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Since its establishment in 1972, the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) has been providing improved access to education and certification for both in-school and out-of-school students in the Caribbean. In order to optimize the benefits of its courses of study and examinations to out-of-school students, CXC had to treat with the challenge of the School-Based Assessment which must be undertaken under the guidance of the teacher and is therefore designed for in-school students. In response, CXC developed the Alternative Paper to School-Based Assessment which is an external examination paper. This article examines the value of the Alternative Paper in the examinations of CXC. It explains how the Alternative Paper provides an alternative path for the completion and certification of a secondary school education. The author argues that the Alternative Paper opens up, for the out-of-school person, opportunities that are similar to those from which the in-school student benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The escape room game is an example of digital game‐based learning that has become a popular learning tool in recent years. However, not enough is known about enthusiasm for and promising reports of the use of escape rooms in education. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of escape room game‐based civics education on eighth grade students' learning motivation, critical thinking and flow experience. To explore the effects, a quasi‐experimental pretest–posttest with a control group design method was employed. The participants were 76 eighth grade students. The subjects were divided into two groups: the experimental group, which used an escape room game, and the control group which used the Google classroom digital platform. The results of the study indicated that there was a significant difference between the two groups in favour of the experimental group in terms of learning motivation. There was a significant difference between the two groups' critical thinking in favour of the experimental group for the ‘assumption’ and ‘interpretation’ subscales of the critical thinking test. Regarding flow experience, the experimental group performed significantly better than the control group. Finally, based on the research results, suggestions are made for the future use of escape room games for teaching and for future research. Practitioner notes What is already known about this topic Escape room games have substantial potential for enhancing learning, motivation and critical thinking. Studies promoting mental flow, integrating complex skills and using multiple strategies in a game context are limited. What this paper adds Students' mind flow experience and critical thinking were enhanced through escape room games. The escape room game made the learning process more varied, triggered students' interest, and improved their learning motivation. This study compared the effect of escape room game‐based learning with the Google Classroom platform, not the traditional teaching approach. Implications for practice and/or policy Escape room games offer learners innovative opportunities to develop critical thinking skills. Using an appropriately designed escape room as a game‐based learning environment is an effective and motivating game‐based learning approach. The realistic and interactive nature of escape room games is an important factor that influences learners' mind‐flow experiences. What is already known about this topic Escape room games have substantial potential for enhancing learning, motivation and critical thinking. Studies promoting mental flow, integrating complex skills and using multiple strategies in a game context are limited. What this paper adds Students' mind flow experience and critical thinking were enhanced through escape room games. The escape room game made the learning process more varied, triggered students' interest, and improved their learning motivation. This study compared the effect of escape room game‐based learning with the Google Classroom platform, not the traditional teaching approach. Implications for practice and/or policy Escape room games offer learners innovative opportunities to develop critical thinking skills. Using an appropriately designed escape room as a game‐based learning environment is an effective and motivating game‐based learning approach. The realistic and interactive nature of escape room games is an important factor that influences learners' mind‐flow experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines the emergent findings and theoretical foundations of Reading Climate: Indigenous literatures, English and Sustainable Futures, cross disciplinary research in Indigenous Studies, Education, and Literary Studies. Our team investigates epistemologies for the teaching of secondary subject English and tertiary courses and how they might be productively reworked. We draw on ‘Indigenous relationality’ as proposed by Mary Graham, Elder Scholar of the Kombumerri clan of the Yugambeh Nation as a core principle in shifting English pedagogy from text-focused close reading. We investigate how a move from exclusively close-reading approaches is important because of the ways in which such a scholarly practice is premised on both potentially canonical and thus Eurocentric intertexts, and the abstraction of the text from cultural and authorial sovereignty. Further, close reading limits the use of textual artefacts, and the knowledge contained within them, to literary concerns of structure, features, devices, effects, and audiences. Here we show how reader relationality involves the reader's reflective stance, the writing's contexts, the guidance of the writer, and the function of the reading process. This paper contributes to and extends approaches to English arguing that inclusion of Indigenous writing in curriculum includes but must go beyond text selection and adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A rich literature has argued that so-called aspiration-raising policies tend to individualize structural conditions and thereby reproduce forms of inequality through young people's aspirations. This paper explores how aspiration-raising policy discourses are lived in ways that both accentuate but that might also contest their terms. Drawing on Lauren Berlant, we theorize aspiration as ongoing performances that can be altered and remade in affective scenes of interruption. We put our theorization to work in a longitudinal study that followed a young woman, Marie, throughout her upper secondary education. Whilst Marie's performances of aspiration predominantly chimed with such individualistic policy discourses, she would also describe moments where these performances were seemingly interrupted. These were moments where Marie vividly experienced concerns related to planetary crises. The analysis carefully unpacks these moments, and we argue that they bring Marie into contact with the political stakes in her life and lead her to search for alternative, more sustainable, and collective modalities of aspiration. Hence, supplementing previous studies that have shown how inequality is reproduced through aspirations, the paper contributes with new understandings of how alternative modalities of aspiration may emerge that potentially exceed structural limits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines three questions: (1) (How) Is democracy promoted in secondary schools in England? (2) How is the promotion of democracy understood in education and teacher