we adapt and validate the existing tool known as COMDID-C, currently used for future primary school teachers. In the first phase, 21 experts in the field worked on adapting the tool to suit secondary education. In a second pilot phase, 667 trainee secondary school teachers completed the test. The reliability analysis yielded ordinal alpha results indicating that the factors are not wholly internally consistent. However, this may be attributed to the fact that the analysis was carried out on the basis of randomised pairs of questions, without the possibility of establishing any other system of equivalence. In any case, bearing in mind the internal consistency, it is clear that the tool's structure is comparable to that of its predecessor. This tool will make it possible to ascertain future teachers' digital competence and reflect on their level of training at the start and at the end. It will also mean we can use this data to design and adapt training plans that improve the acquisition of these digital skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors of the paper present research findings focused on the role of parents when supporting their own children during distance education (ERE). It is part of a problematic and one of the research tasks addressed in VEGA project No. 1/0550/22. The aforementioned starting points, as well as the discourse of foreign researches, led the authors of the paper to study the opinions and experiences of parents and their help and support when educating pupils during distance education in the time of the COVID 19 pandemic. The paper presents only one part of a large-scale research study with a package of research and statistical methods (analyses, on-line questionnaires, structured individual interviews, the method of Focus Groups, quasi-experiments, the SPSS program package version 2.0) and more. A total of 407 parents participated in the presented part of the research. The research results show that the parents of lower secondary education (ISCED 2) students [AM 2.1] and the parents of upper secondary education (ISCED 3) students [AM 2.3] were not entirely satisfied with the overall course of distance education (ERE) and its organisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The implementation of nautical sports, particularly in coastal areas, during the school stage is a growing phenomenon. It offers unique opportunities for students to develop the necessary competencies outlined in their physical education curriculum in an immersive manner, within a natural and inherently motivating environment. Material and methods: This study aims to delve deeper into this subject by conducting a systematic review of the utilization of water sports in formal education. To carry out this bibliographic search, the following keywords were employed: "Nautical Activities", "Nautical Sports", "Nautical Camps", "Formal Education", "Children Education", "Primary School", and "Secondary School". The Boolean operator "and" was used to combine these keywords during the search conducted in databases such as Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science, and SPORTDiscus. The PRISMA Protocol was utilized for the search process, resulting in the selection and categorization of eight papers into the following thematic areas: Wellbeing, Physical and Mental Health, Education, and Management. Results: The primary findings of this review indicate that the inclusion of these programs within physical education classes enhances overall physical health, mental well-being, and personal development. Conclusions: The results demonstrate a positive impact on peer interaction and short-term improvement in self-confidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through funding from the National Science Foundation to create a Research Experience for Teachers site at North Dakota State University, the authors provided summer research experiences to current secondary (6th to 12th grade) educators to improve their understanding of the civil engineering field and develop new curriculum modules for their classrooms. Reflection of the first summer program in 2021 highlighted several modifications that could be made to improve the quality of the program and curriculum developed, increase the accessibility to underserved and/or underrepresented populations and to better utilize the limited resources available. This paper summarizes the successes of the RET program and provides several concrete recommendations for future programs. Specifically, recruiting of both teachers and faculty could be more effective when personal communications through known contacts are used. Flexibility in the approach without compromising rigor and expectations allows for a more inclusive program that supports underserved and marginalized populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This paper investigates the factors influencing the decision to enrol in Ghana's National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) among people at risk of statelessness, with emphasis on the individual's demographic and socioeconomic factors. Methods: The study used data from a cross-sectional household survey undertaken in the Awutu Senya East Municipality and Gomoa East District of Ghana's Central Region between March 9 and June 26, 2021, on healthcare utilization culture among people at risk of statelessness. Descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression were used in analysing data from a sample of 384 people at risk of statelessness. Results: The results reveal that about 51% of the at-risk population have ever enrolled while 48% of the respondents were enrolled on the NHIS at the time of the survey (active members). The majority of the enrolled members acquired their membership through self-payment of the enrolment fee. Additionally, respondents aged 26–35 had higher odds of enrolling, whiles those within 56–65 years had lower odds of enrolling in health insurance. Also, persons who are married and have a high school education or an equivalent qualification were more likely to enrol, while persons with no employment were less likely to enrol. Conclusion: According to the paper, while the gap in coverage between rich and poor, married and single appears to have narrowed, these factors continue to determine NHIS coverage among people at risk of statelessness. The