AI-generated responses may shape students’ judgements through both their informational content and their interpersonal style. This study examined whether conversational praise and epistemic stance were associated with differences in first-year students’ evaluations of research proposals and their self-reported need to verify claims of novelty. Participants were 120 first-year Aerospace Engineering students at a Spanish university, randomly assigned to one of four conditions in a 2 × 2 between-participants design crossing conversational tone (praising vs. neutral) with epistemic stance (unsupported validation vs. evidence-oriented calibrated assessment). Each participant reviewed the same four aerospace topics under one assigned condition and then completed one global evaluation. Factorial analyses showed significant effects of tone and epistemic stance on perceived novelty and perceived need to verify; the largest effect was the stance effect on need to verify, F(1116)=67.90, p<.001, ηp2=.369. Epistemic stance was also associated with differences in choice intention, perceived publication probability, and detection of sycophancy, while tone showed the clearest independent effect on trust in AI. Final decisions differed across conditions: direct acceptance was 63.3% under praising + validation and 10.0% under neutral + calibrated assessment, whereas choosing to search the literature was 10.0% and 46.7%, respectively. A directed content analysis of the open-ended responses was descriptively consistent with this pattern: systematic verification strategies and requests for evidential support were more frequent under calibrated assessment than under validation. Because calibrated responses explicitly introduced prior-work and verification cues, these effects should be interpreted as consequences of the broader contrast between unsupported validation and evidence-oriented calibration, not as a pure effect of disagreement. The study measures verification intention rather than observed verification behaviour or general critical-thinking ability.
Improving students’ scientific academic achievement (SAA) is a central goal of science education; however, the role of scientific creativity in shaping SAA remains underexplored, particularly in China’s examination-oriented educational context. Drawing on data from 347 Chinese secondary school students on SAA, socioeconomic status (SES), scientific creative thinking (SCT), and motivation in scientific creativity (MSC), this study employed fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to examine how different configurations of these conditions combine to produce high and low levels of SAA. The findings reveal that SAA followed multiple configurational pathways rather than a single linear pattern. Low SAA emerged in configurations characterized by low SES and the absence of SCT, particularly the absence of convergent thinking (CT). High SAA emerged from high SES-centered configurations involving divergent thinking (DT), CT, or both, whereas non-high SES configurations required the joint presence of DT and CT. Across these high-SAA configurations, intrinsic motivation (IM) played a supportive role in some pathways, whereas extrinsic motivation (EM) did not emerge as a core condition. This study thus clarifies how SES, SCT, and MSC contribute to SAA through different configurational pathways, providing insights for differentiated instructional interventions that respond to students’ varied learning conditions in an examination-oriented educational context.
Historically there have been creative projects, often labelled participatory, that involved adults using textiles and stitch to communicate a range of messages, learning basic textile techniques through the physical activity of making. There is also a perception that, as a secondary outcome, participants benefitted from being part of a group working on a collaborative planning and decision-making process, having a sense of belonging, and receiving the approval of others for finished outcomes. All these elements can contribute to an improved sense of wellbeing. There is less evidence of such work with school pupils, and many young people are denied opportunities to enhance their wellbeing by engaging in participatory, creative activity beyond the confines of the curriculum. The design and efficacy of such an opportunity in a special school setting is the focus of this paper. Special school settings support pupils excluded from mainstream schools who have formal diagnoses of learning difficulties rooted in their social, emotional, and mental health (SEMH). This paper presents a case study exploring the experience of 17 male pupils at a special school who participated in an intervention project involving textile stitch. The findings are discussed and the methodological limitations of the study are noted as the research was carried out in an environment with limited resources and a range of demands and expectations around the project. Participatory project work differs from the accepted classroom strategy of group work, and several factors were identified which are important if the benefits of such projects are to be maximised. These included the role of learner agency, the importance of a collaborative learning environment, and flexibility in the project design, to enable meaningful, inclusive participation and maximise the benefits of that process for all pupils, regardless of their starting points and subsequent levels of engagement. Through critically informed, exploratory and evaluative research, the case study offers a model of practice for textile stitch interventions as a route to improve pupil wellbeing in schools catering for pupils with special needs. It aligns with other research in the field that highlights the benefits of creative participation in enhancing wellbeing.
There is growing interest in the multifaceted and complex nature of creativity, and more specifically in its integration into teachers' teaching practices. While many studies have focused on the development of creativity in schools and among pupils, little attention has been paid to how future teachers perceive their own creativity and its impact on their teaching practices. This study analyses 209 future teachers' perceptions of creativity and creative teaching using the Short Scale of Creative Self (SSCS) and the Creativity Teaching (CT) questionnaires, before and after creativity training. The main results reveal a moderate level of perception of the creative self and of creative teaching before training. At the end of the training, a significant increase in the creative self was observed across all levels of education. However, both before and after the training, the creative self was higher amongst early childhood teachers than amongst upper elementary teachers. By contrast, perceptions of creative teaching did not change significantly. These results suggest that creativity-focused training was associated with changes in how future teachers perceive their own creativity, whilst it’s like to perceptions of creative teaching appears to be more limited. As well as reiterating the importance of studying the perceptions of future teachers, this study highlights the value of incorporating creativity-focused courses into initial teacher training, which may support to development of future teachers’ creative self-perception and encourage the adoption of teaching practices that foster creativity.
