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Language learning is influenced by both neural development and environmental experiences. This work investigates the influence of early bilingual experience on the neural mechanisms underlying speech processing in 4-month-old infants. We study how an early environmental factor such as bilingualism interacts with neural development by comparing monolingual and bilingual infants' brain responses to speech. We used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure 4-month-old Spanish-Basque bilingual and Spanish monolingual infants' brain responses while they listened to forward (FW) and backward (BW) speech stimuli in Spanish. We reveal distinct neural signatures associated with bilingual adaptations, including increased engagement of bilateral inferior frontal and temporal regions during speech processing in bilingual infants, as opposed to left hemispheric functional specialization observed in monolingual infants. This study provides compelling evidence of bilingualism-induced brain adaptations during speech processing in infants as young as 4 months. These findings emphasize the role of early language experience in shaping neural plasticity during infancy suggesting that bilingual exposure at this young age profoundly influences the neural mechanisms underlying speech processing.

Learning in the workplace supports physicians in developing competences to ensure quality medical care. As such, learning in the workplace is essential for physicians' life-long professional development. Notwithstanding its importance, research on physicians' learning in the workplace and the corresponding motivational drivers is limited. In this study, 17 semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore experienced physicians' learning activities and their motivation for learning in the workplace. In addition, it was examined whether differences could be noted in learning in the workplace depending on physicians' experience, specialism, gender or the type of hospital they work in. Concepts from learning in the workplace and motivation theories, i.e. learning activities in the workplace, self-determination theory and achievement goal theory, guided the data analysis, and an inductive analysis was conducted as well. Results revealed various learning activities for instance but not limited to: learning by asking colleagues for feedback, asking for help while performing particular medical actions, helping students while conducting their assignments or observing colleagues. Besides, the participants indicated different motives for learning. Physicians reported that they are motivated to properly perform their job, they enjoy learning and/or like learning in relation to solving challenging cases. The study shows that participants' differences in motivation can be related to seniority and the type of hospitals physicians are employed in.

With the global developments, educational institutions play a vital role in fostering cultural intelligence and global citizenship among individuals, including preservice teachers. Despite the plethora of research on cultural intelligence and global citizenship in higher education abroad, little is known about these in the Philippines, let alone their correlation. In light of the globalizing world, the multicultural context of the Philippine society, and the internationalization of Philippine higher education, this investigation is timely and necessary to inform policymakers and teacher education institutions of the Philippine preservice teachers' preparedness to teach in multicultural and global settings. Employing a quantitative descriptive correlational design, this study investigated the relationship between cultural intelligence and global citizenship levels of 316 Philippine preservice teachers using the Cultural Intelligence and Global Citizenship Scales. The results revealed that while the preservice teachers' overall cultural intelligence, metacognitive, motivational, and behavioral cultural intelligence levels are high, their medium cognitive cultural intelligence level necessitates further development. Regarding global citizenship, they scored satisfactorily on global competence and global civic engagement dimensions, whereas they exhibit limited overall global citizenship attributes, particularly in social responsibility. Most ethnic groups they represented were also identified to have high cultural intelligence and average global citizenship levels. Additionally, the preservice teachers' specialization, year level, and overseas experience did not play significant roles in their cultural intelligence levels. Although the preservice teachers' specialization and overseas did not influence their global citizenship, the study found that their year level significantly affected their global citizenship levels. Overall, a positive correlation between cultural intelligence and global citizenship was identified. Aside from implications for strengthening internationalization strategies, such as increasing study abroad opportunities, enriching academic courses, and organizing more multicultural activities on campus, recommendations for further investigations were discussed.

Pedagogy and assessment practices have always been the two pertinent domains of the EFL world, and there is a voice, which supports swapping the attention from teacher-centered to student-centered. Studies are available to research the two practices separately but researching them, with the view that they complement each other, as an integrated approach seems to be very limited, especially in Najran University context. Therefore, this study aims to explore learners' perceptions of teachers' employment for the practices focused on student-centered pedagogy and assessment in the EFL classroom. In addition, it correlates the participants' responses with their gender and specialization. The survey-descriptive approach was used to achieve the study objectives. The study tools, a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview were applied to a stratified sample of 200 participants. The results show that the study sample medially perceived the teacher's employment of pedagogy practices focused on students. The assessment practices focused on students were highly perceived by the respondents. Moreover, the variables of gender and specialization did not have any influence on the respondents' answers to the questionnaire. Finally, the content analysis of the semi-structured interview reveals that the majority of the interviewees approved that student-centered pedagogy and assessment practices play a positive role in improving their classroom efficacy. In light of the current results, recommendations and implications are suggested.

The landscape of medical specialty choice is dynamic, undergoing significant changes as students' progress through undergraduate and graduate medical training. These shifts are influenced by various factors, with financial considerations becoming increasingly relevant among medical students' preferences. This study conducts a retrospective analysis of specialty match rates and physician compensation, suggesting a potential trend where primary care fields, though fundamental to healthcare, appear less competitive and often associated with less financial reward compared to other specialties. The existence of this disparity is not without consequences. It contributes significantly to the ongoing and anticipated primary care physician shortages. This situation requires a comprehensive approach to tackle the complex factors influencing medical students' career choices. Understanding these dynamics is critical for healthcare policy and planning. This paper investigates how financial considerations sway medical students' specialty choices, emphasizing the economic disparities between primary care and other specialties.