same is true for education. Efforts must be increased to ensure equal access to healthcare financing interventions for better access to health services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to highlight timeline mapping exercise as a research tool and the benefits and challenges of incorporating this method into research. Timeline mapping offers a novel methodological approach toward gathering and accessing rich and meaningful data in the study of life transitions for instance from secondary education to higher education or from education to employment. This paper especially focuses on how it can be incorporated into research studies specific to HPE (Health Professions Education). It also offers researchers step-by-step instructions on how to conduct timeline mapping exercises and how to go about analysing the findings and gathering insights from the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is about life project, an element that has gained centrality in secondary education during the last educational reform. For this, the article pursues a definition of the term from psychology's field, and it also problematizes how it enters the educational area. The paper presents a data collection of the guiding documents from the first occurrence of 'life project' in 1998 until the homologated version of the BNCC, aiming to understand how the insertion in education occurred. This paper highlights the interference of the economic field that supported and defended the implementation of the life project as the central axis of high school and indicates how it became a curricular component after the recommendations of Consed and the specific books selected by PNLD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a picture of tribal enrolment in schools and higher education in four tribal-dominated districts of West Bengal, namely Paschim Medinipur, Jhargram, Purulia, and Bankura, collectively known as "Jungle Mahal" is analysed through various statistical data. It is examined by the statistical data that the tribals here, especially the female tribals, are still lagging in literacy rate and average enrollment in every level of education in comparison to India and West Bengal. The dropout rate of tribal students in that region at every level of schooling is much higher than the national and state rates. Apart from this, the enrolment rate in higher education and professional education for tribal students in this region is also very low. This research paper of mine has tried to explain a clear picture of tribal education in Jangal Mahal through various comparative statistics and its analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to highlight timeline mapping exercise as a research tool and the benefits and challenges of incorporating this method into research. Timeline mapping offers a novel methodological approach toward gathering and accessing rich and meaningful data in the study of life transitions for instance from secondary education to higher education or from education to employment. This paper especially focuses on how it can be incorporated into research studies specific to HPE (Health Professions Education). It also offers researchers step-by-step instructions on how to conduct timeline mapping exercises and how to go about analysing the findings and gathering insights from the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a classroom activity designed to teach students about meiosis. Learning by doing as expediting the learning process; Procedures and goals of the activity; Materials needed and setup; Meiotic process: Instructions and questions; Meiosis with no crossovers; Meiosis with a single crossover in the long chromosome; Meiosis showing a double crossover.

Background: Dysfunctional metacognitive processes and emotional dysregulation have been widely documented in the eating disorder literature. Despite numerous research and recent consensus suggesting the categorization of orthorexia nervosa as a form of eating disorder, no previous study has examined whether aberrant metacognitive processes also correlate with orthorexia nervosa tendencies. This paper investigates potential associations between symptoms of orthorexia nervosa and dysfunctional metacognitive processes while also exploring whether such relationships may be influenced by adaptive/maladaptive emotion regulation strategies. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study in all Lebanese governorates. In total, 423 Lebanese adults completed an online questionnaire including the Teruel Orthorexia Scale, the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale – 16 Item Version, and the Metacognitions Questionnaire – Short Form. Results: Higher physical activity, expressive suppression, emotion regulation difficulties, positive metacognitive beliefs about worry, and need to control thoughts were significantly associated with higher orthorexia nervosa. Additionally, the emotion regulation strategies moderated the relationships between two dysfunctional metacognitive processes and orthorexia nervosa. Specifically, cognitive self-consciousness was negatively related to orthorexia nervosa only in individuals with low (versus higher) emotion suppression (maladaptive emotion regulation strategy). In contrast, negative beliefs about worry uncontrollability and danger positively predicted orthorexia nervosa only in individuals with lower (versus high) cognitive reappraisal (adaptive emotion regulation strategy). Lower socio-economic status and having a university level of education compared to secondary level were significantly associated with lower orthorexia nervosa. Conclusion: Our study provides the first empirical evidence for the existence of significant associations between dysfunctional metacognitive processes and orthorexia nervosa. It also highlights that these pathways are considerably modulated by individuals' ability to regulate their emotions adaptively versus maladaptively. Our findings thus suggest that therapies aimed at improving thought monitoring and emotional regulation may be beneficial for individuals with symptoms of orthorexia nervosa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transition from primary to secondary education can be difficult for children. This paper reports on an intervention in the Netherlands known as the Talent