education policy? and (3) To what extent does existing education policy benefit the promotion of democracy in schools in England? To explore these questions, we first discuss the policy landscape surrounding democratic education in England. We then outline our data collection and analysis methods, which comprised (a) the coding of ten different policy documents, including curriculum specifications, teaching standards and inspection frameworks, and (b) the utilisation of an original survey of more than 3000 teachers working in approximately 50% of all secondary schools in England. Together, our data allow us to raise three important points. First, education and teacher education policy neglects to specify 'how' democracy should be promoted and by 'whom'. Second, schools are offering scant provision of democratic education. Third, the majority of teachers feel fundamentally underprepared to teach democracy. We conclude this paper by arguing that, if policymakers do wish to promote democracy, there is a need for a cohesive policy and teacher education approach that guarantees democratic education for all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The combined use of origami and dynamic geometry software has recently appeared in mathematics education to enrich students' geometric thinking. The objective of this research is to study the roles played by the interaction of two artifacts, paper folding and GeoGebra, in a construction-proving problem as well as its generalization in the Euclidean geometry context. For this, we designed and implemented two mathematical tasks with 52 secondary education students (15–16 years old, 10th grade) during the COVID-19 emergency lockdown period in Italy. The tasks involved four phases: constructing, exploring, conjecturing, and proving. This article presents an epistemic analysis of the tasks and a cognitive analysis of the answers given by one of the students. The theoretical tools of the onto-semiotic approach supported these analyses. Cognitive analysis allows us to confront the intended meanings of the task and the meanings actually employed by a student, thus drawing specific conclusions about the roles of such artifacts in written arguments and give an interpretation of their combined use in mathematics education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this proof-of-concept paper, we propose a specific kind of pedagogical use of ChatGPT—to help teachers practice their Socratic dialogue skills. We follow up on the previously published paper 'ChatGPT and the frustrated Socrates' by re-examining ChatGPT's ability to engage in Socratic dialogue in the role of a physics student. While in late 2022 its ability to engage in such dialogue was poor, we see significant advancements in the chatbot's ability to respond to leading questions asked by a human teacher. We suggest that ChatGPT now has the potential to be used in teacher training to help pre- or in-service physics teachers hone their Socratic dialogue skills. In the paper and its supplemental material, we provide illustrative examples of Socratic dialogues with ChatGPT and present a report on a pilot activity involving pre-service physics and mathematics teachers conversing with it in a Socratic fashion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this conceptual paper, the author argues that equity research in mathematics education is a genre that operates according to certain implicit ideological and rhetorical rules and assumptions—or discursive formations—that form how one can think about equity and inequity. One such rule that forms the basis of this paper is the axiom of racialized deviance, a logical tool developed by whiteness to establish its dominance and to justify physical, psychic, and epistemic violence against blackness. The author takes up whiteness and blackness related to global systems of racialization beyond the reference to white and Black people that is more typical in the United States. The author proposes three ways that the deviance axiom shows up in equity research in mathematics education: ethnomathematics, repair orientations, and success counternarratives. This issue of racialized deviance unveils equity research in mathematics education as a project whose logical foundations undermine its stated aims. The logic of global white supremacy under which school mathematics operates creates a situation where it is impossible for equity in mathematics education to exist outside because the genre requires that anyone who elects to participate accepts the axiom of racialized deviance on some level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an introduction to issues surrounding the participation rights of young people in research and the implications of their growing involvement in research as well as providing a discourse on the ethical implications related to consent. The unique contribution of this paper is that it considers children’s rights in respect to the increasing opportunities for young people to take part in evaluation research. The aim of this paper, therefore, is to acknowledge the growing involvement for young people in research and the implications of ensuring that their rights of participation are respected. Secondly, we will consider the children’s rights legislation and our obligations as researchers to implement this. Finally, we will explore consent as an issue in its own right as well as the practicalities of accessing participants. This paper will postulate that any research about young people should involve and prioritize at all stages of the research process; including participation in decision-making. We conclude by identifying five key principles, which we believe can help to facilitate the fulfilment of post-primary pupils’ ability to consent to participate in trials and evaluative research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The journey to pursue and persist with a career in STEM is a complex process that begins at a young age, continues across secondary education and the end of school transition to university. Such decisions are influenced by a range of personal, social and environmental factors, highlighting the practical complexities of supporting young people in their transition to university. This paper explores the post-school transition of two students, one female and one male, with strong technological dispositions and aspirations to pursue careers in STEM fields. We focus on two STEM disciplines, Information Technology and Engineering, chosen by our participants. We employ the theory of practice (Bourdieu 1977) to analyse two students' experience of transition. The findings from these case studies are not intended to be generalised. Rather the in-depth stories and theoretical case analysis provides a nuanced account of transition to study STEM disciplines. Importantly, the pathways into university were not equal for the participants. Class and gender intersected with university structures to enable and constrain students' transition highlighting the significance of institutional supports within STEM disciplines to better support diverse students across the period of transition to university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Equal opportunities in the context of education can be interpreted as ensuring equitable access to certain kinds of education (e.g. an academic track) or as equal opportunities to lead a fulfilling life regardless of the educational route followed (e.g. vocational or academic). These interpretations are in tension: the former implies a hierarchy where some forms of education are considered better than others, whereas the latter requires that they are all considered valuable. This paper presents a case study of a secondary school in the Netherlands that pursued both interpretations of equal opportunities and made systemic reforms to achieve this. Building on interviews, focus groups and participant observation with students, staff and management, the paper analyses the tension these actors experienced between the two interpretations of equal opportunities. It is argued that this stems from a societal context that endorses the first interpretation of equal opportunities but aligns less with the second interpretation. The analysis shows that individual institutions like schools have limited power to shift narratives surrounding educational tracks, especially when these do not align with prevailing trends in society. Additionally, the paper underlines the value of applying analysis of different interpretations of equal opportunities, which is usually undertaken by theoretical work, to empirical data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

