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As universities shifted to online education with the onset of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, both pedagogy and assessment patterns across disciplines underwent a change, with a shift towards collaborative digital assessments. In this context, using qualitative and quantitative methods for data collection from an assessment conducted for 55 students who worked in groups to create YouTube videos on pre-selected modules, our analysis reveals that this assessment tool had a significant impact on peer learning, motivation and group dynamics. Students were more motivated to learn and share their learning, and they could also successfully engage in recognising and addressing group dynamics, thereby cultivating more than just subject knowledge. This finding aligns with existing scholarship and the paper adds to research about pedagogy and assessment via digital education in the Indian context, which is still upcoming.

Emotional intelligence (EI) has a positive correlation with the academic performance of medical students. However, why there is a positive correlation needs further exploration. We hypothesized that the capability of answering higher-order knowledge questions (HOQs) is higher in students with higher EI. Hence, we assessed the correlation between EI and the capability of medical students to answer HOQs in physiology. First-year undergraduate medical students (n = 124) from an Indian medical college were recruited as a convenient sample. EI was assessed by the Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test (SSEIT), a 33-item self-administered validated questionnaire. A specially designed objective examination with 15 lower-order and 15 higher-order multiple-choice questions was conducted. The correlation between the examination score and the EI score was tested by Pearson's correlation coefficient. Data from 92 students (33 females and 59 males) with a mean age of 20.14±1.87 yr were analyzed. Overall, students got a percentage of 53.37±14.07 in the examination, with 24.46±9.1 in HOQs and 28.91±6.58 in lower-order knowledge questions (LOQs). They had a mean score of 109.58±46.2 in SSEIT. The correlation coefficient of SSEIT score with total marks was r ¼ 0.29 (P ¼ 0.0037), with HOQs was r ¼ 0.41 (P < 0.0001), and with LOQs was r = 0.14 (P = 0.19). Hence, there is a positive correlation between EI and the capability of medical students to answer HOQs in physiology. This study may be the foundation for further exploration of the capability of answering HOQs in other subjects.

Background: The provision of graded accreditation and autonomy of colleges has been made in the national education policy (NEP) 2020 which will be applicable for all types of higher education institutions in the country. The authors have noticed that there are very few diploma engineering programmes having accreditation and that too will expire for the majority of the programmes in June 2022. Purpose: To ascertain the awareness of faculty members on the accreditation process was the main purpose of the study. Apart from it, reasons for a very low number of programme accreditation were inferred and suggestions are made for the national board of accreditation (NBA), state government and polytechnics to improve and innovate the quality of diploma engineering programmes to satisfy the future needs of students, employers and society and implement the provisions of NEP 2020. Method: A descriptive research study was undertaken using the structured and semi-structured instrument designed by the researchers. The responses were collected from 525 principals, heads of departments and faculty members of the polytechnics of the country using Google Form. Results: It is found that on 95 parameters of the accreditation process the cumulative weighted mean level of awareness of faculty members is more than 60 percent. That clearly indicates that teachers are having in-depth awareness of the requirements of the accreditation process but they are achieving the minimum expectable level on various pre-qualifiers, criteria and sub-criteria because of varios reasons. Conclusions: There is a number of other reasons which are abstracting the polytechnic and programmes to qualify for the accreditation. These reasons should be identified and addressed using well-designed quality improvement and innovation interventions at state, polytechnic and faculty members levels.

Children living in poverty face numerous challenges that negatively affect their wellbeing and thus their ability to learn. The consequences of poverty that interfere with students' learning include inattentiveness, demotivation, and feelings of powerlessness, shame, and anger. To reach these children, with the goal of helping them become healthy, effective learners, Labhya partners with governments to co-create scalable and localized wellbeing and social-emotional learning programs for children across public education systems. They provide end-to-end support through cocreation of curriculum, teacher capacity building, monitoring and evaluation, and support in effective implementation. Richa Gupta, CEO & Co-founder at Labhya, provides answers to questions about this organization's high-impact initiative. Labhya is an education nonprofit that has pioneered the wellbeing movement in India. In partnership with Indian governments, Labhya integrates wellbeing programs into the school day. Social-emotional learning is an internationally acknowledged best education practice, which has proven to be one of the most powerful tools for social change and poverty reduction. It plays a critical role in education, enabling children to develop the skills and abilities they need to succeed in school and beyond. Research demonstrates that the integration of social-emotional learning in schools leads to better education and employment outcomes and improves children's mental wellbeing in the long run. The four key pedagogies -- mindfulness, self-reflection, stories, and reinforcing activities -- are carefully integrated into the curriculum to ensure holistic development and wellbeing among students. According to the author, the programs are localized and trauma-informed, delivered in local languages, and adapted to suit the diverse settings of their children.

Purpose: Alexa's integration in rural primary schools has improved the pedagogy and has created an engaging and objective learning environment. This study investigates the integration, with a specific focus on exploring its various aspects. The impact of Alexa's on students' English vocabulary, comprehension and public speaking are examined. This study aims to provide insights the teachers and highlight the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in rural education. Design/methodology/approach: This content analysis study explores the use of Alexa in primary education in rural areas of India. The study focuses on the types of the questions asked by the students and examines the pedagogical implications of these interactions. By analyzing the use of Alexa in rural educational settings, this study aims to contribute to our understanding of how voice assistants are utilized as educational tools in underprivileged areas. Findings: Alexa significantly improved students' English vocabulary, comprehension and public speaking confidence. Alexa increased school enrollment and retention. Virtual voice assistants like Alexa may improve pedagogy and help India's rural education. This study shows AI improves rural education. Research limitations/implications: The study only covers rural India. Self-reported data and observations may bias the study. The small sample size may underrepresent rural educational institutions in India. Originality/value: Alexa is used to study rural India's primary education. Voice assistants in rural education are understudied. The study examines Alexa's classroom use, student questions, and policy and teacher education implications. AI's education transformation potential addresses UNESCO's teacher shortage. This novel study examines how AI can improve rural education outcomes and access.