Classrooms (TC), which aimed to support students' primary-secondary school transition. The goal of TC was to increase the match between the personal environment of the student and the school environment to facilitate a successful transition, and to help students achieve their potential at secondary school. With the needs described in the review by Symonds and Galton (2014) taken as a starting point for this investigation, we sought to explore the extent to which TC supported six specific needs during students' primary-secondary transition period, according to participants' longer term reflections about their earlier TC experiences. In this qualitative study, in-depth interviews were conducted with ten former TC students, four to five years after they had participated in the intervention. Data were analysed qualitatively. The analysis suggested that, according to the participants, TC had fostered most needs and this helped to support their transition experience. In particular, participants reported that, via their involvement in TC, they had become more familiar with the physical environment and routine of secondary school, were able to form lasting friendships and enjoyed a challenging curriculum and extracurricular activities. However, findings also indicated that the intervention did not fully succeed in supporting some needs, mainly in the areas of autonomy, competency, and identity development, as it did not seem to have prepared all participants sufficiently for the requirement for independent working they subsequently encountered in secondary school. This study highlights how emphasis on the development of autonomy-related skills might be beneficial for interventions designed to assist students with the transition to secondary education. Moreover, it draws attention to the importance of tailoring support to individual students' specific, varied and evolving needs during this stage of development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emotions can influence the development of scientific competence and are of great relevance in Science Education. This paper has designed a, implemented in the third year of Secondary Education, during the recent global pandemic of COVID-19, to analyze the development of scientific competence in students and the emotions declared by students. The context of the activities is intended to be close and motivating for the students, so that it is based on obtaining the evidence that allows them to find out what is the best method to eliminate the SARS-CoV-2 virus from their hands. The responses, self-perceptions of learning and emotions of the students in each of the activities have been collected and analyzed. The results show the ability of the students to extract relevant information from the resources used, as well as the relationship between emotions and perceived learning. In conclusion, it is worth noting the need to link scientific education to the resolution of current problems as part of responsible citizenship in decision-making that affects globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Designing Science teaching learning sequences is the teaching task least operationalized for pre-service or in-service teachers training. In this paper, we want to reflect on what Design-Based Research (DBR) contributes to the traditional Research-Based Design (RBD) of instructional sequences and their difficulties due to the lack of specificity of design principles. To solve it, based on our expertise as teacher educators, we propose three levels of specification (principles, elements and tools of design) developed around five dimensions: epistemological, conceptual, contextual, didactical, emotional and ideological. In addition to proposing specific examples for some of these dimensions, we propose the pretending design as an application of these levels of specification, as a process of teaching to design to pre-service Secondary School teachers training (Master's Degree in Secondary Education Teaching). Finally, we will comment on some concerns that we have not resolved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After two decades of use in many universities and educational centres worldwide and several international projects based on its use, the cartography of controversy approach based on Actor-Network Theory is still little known in Spain. However, it is gradually beginning to be used. In this paper, we describe the characteristics of this approach, as well as the different methods (extensive and abbreviated) that we propose for using it in the analysis of socially acute questions. We reflect on some of the experiences we have carried out in University and Secondary Education, as well as on its possible extension to non-formal contexts, to promote the transition to action on socially acute questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The forms in which Environmental Education (EE) is included in the curriculum are a long-standing concern in the Latin American didactic field. In this paper we analyse the current curricular designs for the Basic Secondary School in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Although in hierarchically superior regulations (Provincial Education Law and General Framework of Curricular Policy), EE is based on critical and ethnographic perspectives, it has an uneven transversal presence in the curricular designs. Some subjects present an empty EE curriculum, while others show fragmentary and contradictory perspectives. Only in Social Sciences, Geography and Citizenship Building is there a critical and ethnographic vision, linked to contemporary environmental conflicts. From Geography we recovered the experiential dimension and the enjoyment of the environment as a contribution to the pedagogies of environmental conflict and to the ongoing implementation the new national EE regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to show those situations that teachers and students of the baccalaureate subsystems of the National Autonomous University of Mexico identified as problematic and whether this selection is related to aspects of belonging to the subsystem or to the profile of those who responded. The method used consisted of a survey applied to a sample of n=854 teachers and n=9,285 students. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, in addition to a binary logistic regression analysis. The results show that in the case of the teachers, the subsystem is not predictive in relation to the problems they identified. While in the case of the students, the subsystem and gender are predictive variables in the choice of situations as problematic. These results are valuable because they help to understand how teachers and students at this level experienced the pandemic based on their profiles, which allows us to build proposals for attention in post-pandemic times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work proposes to research the meanings constructed by prison authorities about the socio-educational practices implemented by institutions, organizations, and heterogeneous actors in contexts of punitive confinement, and their relationship with the construction of the prison order. Institutionalized and formalized spaces such as primary and secondary education, experiences organized by university actors, and "non-formal" educational practices, compose the contemporary educational-prison framework. The central hypothesis is that the definitions of prison managers, introducing differentiations, hierarchies and evaluations, manage to enroll educational practices as substantial devices for the construction and legitimization of the prison order. Legitimation process that gain a weak character, given by three interrelated dimensions: degrees of institutionalization, statehood and criticality that the authorities recognize in the educational actors involved. Starting from an interpretative paradigm, this paper will focus its empirical references on observations and in-depth interviews with directors of three prisons, two for men (one medium security and the other maximum security) and one for women, but it falls within the partial results of a research project carried out during the period 2018-2022, in five prisons in the south of the province of Santa Fe (Argentina). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are expanding access to high school education, which is a perpetuation of the previous focus on basic education. This study applies qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) using data from seven countries from 2010 to 2020 to examine the potential conditions of fee-free policies at the high school level. Five potential conditions are analyzed. They include the regime type, electoral competition, ideological lineage, economic conditions, and social context. The findings indicate the significant influence of electoral competition and a high level of lower secondary school enrolment for the adoption of fee-free policies. The absence of electoral competition leads to a lack of fee-free policy. The paper explains how elections, one indicator of representative democracy, motivate political leaders to initiate social policies. Additionally, the study challenges the relevance of two important explanations for expansionary social policy in the literature--the partisan theory of policy outcomes, and the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new Spanish curriculum for Compulsory Secondary Education incorporates important changes with respect to previous curricula, following a competency-based education. This paper analyses the extent to which the new curriculum incorporates the recommendations of European institutions and other international bodies regarding the development of citizenship education and a European dimension of education. To this end, a content analysis of the new curriculum is carried out. The results show that the new curriculum is clearly aligned with these international recommendations and is committed to a competence-based education in which transversal contents in citizenship education play a significant role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is the responsibility of colleges and universities to nurture talents for the country. In the final analysis, the purpose of teaching, scientific research, and social services in colleges and universities is to educate people. The study of labor education, in the face of the important historical opportunity of transformation, is a theoretical representation of labor education and its value choice. The answer to this question can help us clarify the meaning of labor education and improve the scientific and systematic practice of labor education. Labor education in colleges and universities has an important and extensive value significance for cultivating contemporary college students, which can not only inspire students to study hard in science and culture, master their skills, and grow their talents but also guide them to firm ideals and beliefs, exercise good character, and cultivate the emotional experience of labor so that contemporary college students can integrate the pursuit of life values with the great cause of national prosperity and national rejuvenation and integrate the beautiful vision of personal ambition and family happiness with the good cause of collective, social, and national interests. This paper is based on the background of the times. Therefore, this paper studies the labor culture and ecological environment from the background of the times: the path of renewing the concept of "cultivating talents for the nation" in labor education. It also gives a profound discussion on labor education in high schools and finally puts forward relevant suggestions for the problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a nationwide learning analytics initiative in Uruguay focused on the future implementation of governmental policies to mitigate student retention and dropouts in secondary education. For this, data from a total of 258,440 students were used to generate automated models to predict students at risk of failure or dropping out. Data were collected from primary and secondary education from different sources and for the period between 2015 and 2020. Such data contains demographic information about the students and their trajectories from the first grade of primary school to the second grade of secondary school (e.g., student assessments in different subjects over the years, the amount of absences, participation in social welfare programs, and the zone of the school, among other factors). Predictive models using the random forest algorithm were trained, and their performances were evaluated with F1-Macro