Unprecedented global temperatures have brought the question of how to teach sensitive issues of climate change to the fore. In this paper we suggest that a refocusing on adaptation productively shifts the debate to climate justice and practical solutions to building community resilience. The paper examines a practice-led project that sought to innovate and test the use of participatory storytelling with young people to explore climate adaptation. Our insights relate to two areas: first, the benefits of mutual learning through engaging in dialogue with frontline communities; second, how participatory storytelling supports emotionally intelligent sensemaking, agency and leadership by providing both 'connections' and 'containers' for engaging with climate. [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]

This paper explores the extent to which Biology syllabi are open to students' engagement with and acquisition of critical thinking skills in Tanzania's developing country context. It focuses on the Biology syllabus of Ordinary-level secondary education and that of Advanced-level secondary education. The paper reports the findings of a study whose primary objective was to explore the coherence of the two syllabi under review with the elements of critical thinking skills drawn from extant literature. The analysis also entailed exploring the coherence between the specific objectives of the syllabi linked with critical thinking skills and the assessment questions suggested. The study used the Atlas TI programme to analyse the data to achieve the research objectives. The findings revealed that the specific objectives in the syllabi under review focus mostly on lower order thinking (LOT) skills, according to Bloom's taxonomy of learning, rather than on higher order or critical thinking skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the central arguments of 'Working Paper 36: Religious Education in the Secondary School,' published by the Schools Council. Its critique of Christian confessionalism in education; Its advocacy of a phenomenological approach to religious education; Its strategy for developing tolerance among adherents of different religions or none.

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]

Throughout The Chronicles of Narnia, nature plays a prominent role in driving good's triumph over evil, and while Lewis's environmental activism in writing Narnia has gained critical attention, the connection between his penchant for nature and his educational philosophy has not yet been accordingly considered. Stemming from his early studies of Wordsworth's Prelude, Lewis illustrates the crucial correlation between children spending time in nature and developing imagination. Lewis replaces English school systems and educational philosophy with natural images ranging from the transformation of pupil desks into rose bushes in Prince Caspian to Aslan's emergence from the forest and subsequent abolition of Experiment House in The Silver Chair, connecting nature's role in children's moral development to their formal education. Lewis's concerns expressed in Narnia draw renewed relevance with the prominence of technology and standardized testing in today's classrooms. As Richard Louv argues in Last Child in the Woods, twenty-first century children are experiencing an alienation from nature that is causing physical and spiritual damage. This paper will explore Lewis's educational philosophy as evidenced within the natural settings of The Chronicles of Narnia, its ramifications in a twenty-first century context and the real-world results of incorporating nature-based education into classrooms for all ages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I look at how gender is performed in fanfiction, specifically in gender-swap stories within the Harry Potter fandom. Fanfiction is not constrained by any editorial oversight, and there are no financial considerations attached to either reading or writing it, two facts which make it a unique and essential part of the discourse surrounding children's literature. Anyone can write and read it, and there are very few narrative constraints, both of which make the characters and the worlds open to almost infinite types of adaptation. Rather than being closed off within a printed text, the characters take on an elasticity which allows them to exist in worlds, relationships and stories outside their source material. This narrative freedom means fan fictions act not just as textual adaptations, but also social commentaries, narrative sites which are plastic enough to allow writers to project themselves and their opinions onto pre-existing and familiar characters. This elasticity and textual fluidity lends itself very well to a study of contemporary performances of gender, which in turn reveals how the offline publishing market's adherence to a patriarchal hegemony continues to produce a gender imbalance in terms of both subject and author privilege, something which doesn't adequately reflect either the desires or the reading habits of contemporary children and young adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper combines the perspectives of animal studies and reception theory to trace the audience shift of narratives foregrounding interactions between adolescent boys and animals published in the US in the first half of the twentieth century. More precisely, it argues that a text's focus on human–animal bonds can result in its "kiddification," a term explained by Beverly Lyon Clark as trivialization that leads to dismissal. We argue that the reasons for this shift include the solidification of the boy-and-his-dog convention in the 1940s as an example of formula fiction for juveniles, combined with the simultaneous proliferation of animal movies geared towards a family audience. The case under scrutiny is Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings's novel The Yearling and its film adaptation from 1946. Despite the book's initial success among general audiences (awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1939), with time Kinnan Rawlings's novel became "kiddified" and then passed into oblivion, rarely discussed by critics who deem it undeserving of attention and unread by contemporary juveniles, who perhaps find the book difficult, long and tedious (Groff, Harper's, https://harpers.org/archive/2014/01/the-lost-yearling/, 2014). Consequently, the foregrounding of affective human–animal bonds in the book resulted in its