Purpose: The study aims to ratify skills necessary to bridge the gap between the existing models and emerging needs of a technology-enabled workspace; especially in the Indian context. Design/methodology/approach: This paper extends the ongoing debate on a relevant employability framework suitable both for higher education institutes and corporates. To remain resilient to future catastrophes similar to the ongoing pandemic, the relevancy of established employability skills to suit the changing scenario needs to be established. Findings: The partial least squares (PLS) technique has been used to present a framework confirming the importance of digital competencies, business fundamentals and behavioral skills. In-depth discussions with specialists ratified the proposed framework and recommended potential changes in curriculum and pedagogy. Research limitations/implications: This study validates an explicit and comprehensive employability skill framework and useful recommendations in teaching strategies, which may provide a broad skill base for graduates to prepare for the volatile business environment in the long run. Practical implications: The study has been able to put forth significant employability skills as deemed significant by the three stakeholders. This will provide guidance to higher educational institutions (HEIs) to come up with a broad skill-base for the fresh graduates and prepare them for the volatile business environment and encourage life-long learning to remain productive in the long run. Originality/value: The study is unique as it incorporates the perceived importance of the competencies assumed by each stakeholder, namely, employers, faculty and management graduates, which was unfortunately lacking in earlier researches.

Purpose: The present paper concerns the domestic and international accreditations of business schools to find the commonalities in various accreditation standards. The study also addresses cost involvement and comparisons between various accreditations. Design/methodology/approach: The research examined the requirements, methods and preparations for many national and international accrediting authorities. The accreditation criteria, history and guidelines were collected from secondary data sources. The content analysis was used to draw conclusions about the similarities and differences between the data sources and identify any differences and similarities between various accreditations. Findings: The study found commonalities across accreditation standards and cost analyses, helping institutions achieve suitable accreditations. To unify the administrative procedure at the institutional level and reduce duplicates for schools seeking multiple accreditations, similarities in all accreditation requirements are analysed. The comparison helps organisations determine which accreditation standard best suits their needs and goals. Schools with limited budgets might compare accreditation costs to determine which are worth pursuing. Research limitations/implications: This study is limited to comparing a few accreditation bodies related to management education. In future research, the study may be extended to other areas. The use of the approach developed in this study for evaluating accreditation agencies of different streams, such as engineering, science and medicine, will be the study's future implications. Practical implications: The research indicates that schools can streamline accreditation by identifying commonalities, aligning procedures, comparing standards and conducting cost assessments. These insights aid efficient accreditation and inform accrediting bodies' framework enhancements. Standards facilitate global performance comparisons. Originality/value: This is likely the first study to compare Indian and international accreditations using the accreditation frameworks and cost analyses using comparative analysis. The study recommends strategies for achieving academic benchmarks through continuous improvement activities and success in international competition.

Purpose: Building on the social cognitive theory, a mediation model was examined to understand the role of teacher self-efficacy as the underlying mechanism for the relationship between instructional leadership and teacher job satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach: The study tests a mediation model between instructional leadership, teacher self-efficacy and job satisfaction. The data were collected via online survey from primary school teachers (N = 320) working for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MDC) in India. The mediation model was tested using the AMOS 22.0 after establishing the reliability and validity of measures. Findings: Regression analyses using the bootstrapping method indicated that teacher self-efficacy mediates the relationship between instructional leadership and teacher job satisfaction. Research limitations/implications: This is a cross-sectional study. The scope for causal inferences is, thus, limited. Practical implications: In the Indian setting, the study examines the association between instructional leadership and job satisfaction. The results show that the instructional leadership of the school principal is strongly related to teachers' self-efficacy, which, in turn is positively associated with teacher's job satisfaction. Further, the findings confirm that instructional leadership, emphasizing instructional improvement, improves teachers' self-efficacy and job satisfaction. Originality/value: The study explains the underlying process through which a school principal's instructional leadership is related to teacher job satisfaction. This study is perhaps the first to focus on an Indian or a non-Western context.

Skill development is the key instrument for achieving the target of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8 in developing countries. The development of human capital in India is of global importance, given the prospects of India being the fastest growing economy of the world and poised to be the country with the largest working-age population in the world. Massive skill development momentum has built up in the country in the recent past, and elucidating this whole human capital development ecosystem in India is the objective of this study. This article traces the evolution of the skilling landscape in India and describes the present scenario on skilling schemes of both National (Central) and State governments in India. This study also discusses the challenges before policymakers interested in the development of human capital through skilling schemes in India and attempts to shed some light on the road ahead for skilling initiatives in the country.

In India, 80% of graduating engineers remain either underemployed or unemployed due to lack of specific professional and generic skills. This study focuses on understanding how engineering graduates can psychologically orient themselves concerning their career opportunities. Specifically, this study looks at the intersection between career planning attitudes, locus of control and employability perceptions of students. The study further investigates whether such career orientations can make graduate job-seekers more assertive and in control of their preparations for job interviews. A two-stage mixed-method design is applied to investigate this issue. In study 1, data is collected from 497 final year engineering students from several technical institutions from South India and subsequently analysed through hierarchical linear regression analysis. The findings reveal that locus of control orientation positively influences students' internal cognitive processes, affecting their overall belief about their employability potential. In study 2, in-depth interviews with eight corporate recruiters and six placement officers are conducted through an E-Delphi setting. The objective of study 2 is to understand whether generic employability aspects are considered important while deciding a candidate's suitability and how these cognitive career orientations can be inculcated appropriately among the students. The importance of developing a vocational mindset is stressed, and suggestions to foster the same have been explained at length.

