ABSTRACT To promote the use of digital tools in school education, it is important to understand teachers' digital literacy and explore the best ways to develop it. This study used an extended UTAUT model to examine Chinese rural teachers' digital literacy development. Self‐reported questionnaires were collected and analyzed. The study reveals that the digital literacy of rural teachers is not as low as expected, although some significant heterogeneities were observed across rural demographic groups. There was a pronounced disparity between theoretical understanding of digital skills and practical implementations. The heterogeneity helps to reveal an interlocking sociocultural mechanism, which encompasses individual digital skill acquisition trajectories and a path‐dependent career development pattern for rural teachers. These findings contribute to a better understanding of how to support rural teachers' development of digital literacy.
ABSTRACT The aim of this study is to examine the effect of participation in the virtual reality‐based environmental education (VRBEE) program on the creative problem‐solving (CPS) skills of middle school students in Turkey. The research was conducted with 125 students from a public middle school, and their CPS skills were assessed using a pre‐test–post‐test scale. In addition, students' environment‐themed compositions and virtual reality projects were analyzed. The findings showed a statistically significant increase in students' CPS scores after the VRBEE program. The average score for the compositions was 33.36 out of 50, whereas the average score for the virtual reality projects was 40.50 out of 60. Positive relationships were found between CPS skills and both types of student products; however, a significant relationship was identified only with the virtual reality project scores. Overall, the results indicate that the VRBEE program effectively enhanced middle school students' creative problem‐solving skills.
ABSTRACT This pilot study investigated how the narrative‐rich Chinese AAA game Black Myth: Wukong supports advanced Mandarin learners. Using reflective journals, semi‐structured interviews, and exploratory electroencephalogram (EEG), we examined learners' cognitive, affective, and cultural experiences. Participants reported vocabulary gains, deeper cultural understanding, and sustained intrinsic motivation. They employed strategies such as scene replay, subtitle use, and external resources. EEG trends indicated comparable working memory engagement across gameplay and reading, with occipital alpha patterns tentatively suggesting heightened strategic processing during second language (L2) gameplay; these neural findings are exploratory due to a small sample size and fixed task order. Findings highlight the potential of immersive games to complement traditional instruction and offer preliminary neurocognitive insights into L2 engagement.
ABSTRACT Blended teaching has become the new normal in modern education. Enhancing pre‐service teachers' readiness for blended teaching is crucial for adapting to the digital transformation of education and advancing instructional reform. However, pre‐service teachers' readiness for blended teaching has rarely been explored. This study explored the current state, influencing factors, and challenges of pre‐service teachers' blended teaching readiness in China. The study employed a cross‐sectional survey design and applied descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, regression analysis, and content analysis to analyze the data. A total of 468 pre‐service teachers participated in the study. The results showed that pre‐service teachers' overall readiness for blended teaching was at a moderate level. In addition, pre‐service teachers' blended learning experience, digital competence, and the frequency with which instructors adopt blended teaching in courses had significant impacts on their readiness. Moreover, there was a significant correlation between the dimensions of blended teaching readiness and blended teaching intention. Furthermore, preparing pre‐service teachers for blended teaching in teacher education encountered multiple challenges across six dimensions. Finally, some suggestions are provided in terms of teacher education, institutional support, and pre‐service teachers' self‐competence development to help improve their blended teaching competence.
This study investigates how a Chinese higher vocational college can align skills training with the inheritance and innovative development of fine traditional Chinese culture. Grounded in perspectives that view vocational education as cultural transmission and identity work and informed by the lenses of general-vocational integration and collaborative governance, we report an instrumental qualitative case study of Chongqing Three Gorges Vocational College in Wanzhou District. Data were collected across more than 10 rounds of fieldwork, including ethnographic and participatory observation; interviews and oral-history conversations with key stakeholders; documentary and archival analysis; and teaching-research seminars. The findings illustrate how the college identified and mobilized regional cultural and intangible cultural heritage resources, translating them into a "bring-in + go-out" partnership chain that connected the college with local communities, cultural institutions, and nearby schools. We also show how "feature curricula" and "signature activities" fostered an immersive culture-skills ecology, and how a safeguarding mechanism, which combines platform support, faculty collaboration, and assessment innovation, shifted cultural work from symbolic inclusion to sustained practice. The study proposes a multidimensional model of general-vocational integration and underscores vocational colleges' potential to serve as active nodes in the creative transformation and living continuity of traditional culture.