The quality of teachers' teaching performance depends on several factors, and development of their performance should be made according to a sound scientific methodology, so the study aims to assess the teachers' teaching performance quality in Ma'an, Southern Jordan, and identify the extent to which their performance is affected by some variables (Gender, Professional Experience, Teaching Stages, and Training). In order to achieve the study objectives, the descriptive survey method was used, and a measure of teaching performance quality was determined, consisting of three fields (Planning, Implementation, and Assessment) and including (40) items. The scale was used by educational supervisors to assess the quality of teachers' performance in Ma'an, and (347) male and female teachers were assessed. The results showed that teachers' performance was average in general, but their performance of the first three grades was the weakest, while it was also shown that the female teachers' performance was superior to that of male teachers. The performance of specialized teachers in the scientific field was better than the performance of their counterparts in the humanitarian field. The study showed the positive impact of professional experience and training on the quality of teaching performance. The study also demonstrated the importance of the first five years in the teachers' work, therefore, the necessity of focusing on training and qualification at this stage was recommended, as well as training pre-service teachers appropriately.

This study made a preliminary attempt to conduct a needs assessment of teachers' utilization of the SSI-based approach in teaching Science by exploring Filipino teachers' awareness, perceived need, readiness, and willingness. It also aimed to determine which among the demographic profiles of the teachers had significant differences in their perceived need and readiness. A needs assessment using a quantitative survey research design was used in this study. The data-gathering procedure was done using a validated online survey questionnaire with a Cronbach alpha of 0.89. A total of 124 science teachers participated in this study throughout the two-week implementation. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data gathered from this study. Results revealed that more than fifty percent of the teachers were highly aware of the SSI-based approach and perceived the need for its implementation in science classes. Teachers were also willing to participate in an SSI training program to learn more about it and develop their own SSI-related materials. Furthermore, gender and specialization significantly differed in teachers' perceived needs, while specialization significantly differed in readiness. Results obtained from this study can be used as a basis for exploring teachers' perceptions and views of implementing the SSI-based approach.

The article discusses the organization of the educational process of railway university students in the target programs. A successful educational process will be effective if the training provided to students of the transport university is of an acceptable quality, which will lead to a high demand for a specialist. When participating in targeted training programs, the learning process can be optimized and structured within the educational framework, thereby placing emphasis on acquiring the necessary knowledge for future professional endeavors. The objective of the article was to examine how the minor program in the Mathematics discipline for students in targeted programs enhances their professional motivation. We propose to consider the characteristics of training in targeted programs by examining the training of students in the specialty 23.05.04 "Electric power supply of railways" at the Samara State University of Railway Transport. We believe that one way to organize the mathematical training of students in targeted programs is to use professionally oriented tasks. As the objective of the study pertains to the issues of specialized university education in the field of mathematics, the paper presents a task that is geared towards professionals for students enrolled in the targeted programs of this particular field. Furthermore, this approach to the study of mathematics yields a comprehensive understanding of one's professional pursuits, implying that the integration of the educational process is essential in the preparation of a railway transport specialist. The evaluation of the proposed methodology for the instruction of students in the targeted programs has demonstrated its efficacy.

American Occupational Therapy Association fellowship programs are an emerging post-professional educational opportunity aimed at developing practitioners in specialized areas of occupational therapy practice. Mentored practice is a critical and substantial component of fellowship programs; however, the experiences of mentors and fellows have not been well described in the literature. The purpose of this study was to describe the mentored practice experience from the perspectives of the fellow and mentor. This study sought to understand the perceived influence mentored practice may have on the advancement of skills and knowledge in specialty practice areas of occupational therapy. A qualitative exploratory phenomenological design was used to understand the fellowship experience. Four fellows and eight mentors from three American Occupational Therapy Association-accredited fellowship programs at a single institution participated in semi-structured interviews and provided an in-depth understanding of the mentored practice experience. Interview data was coded and analyzed for themes. Key themes emerged related to the mentoring experience, mentoring relationship, and the perceived influence of mentoring on skill and knowledge development. The mentoring experience in fellowship programs was consistently reported as beneficial by both mentors and fellows, particularly in conjunction with fellowship program learning activities. Findings suggested fellows perceive mentoring as having a positive influence on the development of skills and knowledge. Results suggested a need for improved mentor training and support as well as continued exploration of best practices for supporting the unique needs of the post-professional learner, specifically in assessment methods and feedback delivery.

Over the past decade, there has been unprecedented regulation of initial teacher education (ITE). The objective of this study was to generate an in-depth understanding of the structural challenges faced by tertiary educators as they responded to a federal policy and a related state government policy in teacher education. The policies imposed on ITE reach through tertiary education providers and into school classrooms. To capture the three spaces of (1) policy makers, (2) tertiary education providers and (3) teacher education graduates, this study adopts a "socio-spatial approach" as both a conceptual organiser and an analytical stance. One specific case is detailed, namely one metropolitan university's establishment of a pathway enabling pre-service primary teachers to specialise in mathematics teaching. The study then follows two graduates into their first two years of teaching. The findings generated are potentially transferable to other contexts. We conclude that to reap the benefits of ITE policies, tertiary education providers and all employers of teachers need common expectations for their role in implementing these policies. Also, support for graduates needs to be sustained through liaising between tertiary education providers and employers.