Purpose: The study examined the relationship between e-learning usage, creativity, e-learning utility and academic performance among undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) students at Banaras Hindu University (BHU), India. Design/methodology/approach: The data from 480 students were collected using a cross-sectional survey design. Pearson correlation analysis was performed in order to investigate the association between the variables. Findings: The results revealed a significant positive correlation between time of use and academic performance (r = 0.294, p < 0.01). However, there was no significant correlation between time of use and the usability of e-learning in the attainment of learning outcomes. Furthermore, there was a negative correlation between time of use and creativity (r = -0.170, p < 0.01). Practical implications: The results indicate that educators ought to promote consistent utilization of e-learning platforms to enhance scholarly achievements. However, learners should exercise prudence in their usage, as an over-reliance on these platforms may impede their creativity. Originality/value: This study contributes to the existing body of knowledge regarding the impacts of e-learning on students' academic performance and creativity. Additionally, it offers instructing professionals and students who make use of e-learning platforms information that might be helpful to them.

Widespread academic dishonesty among higher education (HE) students has been a concern for higher education institutes (HEIs). Ethics literature reports that unintentional plagiarism is more prevalent among HE students and the root cause is, limited or no awareness of nuances of ethics concerning plagiarism resulting in poor ethical judgments. This study attempts to examine what is students' ethical reasoning for unintentional plagiarism and how HEIs' ethical awareness efforts impact students' ethical judgments which ultimately shape their ethical behavior. The study also explored whether and how individual-level factors such as intrinsic religiosity, age, gender, and work experience moderate the focal relationships. A longitudinal quasi-experimental field study was conducted. The subjects of the study were 294 postgraduate students of an internationally accredited higher education institution in India. The pretest-posttest design involved a set of experimental manipulations reflecting the HEI's endeavors to explicate the unethical implications of plagiarism.

A mentoring approach towards excellence is proposed in this paper. This approach should be followed to develop educational leaders and faculty members to prepare HEIs to build capacity and capability to implement the provisions of the national education policy (NEP) 2020. The approach includes designing the mentoring programme at the institute level, selection and orientation of mentors, selection and orientation of mentees, mentoring process, mentees and mentors' outcomes, and ultimate outcomes of the mentoring programme-academic, research, and excellence. The authors have noted recommendations to make the mentoring programme successful.

Background: The higher education institutions will go a major innovation, reform, and change to achieve the goal of achieving quality, accreditation, and autonomy. Purpose: To evolve a holistic framework and strategies for achieving, quality, accreditation, and autonomy. Methods: The study is an exploratory qualitative study. The unstructured questionnaire is used for conducting the research which is responded to by 754 respondents working in higher and technical education institutions in the country. Result: The framework suggested in this study is having four rings. The innermost ring is a governing ring that is responsible for the professional governance of the institute with the help of the governing teams. The second ring is the capacity-building ring which is responsible for capacity building and capacity development and creating an innovative climate and culture. The third ring is a functional ring that is responsible for implementing the innovations, reforms, and change in the institute that are aligned to the provisions of the national education policy 2020. The fourth ring is the product and service ring and also the outermost ring which is responsible for the interface between the institution and the external environment. Conclusion: The reform-oriented institutions are provided strengths by these four rings to obtain accreditation and autonomy and sustain it. The strategies for each ring are suggested in the context of the National Education Policy 2020. It is suggested to implement the framework and strategies to effectively, efficiently, and productively implement the innovations in the institute.

Networked computers can potentially support classrooms to be more interactive. It can help students share representations amongst themselves and work together on a shared virtual activity space. In research on the role of shared screens or shared virtual workspace in learning settings, there has been less attention paid to contexts where learners are co-located. This paper looks at the impact of the shared screen in a computational game environment on mathematics learning and practices and the construction of learners' emotions and social status in classroom interactions. We designed two versions of a simple arithmetic game: a solo version in which the student played the game alone and a multi-player version in which the screen was shared, and the players could see the arithmetic moves of the other players. We implemented these two versions of the game in a 4th-grade classroom in a suburban school in a large metropolis in India. Classroom sessions were video recorded, computer logs were collected, and field notes were taken. Focus group sessions were held with the students. We coded a portion of the data to get at patterns of classroom interactions. Then we drew on qualitative video analysis tools to analyze specific episodes to understand the fine timescale dynamics of dominant interaction patterns in each setting. Our analysis shows that the shared screen served as a shared memory device, keeping a record of all the students' posts, and was entangled in the moment-to-moment dynamics of self- and peer- assessments of arithmetic. These findings suggest that thoughtful integration of networked digital tools in computer-supported learning environments can increase student-student interactions and support disciplinary learning.

In 2019 India was ranked seventh most affected nation by climate change, yet 65 per cent of the Indian population had not heard of climate change. India's revised National Education Policy mentions climate change and environmental issues as part of its work towards reaching the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals. However, to date, climate education in India has tended to remain the responsibility of the secondary science teacher in many schools where resources are limited. Following calls for a more holistic and multidisciplinary approach -- where students can link environmental issues with their lives -- we reflect on three arts-based climate education exemplars with students from the East Kolkata Wetlands (EKW) (n = 150, 10-17-year-olds). We consider how these frame climate change and sustainable education as a collective learning experience, rather than as scientific concepts alone. We respond to Szczepankiewicz et al.'s model for climate education and propose that teacher training in the EKW context can be conceptualised through a three-stage, interconnected approach to pedagogy: building concepts, learning through hands-on activities and building communities is central. We suggest that these three generalisable tenets of student teacher practice should be explored in other areas of ecological fragility, as well as in spaces of economic insecurity.

As writing pedagogy gains distinct footholds in university classrooms in India, it is worth retracing some of its steps to the shaping influence of composition pedagogies in the United States. In this article, the authors recount their experiences of using the concept of conversation to enable academic writing in their classrooms. Each narrative details adaptations of what did not automatically transfer to their particular contexts. These adaptations highlight a range of cross-cultural assumptions -- from misaligned cultural references to the levels of prior reading and writing skills -- that can be taken for granted. Overall, the work has required many more intermediate steps to make writing pedagogy workable in their socially and linguistically diverse classrooms. The authors learned that what seems matter-of-fact in American composition -- the analogy of conversation as talk or strategy for analytic writing -- has to be made accessible in their classrooms as something of their own.

