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Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a multifactorial, pervasive, neurodevelopmental disorder, of which intestinal symptoms collectively represent one of the most common comorbidities. Methods: In this study, 1,222 children with ASD and 1,206 typically developing (TD) children aged 2-7 years were enrolled from 13 cities in China. Physical measurement and basic information questionnaires were conducted in ASD and TD children. The Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS), Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), and Autism Behavior Checklist (ABC) were used to evaluate the clinical symptoms of children with ASD. The six-item Gastrointestinal Severity Index (6-GSI) was used to evaluate the prevalence of intestinal symptoms in two groups. Results: The detection rates of constipation, stool odor, and total intestinal symptoms in ASD children were significantly higher than those in TD children (40.098% vs. 25.622%, 17.021% vs. 9.287%, and 53.601% vs. 41.294%, respectively). Autistic children presenting with intestinal comorbidity had significantly higher scores on the ABC, SRS, CARS, and multiple subscales than autistic children without intestinal symptoms, suggesting that intestinal comorbidity may exacerbates the core symptoms of ASD children. Conclusion: Intestinal dysfunction was significantly more common in autistic than in TD children. This dysfunction may aggravate the core symptoms of children with ASD.

We propose a novel model, Wide & Deep Item Response Theory (Wide & Deep IRT), to predict the correctness of students' responses to questions using historical clickstream data. This model combines the strengths of conventional Item Response Theory (IRT) models and Wide & Deep Learning for Recommender Systems. By leveraging clickstream data, Wide & Deep IRT provides precise predictions of answer correctness while enabling the exploration of behavioral patterns among different ability groups. Our experimental results based on a real-world dataset (EDM Cup 2023) demonstrate that Wide & Deep IRT outperforms conventional IRT models and state-of-the-art knowledge tracing models while maintaining the ease of interpretation associated with IRT models. Our model performed very well in the EDM Cup 2023 competition, placing second on the public leaderboard and third on the private leaderboard. Additionally, Wide & Deep IRT identifies distinct behavioral patterns across ability groups. In the EDMCup2023dataset, low-ability students were more likely to directly request an answer to a question before attempting to respond, which can negatively impact their learning outcomes and potentially indicates attempts to game the system. Lastly, the Wide & Deep IRT model consists of significantly fewer parameters compared to traditional IRT models and deep knowledge tracing models, making it easier to deploy in practice. The source code is available via Open Science Framework.

This study examined the program effectiveness of Health Rocks!, a youth substance use prevention program. Merging data from 128,544 youth participants in 21 states between 2009 and 2021, this study compared self-reported levels of knowledge, skills, and internal and external assets before and after the program. Youth reported significant increases in substance use knowledge, stress-coping skills, and assets to make healthy life decisions across eleven years. The magnitude of effects varied by individual characteristics, including gender, school grade level, race, ethnicity, and residence. We provide recommendations for the evaluation of substance use prevention program effectiveness.

This study aimed to investigate how English teachers' identity (ETI) levels vary based on different sociodemographic backgrounds in Algeria. To this end, a survey research design was adopted by utilizing a questionnaire as research instrument: The first of section elicits information about teachers' background information, including age, professional title, teaching experience, leadership position, salary level, and family condition. The second section is Yan's (2024) 19-item English Teacher Identity Measure (ETIM) to measure the teachers' levels of ETI, which consists of four indicators: self-efficacy (SE), future perspective (FP), teacher belief (TB), and career perception (CP). By using convenience sampling, an online questionnaire was emailed to 170 tertiary EFL teachers from different regions in Western Algeria, and 105 teachers voluntarily participated in this study. 30 of them participated in the pilot study and the remaining 75 teachers' responses were analyzed using SPSS. The data revealed significantly different ETI levels according to years of teaching experience. The findings showed that teachers who scored the lowest ETI levels were PhD holders, lecturers, teachers of the 1980s generation and middle-level leaders. This study informs teacher management and teacher educators of those particular teacher groups that need more support.