later association with children's literature, which was amplified by the film adaptation as well as the publisher's marketing strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) as a secondary school subject is affected by two policies, namely the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) and Progress 8, which contribute to the measurement of performance in exams at age 16 (GCSEs). In this paper, I discuss the concept of performance measurement in schools and the purpose it purportedly serves, before outlining these two policies and considering how they contribute to the culture of performance measurement and a non-neutral discourse around 'standards'. I argue that the two policies act in tension in a game of tug of war with one another in such a way that the net positive effect on the subject of MFL is zero, but that the negative effect on students is substantial. I suggest that the policies act to impose middle-class notions of what it means to be educated on students, with a substantial negative effect on students from low socio-economic status backgrounds both in terms of their interest in the subject and their perceptions of their own value within the education system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A systematic literature review (SLR) of seven papers written between 2015 and 2021 explored the educational experiences of learners with dyslexia in mainstream schools in England from an ecosystemic perspective and how to improve the situation. The analysis employed keywords for database searches and followed the PRISMA flow protocol. It synthesised evidence using thematic analysis and identified seven themes: dyslexia challenges; differential treatment; negative stereotypes; early intervention; teachers' training; power dynamics; and collaboration. The results suggest that several factors can influence the learning experiences of learners with dyslexia in English mainstream schools. Similarly, such factors can, in turn, be dependent on education policies. On that premise, this systematic literature review recommends that to promote positive learning experiences for learners with dyslexia, classroom strategies targeting interventions should be supported with broader environmental strategies shaping individuals' learning experience and offer support from different perspectives. A whole‐school approach to providing intervention, teachers' training, parents and school partnerships, and professional collaboration can improve learners' educational experiences. A further recommendation is for learning interventions to target all learners, to prevent differential treatment of learners with dyslexia and to avoid them standing out from their peers and creating a negative experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Research on cognitive effects of educational games in general shows promising results. However, there are large variations in learning outcomes between individual educational games. Research on the design process and different design elements of educational games has led to some interesting directions, but some design aspects remain unclear. Objectives: We examined how an educational game designed on the basis of intrinsic integration theory, based on a strong alignment between game and learning goals, supports the learning of Newtonian mechanics. Methods: This study applied a mixed‐methods approach (N = 223). A pre‐ and post‐test design was used to examine possible learning and transfer effects fostered by playing the educational game, Newton's Race. To examine how players played the game, log data for each player were digitally recorded during gameplay. Results and Conclusions: Our findings demonstrated a significant positive learning effect of Newton's Race (p = 0.003, d = 0.201). This can be explained through the acquired log data. Log data show that players' gameplay mostly matched expected learning during the game, with physically correct game settings occurring more and more as gameplay progressed. The ability to transfer learned knowledge to other situations was shown to be limited to situations closely resembling the game environment. Implications: Similarly, designed intrinsically integrated games on different (physics) subjects could also foster learning in a relative short time. To foster transfer to other situations we propose embedding the game within other instructional activities. Lay Description: What is already known about this topic?: Research on cognitive effects of educational games in general shows promising results.There are large variations in learning outcomes between individual educational games.Some design aspects remain unclear on the design process and different design elements of educational games.Attempting to integrate learning with gameplay, without affecting the enjoyability of the game, is not easily achieved. What this paper adds?: The current study fits within the research body that emphasizes the importance of aligning gameplay with learning in educational games (i.e., intrinsic integration).Evidence for intrinsic integration as a key element in the design process, found by examining players' log data.A better understanding of how an intrinsically integrated game supports the learning of Newtonian mechanics. Implications for practice and/or policy: Similarly, designed intrinsically integrated games on different (physics) subjects could also foster learning in a relative short time.To foster transfer to other situations we propose embedding the game within other instructional activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To address youth mental health needs, student wellbeing has traditionally referred to caring for individuals' psychological health and subjective emotions. However, an individual subjective psychological approach is insufficient in addressing society's responsibilities to enable individuals to live a happy and fulfilling life. A more comprehensive conceptualisation of student wellbeing is needed to understand the needs of individuals to stay well in society. Hence, the purpose of this article is to re-conceptualise student wellbeing from a relational perspective, emphasising wellbeing as happening, fluid, and always becoming. Taking student wellbeing in secondary education in China as a case, this paper discusses how student wellbeing is currently understood through a non-Westernised lens. The discussions of Chinese students' wellbeing might be extended to other social groups where wellbeing is conceptualised as 'being-well-in-relationships'. This is both about 'fitting in' and embracing an active pursuit of personal development within the context of interconnected relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on migrant youth's school transitions has focused on the country of residence, ignoring migrant youth's pre-migration lives in the country of origin. Drawing on 14 months of multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork between Ghana and Germany, this paper instead analyses school transitions through migrant youth's mobility trajectories, encompassing all geographic moves and concurrent family constellations over time and space, both before and after migration. A mobility lens shows how resources gained in the country of origin – including confidence, discipline, respect, and adaptability – help migrant youth navigate their school transitions in the country of residence, thus becoming forms of transnational cultural capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the design of a new teaching-learning sequence on quantum physics aimed at upper