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Background/purpose: ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence program released in November 2022, but even now, many studies have expressed excitement or concern about its introduction into academia and education. While there are many questions to be asked, the current study reviews the literature in order to reveal the potential effects of ChatGPT on education as a whole. The potential implications, possibilities, and concerns about the use of ChatGPT in education are disclosed as mentioned in the literature. Materials/methods: The data of the study were collected and then subjected to a systematic review. Research findings were analyzed according to the themes and categories identified. Results: The results of this research were examined under themes according to the positive and negative aspects of ChatGPT. The positive categories and sub-categories of ChatGPT's integration into education were determined, and the relationship between education and artificial intelligence determined. Similarly, the negative category highlighted the potential negative impact of artificial intelligence on educational processes. Conclusion: The reviewed research evaluated and discussed the impact of AI on education and training processes. In conclusion, this review revealed the critical applications of ChatGPT for educational settings and the potential negative impact of its application. The findings established how ChatGPT and its derivatives would create a new paradigm in education as a whole.

Background/purpose: This study investigates how the teaching intervention and familiarity with the search topic enhance Greek students' behaviour while solving information problems. Materials/methods: Seven university students solved three information problems on the same search topic during an academic semester. After the first and before the last two information problems, a didactic intervention was implemented to familiarize the undergraduate students with the information problem-solving process based on the Big6 model of Eisenberg & Berkowitz (1990) and the use of essential online search tools. Qualitative data was collected via observation as well with the think-aloud protocol. Results: The results indicated that after the didactic intervention and familiarity with the search topic, the participants could realize a greater variety of actions to locate the required information. Conclusion: The findings deepen the comprehension of how the students' information behaviours evolve and indicate suitable interventions that could support students in performing effective internet searches.

Background/purpose: At the beginning of the 21st century, Computational Thinking (CT) and coding were typically considered part of secondary education programs, focusing on programming and algorithm development. The early childhood classroom was not expected to find students who developed coding skills. Nevertheless, as has been the case lately, CT and coding have been characterized as fundamental skills of the 21st century, not only for computer scientists but all for citizens. However, through developmentally appropriate technologies, the development of coding skills is increasingly possible, and the result may be the advancement of CT fluency or at least familiarity in young age children. Given the enormous success of smart mobile devices and accompanying mobile apps, the question is whether apps provide the children of preschool and pre-primary school age with opportunities to cultivate their basic coding and CT skills. This study is a review article that presents a brief literature review on the apps that promote themselves that can cultivate CT and coding skills of young students. Materials/methods: This paper presents a literature review of empirical studies on apps that promote themselves to support young children's learning of CT and coding skills. Results: Despite the abundance of 'self-proclaimed educational' apps for children, there is a need for developmentally appropriate apps, specifically designed for young people to promote the development of CT concepts and coding skills in young children's life. Conclusion: This study contributes to a small but growing body of literature investigating how children process and learn fundamental coding skills from touchscreen devices. The findings of this study provide evidence that young age children can facilitate early STEM learning and foundational coding skills from developmentally appropriate playful learning experiences on smart mobile devices.

The proliferation of mobile devices in everyday life since the end of the 20th century has led to mobile applications for educational purposes and the creation of the research field of mobile learning. Despite the extended research interest on the effectiveness of this field, there is limited research on mobile learning for various social groups, such as refugees, students with learning difficulties and disabilities. Due to the unprecedented number (over one hundred million) of refugees during the second decade of the 21st century worldwide, many NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) and UN (United Nations) initiatives have proposed leveraging mobile learning for refugee educational needs. This research article focuses on mobile learning for refugee education. Namely, the present systematic literature review results from 2015 to 2020 will give a concrete picture of the recently existing mobile learning apps for refugees and their characteristics. According to the research findings, 15 characteristics were collected out of 14 applications. According to prior literature, areas of agreement or discrepancies in the field were found. Two new -to previous literature- characteristics were revealed: interwoven psychological and educational features and refugees' cultural features in the apps. The summarization and categorization of the app's characteristics aim to contribute to mobile learning research and impact game developers, educators, and NGOs according to refugee needs. The limitations of this study and issues for further exploration will also be discussed in the last sections.

This study explored certain popular educational apps' vital characteristics and potential profiles (n1 = 50) for kindergarten kids. The profile analysis involved a categorization ascended from an evaluation process conducted by pre-service early childhood teachers' (n2 = 295) at the University of Crete, Greece, using a new instrument, validated in the present research, the ETEA-2 scale. The categorization criteria were the five dimensions of the ETEA-2: Learning, Suitability, Usability, Security, and Parental Control. The classification based on Latent Class Analysis led to three apps' profiles: Cluster/profile 1 includes apps that have high values in Learning, Usability, Suitability, and medium Parental Control and Security; Cluster/Profile 2 includes apps with medium Learning, Usability, Suitability, but low Parental Control and High Security; Cluster/Profile 3 includes apps with medium Learning, Usability, Suitability, but low Parental Control and low Security. This profile scheme is an indicative categorization summarizing the crucial features that popular apps possess and can help parents and/or educators' decision-making on choosing the desirable application for their kids. Moreover, from an independent evaluation of these specific fifty apps sought on the internet, the members of Cluster2/Profile 2 were the most popular and preferable, as suggested by the number of downloads. This profile is distinguished for the security dimension.

