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Purpose: This study aims to examine the effectiveness of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE)-based English textbooks and question papers in developing second-language higher-order thinking skills (HOTS). Design/methodology/approach: Descriptive analysis establishes a causal relationship between learning objectives and second language (L2) writing proficiency. Content analysis is used to compare and analyze tabulated data for textbooks and question papers for the English language by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and CBSE. This method categorizes the materials and their assessments under HOTS and lower-order thinking skills to ascertain the relationship between learning objectives and L2 writing proficiency. Findings: The study highlights teaching material and assessment shortcomings and their alignment with learning outcomes to enhance students' writing skills. It underscores the need for HOTS-focused materials, discussing their impact on writing skills. The study also explores how textbook–question paper mismatch hampers Bloom's taxonomy-based cognitive skills. Practical implications: This research illuminates the efficacy of teaching and learning English as a second language (ESL) writing skills to improve the quality of education, which has real-world implications. The study highlights flaws in the educational system in India and suggests curricular and pedagogical changes. Originality/value: The research examines NCERT and CBSE ESL textbooks and question papers to align teaching and assessment methods. The results aim to improve education through ESL writers' HOTS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) instruments can be administered online or with paper and pencil. These procedures involve different interactions between respondents and instruments which could cause errors when administrators and researchers want to compare or relate online results with paper-based results. This study aimed to analyze if the Romanian version of the Student Evaluations of Educational Quality instrument presents similar psychometric characteristics regardless if it is completed online or by paper and pencil. Data was collected from two groups of students (N = 809). One group completed the SEEQ on paper-pencil support (312 responders, 38.6%). The other group completed the scale for the same teachers and courses, but online and one year later. Psychometrical checks and measurement invariance analysis suggested that the Romanian version of SEEQ has passed the internal validity and reliability test and presented configural, metric, and scalar invariance across the results obtained from both administration procedures. • Nowadays, SET instruments are administered online or by paper-pencil procedures. • The procedures involve different interactions between respondents and instruments. • Checking the measure invariance is necessary when using both SET procedures. • The SEEQ has good invariance indices across data collected with both procedures. • The SEEQ has a good fit for the Romanian population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of the ideal student is one that has generated much research across many disciplines across the globe and continues to stimulate debate about teaching and learning within higher education. This paper explores the concept of the ideal student in relation to the experiences of mature female students enrolled onto a Foundation Programme in Business and Management. Although some Foundation Programmes are intended to recruit international students, most are conceived for school-leavers who are deemed to be the ideal cohort for this programme by the university. As such, there exists the potential for a disconnect between the concept of an ideal student which is generally associated with an implied curriculum model and the experiences of mature students. This paper explored the experiences of mature female students on a Foundation Programme at an English Business School that prepares students for undergraduate study. The research involved interviews with five mature female students, three of whom are mothers. The findings were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis and challenges the concept of the ideal student as useful theoretical model upon which to construct the curriculum. This paper also conceptualises the mature student learning journey through the PIPE support model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper finds robust evidence that economic freedom improves the quality of education. This is probably mainly because economic freedom incentivizes parents to invest in high‐quality education for their children and helps them to do so. It also incentivizes and helps both governments and private providers to deliver high‐quality education. The paper uses two different indicators of educational quality: PISA scores and the World Bank's harmonized test scores. The magnitudes of the estimated effects of economic freedom on both indicators are substantial. They are even larger once the indirect impact of economic freedom via GDP per capita and, to a lesser extent, once the indirect impact via government education expenditure is taken into account. The paper uses data on up to 49 countries for PISA scores and up to 137 countries for World Bank scores. It accounts for the endogeneity of economic freedom and controls for all major determinants of educational quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to discuss the application of contemporary AI tools and technologies in education. The paper will mainly focus on a close examination of relevant academic literature as well as the current situation and methods of AI implementation in different sectors, finally, in education. Particularly, it was crucial that there were identified the major directions of applying AI in learning with an emphasis on learners and educators being the basic aspects of AI use within modern educational approaches. Secondly, some benefits and drawbacks concerning AI implementations in education supported by experiences from industry leaders and specific satisfaction measures among existing users, are analyzed. The most significant part covers integrating findings that show facts about artificial intelligence being used in education for 2024 like top online learning statistics for 2024, top AI statistics for 2024, and best AI plagiarism checkers for teachers in 2024 respectively. This includes evaluating teacher or instructor preparation skills to employ artificial intelligence (AI) tools and technology as well as ways students can learn how to use them without misuse towards quality education improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A strong and attractive educational system serves normally as a cornerstone for enhancing a nation's long-term socio-economic development potential. In recent years, bullying among pupils or students has become a pressing issue in many schools, with significant negative repercussions for both pupils (or students) and their educational environment. Bullying not only diminishes the quality of school education but also erodes the students' motivation and wellbeing. Thus, it plays a critical role in educational performance, prompting an urgent need for an assessment of its negative implications. This paper seeks to design and test a new model-based approach to evaluate the negative role of bullying at school in educational performance. A prominent avenue of evidence-based research on the quantitative evaluation of educational outcomes can be found in the use of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), a multidimensional comparative assessment tool for judging the efficiency of a set of relevant decision-making agents by examining the ratio of outputs to inputs. Among the various applications of DEA, the Distance Friction Minimization (DFM) approach has emerged as a promising tool. Nevertheless, the conventional DFM approach has also a serious limitation: it considers normally only one input and one output element in its projection. To address this shortcoming, this paper introduces a new Improved Ratio Minimization (IRM) approach. The IRM method overcomes the above-mentioned constraint, by allowing for the distribution of efficiency improvement projections among all input and output items contributing to efficient outcomes. Subsequently, this paper seeks to demonstrate the practical relevance of the IRM approach in DEA by applying it to an assessment of educational