secondary school students. In this teaching-learning sequence, GeoGebra simulations and interactive screen experiments are used to investigate the behaviour of a single photon at beam splitter and single photon interference in a Michelson interferometer. We propose a minimal formalism using Dirac notation, which avoids complex numbers and elaborate vector calculus, to make a quantitative description of the quantum optics experiments accessible to secondary school students. With this new educational pathway, we take into account findings from physics education research, which suggest that the introduction of a mathematical formalism tailored to students' abilities might help them to overcome naive-realist views of quanta or space-time descriptions of quantum phenomena, while at the same time facilitating a transition to a functional understanding of quantum models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teaching the colour of stars is not as trivial as one might think. It can be challenging for students to grasp that the colour of stars follows a temperature sequence. This paper introduces a simple experimental setup for instructing the correlation between a star's colour and its temperature. Furthermore, the experimental setup facilitates the exploration of the topic of colour addition, demonstrating to students how to replicate the colour of a star—a spectrum colour—by employing an RGB LED that emits only primary colours (red, green, and blue). The experiment utilised an Arduino microcontroller board in conjunction with RGB LEDs and an LCD display. The activity was conducted with 53 7th-grade students from a private school in Portugal results suggest a positive reception, indicating success in both motivational and cognitive aspects. The overall outcomes underscore the effectiveness of the activity in imparting new knowledge to students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the great mysteries of contemporary science is dark matter, an exotic substance of unknown nature that, in theory, makes up about 27% of the total mass-energy density of the Universe, and which does not appear to emit, absorb, or reflect any kind of light, meaning that it is invisible and can only be detected through its gravitational effects on objects around it. Dark matter is a frontier topic, involving highly complex subjects that usually exceed the training of a physics teacher. Given this difficulty, the aim of this paper is to shed some light on dark matter, and to offer a broad, up-to-date introduction that is mainly directed at physics teachers in training and in practice. Due to the breadth of the subject, the article has been divided into two parts. In Part I, we deal with general concepts, which serve as an introduction to the more specific topics analysed in Part II. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This follow-up study presents a design-based research (DBR) setting implemented over a three-year project called 'eKidZ – Teach Your Parents Well' which uses research-based learning and follows the four phases of DBR. In an iterative cycle, 20 teenagers aged 14–16 took on the role of researchers and investigated intergenerational learning and the multiplier effects of students participating in the Climate Change Education project 'k.i.d.Z.21 – Competent into the Future' on their parents, using the complete research process. Simultaneously, scientists implemented and tested the DBR setting to validate student research findings and to evaluate the quality of the educational setting. In this fully integrated DBR, using multiple methods (quantitative and qualitative), educational and scientific perspectives are brought together to evaluate students' findings and draw conclusions regarding their learning effects. These research results demonstrate that not only did students generate valid and reliable research, but – when changing perspectives – teenagers also contribute to the discussion about closing the gaps in science education and practice. By examining young people's research on Climate Change Education and recognising their contribution in scientific discourse, this paper offers a host of new insights. Teenagers take on the role of researchers and perform reliable and valid research results on intergenerational learning and multiplier effects in Climate Change Education, by completing all phases of research-based learning. Design-based research is an effective method to combine science and education and thus delivering novel insights into science education and practice. High-quality Climate Change Education fosters constructive cooperation among all participants with inter – and intragenerational learning and multiplier effects. Constructivism, transdisciplinarity and research-based learning form the basis for effective design-based research and Climate Change Education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how recreational marijuana legalization (RML) affects first‐time college enrollment in the US using a unique college‐level dataset and various estimation methods such as difference‐in‐differences and event study. I find that RML increases enrollments by approximately up to 9%, without compromising degree completion or graduation rate, and it boosts college competitiveness by offering a positive amenity, as evidenced by the rise in out‐of‐state enrollments relative to neighboring states. In addition, I find no evidence that RML affects college prices, quality, or in‐state enrollment. This effect is stronger for non‐selective public colleges in early‐adopting RML states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an analysis of the prescribed text list for senior school English (including English as an Additional Language or Dialect, EAL/D) in Queensland, Australia. Queer understandings about the normalization of cisgender and heterosexuality provide a framework to analyze prescribed texts for adolescent learners. Hetero‐cisgender norms are perpetuated through overrepresentation in endorsed texts. Representations of queer subjectivities or themes in the most highly promoted texts, those appearing on the examination list, are infrequent and minor. Reflexive justice thinking acknowledges the critique of merely identifying "who is missing" in the literature and extends the discussion to consider the complexities of the social, cultural, and political contexts that influence who gets to decide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article brings critical and postcolonial theories together with extended ethnographic research in a predominantly Latinx high school in California's "South Bay" to theorize the co-production and co-naturalization of mathematical and racial essentialization. Analysis of vignettes and interview excerpts illuminates both student uptake and resistance to homogenizing narratives of mathematics and racial personhood. Student voices from Sierra High School both evidenced the existence, stakes, and personal consequences of narrowly bounded, taken for granted, conceptions of mathematics and racial personhood and challenged these homogenizing categories. This paper contributes theory illuminating the co-construction of mathematical and racial essentialization along with examples of local critique and resistance from youth and their adult allies at one high school in the USA. Implications suggest that decolonial work in mathematics education must jointly address the narrow and essentializing frames for race and racialization and for mathematics itself as co-producing and co-naturalizing each other. This study contributes