The significance of peace education is universally recognized for a safe and prospering future for the world at school level as peace education aims at equipping the future citizens with necessary knowledge, attitude, and skills so that they would acknowledge and respect all kinds of diversity and understand human dignity. This paper is based on an empirical research aiming how far guiding principles and practices of peace education followed in secondary schools of Mizoram. The concept of peace education, guiding principles of peace education and practices on peace-related activities being followed in the secondary schools of Mizoram were explored. The study revealed that peace education was not being taught as a separate subject. Peace education component was infused in the existing curriculum and also was being taught through co-curricular and extra-curricular activities. Besides, teachers must reflect in their behavior all the guiding principles of peace. They should encourage the students for critical thinking, reasoning, develop awareness on societal problems and issues, broaden their outlook, concentrate on studies, and to be associated with various activities. In Mizoram, students' unions and church organizations used to play a prominent role in shaping and moulding the character of the people starting from the early stage of life which ultimately benefits the society and the nation. However, in the context of rapid change in social structure and modernization process, there is need for inculcating the values of peace for which schools have to play important role.

The present study explores the role of teachers' personal dispositional factors in determining their willingness to adopt virtual reality (VR) applications in teaching. Premised in the Indian context, the study focuses on the perceptions of B-school teachers regarding the adoption of VR technology in the 'management' discipline of higher education. The proposed model was empirically tested using cross sectional design. The primary data was gathered through a survey of 508 teachers at 50 B-schools in the NCR of Delhi, India. Exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression analysis were used to statistically analyse the data. The findings of the study suggest that the technology-related personal characteristics of teachers such as, computer expertise, computer self-efficacy, and personal innovativeness; personality traits such as, extraversion, conscientiousness and openness to experience; and demographic characteristic such as age, significantly predict the intention of teachers regarding adoption of VR technology in management education.

A growing body of research shows that private tutoring is a globally pervasive phenomenon. A common way in which tutoring provisions are defined is with the use of the metaphor "shadow education", signifying that tutoring centres "shadow" formal schools. Despite the popularity of this metaphor in the field, how "shadowing" occurs as a process and what implications this process has for formal schooling and society have seldom been put through empirical scrutiny. To redress this gap in the literature, this article draws on the data produced through an ethnography of schooling in Dehradun (India) between 2014-15. The discussion on specific ways in which the institutional arrangement of private tutoring aligns with that of formal schooling reveals the socio-educational embeddedness of private tutoring within the mainstream schooling experience in India. The article argues that "shadowing" is not a neutral process, it is executed tactically and strategically with an aim to provide private tutoring a valued, legitimised, and competitive space in an increasingly marketised education sector. Importantly, this analysis of "shadowing" exposes problematic practices within formal schooling and suggests that by mirroring these practices in its structure, private tutoring reproduces social inequality. The insights into understanding the "shadowing process" that this article offers may be of value to the analysis of the organisational arrangements of tutoring businesses within India and in other societies. Through demonstrating that tutoring is part of everyday schooling, this article makes a case for recognising it as integral to mainstream education in India.

Purpose: The objective of this study was to analyse the effects of major determinants on VCT adoption intention among higher educational leaders. Also, this study aims to investigate how perceived risk and perceived benefits influence the educational leaders, VCT actual use intention. Design/methodology/approach: The authors used the online survey method to collect the 440 responses through purposive sampling procedure. Structural equation modelling (SEM) technique and Multi Group Analysis procedure were used to test the proposed model and moderating effects. Findings: The findings revealed that all the four determinants (PE, EE, SI and FC) based on UTAUT model have positive and significant effects on intention to use VCT. Besides this there is a significant and positive effect of intention to use VCT on actual usage of VCT by the educational leaders. The moderating effect of perceived risk and perceived benefits on actual usage of virtual communication also found significant. Research limitations/implications: This paper makes its contribution to the literature related to virtual communication technology adoption by including two moderator variables (perceived risk and benefits) that are expected to affect educational leaders' actual usage of VCT. The results can also help researchers and practitioners better understanding the factors that influence higher educational leaders to adopt VCT. Originality/value: This study proposed a model incorporating the perceived risk and perceived benefits in the UTAUT model to predict the actual use of VCT. The study endeavours to investigate the moderating effects of perceived risk and perceived benefits between ITUVCT and AUVCT in Indian educational context.

Sociological inquiries on parental involvement seldom consider the investments parents make in "themselves" to realise educational advantages in their children's schooling. This gap hides the processes underlying class-making and class-produced privileges. To address this gap, this article investigates middle-class mothers' participation in tutoring and coaching for spoken English in Dehradun, India, focusing on their reasons for soliciting such paid tutoring support. It shows that mothers subscribe to these services to facilitate home-teaching, productive communication with their children, and effective home-school partnerships. Mothers' subscription to private tuition emerges in this context as a source of cultural capital that parents use to unlock their middle-class identity and privilege in the educational landscape. The article argues that English private tutoring is a case of a capital exchange -- economic for cultural and social forms of capital -- which parents may use to accumulate key resources and produce, maintain, and intergenerationally sustain their middle-classness.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify student clusters based on patterns of behavioural, cognitive, emotional, collaborative and social engagement in virtual classrooms, within the context of higher education. The study also attempts to explore the differences amongst the student clusters with respect to various motivating and demotivating teaching behaviours. Design/methodology/approach: The study relies on the self-determination theory to describe the dynamics related to various motivating and demotivating teaching behaviours and five different dimensions of student engagement in virtual classrooms. The data were collected from a convenience sample of 831 students from higher educational institutions in the Delhi -- National Capital Region of India. Cluster analysis was performed to classify students into mutually exclusive groups based on five student engagement dimensions. Findings: The findings revealed three student clusters: 'fully-engaged', 'externally-engaged' and 'individually-engaged' students. The findings also provided insights into varied correlations between specific dimensions of motivating/demotivating teaching behaviours and student engagement. Originality/value: Considering the multi-dimensionality of student engagement as well as teaching behaviours, the study adopts a person-centred approach to understand different clusters of students in virtual classrooms and investigate the relationship between teaching behaviours and student engagement dimensions.