This study aimed to explore the effectiveness of learning the Chinese Proficiency Test (HSK) 1 reading course through the Udemy platform and assess the learner's satisfaction with learning the Chinese course on the Udemy platform. The participants were 30 zero-foundation learners with minimal exposure to basic Chinese expressions and were randomly selected from those enrolled in the Chinese course on Udemy. The pretest and post-test were designed for this study, and the researchers sent the satisfaction survey to the Chinese language learners to investigate the learners' satisfaction. The findings revealed that the students' post-test scores were significantly higher than the pretest scores; the current online Chinese language courses benefit students in learning the language. The satisfaction survey results showed that learners were satisfied with learning Chinese courses on the Udemy platform.

Psychological crisis intervention is a critical aspect of mental health education. A case study is present on the psychological crisis resulting from academic pressure among graduate students and the use of the Satir model is proposed for crisis intervention. Additionally, there are recommended to strengthen life and frustration education for graduate students, emphasize the importance of training graduate tutors in mental health knowledge and skills, assist graduate students in improving their mental resilience, and enhance their interpersonal skills.

The Dong Pipa, a traditional Chinese musical instrument, is a significant element of the Dong ethnic group's cultural heritage. The objective is to investigate the historical development of the Dong Pipa, a traditional Chinese musical instrument, in literacy functions and educational occasions. The research was conducted in Liping, Congjiang, and Rongjiang counties in Guizhou Province, Tongdao County in Hunan Province, and Sanjiang in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Two key informants and four casual informants, including national transmitters and experts in Dong Pipa music, were interviewed, and data were gathered through fieldwork, interviews, and observations. The analysis focused on the integration of the Dong Pipa into educational settings and its role in fostering cultural literacy. The results indicate that the Dong Pipa has played a dynamic role both historically and in contemporary times, contributing significantly to cultural transmission and education. The study suggests that incorporating traditional instruments like the Dong Pipa into modern educational practices can enhance cultural literacy and support preservation efforts.

The purpose of this study is to investigate challenges and tensions encountered by university supervisors working with student teachers in dual language immersion (DLI) settings. Despite the growth of Utah's statewide DLI program, Utah university teacher programs have few faculty members familiar with the partner cultures and languages of Utah's DLI model. Drawing from a larger multiple case study, this study examines three non-Chinese university supervisors' written reflections and focus group transcripts during supervision in Chinese DLI classrooms. Findings suggest the challenges and tensions encountered by these supervisors were not just cultural in nature; at times, university supervisors were unfamiliar with the DLI model and/or unsure of whether challenges were products of cultural differences, the DLI program, or other influences.

Teacher identity is the reflection of teachers' perception, position, and identification as teachers. Teachers' identities are dynamic and continuously negotiated by the interplay of their professional practices, past experiences, and contextual conditions. Drawing on this understanding, this study explores Chinese English teachers' professional identities within a private English institution in China. Research data was collected through semi-structured interviews with six Chinese English teachers from one private English institution. Interview data was analysed thematically. The study results revealed common teacher identities as advocates of learner autonomy, struggling teachers for higher-level students and sources of students' learning motivation. Specifically, teachers were challenged in cultivating autonomous students by institutional and sociocultural contextual obstacles. They were also in a challenging situation to improve the effectiveness of teaching higher level students. However, teachers exhibited positive perceptions towards their influence on students' learning motivation reflected in their effort to actively establish teacher-student relationships and utilize facilitative teacher roles. The research findings suggest the need for designing more effective teacher trainings, improving teachers' working conditions and a call for re-evaluating English language learning among Chinese students.

Teacher career plateaus hinder the high-quality development of teaching staff. Based on a nationwide questionnaire survey on Chinese kindergarten teachers' career plateaus, this study developed a kindergarten teacher career plateauing structural model. The research findings indicate that overall career plateauing among Chinese kindergarten teachers is at a moderate level. The kindergarten teacher career plateauing model is best represented by the second-order single-factor/first-order three-factor structure, which consists of three dimensions: professional development, hierarchical, and emotional plateauing. Among these dimensions, emotional plateauing is most intensively perceived by teachers. Telltale signs of kindergarten teacher career plateauing range from stagnation of professional progress to losses of senses of meaning in work, constrained promotion of professional titles, slim chances of promotion to higher positions, fading positive emotional engagement, and increased negative workplace emotions. Implications of the study for building a professionalized preschool teaching force include emphases on teachers' long-range career planning and their agency in career advancement. Special attention should be paid to their emotional needs. [Note: The page range (3123-3148) shown on the PDF is incorrect. The correct page range is 3123-3147.]