efficiency, with a particular focus on the effects of bullying in secondary education in European countries. Drawing from an extensive international dataset, the IRM-DEA model generates a variety of comparative empirical findings regarding the overall wellbeing and efficiency loss caused by bullying among students in European countries. The paper also explores new policy avenues for enhancing educational performance in the context of bullying at school across Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ITE has been criticised for being disconnected, with different languages being spoken in the two learning arenas of campus and schools. Bringing people together, such as through formal university-school partnerships, is not enough to open up communicative learning spaces – sites of collaborative learning that are democratic, safe and supportive. Practicum is recognised as a capstone experience in teacher education in which the mentor's role is crucial. However, there are significant variations in the types and quality of mentoring and only some supportive frameworks. This paper investigates what arrangements are needed to enable mentoring practices as communicative learning spaces. An intervention was designed that structured conversations between student teachers, school-based mentor teachers and university-based teacher educators around an observation-grounded mentoring framework (OMF). Data was gathered from completed worksheets, reflection logs, and interviews and analysed through the lens of practice architectures. We explore issues of knowledge and power in the facilitation of learning when university-based teacher educators visit the school, and classroom observations frame the mentoring conversations. Findings show that the OMF offered a shared language for tripartite mentoring conversations as communicative learning spaces. The paper contributes to knowledge about supportive mentoring practices in ITE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The government of Ghana since independence has undertaken steps to develop educational infrastructure setup. This notwithstanding, the educational sector is beset with challenges such as low-quality education and low enrolment rates in Senior High Schools (SHS) of children from large households, among others. Given the myriad of challenges bedevilling the education sector, there have been calls for collaboration among public leaders to promote education. The paper, therefore, examines traditional leaders' roles in promoting quality education in Ghana. Design/methodology/approach: Through a desk review approach, the study examines the role of traditional leaders in promoting quality education in Ghana. This approach was adopted due to its flexible nature. Findings: The study found that traditional leaders have provided educational materials and resources to deprived schools. They have established scholarship schemes for needy but brilliant students, promoted gender parity in education, constructed educational facilities and promoted a healthy teaching environment. Practical implications: The paper provides stakeholders in Ghana's educational sector with the opportunity to review educational policies and include traditional leaders to influence educational policies. The recommendations call for support from the GETFUND and Scholarship Secretariat of Ghana to assist community-initiated projects and scholarship schemes established by traditional leaders. Originality/value: The paper provides evidence to support the importance of traditional leadership, which has come under criticism from a democratisation perspective in contemporary times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Standardized tests intend to reduce information asymmetry by providing a common and objective measure of students' academic performance. The basic assumption underlying standardized testing is that differences in student performance on standardized tests should be attributed primarily to differences in the quality of education received by students. However, there is evidence that environmental factors can affect standardized test scores, which may result in anomalous observations or outliers that show a distortion of student performance. In this regard, the exclusion of Spain from PISA 2018 is particularly interesting as Spanish data met PISA 2018 Technical Standards but showed implausible student-response behavior. The aim of this paper is to complement the OECD's analysis of Spain's exclusion from PISA 2018 by exploring the potential reasons behind the outlier results, focusing on the Madrid region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues for establishing stronger links between educational effectiveness research and school improvement. It presents the results of a 3-year study investigating the impact of the dynamic approach (DA) to school improvement on promoting student achievement in mathematics. It explores duration (offering the DA for more than 1 year) and sustainability effects of the DA. A sample of 18 secondary schools in Cyprus participated in this study. Two experimental groups used the DA to develop their school improvement strategies. The first group employed the DA for the first 2 intervention years and was more effective than the control group in promoting mathematics achievement at the end of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year. Schools that made use of the DA for all 3 years were found to be the most effective at the end of the 3rd year. Implications for research, policy, and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper makes a case for developing a theory of quality ecologies in early childhood education and care, and presents our initial thoughts around how that might be done, including how it might create a space for further thinking, research and discussion. First, the politicised, positivist nature of dominant contemporary interpretations of quality is discussed, including our case for theoretical experimentation and diversification. Then, we discuss existing applications of ecologies theory in education research and the opportunities it presents, followed by our thinking so far around how it can be applied to critical theorisations of quality ecologies. Last, we outline our research program and what we envisage can be accomplished by a theory of quality ecologies in early childhood education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The OECD's PISA is seen as a 'global yardstick' against which countries measure the quality of their education systems. In 2018 PISA included an assessment of global competence. This paper starts with the premise that in using a single global instrument to 'measure' this phenomenon, PISA claims standardisation over contextually rich data that can then inform policy and, arguably, in turn practice. Data for this study is based on tracking 'global competence' through documentary analysis, interviews, and then 'survey encounters' where PISA global competence questionnaire items were discussed by principals and teachers in three schools in Victoria, Australia. The analysis illustrates that schools and teachers variously educate for global competence according to the specific cultural context, policy and curriculum in ways that highlight the inadequacy of a global metric. With the growing attention to educating for global citizenship and the OECD's development of global measures, this investigation of localised understandings of global competence magnifies the 'situatedness' of knowledge (and therefore assessment practices). Questions are raised about what is ignored in metrics when such a contested concept is operationalised, and points to the lack of validity of this metric because it de-contextualises how global competence is understood by teachers and enacted in curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Applying qualitative methods and evidence from the field, this paper explores the situation of women with disabilities within Bangladesh’s overall sociocultural, political, and economic contexts. The research found that participating women with disabilities were living in poverty and were disenfranchised. They reported being treated with disregard, and at times with contempt, both within their families and the wider society. In Bangladesh, disability is often regarded as a divine curse. In a patriarchal society where women are often seen as a liability, women with disabilities are particularly resented, and are often abandoned by their family members or are victims of domestic violence and abuse. In a society where sensitivity to the needs of people with disability is yet to take root, provisions for accessing basic services, such as education, are limited or non-existent for women with disabilities. Direct and representational participation of women with disabilities in the policy process is rare and changes relevant to their needs and empowerment are few. This research indicates that the situation of women with disabilities in Bangladesh is different from that of men with disabilities. More focused and gender-sensitive interventions are required at multiple levels – social, cultural and institutional. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing countries around the world are scaling up education interventions. New educational technologies offer opportunities to develop new models to deliver quality education at scale. However, the literature suggests that defining scale is complex, especially in heterogeneous contexts. This paper provides a conceptualization of scale as a dynamic process with three key dimensions: 'quantity', 'diffusion,' and 'quality' through the case of a multi-state, multi-stakeholder program called Connected Learning Initiative in India. It also describes the implementation processes that involve teacher professional development, student engagement, technological developments, and efforts to improve classroom processes in a multifactor environment of stakeholder needs, context, and variance in resources. In conclusion, robust and flexible design approaches for scale are discussed, with implications for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the value of agroecological farm schools by analyzing 4 Senegalese cases. Pedagogical quality is measured by: (1) feedback from former learners, (2) acquisition of fundamental knowledge, and (3) professionalization. Beyond globally positive opinions about training, our results show that farm schools display distinct performances. Developing a systemic perspective is not an easy task, but having trainers with more advanced agroecological expertise is an asset. Effective training builds on active pedagogy. Post-training business establishment is facilitated when farm schools create networks in agroecology and/or offer a consequent starter kit. Farm schools could thus contribute to agroecological transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative study explored the status of outcomes-based education (OBE) in Vietnam, analysing the strengths and areas for improvement as identified by assessors from the ASEAN University Network-Quality Assurance (AUN-QA) agency in the external assessment reports of 17 study programmes. Convenience sampling was employed to select these programmes. Thematic analysis was used for the narratives of these reports, together with quantitative analysis. The findings indicated that there are some signs of shifting to OBE in Vietnamese higher education as a result of complying with external requirements, yet observed changes tend to be on paper only regarding constructive alignment with curriculum design. The contradictory themes found in this study require further investigation to examine the impacts of AUN-QA on quality improvement in the Vietnamese context. As the research design was limited to content analysis, the voices of various stakeholders towards this regional quality assurance régime have not been fully explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is part of a special issue which builds on Italo Calvino's memos for the next millennium. More specifically, this paper gives an educational reading of the quality of exactitude. This quality is at the heart of what education is all about, viz. learning to give an adequate response to what things in the world demand of us – students and teachers. This demands the collective building of a capacity to see the world in the same way. Hence, an education under the banner of exactitude is an education of the senses. It is argued for that such an education is an apt way to respond to the societal and ecological challenges we are increasingly faced with. This is made more concrete by fleshing out an alternative account of STEAM education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I try to 'rethink' consistency as an educational quality for the 3rd millennium, following Italo Calvino's choice to take it up in his lecture series Memos for the Next Millennium, and despite the fact that the (final) lecture devoted to this quality remained unwritten. After reflecting on how consistency already plays a certain role in Calvino's other lectures, I expand on the specific educational implications of this role's unresolved ambivalence, in order to argue that this ambivalence, properly understood, might be fully constitutive of the educational significance of consistency. To achieve such an understanding I turn to Gilles Deleuze and his concept of style as a 'practice' of consistency. Not only does a stylistic understanding of consistency offer interesting possibilities for a more constructive approach to the said ambivalence—between consistency as static stability and dynamic keeping-together- but as such it also speaks to a number of issues that are directly and fundamentally educational in nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leadership from a distributed pedagogical perspective involves engaging multiple professionals in implementing shared responsibilities. In educational organizations, leadership responsibility structures have changed, with researchers advancing a more decentralized leadership system for sustainable pedagogical improvement. These global changes in education systems have informed the demand for sustainable quality teaching, the desire for 21st‐century learning skills, and rapid progress in education. As a result, traditional individual ‘heroic leadership’ is no longer tenable in any learning environment that intends to achieve quality pedagogical outcomes. Therefore, this narrative review paper aims to examine the essence of distributing pedagogical leadership responsibilities among multiple professionals to understand how the concept is perceived in diverse educational contexts and settings. This study reviewed relevant empirical research studies conducted to investigate the concept of distributed pedagogical leadership in Finland, Norway and Singapore. The findings revealed some gaps that informed our understanding of the concept and recommended further research studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physical education (PE) teachers in practically all countries are expected to help their students develop movement capability. To achieve this objective, teachers need certain knowledge and competencies. The question of how PE teachers should develop their capacities to achieve this task has received only limited research attention. The broad objective of this paper is to contribute to the literature on how PE teachers can develop knowledge and competencies in the area of movement capability related to students' learning. The specific aim is to identify aspects of the design of instruction in physical education that enhance teachers' actor-oriented transfer of movement pedagogy knowledge, during a collaborative professional development intervention. The study is an analysis of three conducted learning studies in PE at upper secondary schools in Sweden. The studies involved seven PE teachers from two different schools. Our empirical material consists of (a) notes from team meetings (n = 14), (b) lesson plans (n = 9), (c) video-recorded and transcribed lessons (n = 9), and (d) results of students' learning outcomes (n = 9). PE teachers' analysis of their own teaching sequences in teams supported their actor-oriented transfer of movement pedagogy knowledge, which developed their abilities to further elaborate their instruction in new teaching situations. Moreover, teachers gained insights into how to further develop the quality of instructional design as expansions of earlier experiences. Lastly, a relationship between PE teachers' actor-oriented transfer and students' increased learning of movements was found. Our conclusion is that collaborative professional development for PE teachers, which supports actor-oriented transfer, should be offered to enhance teachers' movement pedagogy knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study is to explore new ways of assessing collaborative problem solving (CPS) processes based on different modalities of audio data and their combination. The