Purpose: The main objective of the present research is to depict the experience of challenges and opportunities for virtual accreditation peer review team (PRT) visits. COVID-19 has changed higher education delivery. Higher education accreditation and PRT visits have become online. The lockdown forced schools and accreditation agencies to cancel or change visit arrangements. PRT visits could not be stopped during the COVID-19 pandemic, but accrediting agencies needed to review programme quality to meet standards. Design/methodology/approach: Eight former and present accreditation specialists were interviewed. The researchers described the challenges and opportunities in virtual accreditation visits (VAV). Also, the authors have explained their own experience of coordinating on-site and virtual accreditation visits. Using the NVIVO tool, the experts' replies are transcribed and categorised as challenges and opportunities. Findings: The findings will help the professionals and academicians better prepare for, plan and execute virtual PRT visits for accreditation agencies and schools. The results revealed that the evaluation and accreditation outcomes are similar for virtual and physical accreditation visits. Finally, the findings suggest that accreditation agencies and schools need to adopt a hybrid site visit model for accreditation visits. Practical implications: The school can prepare better for virtual PRT visits by identifying the challenges and opportunities ahead of time. The finding may motivate authorities to schedule meetings in different time zones, prepare document evidence rooms, save money, time, and travel time, and benefit the environment by eliminating paper printing, fuel use, and paper printing. Originality/value: This research is unique and noteworthy since accreditation organisations, PRT members and schools are uncertain about virtual visits. This may be the first paper in this domain to assist accreditation organisations and institutions review accreditation visits online or in hybrid mode.

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the student psychological contract in the post-pandemic induced hybrid mode of the academic ecosystem in residential business schools of India. The study puts forth three facets of understanding student expectations for contract fulfillment: the business school, academic staff (faculty) and peers. Design/methodology/approach: Using a sequential mixed methodology (qualitative and quantitative), data were gathered and analyzed in two phases. Perceptions of students regarding their expectations were captured through in-depth semi-structured telephonic interviews. The sample comprised 64 students pursuing two years of full-time master's in management courses at four residential business schools in India. Data obtained through interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. The themes extracted were prioritized using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) in the second phase. Findings: The study provides insight into the prioritized expectations of students from their peers, academic staff and the institute. The findings of the study propose that though the expectations may differ across different groups, the mutual interdependence of these groups was mandatory for contract fulfillment. Originality/value: Research on student psychological contracts in the hybrid mode of business education is scarce. The study provides a holistic perspective on this from the lens of students.

The COVID-19 outbreak has led to an influx of research studies focusing on the new norm of online teaching--learning in higher education. However, much less is known about how this profound shift in pedagogy has impacted school education especially among rural children of India. The present study is an attempt to understand the barriers and challenges that teachers of Public-funded (PF) elementary schools face while teaching online. We developed a semi-structured questionnaire and administered it to teachers of PF elementary schools in rural areas of Uttar Pradesh, India, using the online survey method. Thematic analysis of the responses we received (N = 203) reveals five broad themes, namely physical environmental constraints, socio-environmental limitations, parental support, issues of effective learning and health and well-being hazards. These findings have several implications for developing appropriate online teaching methods and making policy interventions to enhance learners' as well as educators' experiences.

This article provides a Bourdieusian analysis of middle-class parents' investment in private schooling and shadow education (tutoring support) in India, thus contributes to the scholarship of class-based educational advantage. It unveils parents' aspirations for their children's education and investigates how these aspirations shape the demand for private education. Bringing into sharp focus the complexity of social privilege, this article discusses how middle-class parents' articulation of their lack of valued cultural capital informs their decision to invest in private schools. However, parents' views on their ineffective involvement in their children's education produce a perceived home disadvantage, which parents compensate for by investing in tutoring services. The article argues that investing in private education -- both in formal educational institutions and tutoring centres -- is a case of 'capital exchange' (transfer of economic capital to secure cultural capital) exercised by privileged social groups to 'purchase' valuable educational resources, thus reproducing their social class position.

We attempt to replicate Roozenbeek and van der Linden's Western-based study in India by employing the "Bad News Game," an online game, in which players take on the role of a misinformation tycoon. They are exposed to weakened doses of the strategies employed in conspiracy and fake news production with the aim to cognitively inoculate them against misinformation. The proliferation of inexpensive mobile connections coupled with a lack of digital literacy has resulted in a conspiratorial pandemic in developing countries like India. We test the game's impact on an Indian sample (n = 1002) using a within-subject design. We provide evidence of significant improvement in the ability of participants to identify the misinformation produced using "Conspiracy," "Impersonation," and to a lesser extent, the "Discrediting" technique, while observing greater truth discernment in correctly identifying true news. We also conduct sub-sample analyses. These findings have positive implications for methods that protect users from malignant online content.

In the heart of rural India, where hope struggles to find its voice amid challenging economic and societal circumstances, Rocket Learning has discovered an inspiring tale of resilience and determination. Rocket Learning's intent is to build early childhood and foundational skills at scale in India, connect the government system and parents, and drive community change by systemically leveraging technology, media, and social incentives or influencers. At Rocket Learning, they have built out a behavior change program that assists in furthering both the quality and quantity of parent-child interactions pertaining to Early Childhood Education (ECE). Their behavior change communication strategy is shaped by annual surveys that assess parents' progress across different indices in their behavior change framework.

