Purpose Technology-enhanced pedagogy (TEP) is increasingly recognised as being associated with innovation in higher education. It offers opportunities to facilitate more interactive, inclusive and engaging learning environments. This study investigates how lecturers in universities adopt TEP and examines its associations with student engagement. Design/methodology/approach This study employed a quantitative survey-based design. The research was grounded in the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework. Data were collected via a structured 46-item questionnaire using Google Forms. The participants included both lecturers and students. The dataset was analysed using SPSS and AMOS to assess direct, indirect and moderating relationships. Findings The results indicate that TEP is significantly associated with higher levels of student engagement. This relationship is facilitated by inclusive and participatory teaching practices. However, variations in educators’ digital competency are linked to inconsistent implementation. This suggests a need for ongoing professional development initiatives. Furthermore, the findings show that sustainable leadership and organisational development are related to the impact of TEP on engagement. Practical implications The study highlights the importance of TPACK-oriented training. Such training should integrate tool mastery with discipline-specific applications, assessment redesign and classroom implementation. The study recommends knowledge-sharing structures, such as communities of practice and teaching academies, to scale successful innovations. Crucially, the findings suggest that individual lecturer competence is most effective when supported by institutional routines and leadership alignment. Therefore, professional development should be embedded within a broader culture of organisational learning. Originality/value This study integrates TEP with TPACK and various organisational dimensions. It contributes novel insights into how technology-driven pedagogy is associated with higher levels of student engagement and institutional learning.
Purpose While outcome-based education (OBE) principles are widely cited in reform discourse, evidence on how assessment practices align with intended cognitive outcomes at the school level remains limited in Pakistan and similar examination-driven contexts. Existing work often relies on achievement scores or policy analysis, with fewer studies using stakeholder perception data to interrogate alignment between teaching, assessment and learning outputs. This study addresses this gap by analyzing parent-based School Performance Questionnaire evidence as proxy indicators of cognitive outcome support and assessment alignment within an OBE lens. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative, cross-sectional descriptive survey design was employed to examine parents' perceptions of teaching, assessment and cognitive learning outputs in an OBE-oriented school context. In the present study, parental ratings are treated as proxy indicators of perceived alignment between instructional and assessment practices and intended cognitive outcomes. This study is intentionally diagnostic rather than explanatory, aiming to identify systemic alignment patterns between teaching, assessment and learning outputs rather than to establish causal relationships. Findings The analysis focuses on indicators related to instructional processes, assessment practices and cognitive learning outputs, interpreted descriptively within an OBE orientation. In line with reporting conventions for survey-based studies, findings are presented using percentage distributions and comparative visual representations. While references to relevant empirical literature are included to contextualize patterns, theoretical interpretation is reserved for the Discussion section (Creswell and Creswell, 2023). Interpretive claims regarding alignment are therefore advanced in the Discussion section rather than inferred directly from descriptive findings. Accordingly, references to cognitive levels in the findings reflect perceived instructional and assessment emphases, not verified cognitive performance at specific taxonomy levels. Research limitations/implications This study's reliance on aggregated survey data limited the depth of analysis possible. Individual-level data would enable examination of relationships between variables and identification of subgroups experiencing different patterns. The cross-sectional design captures perceptions at one point but cannot track change or establish causality. Parent perceptions, while valuable, represent indirect indicators of learning processes rather than direct measures of student cognition. The single-school focus, while appropriate for this study's purpose, limits generalizability. Frontier Children's Academy operates in a specific context urban, private, middle-class, that differs from rural schools, government schools or schools serving different socioeconomic populations. The patterns we identified may look quite different in other settings. The value of the case lies not in institutional representativeness but in its capacity to illuminate system-level tensions between summative assessment dominance and formative learning support. Practical implications By empirically documenting this assessment asymmetry using parent-based evidence, the study extends constructive alignment theory into a stakeholder-informed school evaluation context. This study contributes to OBE scholarship in several ways. Methodologically, it demonstrates how systematically collected parent perceptions can illuminate alignment issues that internal school data might miss. Parents observe learning behaviors homework independence, reliance on external support, responses to feedback that reveal whether school practices translate into intended outcomes. Theoretically, the study applies constructive alignment and Bloom's taxonomy to a practical school setting, showing how these frameworks can diagnose specific implementation gaps rather than simply affirm general principles. The assessment asymmetry we identified strong summative structures alongside weaker formative routines represents a common pattern in examination-oriented contexts that deserves more explicit research attention. Originality/value The current study is based on original data sourced from parents of students at Frontier Children Academy and other daughter schools in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