The inclusion of jazz ensembles within extra-curricular instrumental music programs in secondary schools in Australia has grown exponentially in the past two decades. Despite this growth, there is a deficiency of specialist teacher training in jazz education and pedagogy in Australian tertiary institution instrumental music courses. This lack of specialist training in jazz pedagogy has left many music educators, especially early career instrumental music teachers, underprepared and underequipped to teach jazz programs successfully in their junior and secondary school settings. This article aims to synthesise and contextualise some of the key literature in jazz pedagogy and jazz ensemble rehearsal techniques for early career teachers, or those with little or no background in jazz. The topics discussed in this article include roles of instrumentation, rehearsal and performance set-ups, rehearsal techniques, the role of the jazz director, directed student listening, jazz style, language and articulation, improvisation, and repertoire. The aim is to equip instrumental music teachers with an introductory knowledge, reference to further literature, and practical examples to maximise the proficiency and potential of their jazz ensembles in junior and secondary school music programs.

There are many young people playing brass band instruments in Australia, yet there is generally an expectation in secondary education, and almost always in higher education, that students will play orchestral brass instruments. This article explores how schools and tertiary music educations in Australia are equipping students to be 21st century musicians, with a focus on players of brass band instruments. Secondary school students playing brass band instruments are often misunderstood by music teachers and can have trouble fitting in to school music programs. Currently, the only university in Australia that offers a specific brass band subject and lists brass band instruments is Griffith University in Queensland, therefore many dedicated brass band instrumentalists choose to travel overseas for tertiary study. This article seeks to highlight a broader picture regarding music education in Australia, and encourages educators (and institutions) to step out of the conservatory-style specialisation regarding brass instruments.

Selecting undergraduate majors or specializations is a crucial decision for students since it considerably impacts their educational and career paths. Moreover, their decisions should match their academic background, interests, and goals to pursue their passions and discover various career paths with motivation. However, such a decision remains challenging are unfamiliar with the job market, the demand for the required skills, and being in the proper placement in a major is not straightforward. Thus, an automatic recommendation system can be helpful for students to assist and guide them in the right decision. In this context, we developed a machine learning model to predict and recommend suitable specializations for undergraduate students according to the job market and student's academic history. Two hundred twenty-five records of students are considered to establish this work. The proposed approach encompasses four major steps, including data preprocessing to clean, scale, and prepare the data for training to avoid obtaining suboptimal results, accompanied by an oversampling process to equal the samples' distribution to prevent the model from being biased or poorly generalized. Furthermore, we conducted a feature selection step using Sequential Backward Selection (SBS) to extract the relevant features to improve the outcomes and reduce the risk of noise. The selected subset is used to train the model using the AdaBoost classifier. We deployed the Genetic algorithm to optimize the classifier's hyperparameters to maximize results. As a result, the findings of this study exhibit noticeable results compared to existing models, with an accuracy of 98.1%. The proposed model can be reliable in guiding undergraduate students through proper decisions regarding selecting their major.

Reforming instruction is challenging. In this comparative case study of 12 school districts, we investigated the dilemmas that emerged for system leaders as they engaged in system building for elementary science and the approaches leaders took in managing them. We found that system leaders' efforts to manage their environments contributed to the preferential treatment of literacy and mathematics relative to science. Leaders managed this dilemma using three strategies: (a) integration of science with other subjects, (b) specialization of teachers, and (c) adopting curriculum materials. This study contributes to literature on dilemma management by showing that dilemmas in education system building are school-subject sensitive, emerge in relation to system building for other subjects, and are embedded in school and education systems' structural/organizational arrangements.

The objective of this paper is to establish comparisons between the Linear Algebra (LA) approach practiced in Engineering courses offered by Chilean and Brazilian Higher Education Institutions and, for that, teachers from both countries were interviewed. From a methodological point of view, the research consists of two case studies. For the analysis of the interviews, we used the precepts of Content Analysis. The data were qualitatively analyzed considering the MTSK theoretical model. In this analysis, we sought to identify what specialized knowledge these teachers have regarding AL and about its teaching and learning. The results have shown that, in relation to the Mathematical Knowledge (MK) domain, which refers to content knowledge, the Knowledge of Topics subdomain (KoT), linked to the way that teachers know the topics they teach, is the most present among interviewees. In the Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) domain, covering specific pedagogical knowledge linked to Mathematics, the Knowledge of Mathematics Teaching (KMT), regarding strategies, teaching theories, resources and materials, and Knowledge of Mathematics Learning Standards (KMLS) subdomains, concerning the curricular specifications and the moments in which the student must or can learn certain content and with what level of depth prevail.

This study investigates a range of non-normative ideas that pre-service teachers (PSTs) employ in reasoning about sampling variability. This issue was studied in the context of a content course on statistics and probability for pre-service middle grade teachers at a Midwestern American university. Analysis of seven PSTs' video and screen records of task-based interviews has articulated fundamental facets of sampling variability that have not yet been fully explicated in the literature, especially with middle grade PSTs. With the content expectation of sampling variability for middle grade students as suggested by policy reports in the United States of America, this study is particularly fertile ground for designing curricula that can support middle grade PSTs' development of critical specialized content knowledge on sampling variability.

Biomedical engineering is a broad and interdisciplinary field that prepares graduates for a variety of careers across multiple career sectors. Given this breadth, undergraduate degree programs often have formal or informal opportunities for students to further specialize within the biomedical engineering major to develop skills in subdisciplines of biomedical engineering. While previous work has explored factors that influence student decision-making of engineering major choice, including the role of gender, limited work has explored factors that influence intra-major specialization in biomedical engineering. The present study sought to expand on existing research to understand factors that influence biomedical engineering students' choice of intra-major specializations and how, if at all, these factors are related to gender. Grounded in social cognitive career theory, the present study leveraged quantitative surveys from undergraduate biomedical engineering students to understand factors influencing intra-major specialization choice, including the impact that students viewed on their career plans. Participants rated multiple factors as important in their intra-major specialization decisions, with professors/classes rated as the most important influence and alumni as the lowest. Similarly, participants rated multiple outcome expectations of their specialization, although income was rated lower than other factors. Participants most commonly indicated interest in pursuing careers in industry and medicine. We found some differences in intra-major specialization, outcome expectations, and career interests by gender, with women students indicating a higher influence of professors/classes and higher expectations for their track decision to provide a career with a good income. Further understanding of how undergraduate students select specializations in engineering coursework will inform curriculum design and student advising.