Self-handicapping is a commonly utilized strategy to manage the menace to self-esteem, which gets evoked by failing fear in academic achievement. The main aim of current study was to develop and validate academic self-handicapping scale. This scale was developed for measuring self-handicapping among secondary school students. The study sample comprised three hundred thirty secondary school students. Sample was chosen via using random sampling technique. Opinions of expert were collected to check the scale content and face validity. Factor analysis was done on responses of the sample. The findings concluded that academic self-handicapping can be disintegrated into two factors i.e. behavioural self-handicapping and claimed self-handicapping. Cronbach's alpha of academic self-handicapping ([alpha]= 0.917), the internal consistency indices represented good internal reliability. The results unveiled the existence of significant psychometric features of constructed questionnaire

Cognitive development is a part of neuroscience related with development of human being. The study aimed to assess the effect of consumed arsenic contaminated ground water on the developmental aspects of children in Jorhat, Assam. In this case-control study, 225 primary school children from 20 schools of Jorhat, Assam, India, participated who consumed expected moderate and low levels of arsenic contaminated groundwater getting from tube well both inside and outside the school campus. The amount of arsenic present in the sample was determined through spectrophotometer and arsenic assessment kits. The complex relationship among the latent constructs and their behaviour influenced due to the effect of arsenic in the groundwater level was analyzed through path analysis by using AMOS version 21. It was resulted that there was a significant positive relationship between arsenic and the developmental phenomena of primary school children.

Instructional Scaffolding is a learning process designed to promote a deeper level of learning and asynchronous learning involves learning via e-mails, blogs etc. The study was conducted in the urban area of Assam, India aimed to find out the effects of Online Technology Based Scaffolding (OTBS)on the asynchronous learning performance in relations to self-efficacy and persistence of school students. Non Equivalent Quasi Experimental Design used to conduct the experiment where pre test and post test used to assess the learning performance over traditional approach. Class VIII students (N = 40) of 'School 1' was counted as the non scaffolding group and 35 students of class VIII of 'School 2' was assigned for the Scaffolding group. It was resulted that 1) the effects of online technology based scaffolding was statistically significant over traditional approach, 2) misinformed factor of self-efficacy was comparatively lower in scaffolding group than the traditional group, and 3) the mean score of current purpose perusing factor of persistence found higher among the participants of the scaffolding group than the participants of the traditional group because of the influence of scaffolding learning.

Introduction: This work investigates if simple two-dimensional (2D) tactile shapes can facilitate encoding, retention, and retrieval of associated information in the form of one-word labels. It also questions the need for the resemblance of tactile graphics with respective visual referents. Methods: Four experiments were conducted using recall tasks with verbal and tactual triggers. Students who are blind from schools for blind students in Indianapolis, Indiana (USA) and New Delhi (India) participated in these experiments. Participants learned 12 shapes with assigned (two sets of) one-word labels categorized as consonant, dissonant, or abstract. Recall tasks were conducted after 1 week and after 4 months using verbal and tactual triggers. Results: The results of experiment 1 show that recall performance for consonant associations was higher than that for dissonant and abstract. Experiment 2 shows the recall performance using orally narrated verbal triggers, while experiments 3 and 4 use tactile triggers (both verbal and shape). Additionally, in experiment 4, the participants were observed recalling most associations after 4 months. Tactile verbal triggers (braille) invoked better recall accuracy as compared to tactile shape triggers. Discussion: The results and discussion with schema theory suggest that resemblance to visual referent (or similarity of tactile shape with real-life visual stimuli) is not necessary for learning associated labels. Additionally, simple 2D tactile shapes can support long-term retention of associated verbal information. The presence of primacy effect (better retention of first few associations) and distinctiveness effect (better retention of unique associations). Implications for Practitioners: The inferences of this work can influence the redesign of educational material and pedagogy for students with blindness by: (1) contributing to the development of a standardized set of symbols with associated meanings and using them for book annotation or indicating the genre of a graphic; (2) using simple tactile images instead of complex "visually correct" images.

The M(East) ward of Mumbai is home to one of Asia's largest open landfill sites. Waste, therefore, is a source of livelihood for millions of people living in the vicinity of this landfill site. In this article, we analyze the educational discourse on waste in the schools of the M(East) ward to understand how it is positioned with respect to the concerns, experiences, and out-of-school knowledge of the students of that community. We employ a critical discourse analysis framework to examine the textbook chapter on waste, classroom teaching practices, and participant teachers' interviews. The educational discourse is read against the data from focus group discussions with students in out-of-school settings. Our analysis reveals that the curriculum approaches the topic of waste in a reductionist manner with a focus on "scientific" management of waste, while connections between the generation of waste, consumerism, and the nature of economic growth are sidelined. The curriculum and teachers' discourse exhibits a class and caste character when they emphasize the aesthetic effects of waste management and certain kinds of proenvironmental behaviors and actions. It remains silent about the immense contribution of sanitation work to easing the environmental burden. The teachers' efforts to contextualize the subject matter and connect to students' life worlds are also limited. The out-of-school interactions with the students reveal a rich understanding of the recycling economy and, when provided with the opportunities, the resourcefulness to critically evaluate their living conditions. Finally, drawing on scholarship that discusses environmentalism and critical pedagogy in the Indian subcontinent, we envisage possibilities for transformative science education for the students of the M(East) ward.

Stress has become one of the major reasons for many mental health related issues among students of all age groups, which has resulted in devastating personal losses including suicide. Societal and familial pressure to succeed is high, particularly in developing countries where education is highly valued as a key enabler. As part of stress management during the COVID-19 pandemic, demand for online intelligent virtual advisors has risen and, consequently, the need for personalised explanation that is culturally sensitive to the user's context is essential to improve the user's understanding of and trust in the recommendations provided by the virtual advisor. This paper presents the mAnaging stRess at University embodied conversational agent (ECA) that has been adapted for Indian university students from an explainable agent that was found to help Western students reduce their stress by providing study tips with explanations based on the student's beliefs and/or goals. We conducted a research study with sixty students which measured the impact of providing three different patterns of tailored explanations (belief-based, goal-based, and belief and goal-based explanation) on the students' intentions to change the recommended behaviours and the relationship built with the ECA. The experimental results indicate that there was stress reduction across all student groups provided with different types of explanations. Further, the students showed trust and a good working alliance with the conversational agent, along with an intention to change behaviour across all types of explanations. However, it was observed that the user context played an important role in behaviour change intention and hence explanations could be tailored further, making them culturally more relevant to Indian students.