insight into mechanisms that perpetuate and also resist or disrupt these processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on pattern generalisation as a way to introduce young students to early algebra. We build on research on patterning activities that feature, in their work with algebraic thinking, both looking for sameness recursively in a pattern (especially figural patterns, but also numerical ones) and conjecturing about function-based relationships that relate variables. We propose a new approach to pattern generalisation that seeks to help children (grades 2 and 3) work both recursively and functionally, and to see how these two modes are connected through the notion of variable. We argue that a crucial change must occur in order for young learners to develop a flexible algebraic discourse. We draw on Sfard's () communication approach and on Châtelet's () notion of the virtual in order to pursue this argument. We also root our analyses within a new materialist perspective that seeks to describe phenomena in terms of material entanglement, which include, in our classroom research context, not just the children and the teacher, but also words, gestures, physical objects and arrangements, as well as numbers, operations and variables. [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]

Music education has traditionally followed a one-size-fits-all approach, often failing to address the diverse needs and preferences of individual students. A recommender system for music education is a specialized software or algorithm that helps students, educators, or music enthusiasts discover and access relevant music content, learning materials, or educational resources. This paper introduces the Graph Theory-based Information Technology(GTIT) music learning system, a revolutionary platform designed to personalize music education. The GTIT system leverages advanced technology, data-driven recommendations, and social learning networks to enhance the musical journey for students. The proposed GTIT model uses the graph theory-based music education model for the estimation of the data features with information technology. The proposed GTIT model comprises the stacked recommender model for the classification of the appropriate features in the music education data. The data for the analysis of the proposed GTIT model is collected for the existing sources. With the extracted features the recommender system is designed for the classification and recommendation of the features related to the music education. The proposed model explores the key components of the GTIT system, including the assessment of students' musical preferences, skill levels, and learning patterns. These factors are analyzed to provide tailored music recommendations that keep students engaged and motivated. Additionally, the GTIT system employs graph theory to create connections among students, fostering collaboration and social learning. Simulation results reveals that students who engage with the learning system experience significant improvements in their musical skills and knowledge. The personalized recommendations and collaborative learning environment contribute to enhanced skill development and musical progress. Moreover, the sense of community established by the system encourages peer interaction and mentorship. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the GTIT music education system's impact on students' learning experiences, skill development, and collaborative efforts. The analysis expressed the transformative potential of personalized recommendations and networked learning environments in music education. The GTIT system serves as a model for the future of music instruction, offering a promising approach for educators and institutions seeking to provide engaging and personalized music education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This small-scale pilot study aimed to establish how the mode of response in an examination affects candidates' performances on items that require an extended answer. The sample comprised 46 17-year-old students from two classes (one in a state secondary school and one in a state sixth-form college), who sat a mock A-level English Literature examination. The analysis compared writing produced on screen and on paper to try to uncover any systematic differences between the two modes of delivery. The study considered the linguistic features of the texts produced in each mode, the marks achieved and the views of the participants regarding the use of computers in essay-based examinations. The study found that the response mode had a small effect on the length of essay produced, in that students using a computer wrote more, and on the type of language used, in that students writing on paper used denser but less varied language. There was very little effect on the marks achieved. Participants expressed a variety of concerns about computer-based examinations, such as noisy keyboards, assessment of spelling, and unfairness towards those who are less comfortable with the technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among the challenges of the aquaculture sector, the present study tries to focus on the necessary modernisation and innovation of the Hungarian sector education by strategically outlining the possibility of a niche secondary-level fisheries PILOT (experimental) training. It is obvious that the "launching" of such a shortage training level is a very complex and long-term task, but in our opinion not unfeasible. To this end, we are considering the development of a multi-stage action plan, the first milestone of which will be a thorough situation survey of the aquaculture education community. The study applies a deductive approach to specific areas of education and training within the general trends in aquaculture, covering the main traces of PILOT training in fisheries as a niche discipline. Our first paper, targeted at educators, focuses on the results of a questionnaire survey of 94 educators. Our main objective was to assess the presence of aquaculture-related knowledge content and associated methodologies in the classroom and the general digital literacy of educators. Our objectives also focus on the general digital readiness of vocational trainers and on the patterns of "professional marketing" opportunities that aquaculture professionals can express. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies how students justify everyday, scientific, and pseudo-scientific propositions, and whether they recognize the type of justifications they use. For this purpose, we work with 54 students in the 3rd year of compulsory secondary education in the subject of biology and geology, in which two learning activities designed to work on the evaluation of propositions are implemented. The results provide information on the students' preference for using habits and explanations in the evaluation of everyday propositions, and expert testimony and personality traits in the evaluation of scientific and pseudoscientific propositions, as well as the inability to acknowledge explanations and personality traits. These results provide us with useful background for reflecting on how to work on epistemic cognition in the classroom and thus broaden the conceptual frameworks on epistemic cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research question at the core of this paper concerns how teachers in elite Israeli high schools explain their educational work in this context, given its central role in establishing and perpetuating privilege in the current polarised