and AUROC measures. The models were planned to be applied in different periods of the school year for the regular secondary school and for the technical secondary school ((before the beginning of the school year and after the first evaluation meeting for each grade). A total of eight predictive models were developed considering this temporal approach, and after an analysis of bias considering three protected attributes (gender, school zone, and social welfare program participation), seven of them were approved to be used for prediction. The models achieved outstanding performances according to the literature, with an AUROC higher than 0.90 and F1-Macro higher than 0.88. This paper describes in depth the characteristics of the data gathered, the specifics of data preprocessing, and the methodology followed for model generation and bias analysis, together with the architecture developed for the deployment of the predictive models. Among other findings, the results of the paper corroborate the importance given in the literature of using the previous performances of the students in order to predict their future performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholarly research has increasingly examined the role of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education, and that of creativity as a transversal skill. However, far fewer studies have investigated the relationship between the two, particularly in secondary-school contexts, and they have obtained inconsistent results. This paper contributes to the literature by asking: To what extent is studying STEM associated with higher levels of creativity in a secondary-school context? The study utilises a pre-existing dataset gathered in Malta (EU) from some 400 students aged between 11 and 16 years old. It yields information on both the engagement in STEM (measured by exposure to STEM chosen by students as optional subjects, and the enjoyment of STEM considered by students to be their favourite subjects), as well as creativity levels (measured by Divergent Thinking performance on Alternate Uses Tests). Correlation analysis revealed a strong positive link between the two phenomena, lending support to the notion that STEM students tend to be more creative than other students. Using regression analysis, a model is estimated to identify the possible effects of engaging in STEM subjects on creativity, once the other co-determinants of creativity are controlled. The results indicate that both the exposure to STEM subject/s and enjoyment thereof significantly and positively predict creativity, even after controlling for the other possible determinants of creativity (such as age, gender, parental education, and participation in creative activities). These findings offer encouraging insights into 21st century education and for curriculum development as they suggest that, in addition to having value in their own right, STEM subjects can contribute to the development of creativity in young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From a historiographical and political-linguistic perspective, in this paper I try to show some historical and educational data of Spanish teaching policies during the process of generalization of public secondary education in the context of the consolidation of the Uruguayan State (1912-1936). The selected period includes the creation of public high schools (1912) and the institutionalization outside Montevideo, Uruguay's capital city of the Spanish Language ("Idioma Castellano") (1912) and Spanish Language ("Idioma Español") (1936) and the books for students, framed in the corresponding study plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Study Aim. The focus of our attention lies on the medically exempt students, who more often than not take part in physical education (P.E.) classes as spectators, without any tasks to complete in accord with the collective work of their classmates or the objective of the lesson. The purpose of the present research is to develop and implement the application Info-Scutit-Sport in the P.E. lesson to the purpose of teaching and assessing medically-exempt students, who are present, but do not take part in the lesson. Material and Methods. The present paper emphasises the usefulness of the Info-ScutitEfort [Info-Exempt-Effort] application aimed at the active and mindful inclusion of 55 students (aged=11.29±1.84), who have a medical exemption (58.2% total and 42.8% partial) in the P.E. lesson. The application, in an improved form, comprises the entire content of the curriculum of physical education in secondary school, transformed into 2080 questions with three answer variants, with 1500 processed images, that may be accessed with the teacher’s accord, on the student’s own phone. The assessment obtained by means of the application after the working session may provide the student with a mark for the information taught before, if he accesses topics from the previous lessons, or a mark for the current assessment in order to test the active and mindful participation in the lesson which is being taught. Conclusions. The study utilized multiple statistical tests to establish a relationship between platform access time and student performance. The results of the tests demonstrated that platform use time has a significant impact on student performance, with longer platform access time leading to higher marks. The study concluded that the proposed model is significant, as it identifies platform access time as a crucial factor in determining student performance. Moreover, the study found that even small increases in platform access time can lead to significant improvements in student performance, with an increase of one unit resulting in a 0.54% increase in marks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the connection between secondary vocational education and continuing education. The influence of professional subjects and their impact on students and the creation of attitudes about further education, as well as the implementation of various, combined training models, are studied in particular. For the purposes of this research, a total of 201 students from three secondary vocational schools in the fields of trade, catering, tourism, economics, law, and administration were surveyed using a random sampling method. The educational profiles of the tested