We report on the process of planning, adapting, and implementing a brief, instrumental, school-based mentoring curriculum originally developed in the United States, in three cities in India. India has the world's largest population of young adults aged 10-24 years, a developmental period associated with heightened psychosocial stressors and the onset of mental health issues, as well as a dire shortage of mental health professionals. Moving services that are typically provided by highly skilled professionals to individuals with fewer credentials or less formal training (e.g., from psychologists to mentors) can increase access to adolescent mental health services. Yet, transferring programs internationally is accompanied by unique barriers including cultural differences, and should be guided by an established framework. In this paper, we discuss the formation of a research-practice partnership designed to generate applied knowledge through emic cultural perspectives. We describe each stage of the program adaptation process within the Cultural Adaptation Framework (Fendt-Newlin et al., 2020), including our decisions to strategically adjust, remove, or retain content from the original mentoring intervention. Although program delivery was prematurely discontinued due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we provide a brief synopsis of lessons learned through the international partnership.

The Indian Government released the latest version of its National Education Policy (NEP) on 31 July 2020 -- a document last revised in 1986. The Early Childhood Education (ECE) section of this new policy urges a Developmentally Appropriate Practices (DAP) approach incorporating 'play-based, activity-based, and discovery-based learning' (NEP [2020]. "Ministry of Human Resource Development." Government of India. New Delhi, India, 6). The purpose of this article is to examine the policy's core recommendations for early childhood education, analyse the language and content borrowed from the global ECE discourse and identify the constraints posed by the local realities of the Indian school system.

While a growing body of research shows the prevalence of private tutoring in India, the ways in which these informal educational setups gain social legitimacy remains largely unclear. To redress this gap in the scholarship, this article investigates institutional and affective tutoring practices, in relation to formal schooling. It draws on the perspectives of tutors, school teachers, teacher-tutors, students and their parents, produced through an educational ethnography conducted in Dehradun (India) in 2014-2015. In so doing, this article shows that strategic adoption (adhering to formal education practices) and tactical deviation (diverging from typical schooling norms) are central to tutoring centres' attempt to project themselves as academically relevant and desirable spaces for teaching and learning. By offering a nuanced understanding of the interactions between formal (schools) and informal (tutoring provisions) educational institutions, it argues that private tutoring serves as a critique of formal schooling in the empirical context.

Private tutoring is a globally pervasive phenomenon. While scholars have explored the demand for and supply of private tutoring, how tutoring centres organise their services, and the role of temporality in this, remains underexplored. To address this gap in the scholarship, this article draws on ethnographic data, produced during 2014-15 in Dehradun (India), to discuss four aspects of a 'shadow education' timescape: how tutoring services are mapped onto the formal schooling structure (Mapping); how tutorial centres benefit from having more time to allocate to educational services over formal schools (Advantage); how tutorial centres diversify the nature of academic support they offer throughout an academic year (Diversity); and, how tutoring services accommodate changing schooling practices over time (Adaptability). This discussion unveils the specific ways in which the temporal facets of private tutoring help tutoring businesses "circumvent" the schooling system to secure their space "alongside" -- rather than by attempting to replace -- the formal institutions of education within the Indian educational landscape. Although this article is empirically grounded in India, the conceptualisation of "temporalities of private tutoring" it generates will be valuable to the investigations of organisational framings, structural arrangements and practices of tutoring provisions in other contexts.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to design and incorporate gamebased pedagogy grounded in self-determination theory (SDT) for a higher education course in a business school program. Design/methodology/approach: The study evaluates the learning outcomes of students from higher education in gamified and non-gamified contexts. The study was conducted over a period of two years in a management institute in the National Capital Region of India. The participants of the gamification study were the students in the age group 22-25 years with 0-3 years of work experience. Findings: In general, findings of this study suggest that the group that underwent the course with the game-based pedagogy had better learning outcomes. In the game design, this study found that the addition of "meaningfulness" to the game elements improved the engagement with the gamification process for the learners. Consequently, this study found that "meaningfulness" played an important role in engaging the students, thereby, leading to improved learning outcomes. Research limitations/implications: The study suggests that when the game design is rooted in theory, it is likely that the desired results from gamification will be achieved. The evaluation of the courses was done by the researcher themselves. An external evaluation is required to confirm the results of the gamification elements used in the course as enumerated in the paper. Practical implications: All the game elements used in the game design were underpinned by SDT which suggests that if the three innate needs of competence, relatedness and autonomy in individuals are met, the desired learning outcomes is likely to follow. Social implications: Due to the use of an online environment for the conduct of the evaluations, the study permitted the students to receive and have access to constant feedback enabling them to improve and enhance their learning. Originality/value: Existing research shows inconsistent results with the use of gamification in the learning process. This study suggests that by grounding the gamification design in learning theory is more likely to achieve favourable results. In addition, if the game elements provide meaningfulness to the participants, the gamification process is more likely to succeed.

Purpose: This study reviewed the context, organisational arrangements and institutional changes for the operation of a smallholder dairy development project, comprising multi-stakeholders in three locales. The objective was to have a comparative assessment of the project dynamics and to draw lessons for improving its performance. Design/Methodology/Approach: The data were collected by personal interviews with key project stakeholders from each locale as well as relevant secondary sources and analysed qualitatively by performing thematic analysis. The framework, Institutional Learning and Change (ILAC), along with the theory of institutional entrepreneurship, was used to inform the analysis and discuss the findings. Findings: Though the project background and actor diversity were comparable, the study results signalled varying levels of project dynamics and performance in multi-locations. Crucial insights about institutional changes at various levels, the role of institutional entrepreneurs and the importance of reflective learning to strengthen the project processes and governance were also obtained. Furthermore, the findings underscored the need for engaging the project participants in its governance to ensure its sustainability, and better convergence and vision sharing among the stakeholders to build on the project. Practical implication: Such studies may help the development organisations to critically reflect on aspects, such as project design, processes and institutional changes, which are vital in deciding the project dynamics. Theoretical implication: The study demonstrates the utility of the ILAC framework, originally developed in the agricultural research context, for analysing development projects at the micro level. Originality/Value: This study validates the argument that a project with a uniform design and pattern could perform differently with structural modifications, to affect its performance and sustainability.