The introduction of STEM education, and specifically the implementation of educational robotics (ER), has drawn researchers' attention and has shown that teachers play a crucial role in leading this innovation. The present study concerns in-service and pre-service early childhood teachers, focusing on their perceptions and attitudes about ER use in daily teaching practice. The data were collected via a questionnaire (N = 201) and explored using latent class analysis, which detected distinct clusters/profiles of participants based on their pattern of responses. Two clusters were identified: Cluster1 was relatively homogeneous, including those who share a positive attitude towards ER, while Cluster2 was heterogeneous, comprising participants with inconsistent responses and expressing negative and skeptical thinking. The cluster memberships were associated with external covariates, such as age, years of teaching experience, and variables measuring their technological competencies. The results showed that teaching experience and age were negatively associated with cluster1-membership, while educational robotics knowledge was positively associated. The findings are interpretable, and the implications for education are discussed considering the current literature.

The transformative agenda of sustainability education constitutes the focus of early-years education. In quality sustainability educational projects, children are supported to draw links between nature and society and relate to the studied phenomena. Is this methodological approach realized in educational programs for the early years? The present work presents some of the significant findings of a case study on implementing a water project in early-year settings around Europe. It explores the characteristics and the methodological approaches the project implementation developed. Three types of implementation are derived from the qualitative analysis of data and reveal that there are still cases in which sustainability projects are focused on a descriptive approach rather than critical inquiry and analysis. In this sense, the need for educational designs that help children deepen their understanding of sustainability issues and become empowered citizens who will work for a sustainable future is highlighted.

The implementation of gamification in education has attracted many researchers to increase engagement and achieve learning more effectively. Implementing technology in science curricula has seen a massive influx over the past years to stop the decline in students' motivation towards science learning and promote scientific thinking. This study's objective is to present the empirical findings of the state-of-the-art literature on the use of gamification in science education. Therefore, we performed a systematic literature review of 24 empirical research papers published in various electronic databases and the web search engine for scholarly literature and academic resources, Google Scholar, between 2012 and 2020. This review reveals the latest emerging trends of gamification in science education while revealing the literature gap, challenges, impediments, and extending the possibilities for future research directions. It examines the conflicting findings of other studies and provides a framework and insight for future researchers regarding content areas, educational levels, theoretical models, outcomes, methodologies, game elements, and assessment tools.

In the last decade, interactive touchscreen devices have become ubiquitous in young children, and toddlers first experience touchscreen technology before two. Although parents have a vital role in developing the home environment as a stimulus for development, they also have conflicting views on the appropriateness of using apps to deliver educational content for assorted reasons. The purpose of the study was to reveal various aspects of children's smart mobile use at home, such as the frequency of mobile device usage, preferred app types, and parent beliefs and strategies. Three hundred twenty-five parents of kindergarten children took part in this study. The present study revealed that parents seek to support their children's learning at home via mobile devices. Furthermore, parents lack knowledge about app developmentally appropriateness and need further guidance. We expect the findings to serve as a reference for researchers to better information for parents and create apps with real educational value for children.

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly prevalent, it has become a topic of interest in education. The use of AI in education poses complex issues, not only in terms of its impact on teaching and learning outcomes but also in terms of the ethical considerations regarding personal data and the individual needs of each student. Our study systematically analyzed empirical research on the use of AI in primary education, specifically for children aged 4–12 years old. We reviewed 35 articles indexed in SCOPUS, filtered them according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, analyzed them, and categorized the findings. The research focused on the studies' objectives, learning content, learning outcomes, learning activities, and the pedagogy of activities or the AI tools. Our categorization resulted in three main categories of research objectives regarding the creation, implementation, and evaluation of AI tools and five categories for learning content: AI and ML (machine learning) concepts in STEM and STEAM, language learning, mathematics, arts, and various other subjects. The learning activities were split into four categories: apply, engage, interact, use; project-based learning with multiple activities; experience and practice; and students as tutors. The learning outcomes were split into three levels: cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. The pedagogy of AI tools falls into four categories: constructivism, experiential learning, AI-assisted learning, and project-based learning. The implications for teacher professional development are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aimed to assess the effect of two different types of digital technologies (computers and tablets) in early childhood students' understanding of numbers. Three hundred and sixty-five children (mean age in months, M = 62.0, SD = 5.5) from 21 kindergarten classes were randomly assigned to two intervention groups and a business-as-usual control group. The interventions were conducted over 24 half-hour lessons. Data was collected during the 2013-2014 school year using a three-step research procedure. Students' knowledge about numbers was assessed using the Test of Early Mathematics Ability-3 (TEMA-3). Findings were that (a) both experimental groups significantly outperformed the control group on the posttest, (b) the group that used tablet computers significantly outperformed the group that used personal computers on the posttest, and (c) there was no significant difference between genders on the posttest. Our findings support that computers and especially tablets, when combined with the use of developmentally appropriate software into the children's daily routines, may provide a substantial contribution to early childhood students' comprehension of numbers.

As the introduction of natural sciences in early childhood education differs from natural sciences for adults, planning appropriate activities for preschool is a delicate task with various dimensions and parameters. Teaching natural sciences in kindergarten can be a complex procedure which combines exploring and comprehending children's perceptions, scientific content and the learning environment. Magnetism, which is very attractive subject for young children, is a commonly negotiated topic at the preschool level. In this paper, we present an empirical case study that examines whether the picture story reading method can be beneficial for young children learning about magnetism. Findings underline the importance of drawing on a variety of evidence in assessing young children's understanding of magnets.