era. To answer this question, we conducted 28 interviews with teachers from three elite high schools in Israel. The findings reveal three ways teachers justified their educational work in elite schools: cultivating the 'serving elite', helping shape elite students' leftist political orientation and future voting behaviour (emphasising the idea that political leftism serves as a mitigating force against the excesses of plutocracy) and fulfilling elite children's right to a level of education commensurate with their ability. The discussion problematises these justifications by highlighting their features, which, in turn, contribute to a complex understanding of how privilege functions and how advantages and inequality are produced and perpetuated in exclusive and exclusionary elite spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing numbers of rural girls and young women in Ethiopia are migrating to urban towns and cities and taking up employment as domestic workers, some of whom continue their education by attending evening classes. For urban households, rural migrants help to fill the domestic work gaps created by the entry of urban women into employment. For rural young women, migrating as a domestic worker is an important strategy for achieving social mobility and empowerment. However, domestic workers are vulnerable and largely hidden in the city and we know little about their lived experiences. In this paper, we start to address this gap, drawing on interviews with eight rural female migrants who are working as domestic workers in the city and attending evening classes in urban secondary schools. Informed by a critical framing of empowerment, we explore the extent to which intersecting inequalities in rural areas disempower these young women, and how migration and education become important strategies for improving their lives. We show how the support of social network members is crucial in enabling participants' migration, yet how this also leads to power asymmetries and exploitation. We reflect on how the ability of rural young women to achieve better futures is limited due to their status as poor, rural, female migrants, yet how many wait in the city in the hope of a better future. Our analysis demonstrates the importance of critical approaches to female empowerment that includes a focus on structural inequalities and power imbalances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that processes of marginalisation experienced by white working-class students provide insight into systemic problems with the English education system. White British students eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) are a low attaining group. This research investigates factors affecting their engagement and achievement. Fieldwork in three comprehensive secondary schools in a London borough used qualitative methods to gather data on the perspectives of staff, students and parents. Using Bourdieu's conceptual tools to guide the analysis, the study found that performance pressure and funding cuts can result in an institutional habitus which privileges academic attainment, side-lines the social and emotional aspects of learning and misrecognises working-class capitals. Such habitus fosters pedagogic practices which reduce levels of felt safety and limit opportunities to actively engage and exercise agency in the classroom. These conditions often make fragile the learner identity of white working-class students (and others) and prompt disengagement from school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: With the development of computational literacy, there has been a surge in both research and practice application of text‐based and block‐based modalities within the field of computer programming education. Despite this trend, little work has actually examined how learners engaging in programming process when utilizing these two major programming modalities, especially in the context of secondary education settings. Objectives: To further compare programming effects between and within text‐based and block‐based modalities, this research conducted a quasi‐experimental research in China's secondary school. Methods: An online programming platform, Code4all, was developed to allow learners to program in text‐based and block‐based modalities. This research collected multimodal data sources, including programming platform data, process data, and performance data. This research further utilized multiple learning analytics approaches (i.e., clustering analysis, click stream analysis, lag‐sequential analysis and statistics) to compare learners' programming features, behavioural patterns and knowledge gains under two modalities. Results and Conclusions: The results indicated that learners in text‐based modality tended to write longer lines of code, encountered more syntactical errors, and took longer to attempt debugging. In contrast, learners in block‐based modality spent more time operating blocks and attempt debugging, achieving better programming knowledge performances compared to their counterparts. Further analysis of five clusters from the two modalities revealed discrepancies in programming behavioural patterns. Implications: Three major pedagogical implications were proposed based on empirical research results. Furthermore, this research contributed to the learning analytics literature by integrating process‐oriented and summative analysis to reveal learners' programming learning quality. Lay Description: What is currently known about the subject matter: Programming has the potential to improve learners' higher‐order thinking skills.Block‐based and text‐based modalities are two major instructional methods.There has been a growing interest to understand how learning occurs in two modes.Most previous work has evaluated two modalities based on learners' knowledge, skills, and attitudes. What this paper adds: Code4all allows learners to programming in text‐based and block‐based modalities.Quasi‐experimental research was conducted to examine block‐based and text‐based programming modalities.Multimodal learning analytics were used to compare programming under two modalities.Learners' programming features, behaviouralbehavioral patterns, and knowledge gains were identified under two modalities. The implications of study findings for practitioners: Instructors should integrate text‐based and block‐based modalities into programming courses.Process‐oriented assessment should be integrated with summative assessment. Adaptive, timely scaffoldings should be provided with the external support (this should be marked like above two points). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractConsidering the crucial role of education in offering mitigation and adaptation strategies for climate change, there is a clear need for objective tools to assess its impact on the understanding of the issue among secondary school students. This paper describes the methodological design used to build and validate an instrument that explores secondary education students’ climate change knowledge. The design is organized into several steps: literature and document review; item design; Expert judgment; pilot testing; and instrument quality criteria analysis. Thus, a questionnaire comprising 27 4-points Likert scale items was designed. Two rounds of pilot testing and statistical analyses were conducted on the difficulty indexes, factor analysis, Spearman coefficient (flit-half method), and alpha coefficient. The result is an instrument with a degree of feasibility, validity and reliability suitable for comparative research as was found in a Spanish macro-study involving 6398 secondary school students. Preliminary results for the Spanish context are offered. [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]