This research aims to examine the mediation effect of teaching behaviour in the relationship between teachers' transformational leadership practices and students' interest in science. A non-experimental quantitative approach was used, with a total of 250 students from secondary private schools in Malaysia participating voluntarily as respondents in the study. Google Form questionnaires were distributed through email for data collection. The findings indicated significant positive associations between teachers' transformational leadership practices, teaching behaviour, and students' interest in science, as revealed by correlation and regression analyses. Mediation analysis demonstrates that teachers' teaching behaviour partially mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and students' interest in science. This study emphasizes the importance of effective teaching behaviour in fostering students' interest in science, providing valuable insights for educational policymakers, school administrators, and teachers in promoting science education and improving students' academic achievement.

Science teachers play a crucial role in the science education system, significantly influencing the development of students. However, existing research highlights issues such as a wide age span and uneven quality among science teachers, which undermines the effectiveness of science education. In addition, the role of science teachers can be ambiguously defined, leading to confusion about their responsibilities. To better understand the current situation and future development trend of research on the role of science teachers in China and overseas, this study compares and analyses a total of 30 documents on the role of science teachers in Chinese or English. The documents were from Web of science or CNKI databases. Content analysis was applied on time of publication, volume of papers, research topic, and similarities and differences of the role development of science teachers in China or overseas. Results show that: (1) At present, the development trend of research on the role of science teachers published in English and Chinese is relatively slow and has not received due attention. Most mainstream research paradigms are still in the stage of theoretical exploration; (2) the research theme of the role of science teachers mainly includes five aspects: Role expectation, role orientation, role identification, role transformation, and role; (3) the "should be" research published in Chinese and the "real" research published in English should be combined and form a positive interaction. This study is helpful to systematically analyze the current situation of research on the role of science teachers, with a view to providing a basis for subsequent research on the role of science teachers.

Online learning became a necessity in many places during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the case of Hong Kong SAR, the pandemic provided a unique opportunity to establish blended learning as a norm. The authors discuss the insights and challenges related to delivering mathematics lessons online in a secondary school during and after the pandemic. A three-year-long case study was conducted to examine the differences in perceptions between a teacher and his five students regarding online mathematics instruction during the suspension of traditional in-class lessons in 2020 and after the resumption of traditional instruction in 2023. The Social-Ecological Approach with domains of structure, agency, and cultural practice was applied in the study, which investigated the perceived benefits of blended learning for both the students and the teachers. Data was collected via interviews. The study explored technological challenges, curriculum adaptations, and the impact of parental support on blended learning. Looking ahead, leveraging motivators like easy access while mitigating distractors through disciplined strategies can optimize blended learning environments. The insights gained from this study provide valuable guidance on the effectiveness of instructional strategies and technological tools, highlighting the features of best practices for future blended learning approaches. Furthermore, the paper provides valuable information for policymakers, educators, and educational technology developers.

Recent advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) have brought society closer to the long-held dream of creating machines to help with both common and complex tasks and functions. From recommending movies to detecting disease in its earliest stages, AI has become an aspect of daily life many people accept without scrutiny. Despite its functionality and promise, AI has inherent security risks that users should understand and programmers must be trained to address. The ICE (integrity, confidentiality, and equity) cybersecurity labs developed by a team of cybersecurity researchers addresses these vulnerabilities to AI models through a series of hands-on, inquiry-based labs. Through experimenting with and manipulating data models, students can experience firsthand how adversarial samples and bias can degrade the integrity, confidentiality, and equity of deep learning neural networks, as well as implement security measures to mitigate these vulnerabilities. This article addresses the pedagogical approach underpinning the ICE labs, and discusses both sample activities and technological considerations for teachers who want to implement these labs with their students.