ABSTRACT The rise of generative AI, particularly ChatGPT, has transformed academic research, raising both opportunities and ethical concerns. This study examines how graduate students in the education field utilize ChatGPT and their ethical perceptions regarding its use. Using a qualitative phenomenological case study, six graduate students from South Korean universities were interviewed, and their responses analyzed thematically based on the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity (The ALLEA code). Findings reveal that students use ChatGPT in three primary ways: Evaluating its performance, applying it in educational settings, and assisting with academic writing. Whereas ChatGPT enhances efficiency in idea generation, literature review, and manuscript drafting, ethical concerns persist regarding plagiarism, reliability, and the impact on human subject research. Participants expressed divided views on AI‐generated content disclosure and highlighted risks such as hallucinations, biases, and overreliance. Participants recommended AI literacy training, ethical transparency, and clearer guidelines for integrating ChatGPT into research. As AI tools become increasingly embedded in academia, establishing ethical best practices is essential to ensure integrity in educational research.
ABSTRACT This special issue examines how the teaching profession is being reshaped by rapid societal, technological, and cultural change. It argues that teaching is shifting from knowledge transmission to fostering adaptive expertise, including critical thinking, creativity, and intercultural competence. Teacher education faces the dual challenge of preparing educators to navigate uncertainty while addressing systemic inequities. The contributions highlight key themes such as teachers as agents of change, inclusive and culturally responsive pedagogy, the role of emerging technologies (e.g., AI and virtual reality), and the importance of research‐informed practice, digital literacy, and well‐being. Studies also explore evolving teacher identities and the status of teaching within institutions. Overall, the issue emphasizes that the future of teaching depends on balancing innovation with enduring human values, and on preparing resilient, reflective professionals.
ABSTRACT Higher education is at a critical juncture as generative artificial intelligence (AI) redefines assessment practices. This article offers a conceptual framework illustrating how authentic AI‐enhanced assessments (AAA) can support the reclamation of higher education's core mission: developing critical thinking, creativity, ethical reasoning, and meaningful real‐world problem‐solving. With the advent of AI, current assessment practices may not adequately evaluate the deep interdisciplinary competencies required for today's complex professional environments. Instead of resorting to increased surveillance or outright bans on AI, this article contends that institutions should embrace AI as a supportive tool to reinforce authentic assessment strategies. The AAA framework emphasises not only the final output but also the iterative learning process—integrating reflective practice, student agency, and responsiveness to unexpected twists that compel students to think on their feet. The article demonstrates that AI‐enhanced authentic assessments—ranging from interactive tasks to multi‐stage applied projects—can transform evaluation across disciplines by supporting the development of a solid theoretical foundation and the practical, adaptable competencies demanded by modern professional practice.
The proliferation of generative artificial intelligent (GenAI) models and tools are revolutionizing how existing practices are transformed across multiple industries, including English language education. Simultaneously, the capabilities of these models are shaping how teachers reevaluate their roles as educators, especially in high-stakes testing environments (e.g., competitive college entrance exams). This qualitative case study examines five English as a Foreign Language (EFL) educators in South Korea and their perspectives toward GenAI and its influence on their professional identities. This study analyzed semi-structured interviews with EFL teachers through Norton's concept of social identity and Roger's Diffusion of Innovation theory. This research aims to examine the stages in which EFL teachers adopt emerging technology, how it influences their teaching practices, and how they define their jobs in this new, emerging digital landscape. The importance of this research is from the perceived supportive role the EFL teachers play within the sociocultural context of the classroom in the face of high-stakes testing environments. The adoption of emerging technology does not diminish the emotional responsibility that human educators provide over the machine.