students are economic technician, tourist technician, cook, and waiter. The research objective was to determine whether the quality of professional subjects is important when choosing further tourism studies. In addition to the fact that teaching professional subjects develops certain students' competencies, the application of the quantitative methodology in the research showed that it also affects the choice of future educational profiles with high school students. The surveyed students have significantly opted for the choice of faculties and colleges of applied studies in natural and social sciences and humanities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teaching the thousand-year period of medieval European literature and six-hundred years of Old Czech literature in Czech secondary education is often confronted by two interrelated challenges: the subjects are traditionally taught through a chronological approach to literary history in the first year of school, while presenting language, literary genres, themes, and ideas that are distant and difficult to understand for contemporary readers, particularly the target student group (15--16 years of age). A majority of teachers are unwilling to deal with old literature in their lessons. Can we find a way to modify and improve this practice? In this paper we try to grasp the perceived difficulty and otherness of this corpus in a constructive way and show that it can be productively used, for example, by moving away from the traditional chronological framework and focusing on probing texts (especially narratives) that link the present to the past. We show this possibility through the example of the story of Bruncvík, comparing its medieval version to a more recent version by Alois Jirásek in his Staré pověsti české (Legends of Old Bohemia). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are expanding access to high school education, which is a perpetuation of the previous focus on basic education. This study applies qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) using data from seven countries from 2010 to 2020 to examine the potential conditions of fee-free policies at the high school level. Five potential conditions are analyzed. They include the regime type, electoral competition, ideological lineage, economic conditions, and social context. The findings indicate the significant influence of electoral competition and a high level of lower secondary school enrolment for the adoption of fee-free policies. The absence of electoral competition leads to a lack of fee-free policy. The paper explains how elections, one indicator of representative democracy, motivate political leaders to initiate social policies. Additionally, the study challenges the relevance of two important explanations for expansionary social policy in the literature--the partisan theory of policy outcomes, and the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research background: The employment rate of young individuals in the labour market has considerably decreased in developed countries recently. Due to lower labour capital, skills, and generic and job-specific work experience, youth consider finding suitable job challenging. If they fail to succeed in the labour market soon after graduation, it leads to long-term unemployment, unstable and low-quality jobs, and even social exclusion. Purpose of the article: This paper aims to analyse the unemployment rate of high school-graduated students and the factors impacting this unemployment rate, such as GDP per capita, total unemployment rate, apartment price per square meter and results from state exams. Identifying the determinants affecting youth unemployment is crucial for theoretical knowledge and for policymakers to ensure youth inclusion in the economic mainstream. As a result, society can reduce social and economic costs and avoid structural problems in the future. Methods: Data about 464 Slovak high schools from National Institute for Certified Educational. Data include the graduate unemployment rate for each high school in Slovakia. Furthermore, two logistic regression models have been developed to investigate the impact of selected factors on high school graduates' unemployment rate immediately after graduation and nine months after graduation. Findings & value added: This paper indicates the existence of statistical dependency between unemployment of high school graduates and overall unemployment rate in the region, GDP per capita in the region, quality of high school education and cost of living in the region immediately after graduation. Analysis of the period nine months after graduation has shown the important decline of education quality provided by high schools. To reduce youth unemployment, the state should focus primarily on improving overall unemployment itself by implementing a dual-learning system, simplifying business opportunities, making part-time work available, or introducing lifelong learning to help transform the economy into a knowledge base. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses the role of the government of the Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia as a self-governing unit within the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy within creation of a public, general and compulsory system of public education. Based on the analysis of various statistical data, an attempt is made through selected indicators to establish basic theses about whether the initiated educational and school reforms were successful or unsuccessful in practice. An additional task of the paper is to provide more detailed indicators of the structure of education and schooling in the area of north-western Croatia by means of analysing statistical data. Although the emphasis is on public education, the paper presents basic data for other school and educational levels of secondary education as well, so that we can get the most complete picture of education as one of the most important areas in shaping a modern state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses the role of the government of the Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia as a self-governing unit within the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy within creation of a public, general and compulsory system of public education. Based on the analysis of