data collection took place in an educational lab setting during an experiment with adult teams from professional contexts who collaboratively solved multiple problems as part of a CPS training. From audio data, both verbal (ie, speech) and non‐verbal (ie, pitch) aspects were extracted. Four analysis methods were used, including (a) content analysis; (b) linguistic inquiry and word count; (c) verbal entrainment analysis; and (d) acoustic–prosodic entrainment based on pitch data. Insights are given into the CPS processes of the participating groups using these measures and relevant relationships between some of these measures are further investigated. Based on content analysis, it was found that most of the interactions during the CPS process are task oriented, whereas team‐oriented interactions are less present. Second, three measures of proportion of contribution in CPS were investigated and clear differences in participation patterns between and within teams were found. We suggest that a combination of utterance count and words per sentence could provide valuable insights for quantity and equality of participation. Third, the study explored pronoun use and found that the most frequently used personal pronouns were first‐person singular. Next, the results indicated a relationship between pronoun use and the relative frequency of interactions. Fourth, a rather weak relationship between lexical entrainment measures and the acoustic–prosodic measures were found, suggesting that these measures are indicative of separate communicative aspects in CPS. This study contributes to a better understanding of which type of audio‐based data is most informative to teachers and students as a feedback or assessment tool. This study complements previous research as it focuses on spoken human‐to‐human communication collected in an authentic context. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Support and guidance systems for learning coaches, teachers and learners are needed to foster the educational quality of collaborative problem solving (CPS) activities.CPS is a complex process and measuring the quality of CPS processes remains challenging.Multimodal learning analytics, focusing on verbal and non‐verbal data sources and using content analysis, linguistic inquiry and word count and verbal and acoustic entrainment measures could be valuable to measure the quality of CPS.What this paper adds The majority of interactions during CPS processes are task oriented or cognitive of nature, whereas team‐oriented interactions are less present.Utterance count and words per sentence should be used in combination, as they are indicative of different aspects.Pronoun use in learners' discourse is related to the types of CPS interactions.Lexical entrainment measures and acoustic–prosodic are indicative of distinctive communicative aspects in CPS.Implications for practice and/or policy Quality indicators of CPS processes should include both verbal and non‐verbal measures of students' interactions.Educational researchers and the (Edtech) industry should further leverage their forces to foster the development of (semi‐)automated systems for measuring the quality of CPS processes.It should be further investigated how quality indicators of CPS processes can be most meaningful to trainers, teachers and learners, for example, through the use of dashboards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This theoretical paper explores how researching the identities of musician-teachers can be differently conceptualised through a critical posthuman lens. Wider calls to action demand an expanded professionalism of musician-teachers, but when such recommendations are combined with fixed notions of identity as self-contained and producible, they risk becoming essentialistic and exclusionary. Foregrounding the intricacies and tensions in locating the teacher subject therefore posits a need for theories of complexity and becoming. Barad's agential realism provides an onto-epistemological shift, such that the musician-teacher is not separable from the world, but intra-actively comes into being through a relational ontology, exposing identity as a mechanism of capture through series of agential cuts. These material-discursive entanglements and performativity of the dichotomous musician-teacher role are then discussed. By thinking difference differently and addressing relations of power, these have ethical implications for research and what comes to matter, drawing on non-representationalism and signalling post-qualitative methodologies. This philosophical framing does not serve to reduce complexity, to figure out what works, but rather stays with the trouble – the messiness – by arguing for future empirical work that is inclusionary in the widest sense and grounded in the embodied, affective experiences of musician-teachers themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although encompassing a variety of research approaches, qualitative research in music education shares the assumption that reality is socially constructed; it takes this construction to be based on the specific perspective of the individual human; and it considers epistemology and ontology to be different fields of study. The posthuman theory of agential realism, on the other hand, argues that the world is becoming through intra-actions; it decentres the individual humanist subject; and it studies onto-epistemology – practices of knowing-in-being. Considering these fundamental differences, the quality criteria of qualitative research are not applicable to posthuman music education research. Nevertheless, posthuman research is concerned with the ethics of research and how to response-ably and ethically take part in the world's becoming. Thus, the emerging field of posthuman music education research must develop other ways of evaluating research beyond the quality criteria found in qualitative methodologies. This paper argues that diffraction – both as a physical and musical phenomenon and as a philosophical concept – might be a fruitful approach. By reading quality criteria diffractively through the agential realist concept of response-ability, it poses critical and creative questions, moving us towards evaluating the quality of posthuman music education research on its own terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a methodological review of over 2,000 picturebook descriptions and 60 picturebooks published within five-and-a-half years relating to diversity, the environment, social justice, and environmental justice portrayals. The authors asked in particular: To what extent is environmental justice portrayed in recent picturebooks, and how might these portrayals be problematized to understand better and share children's literature? The data revealed that picturebooks portray social and cultural diversity more than environmental topics, and environmental justice portrayals comprise about 3% of the picturebooks surveyed. Picturebooks portraying environmental justice are new, and what is considered environmental justice is expanding. The authors also suggest an expanded notion of environmental justice called Stewarding and Relational Justice. These books incorporate themes of kindness and inclusive action toward each other and the earth, which build toward understanding and depictions of environmental justice. Lastly, the authors provide a curated list of recommended environmental justice and earth-centric books. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops the concept of aesthetic knowing, its significance in perceiving and participating in ecologies writ large, and challenges that arise in engaging it during a time of ecological crises. I define aesthetic knowing as perception of the quality of relationship, and suggest it offers insight into how ecologies are intra- and/or inter-connected. Aesthetic knowing is the epistemological basis of a relational empiricism, a philosophical position which foregrounds the capacity to receive and respond to otherness, and I claim it offers an antidote to the isolating overreach of some theorising prevalent in environmental education (EE). My main purpose is to clarify the scope and nature of the relationship between aesthetic knowing and ecologies, so to offer methodological and theoretical context for educators and education researchers seeking to attend to healthy and threatened ecologies. Cultivating aesthetic knowing is necessary for responsive participation with/in any ecology, but can be emotionally difficult. As ecological destruction escalates, sustaining aesthetic knowing demands perception of, and participation with fear, while working with fear in turn requires aesthetic openness. I discuss approaches to cultivating aesthetic openness given this apparently wicked recursion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the major constitutes of human society, education has been continuously producing a huge amount of data and become an important of sources of big data. Deeply mining and analyzing these big education data are of practical significance for optimizing education resource deployment and improving education quality. However, the big education data are often of diverse types and from multiple parties, which raises a big challenge for accurate and reasonable educational data fusion especially when the educational data are correlated with each other. In view of this challenge, we put forward a novel cloud computing-aided multi-type data fusion approach considering data correlation in education, to accommodate the big volume, diverse types and correlation of educational data. In concrete, the data fusion operation is mainly based on the Mahalanobis distances which can overcome the data diversity in multiple-dimensional data fusion for education. Afterwards, we provide a case study to show the concrete steps of our proposal. At last, a set of experiments are deployed to validate the feasibility of our proposal in this paper. Experimental results prove the effectiveness and efficiency of our approach in dealing with multi-type data fusion with correlation in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New forms of interaction made possible by developments in special educational technologies can now help students with dyscalculia. Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a promising tool in recent decades, particularly between 2001 and 2010, offering avenues to enhance the quality of education for individuals with dyscalculia. Therefore, the implementation of AI becomes crucial in addressing the needs of students with dyscalculia. Content analysis techniques were used to examine the literature covering the influence of AI on dyscalculia and its potential to assist instructors in promoting education for individuals with dyscalculia. The study sought to create a foundation for a more inclusive dyscalculia education in the future through in-depth studies. AI integration has had a big impact on educational institutions as well as people who struggle with dyscalculia. This paper highlights the importance of AI in improving the educational outcomes of students affected by dyscalculia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern education is a rapidly developing field of social practice. Requirements for the professional skills of future specialists are being developed; mechanisms are being created that stimulate improving the quality of education. This research is aimed to identify the level of students' reflective competencies with the formation of a distance curriculum within the Moodle platform. The study sample consisted of 71 psychology students from Kazakh universities: Toraighyrov University, NJSC, Pavlodar Pedagogical University, NJSC, and L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University. The reflective competencies were measured using a diagnostic map based on the "Method for determining the individual measure of reflection" (A.V. Karpov, V.V. Ponomareva). The test for reliability and validity was justified: the calculation showed a good value for the internal consistency of the diagnostic map: α = 0.887 in the experimental group and α = 0.822 in the control group. The findings show a significant improvement in the reflection level: from predominantly middle to high in the experimental group. More than half of the experimental group and one-fifth of the control group improved their reflective skills. This paper has a practical value: further investigation of education digitalization's impact on the development of reflective competencies in students from other regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the relationship between prospective teachers' cultural profiles and service quality expectations in a pedagogical training program in Greece. Design/methodology/approach: Using the EppekQual scale and an alternative Hofstede's cultural scale, 113 prospective teachers in a Greek training program were surveyed. The study uses descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and multiple regression, validating measurements through confirmatory factor analysis. Findings: Prospective teachers exhibit a low-power orientation and a preference for feminine values. Rejecting hierarchy correlates with quality expectations, especially in the curriculum dimension, emphasizing student-centric education. A positive correlation with acceptance/avoidance of uncertainty is observed, notably in learning outcomes and administrative services. The cultural aversion to ambiguity shapes individuals' prioritization of all quality dimensions. A realistic long-term perspective correlates positively with expectations in learning outcomes, aligning with Greek culture's emphasis on security. Contrary to expectations, a predilection for feminine values positively impacts service quality expectations, particularly in curriculum, learning outcomes and academic staff dimensions. The hypothesis related to individualism/collectivism is not substantiated, indicating a negative association with the curriculum dimension. Practical implications: Tailoring program designs to embrace student-centric and collaborative learning environments is recommended. Acknowledging cultural aversions to uncertainty, program flexibility and clarity are essential. Integrating career planning and mentorship aligns with realistic long-term perspectives. The need for a balanced approach to personal and intellectual development is also suggested. Originality/value: This study uncovers specific cultural dimensions that shape quality expectations within a Greek teacher training context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the spatial heterogeneity in the human capital potential of Indonesia's next generation by constructing and analyzing sub-national human capital indices (HCI) for 34 provinces and 514 districts in Indonesia. The paper identifies data and methodological constraints in the construction of these sub-national indices and proposes and implements strategies to overcome these challenges. Several interesting findings emerge from the analysis. First, Indonesian's young generation can only achieve 53% of their future productivity relative to the full benchmark of health and education. Second, the variation in aggregate human capital potential across space in Indonesia is staggering: some parts of country are almost at par with countries like Vietnam and China while others have human capital levels that are comparable to Chad, Niger, and Sierra Leone. Third, differences in learning outcomes as measured by harmonized test scores account for the largest share of the variation in human capital across Indonesia, suggesting that the challenge of providing quality education remains one of the most important obstacles to equalizing opportunities for the next generation of Indonesians. And fourth, the correlation between government spending and performance on HCI at the district level appears rather weak, reinforcing conclusions reached by other recent studies that have highlighted the importance of focusing on the quality of spending. Finally, this paper also shows that Indonesia's human capital registered a modest improvement from 0.50 in 2013 to 0.53 in 2018 with stronger progress observed among the already top performing provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the under-representation of women in STEM education in Bangladesh, and proposes ways to boost their participation to help achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of ensuring quality education for all. The key argument of this paper is that while celebrating Bangladesh's success in reducing the gender gap in primary and secondary education, the persistent gap between women's participation in general education and their representation in STEM subjects receives less attention. Although women students' enrolment at the tertiary level has increased, their representation in STEM fields remains low for various reasons – societal perceptions, inadequate infrastructure, prejudice, etc. While Bangladesh has taken steps to promote gender equality in education, measures