The integration of artificial intelligence into education remains challenged by issues of scalability, interpretability, and multimodal adaptability. DeepSeek's AI-driven educational tools show potential to improve educational applications through advances in reasoning efficiency, lightweight deployment, and multimodal fusion. This paper explores the DeepSeek model family and its transformative applications across five core educational scenarios, including learning, teaching, teaching research, management, and evaluation. Despite challenges such as excessive dependence on structured reasoning pathways, hallucination risks, sustainability of localized deployment, and limited ability to process multimodal data in real time, DeepSeek demonstrates significant potential in advancing equitable, intelligent, and human-centric educational ecosystems with ethical governance. Future development priorities include responsible AI frameworks and the shift of educational stakeholders' roles to cultivate equitable, adaptive educational ecosystems with the guidance of educational policies and further breakthroughs in technologies.
Inclusive chemistry learning is possible. Three frameworks that can be considered to create inclusive chemistry learning are Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK), Universal Design for Learning (UDL), and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). The integration of these three frameworks is still not widely used by teachers and is not popular in Indonesia. Therefore, developing and validating the TPACK-UDL-STEM Scale to measure teacher knowledge and abilities in designing inclusive chemistry learning is crucial. The three scale development steps proposed by Morgado et al. were used as a scale development procedure. Fifty items as the first draft of the scale were designed after reviewing the TPACK-UDL-STEM literature. These items were divided into five aspects (S-PCK-Multiple Means of Representation, T-TCK-Multiple means of representation, E-PCK-Multiple means of engagement, M-TPK-Multiple means of representation, STEM-TPACK-Multiple means of action and expression). A panel of six experts tested the first draft that focused on item content and construction. A second draft was piloted on 50 chemistry teachers randomly selected and volunteered to fill out the scale. Data were analyzed using the partial least square method to assess the scale's validity and reliability. After several stages of testing, 48 items were declared valid with a Cronbach's Alpha value > 0.8, rho_A value > 0.8, and composite reliability > 0.9. These values indicate that the TPACK-UDL-STEM Scale is valid and reliable for measuring teachers' knowledge in designing inclusive chemistry lessons. Therefore, this scale is suitable for applied research and further studies to support the development of inclusive chemistry learning.
This descriptive case study examined how undergraduate pre-service teachers (PSTs) enrolled in a digital literacies course evaluated online information as part of a module digital project. PSTs were tasked with assessing peer-selected online texts using multiple strategies in an unrestricted web environment. Data were collected from multiple sources, including PSTs' digital projects, which captured their evaluation processes with think-aloud, oral reflections, and feedback on their peers' evaluation processes. Using illustrative examples, this study identified four tendencies that emerged as PSTs engaged in evaluating online information. It also explored PSTs' insights and experiences related to their own evaluation processes, as well as their observations of their peers' evaluation practices. The online information literacy task helped PSTs link their text knowledge, applied knowledge, and reflections. The findings suggested that applying evaluation strategies requires familiarity with the strategies themselves, the ability to apply a range of evaluation strategies, and a mindset of healthy skepticism toward all online information. Throughout the process, PSTs deepened their understanding of online information evaluation by reviewing and commenting on their peers' evaluation processes. This study has implications for instruction, assessment, and future research on information literacy for PSTs and other learners.
ABSTRACT Quality leadership practices among university student leaders are imperative for ensuring proper discipline within universities and fostering the future career success of students. This study aims to explore the factors that influence leadership practices among university student leaders. Data were gathered through a multistage sampling method from student leaders across various universities in Anhui province, China, yielding a total of 637 responses for analysis. Partial least squares structural equation modelling was employed to analyse the data. The findings reveal that student leaders' core self‐evaluation is significantly associated with their leadership practices and motivation to lead. The study also supports a positive relationship between the motivation to lead and student leadership practices. The motivation to lead dimensions (affective identity‐, social‐normative‐, and non‐calculative motivation to lead) are significant mediators between core self‐evaluation and student leadership practices. The findings provided actionable insights for university authorities and policymakers in helping them understand how to effectively motivate student leaders to engage in leadership activities and thereby contribute to the enhancement of future student leadership practices.
