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This paper is an outcome of using GeoGebra in Nepal's grade ten math curriculum (CDC, 2015). Based on a teaching experiment as one of the research methodologies (Dahal, 2019; Dahal et al., 2019; Dahal et al., 2022a), this paper provides students with active learning environments and the possibility of integrating GeoGebra as an ICT application by documenting the experiences, assessment procedures, emotions, and behaviors, as well as the learning process of eighteen secondary level students (ten boys and eight girls). In this regard, GeoGebra is a computer and online-based application that teaches geometry, algebra, and statistics. GeoGebra's features could help students visualize abstract geometric concepts quickly, correctly, and effectively (Tamam & Dasari, 2021, Dahal et al., 2022a). Theoretically grounded on social constructivism, this paper informs that GeoGebra helps students recall and understand circle terminology, encourages engaged learning through group work, and promotes meaningful learning, conceptual learning, learner-centered teaching, and student motivation. The benefits of using GeoGebra to teach and learn the circle concepts are demonstrated in the experimental classes and reported in this paper. Students become more active builders of the mathematical knowledge of the circle while teaching/learning the concepts of the circle using GeoGebra. It is a crucial ICT tool for supporting innovative approaches to teaching and learning mathematics in the twenty-first century.

This study used a self-and peer-assessment activity in Moodle, a learning management system, to investigate the self-and peer-assessment abilities of student-teachers. To enhance self- and peer-assessment in some author-taught courses, students submitted online texts graded by their peers using a grading scale determined by course facilitators as a rubric or aspects approved by course facilitators. This study aimed to design and investigate self-, and peer-assessment activities among 18 students (10 boys and 8 girls) enrolled in one of Kathmandu University Schools of Education's MPhil/Ph.D. program in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) in Nepal in 2021. The objective was to identify the most effective strategies for involving student-teachers in the learning and assessment processes using self- and peer-assessment as a learning and assessment tool using action research as a research methodology. This study followed the procedures of planning, intervening, evaluating effectiveness, and sharing learning processes within the action research framework. In order to achieve the research objectives, this article discussed some of the Workshop activity's key strengths and applications within cognitive and constructivist theoretical frameworks, among others. The article concluded by outlining the key advantages of self-and peer assessment in increasing student engagement and improving higher-order skills. These are analytical, and evaluation skills developed through the process of grading self- and peer submissions on a variety of criteria (aspects). The findings show that students are responsible for learning, have metacognitive skills, and use a dialogical, shared teaching and learning model. For higher education, it is a useful tool for self-and peer- assessment.

Designed to explore effective pedagogical uses of the Workshop activity tool, which is native to Moodle learning management system, the study reported in this article was an action research. Using the standard steps of planning, intervening, assessing effectiveness, and information sharing, the study sought to identify the best ways to engage students in the process of learning and peer assessment by using Workshop as a learning and assessment tool. After identifying some challenges against students learning during the submission and peer review process, this article highlights some key strengths of the Workshop activity application, based on our study. Then it discusses the application's key affordances for conducting peer and self-assessment, for enhanced engagement in learning, and for the development of higher-order skills such as analysis and evaluation. We conclude by noting that effective use of the tool demands teachers' careful attention to issues such as time provided, peer allocation, and students' skills for effective tool use.