various statistical data, an attempt is made through selected indicators to establish basic theses about whether the initiated educational and school reforms were successful or unsuccessful in practice. An additional task of the paper is to provide more detailed indicators of the structure of education and schooling in the area of north-western Croatia by means of analysing statistical data. Although the emphasis is on public education, the paper presents basic data for other school and educational levels of secondary education as well, so that we can get the most complete picture of education as one of the most important areas in shaping a modern state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we describe an educational experience in the context of the Master's degree that is compulsory in Spain to become a secondary education mathematics teacher. Master's students from two universities in Madrid (Spain) attended lectures that addressed—emphasizing the concourse of a dynamic geometry software package—some historical, didactic and mathematical issues related to linkage mechanisms, such as those arising in the 18th and 19th centuries during the development of the steam engine. Afterwards, participants were asked to provide three different kinds of feedback: (i) working on an assigned group task, (ii) individually answering a questionnaire, and (iii) proposing some classroom activity, imagining it would be addressed to their prospective pupils. All three issues focused on the specific topic of the attended lectures. In the framework of Mason's reflective discourse analysis, the information supplied by the participants has been analyzed. The objective was to explore what they have learned from the experience and what their perception is of the potential interest in linkages as a methodological instrument for their future professional activity as teachers. This analysis is then the basis upon which to reflect on the opportunities (and problems) that this particular bar-joint linkages methodological approach could bring towards providing future mathematics teachers with attractive tools that would contribute to enhancing a STEAM-oriented education. Finally, the students' answers allow us to conclude that the experience was beneficial for these pre-service teachers, both in improving their knowledge on linkages history, mathematics, industrial, technological and artistic applications, and in enhancing the use in the classroom of this very suitable STEAM context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to explore the issue of rural education in context, through the eyes of community educational leaders in a program run by the National Council for Education Development (CONAFE), who provide teaching services in marginalized rural communities in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico. A qualitative methodology was employed, with a focus group formed for discussion with participants. The results are presented along two lines of analysis: initiation into teaching from a perspective of subjectivity and training, and experience of the program's principles as a pedagogical ideal that has not been fully appropriated. Some overarching guidelines for action are proposed that may help to improve the program as part of its goal to offer quality education to Mexico's rural and marginal urban population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a systematic review of quantitative and qualitative studies that examine school supervision and its effects on quality in education. The objective of this work is to take stock of the effects of supervision on basic-level (primary and lower secondary) schools and identify supervisory practices that help or hinder educational improvement, based on which a typology of supervisors was constructed according to their role and observed impact. The findings show that school supervision has the potential to achieve an impact in improving the quality of education, provided it is not associated with inspectional practices and a system of support is developed to make timely recommendations and provide pedagogical support in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virtual chemistry laboratories (VCLs) are the alternative solutions of the physical laboratories, where students can virtually conduct their experiments with a lower cost, and in an efficient and safer way. Considering the importance of technology-enhanced learning and that of the experimental study, several VCLs have been proposed. However, the existing VCLs are static and only provide the simulation of pre-defined experiments, procedures, or safety procedures and cannot be adapted according to the students' level or new experimental tasks. In this paper, we proposed a dynamic virtual chemistry lab (DVCL) where instructors or experts are allowed to add a new chemical experiment by adding its apparatus, chemicals, glassware, and mechanism or add something new to its properties. We conducted a subjective study with field experts to investigate the effect of proposed DVCL in secondary school chemistry education. During evaluation, twenty-seven field experts were participated and evaluated the proposed DVCL with system usability scale (SUS)-questionnaire and by a simple questionnaire. The results showed that the proposed DVCL is very helpful for students' performance and mental modeling and also for effortlessly uplifting their knowledge for hands-on experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the importance of considering "gender regimes" as strategic enclaves in the processes of mainstreaming comprehensive sex education policies in high school. The analysis is based on a diverse set of empirical data constructed in an ethnographic investigation carried out between 2017 and 2018 in a high school in Gran La Plata, Argentina. From the description of a gender regime called "virile" and within the framework of an institutional culture characterized as "normative", the paper reveals some limitations of a way of mainstreaming comprehensive sex education that here is called "curricular" and it offers some clues to consider in which ways an approach that considers the totality of institutional dynamics in their pedagogical dimension could enhance the scope of a policy aimed at combating gender inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]