This study reveals constructs that determine how federal and state policies for identification of and services for students with dyslexia are implemented in three Ohio suburban public schools. The research questions guiding this study were: (a) How do K-12 public educators interpret federal and state policies for the identification of students with dyslexia? and (b) How do they implement these policies? Three K-12 suburban public-school districts were selected for this collective, instrumental case study research. The results of the study suggest that district practices that support the identification of dyslexia through a dyslexia protocol within a Multitiered System of Support (MTSS) create equity for students with dyslexia, empowers educators, provides academic, social and emotional support for students and families, and decreases the burden for parents to find an Independent Education Evaluator (IEE). Based on the findings, the researcher provides six recommendations.
The future of the teaching profession in academia is closely linked to the prevailing model of research-intensive universities. It also depends on the ways in which institutions choose to navigate this ideal-either by promoting positions that combine teaching and research or by separating the two into distinct career paths. In this paper, we argue that teaching plays a central role in shaping experiences of academic citizenship, understood as membership, recognition, and belonging (S & uuml;mer et al. 2020). The paper is based on an empirical study involving 16 interviews with researchers and associate professors in permanent teaching-related positions at a technological university in Sweden. Participants were asked about their work environment, career prospects, and views on teaching. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using content analysis, with particular focus on how teaching relates to inclusion and a sense of value in academic settings. The findings show variation in how teaching is perceived in relation to academic citizenship, especially its role in fostering or limiting a sense of belonging and recognition. We argue that these dynamics are likely to influence the future standing of teaching in academia. These insights are relevant not only for the academic community and higher education research but also for policymakers, given the central role of universities in society.
A complex interplay of cognitive, emotional and contextual factors shapes student learning and academic success. This study examined the relationships among learning styles, student satisfaction, academic engagement, gender, and academic performance of senior high school students in the La Dade-Kotopon Municipality of Ghana. Conducted in August 2021, the study adopted a descriptive survey design. Senior high schools and the students were selected using purposive sampling, proportionate sampling, and a table of random numbers. Of the 341 questionnaires distributed, 287 valid responses were retrieved and analysed. Mediation and moderation analyses were performed using Hayes' PROCESS macro. Results revealed that student satisfaction mediates the relationship between learning styles (independent, avoidant, collaborative, dependent, competitive and participant) and academic performance. Further, academic engagement was found to mediate the relationship between student satisfaction and academic performance. In addition, gender moderated the association between participants' learning styles and student satisfaction. These findings suggest that the Ghana Education Service (GES) should integrate learning style awareness and student engagement strategies into continuous professional development programs for senior high school teachers. Such training would empower educators to identify subtle learning needs in overcrowded classrooms and tailor their delivery accordingly.
Transnational education (TNE) and the accelerating internationalisation of higher education demand pedagogical approaches that support deep learning across diverse contexts. Constructive alignment (CA) is widely adopted to align learning outcomes, teaching and assessment; however, its underlying constructivist rationale has weakened, creating a gap in effective curriculum design. Without its constructivist foundations, alignment risks being applied superficially, undermining deep learning potential. This study examines how emphasis on alignment affects the incorporation of constructivist theory in higher education institutions (HEIs) curricula. Adopting a qualitative cross-institutional approach, we conducted 47 interviews across multiple UK and international HEIs and disciplines. Findings reveal diminished integration of constructivist principles, with CA often implemented as a linear process. Crucially, we identify a symbiotic relationship between learning outcomes and learning objectives, both essential for authentic CA design. We conceptualise CA as a dynamic, cyclical model for sense-making, challenging purely linear interpretations. Theoretically, our study extends CA theory by proposing a novel cyclical constructivist model (with five interrelated elements) and articulating the mutual interplay of CA components. Practically, these results carry implications for policy and curriculum design in HEIs globally, urging institutions to reintegrate constructivist pedagogy to realise CA's full potential and enhance deep learning, thereby emphasising the importance of continuous knowledge sharing and iterative evaluation in effective CA design.