This study utilized the SEC (Survey of Enacted Curriculum) method to examine the alignment between Chinese high school chemistry curriculum standards (HSCCS) and the assessment of 'Chemical Reaction Principles' in the National College Entrance Examinations (NCEEs). The HSCCS and NCEEs were coded into two-dimensional matrices separately using SPSS, MATLAB, and EXCEL. The alignment coefficients were analyzed both macroscopically and specifically based on two dimensions: themes and cognitive levels. The findings indicated a generally low alignment between NCEEs and HSCCS in the 'Chemical Reaction Principles' domain, and no statistically significant alignment was observed. Comparing Porter alignment coefficients revealed a gradual increase in the overall alignment level between 2018-2022 NCEEs and HSCCS due to curricular reforms. Further specific analyses and comparisons highlighted significant discrepancies between NCEEs and HSCCS concerning themes and cognitive levels. Regarding themes, 'Ionic Reactions and Equilibrium in Aqueous Solutions' showed substantial alignment between NCEEs and HSCCS. However, for 'Application of Ionic Reactions and Equilibrium' and 'Systems and Energy,' NCEEs diverged significantly from or exceeded HSCCS requirements. Concerning cognitive levels, NCEEs demanded higher levels of student cognition compared to HSCCS.

Humility as a concept has recently received increasing scholarly attention in international scholarship. It has also been regarded as important for education traditionally in Chinese culture. However, no empirical research so far has examined Chinese people's conceptualisations of humility in education and its cultivation in schools. Based on semi-structured interviews, this exploratory study examined urban teachers' conceptions of humility and their experiences of cultivating humility in mainland Chinese schools. Our findings highlight the multiplicity and complexity of conceptualisations of humility and the challenges faced by the teachers in cultivating humility. The study also raises questions about the politics of practicing humility and the complex entanglements between moral values and social norms and relations, inviting more research to examine the complex implications of moral virtues that are promoted in schools and wider societies around the world. Despite their recognition of the potentially negative consequences of humility such as avoidance from competition and entailing emotional constraints, the teachers regarded humility as a predominantly positive moral concept important for learning, teaching, and teacher--student relationship. Meanwhile, they associated it with disciplinary dispositions such as being quiet, subtle, cautious, or dutiful. The teachers' attempts to cultivate it among their students were highly contingent, however, due to various challenges, including a lack of teacher training and limited textbook contents on humility, the exam-orientedness of the Chinese education system, and the perceived individualistic dispositions of Chinese students.

Computational thinking (CT), an essential competency for comprehending and addressing intricate issues in the digital world, has been incorporated into curriculum planning as a goal for programming education. This study introduced flow design into programming curricula to investigate its impact on undergraduates 'CT skills during pair work. Two types of flow design approaches, construct-by-self flow design (CBS-FD) and construct-on-scaffold flow design (COS-FD), were proposed to determine which approach better enhances students' CT skills. Seventy-six first-year undergraduates participated, including thirty in the CBS group and thirty-six in the COS group. Evaluations made from the results and processes of programming tasks were employed to describe computational performance and computational practices, respectively. Data gathered from CT skill surveys were thoroughly analyzed to gain a deeper understanding of computational perspectives. Our findings highlighted that COS-FD significantly improved participants' computational performance compared with CBS-FD. The COS groups fostered an engaging, sharing atmosphere, while CBS groups spent more energy on negotiating the manipulation of flow design. Moreover, both COS-FD and CBS-FD proved beneficial in enhancing participants' computational perspectives, with the COS groups better improving their algorithm thinking. The study presents valuable perspectives on the design and implementation of collaborative programming activities within curriculum education.

Objective: This study examined children's representations of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) as well as their pandemic experiences against the backdrop of the world having transitioned to normalcy. Design: Mixed-methods approach encompassing both qualitative and quantitative analysis. Setting: Two middle schools in Hefei city in mid-eastern China. Method: Data were collected using a qualitative task which elicited children's drawings, commentaries, answers to questions related to their pandemic experiences, followed by small-group interviews. Content analysis and emergent coding techniques were employed to analyse the data, the extracted themes of which were then quantified to reveal their incidence and distribution. Results: Analysis of the multimodal data set revealed children not only depicted viral morphology but also evoked emotions. The pandemic had brought about changes in children's lives, marked by a shift towards more academic activities, rest and relaxation and screen time. These changes also raised psychological, physical and social development concerns warranting mitigation. Multifaceted sources were identified as contributing to children's unhappiness, including restricted social interactions, educational challenges, emotional and psychological issues. Notably, children reported enhanced pre- to post-pandemic hygiene and sanitisation practices. Unsubstantiated beliefs relating to processes of recovery suggest the need for clearer communication in this regard. Conclusion: The study highlights the necessity for health education to support children in physical and psychological coping during a pandemic and build their resilience against future epidemics. Actively listening to children's account of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, and their pandemic experiences paves the way for making health education initiatives more relatable and attuned to their needs.