directly targeting increased participation of women in STEM education are lacking. However, in addition to implementing institutional policies to increase women's participation in STEM education, the paper recommends tackling the socio-cultural obstacles that discourage women from doing so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Universities have an important role in training students in orientation and assimilation of knowledge through research and publication of scientific papers, especially in the era of society 5.0. Understanding and knowledge seem to be the only things that guarantee the social and economic progress of society that is not eroded over time. The Policy for Improving the Quality of Students through the Research Program and Publication of Postgraduate Student Scientific Work is an important initiative in advancing higher education and strengthening the role of students in their contribution to knowledge and scientific development. This research aims to describe how this program has contributed to improving the quality of postgraduate students, as well as its impact on the development of research and publication of students' scientific work. This research method uses a descriptive qualitative approach with literature study research as direct data. Data collection techniques by collecting published scientific papers from postgraduate students. To optimize the results of data collection, an article search was carried out from Google Scholar using the search terms names of postgraduate students who were used as research objects. Qualitative data analysis consists of three series: data reduction, data presentation and conclusion drawing. The research results show that: First, the condition of the quality of research activities carried out by Postgraduate students at UIN Prof. K.H. Saifudin Zuhri Purwokerto is doing well. Second, Policy and Implementation of Increasing the Quality of Students Based on Research and Scientific Writing at the UIN Postgraduate Program, Prof. K.H. Saifuddin Zuhri Purwokerto is stated in Circular Letter Number: 354/Un.19/D.PPs/PP.009/4/2022 concerning Publication of Scientific Work for Postgraduate Students at the State Islamic University of Professor Kiai Haji Saifuddin Zuhri Purwokerto in 2022. In its implementation, postgraduates participated supports this policy by organizing various supporting activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The preference for paper-based learning (traditional) or audio-visual learning (electronic) brought about hybrid learning whose preference among students is much greater due to the interaction with digital and audio-visual media. The general objective is to analyze and describe the experiences of university students on paper-based learning called traditional and audio-visual learning called e-learning, for which a quantitative descriptive and correlational methodology was used with a measurement instrument through an anonymous and voluntary survey with 1240 participants. The results have acceptable statistics and are demonstrated with the confirmatory factor analysis, showing the preference for hybrid learning. Conclusion, students request that universities implement this methodology (hybrid) to work properly and have a quality education in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the premise of today's socialist modernization construction, the development and progress of the country require more outstanding talents such as aspiring youth and intellectuals to participate, which puts forward higher requirements for education quality indicators and various aspects of operation. As the main institution and environment for implementing educational activities, the effectiveness of school management organization has a direct impact and even a decisive role on the quality of education. Therefore, how to improve the quality management of school education has become a hot topic in the education industry. The education quality management evaluation in higher education institutions is viewed as the multiple-attribute decision-making (MADM) issue. In this paper, the interval-valued neutrosophic number cross-entropy (IVNN-CE) technique is built under interval-valued neutrosophic sets (IVNSs) based on the traditional cross-entropy technique. Then, combine traditional cross-entropy technique with IVNSs, the IVNN-CE technique is constructed for MADM under IVNSs. Finally, the numerical example for education quality management evaluation in higher education institutions was constructed and some comparisons is employed to verify advantages of IVNN-CE technique. The main contribution of this paper is constructed: (1) the cross-entropy model is extended to IVNSs; (1) the CRITIC technique is employed to construct the attribute weights under IVNSs; (3) the IVNN-CE technique is constructed to manage the MADM under IVNSs; (4) a case study about education quality management evaluation in higher education institutions is constructed to show the built technique; (5) some comparative algorithms are constructed to verify the rationality of IVNN-CE technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a critical normative analysis of charter schools. It categorizes and evaluates the main arguments in defense of charters: market competition, improved learning outcomes, autonomy and innovation, and their potential to function as "counterpublics." After finding each argument wanting, the paper proposes a tripartite critique of charters based on (i) their deleterious effects on social solidarity, (ii) the procedural injustice involved in access, and (iii) their substantively unjust outcomes. We show how charter schools undermine social and political solidarity by fragmenting communities into more homogenous subsets. Although they purport to be equally open to all, charters covertly rely on morally arbitrary characteristics such as class, race, and disability in admissions. Finally, we argue that they unfairly reduce the quality of education for some students, thus resulting in substantively unjust outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies the reasons children and young people leave school early in Merauke, Papua, and advances education policy initiatives to address these causes. Indonesia has a policy of 12 years of compulsory schooling, but many in Papua leave school early. The Indonesian government considers that children mainly leave school early for economic reasons, and addresses the problem through its social welfare programmes, as well as 'supply- side' factors such as the number of schools. This paper uses mainly ethnographic data, especially life histories collected from 22 young people and adults who left school early, to argue that besides economic reasons, the on-again- off-again history of schooling, the extremely problematic nature of that schooling, as well as socio-cultural causes such as the stigmatisation of the local Marind people, self-stigmatisation and cultural discontinuity, combine to push children to leave school early. Multiple initiatives are suggested to improve the quality of education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis paper presents a walking art experiment called ‘Line Walk’ aimed at attuning to more-than-human landscapes. The researchers wanted to expand the methodological repertoires for engaging with contemporary semi-urban and urban living environments. A second goal was to increase attentiveness to multispecies relationality and thus challenge uncritically normative notions of nature in environmental educational research. The experiment demonstrates how a walking art protocol has the potential to work as a catalyst to expose walking human bodies to the material, affective, and sensory relationalities of the landscapes. Additionally, it can generate encounters with ghostly, atmospheric presences of past histories and hints of more-than-human world-making projects and their temporal scales. We suggest that the value of such an experiment lies in its capacity to take researchers from comfort zones to multispecies and multitemporal contact zones and to help them trace back and out the material entanglements of humans with the planet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are increasing demands for teachers to continue to improve the quality of education. This focus is evident in the Early Childhood Education and Care sector in Australia where the professionalisation agenda is tied to teacher professional learning. While the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (AITSL) has