Early career teachers (ECTs) are potential resources for educational innovation and development in schools. Innovative professional potential (IPP) emerges in interaction between ECTs and their school ecology. Using semi-structured timeline interviews, we explored 105 IPP experiences of 19 ECTs in the Netherlands, aiming to understand when and how IPP emerges in the school, and to obtain a first grasp of how it can be stimulated. We categorised typification, location and professional interests and explored interaction processes with persons and affordances in the school ecology. Findings showed that ECTs initiate and perform innovative tasks and activities mainly at school or subject department levels. These tasks and activities are mostly social in nature or focused on educational development, while including a wide range of professional interests. Rather than one specific interaction with a person or an affordance, accumulations of restricting and stimulating interactions appear important for how IPP emerges. This paper concludes that it is crucial to consider ECTs capable of exercising the full range of teaching activities from the start of their career, and to share responsibilities among professionals in the school during ECTs' induction. These practices can help to increase educational quality and prevent teacher attrition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As social interest in improving the training and attitudes of future secondary education teachers towards students with disabilities increases, there is a need for instruments that meet these needs and serve to evaluate their effectiveness. The purpose of this paper is to examine the psychometric characteristics of the Attitude Scale for People with Disabilities (EAPD) developed by Arias et al. (2016). A covariance-based structural equation modeling has been performed, using the weighted least squares estimation method with chi-square adjusted for mean and variance, and the ordinal omega coefficient to estimate internal consistency. The sample is composed of 400 students of the Master’s Degree in Teacher of Compulsory Secondary Education and Baccalaureate, Vocational Training and Language Teaching (MUFPS) from different Spanish universities. The analysis of the EAPD has shown that this scale can be interpreted by three dimensions: (a) Social and personal relationships with people with disabilities-RS, (b) Normalized life-VN and (c) Intervention programs-PI. However, this study presents as a finding a second-order structure that allows to conclude the interpretation of this scale jointly, the latter being an important finding in the educational field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The attitude towards ICT determines the amount of incentive for practicing with it, which may directly affect ICT literacy. So, students' attitude inter alia is one of the substantial building blocks of ICT literacy, which in turn is an important component of improved student achievement brought about by it. This paper is devoted to exploring the determinants of students' attitudes towards ICT. On recognizing the complexity of integration of ICT into education systems and unlike previous research that has largely focused on the idea that student's learning engagement can be boosted through the availability and use of ICT alone, this paper acknowledges that integrating ICT into education is a complex process and the link between supplying ICT resources and enhanced student attainment is far from straightforward. Using rich PISA 2018 survey data from N = 129,724 students in 47 countries/economies, the results from this paper indicate that girls have better attitudes towards ICT than boys; students in private schools have more interest in ICT than those in public ones; students using ICT outside of school for leisure have a higher level of interest; and students with higher levels of fear of failure are more interested in ICT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the duality between global perspectives and local realities that have influenced the design of the school architecture by examining and comparing state school projects in two geographically distant countries: Chile and Portugal. The proposals and experiences of the "Society for the Construction of Educational Facilities" (1937–1987) in Chile and the "Board of Constructions for Technical and Secondary Education" (1934–1969) in Portugal are analysed. Established in the 1930s, these centralised bodies managed, organised, and controlled state school building projects in such a way as to achieve uniformity in design, creating architectural identities that embodied both the educational values and the representative character of the State. These bodies were influenced by similar global circumstances, and their activities were guided by the recommendations issued by intergovernmental organisations of the time. Such a situation brought their projects closer together in terms of their functional, aesthetic, technical-constructive characteristics. After examining and identifying the international influences which brought them closer in terms of the educational meanings and values associated with school architecture, the paper identifies the local circumstances that guided the design and construction processes of schools in both countries, bringing fresh geographical insights to school architecture discussion. At the same time, possible global readings of strategies, influences and results are explored, enabling us to understand school architecture as part of a nation's cultural values and as a material expression of the social model of modernity, which will continue to meet the challenges that schools face in twenty-first-century society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on a review of studies focusing on student autonomy in early childhood, primary, and secondary education in Spain published in the last 10 years. Autonomy is defined as the capacity of individuals to act in a self-determined way. Educational institutions play a key role in the development of autonomy through experience, and students demonstrate more autonomy in learning when they are older. The method used in this paper consists of an overview of empirical studies from different databases and the application of three pre-defined filters. A total of 41 studies is analysed and critically assessed in relation to (1) the area of knowledge and level of schooling, (2) the definition of autonomy, (3) the method used, and (4) the elements influencing student autonomy. Results indicate that (1) physical education in secondary education is the most researched area, (2) most studies have defined autonomy and used self-determination theory as a framework for measuring student autonomy, (3) the majority of studies have used quantitative methods and a student sample, and (4) autonomy support provided by teachers positively influences student autonomy. In addition, the results show that intrinsic elements, such as the development of stable individual identity and psychological resources, enhance student autonomy. The paper concludes that future research should be aimed at a more specific conceptualisation of student autonomy to be assessed, measured, and promoted in different international educational environments and areas of knowledge. [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]