Objectives: Previous studies have widely demonstrated that inhibition of return (IOR) with audiovisual targets decreases due to audiovisual integration (AVI). It is currently unclear, however, whether the impaired AVI in children with ADHD has effects on IOR. The present study used the cue-target paradigm to explore differences between the IOR of audiovisual targets and the IOR of visual targets in ADHD and typically developing (TD) children. Method: A total of 81 native Chinese speakers aged 6 to 13 years were recruited, including 38 children with ADHD and 43 age- and sex-matched TD children. Results: The results showed that there was a smaller magnitude of IOR with audiovisual targets as compared with visual targets in the two groups. Importantly, the reduction of IOR in audiovisual conditions was significantly smaller in children with ADHD than in children with TD. Race model analyses further confirmed that differences in IOR between ADHD and TD are due to deficits of audiovisual integration in ADHD. Conclusion: The results indicated that children with ADHD have impaired audiovisual integration, which has a minimal impact on IOR.

Background: Walk tests are common gait speed and endurance assessments. Shorter test versions could benefit adults with intellectual disability. Thus, the concurrent validity of shorter tests was studied. Methods: Thirty-five adults with mild to moderate intellectual disability, aged 21-64 years, were assessed with the 4-m walk test, 10-m walk test for gait speed, 2-min walk test, and 6-min walk test for endurance. Correlation and Bland--Altman plots analyses were used to establish concurrent validity between shorter and standard tests. Results: Strong positive relationships were found for gait speed tests, r = 0.94, p < 0.001, and endurance tests, r = 0.83, p < 0.001, and differences between shorter and standard tests were within limits of agreement. Conclusions: The concurrent validity of shorter walk tests was established in this study. This would mean that adults with intellectual disability with lower levels of fitness could be assessed.

Background: To better understand the intricate science of reading development, both cognitive and affective factors must be taken into consideration. This developmental study aims to enrich the literature by exploring how reading motivation -- an affective factor -- contributes to reading comprehension in Chinese elementary schoolers, beyond well-accepted cognitive-based reading skills, such as decoding and vocabulary. Methods: We used a cross-sectional design with 420 native Mandarin-Chinese-speaking students (Grade 2: N = 95; Grade 3: N = 216; Grade 4: N = 109), with age-appropriate materials to measure their decoding skills, vocabulary knowledge, reading motivation, and reading comprehension. Three sets of hierarchical regression analyses were run for the three grade samples to examine the unique contributions of reading motivation to reading comprehension while controlling children's demographic profiles, such as age and gender, and two cognitive-based reading skills. Results: We replicated previous findings: children's decoding and vocabulary are robust predictors of reading achievement across Grades 2 to 4. Importantly, reading motivation contributed uniquely to reading comprehension in all three grades and explained an increasing amount of the variances in reading comprehension from Grades 2 to 4. Intrinsic reading motivation was critical in Grade 3, while extrinsic reading motivation became important in Grade 4. Conclusions: Taken together, our findings reveal the complexity of reading development and advance the existing cognitive-based reading theories by including affective dimensions.

With the ability to provide feedback and assistance, humanoid educational robots have been proven effective in assisting students to overcome learning challenges and enhancing individual learning outcomes. However, the strength of humanoid robots in promoting social and emotional skills has not been well investigated. Socially supportive behaviour can contribute more to students' learning engagement than knowledge transfer. This study focuses on the design of humanoid robots to engage students from functional and affective perspectives. To this end, a pilot test is conducted on 64 primary school students in Hong Kong, comprising a control group (N = 33) and an experimental group (N = 31). Questionnaires, observations, and language proficiency test are done to ensure the validity of the findings. The results show that the experimental group, which learned with the humanoid robots, significantly improved their behavioural engagement (+ 13.24%), emotional engagement (+ 13.14%), cognitive engagement (21.56%), and intrinsic motivation (12.07%). The impact of utilizing humanoid robots in education is elucidated through the lens of the self-determination theory (SDT), which pertains to students' learning motivation and engagement. These findings can provide valuable insights into the development of more captivating humanoid robots for extensive learning purposes.