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This paper discusses experiences from school-based needs assessment within a Participatory Action Research (PAR) project aimed at facilitating quality education in public schools of rural Nepal. Being often a first stage in the process of research-action, Participatory Needs Assessment (PNA) offers space for community members' perceptions and attitudes toward their collective needs. In this light, this paper takes evidence from the first and the second authors' Ph.D. experiences, under the supervision of the third and the fourth authors to initiate PNA of a school. Also, incorporating the reflections from the fifth author as a critical friend, it observes the political, epistemological, ethical, and methodological challenges of doing such assessments; the challenges of involving all the stakeholders in identifying problems, and the transformative possibilities the approach inherently brings within it. On the whole, the paper reflects how, despite manifold conflicting interests of the multi-group stakeholders, relational ontology(ies) emerged in the cyclical and spiral process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This reflective paper is the outcome of my qualitative research engagement aligned with quality standards. I began with autoethnography in my master's research in mathematics education (see Dahal, 2013), then moved on to narrative inquiry in my MPhil research (see Dahal, 2017), and collaborative autoethnography in my doctoral research (see Dahal, 2023). With the above, this paper aims to clarify the quality criteria used in autoethnography, narrative inquiry, and collaborative autoethnography based on my experiences to evaluate the robustness of qualitative research from various ontological and epistemological vantage points. Likewise, this article offers a comprehensive overview of the key elements of qualitative research across master, MPhil, and Ph.D. research that can be used to evaluate the rigor of qualitative reports. In this introspection, I explored the significance of qualitative research and the need to assess it, considering quality criteria and/or characteristics. Quality criteria also offer some insights and recommendations for improving the standard of qualitative reports. From these musings, I deduced that established norms of quality are the product of preexisting paradigmatic (e.g., interpretivism, criticalism, postmodernism, and intergalism) practices and broader socio-institutional processes. It is unrealistic to expect that a single, allencompassing set of quality standards will be developed for qualitative research due to the diversity of its paradigms. This paper provides novice and veteran researchers and practitioners with an overview of qualitative research's theoretical and methodological foundations and the applicable standards and deciding factors for evaluating qualitative reports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study attempts to develop a reliable, practical, and efficient process for developing online and distance courses. The study aims to develop e-learning online and distance education courses. ICT and e-Research course development processes have shown significant learning opportunities and outcomes. A substitute for raising these opportunities is the need for innovative research in education while implementing online and distance modes of learning and teaching. Subscribing research and development research methodology, the study aims to produce e-learning instructional materials using a three-stage development model. The course, along with the learning strategy, the learning tools, the assessment tools, and other components, are designed and developed using the Plomp model, a development research model. The research participants were forty-two 2021 Winter Batch MPhil in Educational Studies students and nine lecturers at Nepal Open University (NOU), Nepal. The descriptive analysis uses data analysis to explain the online course's validity, applicability, and effectiveness. Experimental research design was developed using the one-group pre-test posttest design methodology. The most important results are results of preliminary analysis, validity: average material validation is 0.885; average media validation is 0.885 and practicality: more than 71% (very practical). This article proposes a more comprehensive framework to design, develop, and implement online and distance courses in e-learning systems in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I write this review as a recommendation for potential readers: those who are new to and veterans with respect to arts-based research. Arts-Based Research in Education: Foundations for Practice is edited by Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor and Richard Siegesmund, with contributions from 22 authors and a cover artist. In addition to providing some information from a usual structure around contents, central themes and concepts, intended audience, genres of writing styles, strengths and weaknesses, and uniquenesses, I primarily focus on the content of the chapter entitled “Four guiding principles for arts-based research practice” which I found extraordinarily significant in the second edition of this book and most meaningful for those planning their arts-based research projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In resorts, service quality refers to the overall level of guest satisfaction during their stay. This includes a variety of factors, such as the friendliness and helpfulness of the staff, the cleanliness and condition of the rooms and common areas, the availability of amenities and activities, the efficiency of check-in and check-out procedures, and the resort's overall atmosphere. To address above gap, this study aims to develop contextual service quality (SERVQUAL) instrument for resorts to obtain the consensus benchmark to measure the service quality of Nepali tourist standard resorts. The SERVQUQL is a measuring tool of service quality of different organizational settings, more importantly, in the hospitality and service sector. Therefore, to contextualize and align to SERVQUAL, the Modified Delphi Technique (MDT) was used to develop this instrument based on SERVQUAL theory. The instrument development was performed among 10 anonymous experts and stakeholders who have experience, knowledge, and expertise in the area of the hospitality and leisure industries. The findings identified that one more key construct is essential to realize the service quality of the tourist standard resorts. To carry out the mutual consensus among the experts and stakeholders, the interquartile range (IQR) value was taken from three points Likert scale to conduct the MDT from the second stage until the mutual consensus of experts and stakeholders. The IQR value was taken from each set of questions which was evaluated by the exports to obtain a consensus benchmark on the contextualized SERVQUQL construct and items. The data were presented using Microsoft Excel. In the final stage, 29 question statements out of 31 were found to have a high consensus benchmark among the experts and stakeholders. Therefore, 29 items from six constructs were accepted and included in the actual questionnaire to measure the service quality of Nepali tourist standard resorts. Our findings contribute to the SERVQUAL theory, practice, and future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This reflective paper explores Tara's doctoral research journey of realization and adaptation in auto/ethnography as a transformative research methodology. While reflecting on Tara’s journey, the auto/ethnographic paper emphasizes cultural perspectives, interpreting one's own experiences, thoughts, actions, and behaviors relating to society and culture. Likewise, auto/ethnography investigates and associates an individual's confrontation within specific educational, societal, and cultural contexts. With this ethos, the paper demonstrates how Tara, a mathematics teacher and doctoral student, encountered and observed auto/ethnography and discovered it as a path to transformation as a paradigm shift in transformative educational research by connecting lives and research (Dahal et al., 2022) considering the basis of ethics in auto/ethnography (Dahal & Luitel, 2022). Next, in this scenario of residing in cultural and societal context dealing with Tara’s emotions and settings of an education system, we have explored the journey of realization and adaption on how auto/ethnography blends analytic, evocative, and performative realms. Overall, we also realized that auto/ethnography guided us to delve through the past, present, and possible future experiences and unlatch Tara’s eyes to visualize a new era of research for upcoming generations in teaching and learning mathematics that reaches out to society and the nation whilst shifting to transformative educational research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A book review is a critical assessment of a book. It provides a summary of the content and assesses the book's value in terms of its relevance and quality. The purpose of a book review is to help readers decide whether or not they should read the book. In with this line of purpose, the book entitled, Emancipatory and Participatory Research for Emerging Educational Researchers: Theory and Case Studies of Research in Disabled Communities, written by Joe Barton and Simon Hayhoe and published by Routledge in the year 2022, I conducted my review organized by the following questions -- What is in the book, what are the key contributions to the field, and what are its strengths and limitations? While reviewing, I found the book to be significant in response to my interests in emancipatory and participatory research for emerging educational researchers for empowerment and autonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the primary goals of schools is to improve the students' learning performance. Considering the factors associated to students' indigeneity contributing to their learning performances, this study explored the learning performances of 'indigenous' (Janajati) students in Nepali private secondary schools. Grounded in Bourdieu's (1986) cultural capital theory, the investigation employed a two-staged mixed-methods research process. In the first phase, longitudinal data (grade XII exam results) of 770 students between 2015 and 2019 at a case study school in Kathmandu were obtained and analysed. The quantitative results yielded from the descriptive analyses revealed that Janajati students, namely the Tamang, Magar, Gurung, Rai, and Limbu students included in the study, had a lower academic performance as compared to their non-Janajati counterparts. These results are consonant with overall national patterns in Nepal. In an attempt to explain these differences, a sequential qualitative study was undertaken through indepth interviews with five participants (three students and two teachers affiliated to the case study school from the same indigenous groups). For analytical purposes, factors influencing students' performance were grouped into home-related and school-related themes. The study showed that home-related factors were more prevalent than the school-related factors in the students with lower learning performances. While family economic backgrounds and parental education also had a role to play, cultural factors (such as relative lack of predisposition towards education and aspiration for different occupations) were the most important factors influencing lower learning performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]