strengthened expectations on teachers to engage with research and become inquirers into their own practice, current early childhood documents that guide practice use non-descript terms without ascribing them to research or researching. We argue that greater opportunities are needed for early childhood teachers to be recognised as consumers and producers of research and validated as researchers of their own practice. Professional learning programs, such as the Supporting Oral Language Development (SOLD) Program outlined in this paper, provide the potential to acknowledge and build the research skills of early childhood teachers, thereby supporting their self-efficacy and confidence as researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports results from an Australian study into how teachers see features of quality in student work and connect these to next‐step teaching. Data were drawn from a national 3 year project investigating teacher judgement using A–E standards. The project developed scaled exemplars of authentic student written performance assessments to support teacher judgement and inform next‐step teaching and learning. Fifty‐seven participants created evaluative explanations of grading decisions (i.e. cognitive commentaries), wrote reflective responses and participated in online meeting discussions of their cognitive commentaries. These data were examined using qualitative content and thematic analyses. Findings highlighted how stated standards influence teachers' judgements of student work. Variation was evident in teachers' focus on (1) content (i.e. core skills vs. extended thinking), (2) specificity of improvement points and suggested teaching strategies and (3) the connection between identified areas for improvement and teaching strategies. Most teachers were able to identify specific points for improvement. However, in the main, they selected next‐step teaching strategies that were general rather than targeted and specific. Teachers reflected that structured analysis helped direct their thinking and judgements, targeting attention on next‐step teaching. The results suggested that teacher education and professional development should focus on supporting teachers to link specific teaching strategies to identified student weaknesses. This study found that artefacts, such as cognitive commentaries that connect assessment, teaching and learning, can help build professional knowledge and expertise, which remain key components of teacher assessment literacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, computational intelligence-assisted autonomous assessment of education quality has become a more and more general concern in the area of smart education management. As education quality assessment is a complicated process with multiple heterogeneous factors, it remains challenging to make effective assessment using simple information modality and criteria. To deal with this issue, this paper introduces multiscale deep learning, and proposes a novel data-driven autonomous assessment framework for education quality. In particular, four aspects of heterogeneous indicators are selected as the basic indexes and a dilated convolutional neural network structure is formulated to perform multiscale feature extraction. Then, the structural equation is adopted to make multivariate characterization and output the final assessment results. At last, some simulations are carried out on realistic education operation data to evaluate the efficiency of the proposed autonomous assessment framework. Two aspects of findings can be deduced from the results. For one thing, multisource fusion of multiple indicators well makes sense to autonomous education assessment. For another, multiscale deep learning can provide some beneficial promotion to assessment efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a research project that heard the perspectives on and experiences of the Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) programme of a range of stakeholders in post-primary schools. The researchers listened to students aged from 13 to 18 years, to teachers of RSE, to principals and to parents/guardians in six post-primary schools across the Republic of Ireland. We found that teacher comfortability is one of the key components in the delivery of high-quality and effective RSE. By 'comfortability' we mean knowledge, expertise, confidence and appropriate pedagogical skills to teach this particular material. This view was shared by students, teachers, principals as well as some parents who commented on this aspect of RSE. We found that there are several factors that impede teacher comfortability, namely lack of qualification in Social Personal and Health Education/RSE, lack of initial teacher education input in this area, limited access to continuing professional development, an absence of mandated curriculum content and fear of external criticism especially by parents. Our findings are very similar to those of the NCCA [2019. Report on the Review of Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) in Primary and Post-Primary Schools. December. Dublin: NCCA] evaluation that took place in a similar time-frame and included a similar range of participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite steady investment to improve early childhood progammes in recent years, many Jamaican early childhood institutions are ill‐prepared or unable to adequately meet the developmental needs of children for a number of reasons. Such schools are often labelled as failing or low quality. While teachers and schools are often blamed for this, an overlooked consideration in all this however is the preparedness of the existing systems, structures and policies to support the Early Childhood sector to carry out its function. [Corrections made on 30 April 2024, after first online publication: In the preceding sentence, 'systems and policies' has been corrected to 'systems, structures and policies' and 'their function' has been corrected to 'its function' in this version.] This article examines system quality in Early Childhood Care and Education and the implications for policy. System quality is an important yet often overlooked aspect of education. Four aspects of system quality were examined in this paper; the forms and dimensions of ECCE, the financing of ECCE and Laws and Regulations governing the system and current priorities relevant to ECCE. The gaps and strengths in the system are examined as well as implications of these on Early Childhood Care and Education policies are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning and development are well established as concepts in educational psychology. Gert Biesta has used terms such as "learnification" and "developmentalism" to describe a tendency that, in his view, removes existential qualities from teaching and education. Although important in the right contexts, the concepts do not represent the core of what education should be about, he claims. Jostein Sæther notes that in many ways he shares Biesta's view on the most fundamental quality of education, i.e., helping young people exist as independent subjects in confrontation with their own will, responsibility, and freedom. In this paper, he addresses the overarching question of whether it is possible and desirable to think educationally about psychology in educational theory, specifically through relating Biesta's critique to selected handbooks, reviews, and metaliterature. Sæther does not propose integrating educational psychology into Biesta's existential theory but rather hopes to open a dialogue on different points of view that challenge each other in fruitful ways. The process of discussing certain principles, problems, and examples should yield a certain kind of "unclean" educational psychology, one that is relevant to "subjectification." There are problems related to eclecticism and the tension between essence and existence, yet, in this context, Sæther sees a dialogical project as the only way forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the relationship between self-regulated learning (SRL) and personal learning environments (PLE) in light of the educational academic literature of the decade 2010–2020. This study uses a systematized literature review followed by a qualitative analysis of the most cited literature to establish a narrative that highlights and deconstructs the close relationship between learners' SRL skills, and their capacity to develop and refine their PLE. For this purpose, in this analysis we