This paper describes a scoping review of China's academic resource databases, relevant official websites, news reports and public accounts spanning a period from the end of 2019 to the end of 2022, to investigate the challenges in scientific integrity and ethical soundness of research conducted during and immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic in China. By conducting the scoping review with keywords related to the research questions in Chinese, relevant data were extracted and classified into four categories: challenges in research, challenges in ethics review, challenges in publishing academic work, and research ethics guidelines during and after the pandemic. The paper points out that problematic studies and findings increased with the escalation in medical research projects during the pandemic in China. The situation faced by researchers was more difficult than before the pandemic. The mode of informed consent, and ethics review and oversight systems also underwent changes. In addition, Traditional Chinese Medicine as an alternative medical treatment for COVID-19, attracted attention from the research community and became a topic of discussion. We conclude that the various challenges and concerns identified indicate a need for a proper and timely response system be formulated in preparation for possible future occurrences of new pandemics or other critical situations.

Given the severe pollution caused by traditional plastics, biodegradable plastic products (BPPs) have received great attention and are appearing in people's lives in the form of packaging bags, tableware, etc. Whether a wide variety of BPPs can truly degrade depends on the environment. Aerobic composting is the arbitration method to evaluate the degradability of BPPs in a premarket review, so only the aerobic degradability of BPPs can be guaranteed. Anaerobic digestion has become an irreplaceable part of the global carbon cycle and a mainstream technique to dispose of organic wastes. However, little attention has been given to the anaerobic degradation of BPPs, which may cause environmental pollution if BPPs are not degraded within a short time period. Students are not aware of these issues. Therefore, the teacher carried out teaching reforms in biochemistry course by designing anaerobic degradation of commercially available BPPs as a laboratory exercise for undergraduate students to form a correct understanding of the actual anaerobic degradation performance of BPPs, establish a more comprehensive theoretical knowledge framework of catabolism in biochemistry course, and train their hands-on ability and operation skills. This paper provides an introduction to the experimental design and teaching process of the anaerobic degradation of BPPs, and the results show that the degradation degree and rate are closely related to the components of BPPs. The results of the quizzes and questionnaires show that teaching reform is not only beneficial for deepening students' impression and understanding of anaerobic catabolism from ubiquitous BPPs in everyday life but also helpful for promoting their environmental awareness by selecting and using BPPs with better degradability. This teaching reform offers references and guidance for the teaching practice in courses like biochemistry, environmental microbiology, environmental chemistry, and waste treatment.

Autism is a lifelong condition characterized by repetitive and restrictive behaviors and differences in social communication. The reported prevalence of autism has risen exponentially in the past years. Early identification and subsequent early intervention are key to promoting better outcomes for autistic individuals. However, there is a dearth of research focusing on understanding variables that impact the age of diagnosis of autistic children in Paraguay. We collected data from 176 caregivers of autistic individuals aged 18 years or younger who lived in Paraguay and conducted a hierarchical regression analysis to understand whether demographic and clinical variables predicted the age of autism diagnosis in Paraguayan autistic children. Our results indicated that child's age, child's age at caregivers' first concerns for their development, and child's verbal skills were significant predictors of the age of autism diagnosis in Paraguay. Educating caregivers and professionals to increase awareness of autism characteristics and atypical behaviors in social communication beyond verbal skills may support the early identification of autism and subsequent access to early intervention.