A detailed, unbiased perspective of the inter-relations among medical fields could help students make informed decisions on their future career plans. Using a data-driven approach, the inter-relations among different medical fields were decomposed and clustered based on the similarity of their working environments. Publicly available, aggregate databases were merged into a single rich dataset containing demographic, working environment and remuneration information for physicians across Canada. These data were collected from the Canadian Institute for Health Information, the Canadian Medical Association, and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, primarily from 2018 to 2019. The merged dataset includes 25 unique medical specialties, each with 36 indicator variables. Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) was used to group specialties into distinct clusters based on relatedness. The 25 medical specialties were decomposed into seven clusters (latent variables) that were chosen based on the Bayesian Information Criterion. The Kruskal-Wallis test identified eight indicator variables that significantly differed between the seven profiles. These variables included income, work settings and payment styles. Variables that did not significantly vary between profiles included demographics, professional satisfaction, and work-life balance satisfaction. The 25 analyzed medical specialties were grouped in an unsupervised manner into seven profiles via LPA. These profiles correspond to expected and meaningful groups of specialties that share a common theme and set of indicator variables (e.g. procedurally-focused, clinic-based practice). These profiles can help aspiring physicians narrow down and guide specialty choice.

Medical education continually adapts to the needs of future health care professionals, with student motivation in research being a pivotal aspect. This study at Alfaisal University aimed to explore the motivations, benefits, and challenges faced by medical students in extracurricular research activities. Using a mixed-method approach, we combined quantitative surveys with qualitative group interviews. Findings revealed that both extrinsic (e.g., enhancing postgraduate training prospects) and intrinsic (e.g., personal interest and skill refinement) factors significantly motivate students to be involved in research activities. Participants unanimously acknowledged skill enhancement, particularly in literature comprehension, creative ideation, and networking. However, challenges such as conflicts with course scheduling, lack of hands-on experiences, and mentorship issues were identified as potential barriers to research participation. Addressing these barriers and understanding motivations can inform the design of research programs, enhancing the overall student research experience. This study underscores the importance of research in medical education, emphasizing the need for institutions to prioritize addressing challenges and leveraging benefits to prepare medical students for a research-integrated clinical future.

As Latin American countries moved from military dictatorship to civilian government in the 1980s, a burning issue was how to deal with the massive repression and grave human rights violations of the recent past. Should there be an effort to hold perpetrators accountable, or simply "turn the page?" This article documents and analyzes the history of the NGO Coalition Against Impunity and its role in advocating for the United Nations (U.N.) to recognize impunity--or, the negation of accountability--as a serious human rights issue. The combined efforts of dedicated human rights leaders and organizations in Latin America, other NGOs such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, and the Coalition spurred the U.N. and other bodies such as the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights to take up the issue of impunity in their documents and missions. The work of the Coalition is presented as an example of the incremental democratization of the United Nations system.

This study investigates satisfaction with the Teaching Profession Law (TPL), evaluation of the current situation, and expectations in line with the opinions and thoughts of teachers and administrators. The study was designed in a sequential explanatory design, which is a mixed design. Quantitative data were collected from 241 educators through a 12-item survey by the researchers. Then, qualitative data were collected by conducting interviews with 12 participants through a semi-structured form. The Pareto technique was used in the analysis of quantitative data in the research, and content analysis was used in qualitative data. According to the results obtained in line with the quantitative data of the research, it was found that the career ladder application was not appropriate and the law did not increase teacher welfare and motivation to work. It has also been disappointing after the law came into force. In line with the findings that emerged in line with the qualitative data, the law is not comprehensive and inclusive, it is expected to be developed over time and does not sufficiently guarantee personal rights. It eliminates the practice of equal pay for equal work and disturbs the peace at school. The fact that the law came to the fore with its material aspect also damaged the professional reputation. Stakeholder views were not taken into account while drafting the law. It is expected that the job descriptions of educators, career planning, elimination of financial concerns, increasing professional reputation, specialization according to the branch, serving professional development, and securing teacher rights.

This study examined knowledge of the Arabic language in special and general education teachers, using a knowledge survey, Knowledge of Arabic Morphology and Phonology (KAMP). The KAMP was administered to 180 teachers teaching students with reading disabilities to examine their knowledge and determine whether it was influenced by differences in their specialization, teaching years, and highest educational level. The findings indicated that special and general education teachers have poor phonological and morphological knowledge. Also, there were no significant mean differences between teachers on their knowledge attributed to the differences in their specialization, teaching experiences, or highest education. The study concluded by discussing the findings and suggestions for researchers and policymakers.

A comprehensive needs analysis is crucial to guide the design and teaching of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) courses. However, a number of studies neglect certain elements of needs analysis, which can result in problems in subsequent stages of ESP teaching. This mixed-method study aimed to identify the problems that higher education ESP practitioners in Thailand encountered and the solutions they employed and to develop a potential practices model for ESP practitioners. Semi-structured interviews and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) pairwise comparisons were employed to reveal 54 problems in six categories. Three highest-ranked problems were: 1) the ESP practitioners' lack of specialization in relevant fields (34.62%), 2) unsuitable classrooms and facilities (29.15%), and 3) the lack of specific course objective-oriented and cost-effective commercial textbooks (19.09%). The average consistency ratio (C.R.) was 0.32. The study suggested the need for training provisions and inclusion of ESP courses in English curricula. The ESP practices model suggested practices for institutions, such as conducting comprehensive needs analysis and providing suitable facilities and budgets. ESP practitioners were advised to utilize needs analysis for course design and employ active learning approaches. These recommendations aimed to enhance ESP education and improve an English curriculum, teaching practices, and evaluation processes.