ABSTRACT This study investigated the relationships between learner characteristics, AI utilization, and learning outcomes in an intelligent nutrition education platform. By examining 109 university students, we explored how prior nutrition literacy, motivational factors, task anxiety, and critical thinking abilities influenced learners' interactions with AI support and their subsequent learning experiences. The study employed both quantitative analysis of pre‐test and post‐test measures, as well as qualitative content analysis of AI interactions. Results revealed that participants with higher baseline nutrition literacy were less likely to utilize AI support, demonstrating an expertise reversal effect. Although prior nutrition literacy significantly influenced feelings of knowing (FOK), AI usage showed no significant direct impact on perceived usefulness or judgment of learning. Analysis of AI interactions revealed a strong preference for factual information seeking, with limited engagement in normative and interpretative queries. These findings suggest the need for adaptive AI systems that can calibrate support based on prior knowledge and highlight the importance of scaffolding more sophisticated forms of AI interaction in educational settings. This research contributes to our understanding of how AI tools mediate learning processes and informs the design of more effective smart learning environments for nutrition education.
ABSTRACT The growing demand for a globally competent STEM workforce showcases the importance of embedding empathy into undergraduate education. As a core dimension of global competence, empathy enables individuals to engage diverse perspectives and navigate collaborative challenges. Yet, within STEM curricula, affective empathy often receives less attention relative to cognitive and behavioral dimensions among students. This study investigated how a 90‐min self‐paced online module on cross‐cultural teamwork influenced STEM students' reflections on empathy. The research was guided by two questions: RQ1: How do STEM students' expressions of empathy differ across the three empathy dimensions when reflecting on multicultural teamwork scenarios? RQ 2: How do STEM students conceptualize and articulate empathetic practices in response to scenarios involving team interactions after completing the module on cross‐cultural collaboration? A total of 1763 first‐year STEM undergraduates completed scenario‐based reflection tasks embedded in the module. These reflections were analyzed using a combination of latent Dirichlet allocation and qualitative thematic analysis to capture both broad patterns and nuanced insights. The findings revealed that students relied primarily on logical reasoning and conscious decision‐making, with fewer demonstrations of affective empathy. Although cognitive and behavioral dimensions were articulated, affective responses appeared less frequently, indicating an imbalance in how empathy was expressed across dimensions. The results highlight the value of incorporating structured empathy‐building activities into STEM curricula. At the same time, they emphasize the need for pedagogical strategies that foster affective empathy, which can help students collaborate effectively in interdisciplinary teams and contribute to the global workforce.
Immersive virtual reality (IVR) is widely promoted as a means of enriching learning in science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM), yet evidence of its capacity to foster equitable classroom experiences for marginalised groups remains limited, particularly outside traditional STEM domains. Addressing this gap, the present mixed-method multiple-case study explores how IVR influences equity, motivation and collaboration in two contrasting secondary-school settings in England: a single-session computer-science (CS) lesson with 326 year-8 students and a 4-week series of English lessons with 6 year-9 students. Data were gathered through pre-lesson questionnaires, post-lesson surveys, nonparticipant observations, focus groups, field notes and reconstructed lesson narratives. This research study explores how IVR has the potential to transform classrooms at a sociocultural level. In a secondary English classroom, IVR enhanced students' cultural and techno-capital, revealing the potential to develop a relational pedagogy based on knowledge exchange. Additionally, in computer science, IVR tackled gender disparities in STEM by creating equitable learning environments through game-based learning. This research study, which captures the pedagogical application of IVR in both arts-based subjects and STEM, shows the potential of IVR to create more equitable, engaging, and personalised learning opportunities, transforming classrooms and challenging traditional expectations.