explore (1) the presence of the PLE concept in the 200 most referenced papers published on SRL, and (2) the relationship between the two concepts, as they appear in the 20 most frequently cited articles that include both of them. Results show that SRL is linked to an educational and mixed perspective on the PLE concept, and that a variety of designs and platforms exist for teaching strategies linking SRL and PLE in educational practices. In-depth analysis suggests a series of features that reveal the influence of SRL in the PLE concept. Conclusions address recommendations for further work to explore these features and the manner in which they can extend the features of the relationship between PLE and SRL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the phenomenon of Sundanese political identity by Paguyuban Pasundan in the 2020 regional head elections in various regions such as Medan City, Malawi Regency, Riau Islands Province, and Jembrana Regency, where ethnic similarities and similar interests are the two factors behind the support of Pasundan Association. in supporting one of the candidate pairs in the regional head election in that area. This article uses the theory of political identity. The research method uses qualitative descriptive analysis. The data collection method was used through a study of related literature to explore and describe how political identity is used as a basis for supporting candidate pairs. Researchers use at least two different sources or methods to collect similar data. Triangulation of sources used in this research was carried out by confirming articles that showed support for the candidate pair as well as several statements issued by the Pasundan community regarding support for the candidate pairThe results of this paper illustrate that the Pasundan community in the regional head election contest supports one pair of candidates based on the same identity. In this case, Sundanese ethnicity and similar interests, which is the struggle of the Pasundan community to fight poverty and ignorance through the availability of employment opportunities and improving the quality of education seen from the commitment of the candidate pair to carry these aspirations in their leadership if elected in the 2020 regional head election. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concern about the quality of preservice preparation programs provided for new and aspiring principals in China have led to calls to evaluate current programs through participant perspectives. This paper addresses this research gap by reporting research with participants on one national training program in a Southern province of China. A mixed methods study has been conducted, including survey and interviews, to provide both quantitative and qualitative data. Documentary analysis, including relevant policies and program information, were also included as supplementary resources. The findings show that the program offered a wide- ranging learning spectrum for participants, including comprehensive knowledge construction and a variety of training approaches. It was, however, criticized by the participants for its limited attention to practice-based knowledge and skills, leading to modest engagement and motivation during the learning process and impact on practice. It is proposed that policy makers and researchers may need to develop a more comprehensive and longitudinal evaluation system, that includes participant feedback, to develop and improve existing school leadership preservice- preparation programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This critical discussion paper explores the epistemic governance of "community readiness" in and for teacher education. Classroom ready is often interpreted as technical skill which places emphasis on practice to the detriment of more complex interpretations of the relational nature of teachers' work, leading to a potential narrowing of teachers' professional roles. Importantly, classrooms do not exist in a vacuum. We seek to untangle the discursive clusters and processes that can be taken for granted in terms such as "community" and the implications for teacher education that serves quality education and teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "innovation and Entrepreneurship" education focuses on cultivating students' "innovation and Entrepreneurship" abilities, reflecting the fundamental requirements of economic progress and social development for the knowledge, ability, and quality structure of talents. Local universities should actively promote the reform of talent cultivation models, establish a scientific "innovation and Entrepreneurship" education target system based on the actual situation of the school, strengthen the construction of "innovation and Entrepreneurship" education courses, build various "innovation and Entrepreneurship" practice platforms, pay attention to the interaction between the first and second classrooms, as well as practical and training platforms, serve the growth and talent development of students, and achieve a comprehensive improvement in the quality of school education, teaching, and talent cultivation. The "innovation and Entrepreneurship" education quality evaluation of local colleges could be considered as multiple attribute decision-making (MADM). Recently, the Combined Compromise Solution (CoCoSo) method and information entropy method was employed to deal with MADM. The triangular fuzzy neutrosophic sets (TFNSs) are employed as a better tool for expressing uncertain information during the "innovation and Entrepreneurship" education quality evaluation of local colleges. In this paper, the triangular fuzzy neutrosophic number CoCoSo (TFNN-CoCoSo) based on the TFNN grey rational coefficients (TFNNGRC) from TFNN positive ideal solution (TFNNPIS) is constructed to cope with the MADM under TFNSs. The information entropy method is employed to compute the weight values based on the TFNNGRC from TFNNPIS under TFNSs. Finally, a numerical example of "innovation and Entrepreneurship" education quality evaluation of local colleges is constructed and some decision comparisons are constructed to verify the TFNN-CoCoSo method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) book is an indispensable carrier for the implementation of the strategy for invigorating China through science and education. Developing high-quality TCM book publishing industry plays a very important role in training TCM talents, improving the quality of TCM education, and enhancing the confidence in the traditional culture. This paper reviewed the historical process of the TCM book publishing industry from its beginning to the present, and proposed nine problems for promoting the high-quality development of TCM book publishing in the current environment, aiming at the pain points and difficulties existing in the current development of the publishing industry. It fundamentally points out the development direction and coping strategies of the future TCM book publishing, and promotes the high-quality development of the benign, orderly and sustainable publishing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the factors influencing preferences for undergraduate study using administrative data on applications to the state university system of Sri Lanka, which is characterized by centralized administration, rule-based admissions, and virtually costless applications. The feature of costless applications implies that students are unconstrained from listing out all the programs for which they wish to be considered, while the rule-based nature of admissions makes it possible to identify the exact program choice set available to each applicant. Using the constructed choice sets, I estimate a conditional logit model including measures of institutional and program quality and academic and social matching between the student and the programs to which they are eligible. The results suggest that applicants prefer programs that are more closely matched to their ability and demographic profile, though there is some heterogeneity across genders, socio-economic status, and ability. Among the measures of institutional quality, students prefer those related to the quality of teaching, such as faculty qualifications and student teacher ratios, over the quality of research. These findings have important implications for policymakers and managers aiming to propose and develop new programs or improve the quality of existing programs and institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]