In this article, we demonstrate how Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) can be enacted to explore the nature of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) in higher education. Specialization and semantics from LCT are applied to define SoTL practice and map cumulative knowledge building processes. As members of the Faculty Development Committee (FDC), we enact LCT tools to conceptualize our professional development. We provide SoTL narratives as well as vignettes depicting how LCT led to positive transformative learning. The article concludes that LCT tools, with their explanatory power, can be utilized to form highly effective components of a faculty development program.

Group work is often used in university courses. This article examines group work in a widely interdisciplinary holography course that combines both art and science, for students from the arts, humanities, social sciences, and sciences. In these interdisciplinary teams, how much specialization of labor (dividing work according to students' pre-existing abilities or personal interests) is acceptable? We present student survey responses regarding their attitudes toward interdisciplinary group work, and their practices in dividing the work, to determine how much specialization of labor is taking place within the interdisciplinary teams. The surveys indicate a mix of approaches among groups concerning the division of labor based on prior skills. In the presence of specialization of labor, students learned from their partners and displayed a positive attitude toward working with someone from a different discipline. We believe that the intriguing nature of the holography projects helped many students avoid dividing the work according to their prior skills, and helped them see the value of working in a widely interdisciplinary team.

It is widely recognized that learning interventions that help student sojourners prepare for and process their study abroad experiences can increase those students' learning gains. What if, however, students express skepticism or resistance to those learning interventions? This article offers a case study of a student-faculty partnership in re-designing and implementing a pre-, during-, and post-study abroad course sequence offered to world languages majors and minors at a relatively small private comprehensive university. We demonstrate that the student-faculty partnership led to increased buy-in from students and thus also to increased learning on their part. In proposing that student-faculty partnerships in course design can also be imagined as intercultural encounters, we argue that they can bring a unique richness and productive dialogue to designing powerful interventions for student learning abroad.

Class phenomena have primary significance for the diagnosis and intervention at both an individual and a whole-class level for school psychologists. Trying to bring undergraduate psychology students closer to class and teaching, a learning experience based on an adaptation of Lesson Study, a professional development method for teachers, was designed and evaluated with a group of undergraduate psychology students attending two preparatory and consecutive courses for professional performance in educational environments. Students made participants observations of classes they attended, participated in collaborative reflection with their teachers, and issued a report. Meetings were transcribed, conforming, altogether with their written reports 12 texts, analyzed using thematic analysis. Four primary themes were generated concerning benefits, difficulties, perceived learning facilitators and this experience's contribution to professionalization. The results stress a favorable self-perceived effect in students' comprehension of the class and the teaching, backed up by an internship experience. Additionally, content expressing empathy toward teachers and an increased perceived self-knowledge as students was reported. Having a previous experience with the method within the first course and a part time internship in the second course, along with the profile of the second course and its emphasis on procedural content, seemed to foster these outcomes.

Traditionally Australian primary school teachers have been viewed as generalists responsible for instruction across all content areas. Adopting self-determination theory as a lens, the aim of the study was to explore the extent to which generalist primary school teachers are interested in becoming subject matter specialists. Questionnaire data were collected from 104 early years primary school teachers. Findings suggest that two-thirds of these generalist teachers expressed an interest in specialising in either English, mathematics, and to a far lesser extent, science, such that they would be responsible for exclusively teaching this subject. Preferences for specialisation were based on teachers' self-perceived content and pedagogical expertise and/ or their enjoyment of teaching in this content area. By contrast, the one-third of teachers who would choose to remain generalists referred to the value in a variety of teaching experiences, teaching from a whole child perspective and content integration. Implications for educational policy are discussed.

Structuring a degree is a common activity for course developers. Analyzing appropriate subjects and year levels, establishing pre- and co-requisite, and benchmarking against similar degrees are common academic activities. However, the degree structure itself has not had significant changes until now. A degree often lacks flexibility and cohesion and arguably may even lose the main concept of making students highly skilled in the selected labor market more employable. After examining different degree structures, approaches, and employability incentives, we identified a degree structure that can divide each subject into components. Subjects' learning activities, tutorials, and assessments are tailored to align more closely with employment skills. We then proposed breaking all subjects into components relative to year levels, such as majors, minors, streams, and more. This sub-division of work can be performed to any degree. Particular advantages come with a general degree with standard core units and majors--creating learning activities closer to the major and offering students a more robust academic scaffold of their subjects. In addition, higher Education providers benefit by having a cost-efficient degree with minimum overhead to pass the benefits onto students. We discussed several examples from engineering, business, and information technology. Showing how learning opportunities can be divided per degree and subjects into degrees, majors, streams, and specializations. Students studying this framework will have developed skills firmly built on each other, enabling specialization in employment careers and academically. Closing the gap between employment and graduation.