Large Language Models (LLMs) have the potential to improve education by personalizing learning. However, ChatGPT-generated content has been criticized for sometimes producing false, biased, and/or hallucinatory information. To evaluate AI's ability to return clear and accurate anatomy information, this study generated a custom interactive and intelligent chatbot (Anatbuddy) through an Open AI Application Programming Interface (API) that enables seamless AI-driven interactions within a secured cloud infrastructure. Anatbuddy was programmed through a Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) method to provide context-aware responses to user queries based on a predetermined knowledge base. To compare their outputs, various queries (i.e., prompts) on thoracic anatomy (n = 18) were fed into Anatbuddy and ChatGPT 3.5. A panel comprising three experienced anatomists evaluated both tools' responses for factual accuracy, relevance, completeness, coherence, and fluency on a 5-point Likert scale. These ratings were reviewed by a third party blinded to the study, who revised and finalized scores as needed. Anatbuddy's factual accuracy (mean ± SD = 4.78/5.00 ± 0.43; median = 5.00) was rated significantly higher (U = 84, p = 0.01) than ChatGPT's accuracy (4.11 ± 0.83; median = 4.00). No statistically significant differences were detected between the chatbots for the other variables. Given ChatGPT's current content knowledge limitations, we strongly recommend the anatomy profession develop a custom AI chatbot for anatomy education utilizing a carefully curated knowledge base to ensure accuracy. Further research is needed to determine students' acceptance of custom chatbots for anatomy education and their influence on learning experiences and outcomes.

Reading habits play an active role in promoting students' reading skills and making them prepared to participate in modern society. Gender differences regarding students' habits in the use of reading medium, amount of time spent on leisure reading, and the frequency of school-related reading and of leisure reading were examined. The relation between these habits and the level of student reading performance was further explored. Data on 439,847 15-year-old students in 61 countries/regions were extracted from the most recent database of the Programme for International Student Assessment. Descriptive statistics showed that female students preferred print reading and multiformat use, that they spent more time on leisure reading, and that they read fiction and magazines more often than male students. Then, 3-level hierarchical linear modeling was conducted. The results indicated that the use of a paper format, the school-related reading of texts with tables or graphs and of fiction, and the leisure reading of fiction and nonfiction positively influenced reading performance among members of both gender groups and that a small amount of leisure reading of magazines and newspapers only showed a significant, albeit small, positive impact among members of the female group. Additionally, more than 2 h of leisure reading a day brought greater benefits for female students, while 1 to 2 h a day seemed to be more effective for male students. The practical implications for the cultivation of reading habits by students as well as those for the implementation of educational interventions were further discussed.

The emergence of Positive Psychology in second language acquisition has placed greater emphasis on the vital role of engagement in learning English as a foreign language (EFL). Although previous research has established that EFL learners' engagement is affected by ideal L2 self, boredom, and grit respectively, sporadic studies have attempted to address the simultaneous link between these factors and engagement. To fill the gap, this study aims to examine the association between the ideal L2 self and engagement among EFL learners, with a special focus on the mediating role of grit and boredom in the relationship. A total of 466 EFL learners were enrolled in two public universities in Northern China. Structural equation modeling (SEM) results revealed that grit positively predicted engagement and mediated the relationship between the ideal L2 self and engagement. Moreover, boredom negatively predicted engagement and acted as a mediator between the ideal L2 self and engagement. However, ideal L2 self did not directly predict engagement. These findings contribute to the current knowledge by elucidating the complex relationships between the three factors and engagement, which can provide insights for pedagogical practices and directions for future research.

Collaborative problem-solving (CPS) includes multiple socio-cognitive processes that can be challenging to investigate. Constructing arguments is a key practice at the intersection of CPS and science learning. To understand how students construct arguments and develop science knowledge during CPS, we focus on team synchrony--the extent of similarity of navigation actions between team members--in a game-based learning environment. Specifically, we examined the impact of team synchrony on students' argument construction and science knowledge acquisition in a science learning game, "Alien Rescue." Using a mixed methods approach, we analyzed a range of in-game data and performance data of 69 teams from 146 sixth-grade students. Our results show that team synchrony enhanced students' science knowledge acquisition, whereas its effects on argumentation features were nuanced: (a) higher team synchrony groups were more productive in constructing backing compared to low team synchrony groups in conditions where their prior knowledge was high, and (b) there was no significant difference between the two groups in generating claims. We also identified two illustrative cases to show the observed relationship between team synchrony and complexity of arguments that students constructed as a team. Our study has implications for tracing learning processes through log and textual data to understand students' CPS process and performance, which consequently inform the design of scaffolds that support students' CPS.