Teaching is a profession in which the newly appointed teachers learn different methods of teaching skills, pedagogies of teaching and conducting research and should know the role and responsibilities of different academic leaders. The Faculty Induction Program (FIP) includes all these components. This article aims to study the perceptions of the newly appointed assistant professors or early-career faculty (ECF) regarding FIP, conducted by the Faculty Development Center (FDC) of Mizoram University, India. Out of 202 participants, 100 were selected by simple random sampling procedure. A self-constructed questionnaire was used for the collection of data. Focus group discussion was also conducted. The findings revealed that FIP conducted by the FDC was well organized. The participants benefitted by learning micro-teaching and its uses, the development of teaching-learning material, comprehensive and effective lesson planning, Bloom's taxonomy, and the constructivist teaching approach.

Purpose: The paper aims at examining the employability skills relevant in the unprecedented times of turbulence in businesses due to COVID-19 in the Indian context. Design/methodology/approach: The study examined the recent skills model through an extensive literature review. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is conducted to identify the employability skills perceived as important by multiple stakeholders. ANOVA was applied to examine the differences in perceived importance attached to these dimensions by the three stakeholders. Findings: The ten-factorial solution was extracted based on the results of EFA The findings offer a fresh perspective on digital competencies perceived as most important to ensure successful long-term employability, followed by business fundamentals and behavioral skills. Research limitations/implications: The study has been able to map perceptions of employers, faculty and students based in Delhi-NCR regarding essential employability skills. It would be worthwhile to validate the proposed employability skills framework across different geographical sections of India and ascertain if the perceptions vary in the employment sector and employer size. Practical implications: Although the study has put forth practical employability skills, there is a need for convergence between the business stakeholders and Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) to develop a broad skill-base for the fresh graduates. The study will prepare them for the volatile business environment. Originality/value: Many previous studies have lacked the employability skill framework in the Indian context from the multiple stakeholders' perspective. The HEIs can rethink their current employability, including the most prominent skills required in succeeding in a technology-enabled business environment transformed by the pandemic.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has seriously impacted countries across the globe. The pandemic has created a completely new teaching-learning environment of interaction for early childhood educators. In many countries, face-to-face teaching has been replaced by remote teaching, while in others, there have been intermittent lockdowns and limited interruptions to regular teaching norms. Given the play-based nature of preschool teaching-learning activities in most countries, educators are required to reimagine the sociocultural relationships to their pedagogical practices in their everyday teaching-learning contexts. This paper sheds light on educators' experiences and the dramatic shift in their indoor-outdoor teaching-learning environment due to the evolving health measures. The study draws on notions of teachers' identities and Vygotsky's cultural-historical concept of social situation of development (Vygotsky, 1994) to capture the new forms of relationships that early childhood educators experienced with their pedagogical environments across different countries during the pandemic. Data were collected from preschool teachers across five countries--Australia, Bangladesh, Norway, Singapore and India using online surveys which included open- and close-ended questions. Findings reveal the on-ground realities and teachers' adaptations to new pedagogies emerging across the five countries. The new digital environments provided an equally new dimension for change. These changes were seen in interactions, relationships within the everyday pedagogical contexts, as well as the shifting physical and social environment of early years educators.

In contemporary times online learning process has become indispensable for higher education in India. The common practice of chalk and talk method is no longer the only recommended method of pedagogy. As a result, blackboards are gradually being replaced by digital smart boards and LCD screens which allow both traditional and technological modes of teaching. Government of India also realises the immense potential that such technologies have. In this direction, 'Digital India' is a one step forward initiative of the Government of India to endorse e-resources and reinforce digital infrastructure all over the country. The digitization offers some of the best opportunities to provide the students with better resource and reduces disparity between institutions in terms of resource sharing. Webinar is one of the tools that help us move towards such inclusivity in education by improving accessibility as well as outreach. So, there is a high prospect of webinar in India. In this paper students' opinion on some aspects of inclusion of webinar in higher education is studied and these opinions are statistically analysed. Perception of the students under study is assembled through questionnaire. Results illustrate that though students are well versed with the use of technology, there is a lack of awareness regarding webinars. Logistic regression exhibits how the factors like age, gender, location, stream of education, access of laptop, access of mobile, access of YouTube, experience of webinar, educational infrastructure affect in the opinion of the students to incorporate webinar in higher education in recent future. We have also identified the order of the students' preference factors through a ranking process of their interest to include webinar for higher studies. The intermediate test shows that this preference probability is not uniform among the respondents. The Mann Whitney U statistic is used to differentiate the average perception of the students towards the preference of factors in the favour of webinar in higher education between the webinar experienced and the non-experienced groups.

The concept of social networking has received much attention from academia over the last decade in India. Widespread research has conceptualized the term social networking with almost all of the studies either conceptual or based on case studies. This paper is an attempt to clarify the construct of social networking by developing a reliable and valid questionnaire measuring social networking usage. 420 university students from 6 universities in Jammu and Kashmir were surveyed via a random sampling technique and factor analysis carried out on their responses. The findings revealed that social networking usage can be decomposed into four factors: academic; socialization; entertainment and informativeness. The internal consistency indices, Cronbach's alpha of social networking usage (a= 0.830) indicates good internal reliability. The findings revealed that the newly developed questionnaire has significant psychometric features.