The increasing digitalization of working methods require new competencies from health and social care professionals. In addition, the development of person-centered digital health and social services call for interprofessional expertise and a social community with a unified language and culture. This study analyzes how the renewed model of specialization education enables professionals' monological, dialogical, and trialogical learning. Adopting a qualitative approach and an interpretive descriptive research method, the study aimed to comprehensively interpret the quality, characteristics, and meanings of trialogical learning in online specialization education. The study focused on 10 two-credit specialization courses delivered collaboratively by 14 universities of applied sciences in Finland and monitored students' reflections on their learning over time. The findings indicate students' perceptions of their learning activities in specialization education and the occurrence of trialogical learning during the courses. Students described that interactive digital learning tools and webinars supported collaborative learning and the development of new skills and understanding. Students also learned to use new digital platforms and had the confidence to share their views and learn through these platforms. The study concludes that this learning process enables students to change their values and attitudes and apply them to create new healthcare and social care services.

Introduction: There is little research regarding quality of health care for people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD), who often are represented by their relatives, because of their limited communication. The aim of this study was to explore experiences and perspectives of relatives regarding healthcare services for adults with PIMD. Method: Twelve semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted involving close relatives of people with PIMD: mothers (n = 7), fathers (n = 2), brothers (n = 2) and a sister (n = 1). Qualitative content analysis was used. Results: Three themes emerged from the material: (1) Holistic view and responsibility, (2) Complexity and specialisation require coordination, and (3) Specific knowledge about the individual with PIMD. Conclusions: The relatives experienced that quality of health care should be based on a holistic view incorporating special competence and coordination. They emphasised the importance of an alliance, leveraging the relatives' person-specific knowledge alongside healthcare professionals' specialist competence.

Information and Communication Technology is a powerful tool for transforming education, and in developing, largely rural countries such as Bhutan, where its widespread access is relatively recent. Information and Communication Technology acceptance and use among teacher educators is crucial for effective contemporary teacher education. Acceptance and use depends on well-established factors, including teachers' attitudes; however, little is known about teachers' attitudes in rural developing countries, especially Himalayan and Buddhist countries, which are culturally different to other developing countries. Accordingly, this mixed-method study investigated how Bhutanese teacher educators' attitudes influence acceptance and use of Information and Communication Technology in teaching. Analysis of survey (n = 90) and semi-structured interview (n = 21) data indicated that teacher educators generally held positive attitudes toward its use. Age, gender, teaching experience and subject of specialization did not influence attitude, while perceived usefulness, facilitating conditions and Information and Communication Technology use, did. Positive attitude was associated with perceived usefulness, while negative attitude aligned with Information and Communication Technology incompetence and slow internet connectivity. Some agreement exists between findings in Bhutan and other developing, rural contexts, however, differences in factors, including gender, and the presence of Buddhist "zhenphen" highlight the need for policymakers, researchers and interventions to account for context, alongside continued improvement of Information and Communication Technology infrastructure.

This phenomenological investigation examined teacher leadership within the context of higher education among novice faculty members with a specialization in educational leadership. These newcomers received informal guidance and support from specific faculty members whom they identified as exemplifying teacher leadership. The core methodology involved in-depth interviews complemented by bridling journal entries, capturing the lived experiences and perceptions of the six participants from six Arab States. Data analysis employed a whole-part-whole approach. Findings suggest three manifestations or themes for teacher leadership, including social enculturation, expertise diffusion, and emotional fitness. The insights gleaned from this study provide a foundation for fostering discourse on teacher leadership development in higher education contexts.

This study explores the evolution of teacher education in Israel from 1974 to 2024, analysing key policy actions, reforms, and initiatives that have shaped the field over the past five decades. During these years, extensive efforts were undertaken at the state level by the Ministry of Education and the Council for Higher Education to elevate the status of the teaching profession by advocating for the professionalisation and professionalism of teaching and teachers. These efforts include the academisation process of all teacher education colleges, the establishment of task forces and standing committees to address challenges, continuous upgrades and adjustments to the initial teacher education curriculum, support mechanisms for newly qualified teachers, ongoing professional development for practicing teachers, including master's degree programmes, salary adjustments, and the decision to move the colleges of education to the sole auspices of the Council for Higher Education and the Planning and Budgeting Committee. Despite these numerous attempts, the status of teachers has continued to decline, and the profession has struggled with low public perception and prestige, leading to both quantitative and qualitative teacher shortages. The repeated policy shifts and inconsistent implementation strategies have often exacerbated rather than resolved these issues. By providing a comprehensive historical analysis, the study offers insights into the successes and significant shortcomings of past initiatives, aiming to inform future policy-making and strategic planning to enhance the effectiveness and appeal of the teaching profession in Israel.

Introduction: The learning approach of undergraduate medical students can be influenced by motivations toward learning medicine as well as perceived outcomes such as their specialty preference in the future. In this study, we analyze the relationships between learning approach, motivation to study medicine, and factors related to their specialty preference. Methods: We conducted a structured questionnaire-based survey of undergraduate medical students after one year of joining. Learning approaches were assessed using a published questionnaire used on medical students after adapting it to our context. Questionnaires validated earlier in our setting were used to assess motivation to study medicine and specialty preference. Factor scores were extracted to examine the relationships between motivations to study medicine and specialty preference with their learning approaches. The data obtained were also analyzed based on the demographic characteristics of students. Results: Deep learning approach factors such as deep motivation, deep strategy as well as surface motivation were correlated positively (Pearson's r > 0.2 and p < 0.05 for all mentioned analyses) with the motivation to study medicine factor for professional calling and with the personal satisfaction factor for specialty preference. Deep motivation and deep strategy factors of the learning approach were also correlated with the professional growth factor of specialty preference. Conclusion: Deep learning approaches appear to be related to motivation to study medicine factors related to the professional calling and demands of the profession as well as for perceived personal satisfaction related to future specialization requirements.

It has long been debated as to whether higher education (HE) is a site of social mobility that promotes meritocracy or social reproduction that creates and exacerbates inequalities in societies. In this paper, I will argue that HE, even when democratised and provided free to everyone, reproduces inequalities unless coupled with an inclusive sectoral design, an expansion of funding, and a wider strategy to reduce socio-economic inequalities. To do so, I studied the case of Syria, which has always claimed to have a meritocratic HE system that is designed to achieve equality in society by providing free HE for all since the 1970s. I analysed the database of the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) for 15 academic years from 2001 to 2015. This database included data on students' access and graduation rate divided by the type of education (public, private, higher institutes, and technical institutes), level of education (undergraduate and postgraduate), gender (male and female), city, faculty, and specialisations. This analysis unpacked four types of inequalities, namely education type-based inequalities, specialisation-based inequalities, city-based inequalities, and gender-based inequalities. Finally, I show how gender dynamics and roles are changing in the HE sector as a result of the Syrian conflict.

Educators have long questioned why some students can experience achievement more easily in some school subjects/curriculum, but not in others. We argue that learners cannot ignore navigating two key features inherent within every curriculum--its cognitive demands as well as its opportunities for access to knowledge that are the twin foci of this study. We adopt Specialisation codes from Legitimation Code Theory to examine the epistemic and social relations of intended learning outcomes from secondary science- and arts-based curricula in mainland China. The results showed that science curricula coded predominately with knowledge codes, but the latter possessed mainly elite codes. Compared to science, the Chinese arts curriculum is therefore more challenging for learners because achievement here is largely dependent on possession of specific attributes, dispositions, or qualities that can potentially restrict access. Implications for improving teaching and learning in these two types of curriculum in this region are discussed.

The Inter-University Consortium for Doctoral Courses in Public Budgeting, Finance, and Financial Management is the first collaborative project for online doctoral courses in public affairs. This article provides an account of the consortium's initiation, establishment, and operation for the pilot round. The consortium fills a niche in doctoral education and opens up a path for smooth cooperation between universities by accessing instructors who are experts in subfields of public budgeting and finance. This article also analyses the results of a survey of students, liaison professors and leaders of the participating schools. The article aims to draw lessons from the pilot operation and to look into the future for improvements. Though the consortium regards doctoral courses in the PBFM specialization, the problem is a common one, generic to all area specializations of PhD programs in research universities. We hope the consortium can be a model for collaboration between universities going forward.

Integrated health care poses a unique opportunity for social workers to deliver person-centered, empowering, and collaborative care addressing all aspects of patient health. This study analyzed four years of data from a project designed to train social work master's students to be effective members on integrated teams. Students that participated in the project achieved statistically significant levels of improvement from pre- to posttests with large effect sizes on the Behavioral Health Consultant Core Competency Tool skills (n = 93, Cohen's d = -1.752, t(92) = -16.894, p < 0.001) and the Team Skills Scale (n = 94, Cohen's d = -1.558, t(93) = -15.101, p < 0.001). Wilcoxon signed-rank tests confirmed improvements. No existing evaluations of integrated training for social work students capture behavioral health competencies data. Offering specialized training in integrated behavioral health work to students has immense potential benefit for outgoing social workers seeking to support patients.

Multi-componential models of translation competence are widely used in translator training as a yardstick for curricular and syllabus design. These models must be adapted to reflect professional trends, such as the impact of artificial intelligence, and machine translation in particular, on working methods. This paper describes the process of adapting a pioneering model of legal translation competence to the broader scope of institutional translation in light of recent trends, as verified by triangulating information from multiple interviews, analyses of translation volumes and job descriptors and other professional inputs. The resulting revised descriptor was validated through a survey of 474 translation professionals from 24 international organisations of diverse sizes and domain specialisations. The suitability of the descriptor was corroborated across the board, but variations were found in perceptions of the relevance of sub-competences to ensure translation quality. Profiles with a stronger specialisation in legal translation or more experience in institutional translation showed higher awareness of the relevance of all the sub-competences, especially the core language, strategic and thematic competences, and even more so for translating texts of a legal or administrative nature. The implications of these findings for training purposes in particular are discussed.

The relevance of translation and law degrees as pathways to professional legal translation is the subject of persistent debate, but there is limited research on the relationship between legal translators' backgrounds and competence levels in practice. This study compares the revision performance of several groups of institutional translators (44 in total) according to their academic backgrounds (legal translation specialisation, translation degrees with no legal specialisation, law degrees or other degrees) and legal translation experience (more or less than three years). The scores of justified, missing and over-corrections, among other indicators, corroborate the crucial impact of legal translation specialisation and subject-matter knowledge in ensuring legal translation quality, while experience can serve to partially fill certain training deficits. Qualified translators with a legal specialisation stood out as the most efficient revisers, followed by law graduates, translation graduates without a legal specialisation and other translators. A subsequent holistic assessment of the revised target text yielded results globally in line with the revision scores, as well as mixed perceptions of the target text as potential machine output. The findings support the added value of legal translator training, and are of relevance for translator recruitment and workflow management. They also challenge the rationale behind ISO 20771:2020 qualification requirements.

Debates around internationalisation-at-home (IaH) focus on the benefits accrued to students from the integration of internationalisation dimensions in their studies, curricular developments and interactions with international students, but, with scant attention to how these vary in different subject areas. In this article, we focus on the disciplinary experiences and framings of internationalisation from the perspectives of students in two Swedish universities. Drawing on 67 interviews with students sampled across different subject areas, we examine how the disciplinary definitions of study objects and pedagogic approaches filter the students' experiences and shape their views around IaH, and their ambitions for the future. Our findings suggest first, a discipline-specific set of positionings regarding the nature of subject areas as lenses through which internationalisation is understood. Second, the students hold strong views around the contribution of IaH in strengthening the disciplines themselves. In addition, the student voices paint a dynamic picture of internationalisation positions, not always consistent with disciplinary stereotypes.

A long-standing concern in teacher education is the variability in the quality of practicum experiences afforded to preservice teachers. Although some variability is due to their personal attributes, preservice teachers often find it difficult to connect theoretical insights to teachers' classroom practices. These challenges can be exacerbated when teachers do not explain the reasoning for what they do and why. School closures during the pandemic provided South African teacher educators with an opportunity to address this concern. We participated in developing a national online module that prepares preservice teachers for school-based learning through guided lesson study. This article adopts a self-study approach to account for the curriculum choices in developing this module. Three tensions needed consideration: portraying teaching as an individualised pursuit and/or a social practice, focusing on generic and/or specialised pedagogies, and focusing on the tacit and/or explicit reasoning that teachers do. We account for how we worked within and between these tensions. A module of this nature potentially enhances school-based learning by making the reasoning of teachers explicit to preservice teachers. To achieve this potential and to advance work-integrated learning as a scholarship, the conceptual underpinnings of the module and its curriculum design must be open to reflection and scrutiny.

The purpose of this study is to use the recreation specialization construct to examine the diversity of mountain bike riders in the US to meet their needs better, and to help strengthen the sport and the outdoor economy. At one end of the specialization continuum are Completely High Specialists, and at the other end are Completely Low Specialists. As recreationists gain skill and experience, make an activity central to their lifestyle, and invest more in equipment, they can progress in specialization. Little if any research used the construct to study the larger noncompetitive and competitive mountain biker population. The authors analyzed a nationwide mountain bike data set collected in 2018 using snowball sampling. There were 13,623 mountain bikers across the US who provided usable online surveys. Specific recommendations are provided to help mountain bikers progress in specialization. Theoretical and methodological implications are also presented.

Digital technologies permeate modern life, and schools are accordingly expected to help students develop related knowledge and skills. As a result, educators' professional digital competence (PDC) has received substantial attention from school leaders, policymakers, teacher educators, and researchers. Theory and prior research suggest that educators' PDC does not solely determine their technology use, with contextual factors, such as competing curricular demands and access to technology, influencing technology implementation and ongoing PDC development. While some prior research has addressed how PK-12 teachers' contexts shape their digital technology use, few studies have explored similar matters with respect to teacher educators. Drawing on an established set of teacher educator technology competencies, we report results from an international survey of 336 teacher educators regarding their self-reported PDC and its development and enactment. Using qualitative coding, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and quantitative analysis, we find that teacher educators develop and enact their competencies in various ways including through informal endeavours as well as formal, institutionally supported, and/or led activities. Three types of assets and barriers (access, leadership, personal characteristics) present differently for participants in different contexts. These findings have implications for how institutions support teacher educators' PDC development and technology integration in various settings.

Is it possible to measure how critical soft skills like leadership or teamwork are from the viewpoint of graduate studies offerings? This paper provides a conceptual and methodological framework that introduces the concept of a bipartite network as a practical way to estimate the importance of soft skills as socio-emotional abilities trained in graduate studies. We examined 230 graduate programs offered by 49 higher education institutions in Colombia to estimate the empirical importance of soft skills from the viewpoint of graduate studies offerings. The results show that: (a) graduate programs in Colombia share 31 soft skills in their intended learning outcomes; (b) the centrality of these skills varies as a function of the graduate pro- gram, although this variation was not statistically significant; and (c) while most central soft skills tend to be those related to creativity (i.e. creation or generation of ideas or projects), leadership (to lead or teamwork), and analytical orientation (e.g. evaluating situations and solving problems), less central were those related to empathy (i.e. understanding others and acknowledgment of others), ethical thinking, and critical thinking, posing the question if too much emphasis on most visible skills might imply an unbalance in the opportunities to enhancing other soft skills such as ethical thinking.

The Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) is a process by which achievements gained through work or other experiences can be formally recognised and accredited in higher education. It has a role to play in providing accelerated routes for mature students and is particularly relevant to part-time learners. Despite studies showing the potential transformative effects and the benefits to retention, RPL remains a marginal activity. It is suggested that RPL assessment processes themselves may constitute a barrier to take-up and there has been a move to reconceptualise RPL as a distinctive specialised pedagogy for mediating knowledge sharing across boundaries. This paper contributes to this body of work through a study of RPL participants who were academics seeking credit for a postgraduate award. The research uses actor-network theory (ANT) to understand how and why they approached the RPL task in the way that they did. By understanding how things happened and how effects come into being it was possible to develop an RPL Translation and Transfer (RPLTT) model and typology that provides a heuristic for RPL design in practice contexts.

The purpose of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of preservice music educators' perceptions of elementary general music (EGM), pedagogical competencies, and specialization preference. Preservice music teachers responded to a survey about perceptions of personal experiences with EGM, preparation and comfort related to EGM, and confidence in the ability to teach content and skills common in EGM curricula. Participants (n = 203) also answered questions about their preferred specialization and about factors that would influence their choice of job in the future. Most participants remembered having positive personal experiences with general music in elementary school and believe it is important for future musical success. Confidence in content and skills common in teaching EGM increases as they progress through their degree program. Most identify ensemble teaching and middle and high school grades as their future aspirations. Significant predictors of future career choice included undergraduate major and comfort teaching.