PurposeTo properly understand China's partnership diplomacy towards Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) states within its ambition to promote a Global Community of a Shared Future for Mankind (GCSFM), a new conceptual approach is required. China's partnership diplomacy toward the LAC region remains weakly institutionalized and analytically opaque. Design/methodology/approachDrawing on dominant international relations theories, including relational approaches to global politics, this research is grounded in the hypothesis that a GCSFM as both a theoretical framework and a practical model is shaping Chinese partnership diplomacy in Latin America and the Caribbean by promoting cooperative initiatives, aligning development goals and managing asymmetries in economic and political power. Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis, the research examines the key documents related to GCSFM and the China-CELAC framework as a core mechanism of transforming their bilateral cooperation into multilateral cooperation. FindingsThe study finds that China does not seek to overturn the existing global order but rather to reshape it by integrating its “all-around development” paradigm with global demands for justice, inclusion and balanced development. This approach directly shapes China's engagement with the LAC region within the context of South-South cooperation. The GCSFM is operationalized through three key initiatives: global development initiative, global security initiative and global civilization initiative. Originality/valueThis paper provides a novel analytical framework for examining the precise scope and patterns of China's partnership diplomacy toward the LAC region.
Purpose This study examines how role stressors and collegial support influence faculty work engagement in Chinese vocational universities. It positions vocational universities as skills-oriented higher education institutions where academic work is shaped by teaching, reform, administrative, and workplace-related expectations. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional online survey was conducted with 618 full-time faculty members. The study measured role ambiguity, role conflict, workload, collegial support, and work engagement using validated scales. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the structural model. The same structural model was estimated separately for female and male faculty, and the results were interpreted descriptively rather than as a formal multigroup comparison. Findings Role ambiguity and workload negatively predicted work engagement in both the female and male faculty models, whereas collegial support positively predicted work engagement. Role ambiguity also negatively influenced collegial support in both models. In the female faculty model, role conflict negatively predicted work engagement but positively predicted collegial support, producing a small positive indirect effect. Neither the direct relationship between role conflict and work engagement nor the relationship between role conflict and collegial support was supported in the male faculty model. Originality/value The study shifts attention from faculty engagement as an individual matter to the institutional conditions that enable it. It extends the job demands–resources (JD-R) model by showing that collegial support is not only a resource associated with faculty engagement but may also be shaped differently by specific role stressors. By distinguishing the estimated relationships among female and male faculty without claiming a formal gender-moderation effect, the study provides context-sensitive evidence on how role ambiguity, role conflict, workload, and collegial support operate within Chinese vocational universities. The findings show why role clarity and reliable collegial support are not peripheral concerns, but central management conditions for protecting faculty energy and commitment in reform-intensive universities.
Purpose This study aimed to examine the effect of high-fidelity simulation (HFS) on knowledge and critical thinking skills among third-year nursing students caring for high-risk newborns. Design/methodology/approach A single-group repeated measurement experimental design was used to investigate the effect of HFS integration in a pediatric nursing practicum on students’ critical thinking skills, knowledge, and satisfaction. The 6-week intervention consisted of four modules: neonatal jaundice, respiratory distress syndrome, hypoglycemia, and hypothermia. Two sets of multiple-choice questions (MCQs) were completed pre- and post-intervention to assess students’ knowledge and critical thinking skills. Students’ satisfaction was assessed using semi-structured interviews. Findings A total of 72 third-year nursing students volunteered to participate and completed all measurements. There was no statistically significant increase in the critical thinking score from pretest (M = 10.64, SD = 2.95) to posttest (M = 11.60, SD = 2.53; p > 0.05), whereas the students’ knowledge increased from pretest (M = 35.52, SD = 5.54) to posttest (M = 42.10, SD = 5.53; p < 0.001). Furthermore, one of the main themes to emerge from the content analysis was “realism reinforcing clinical practice,” reflecting students’ satisfaction with HFS as an active learning method. Research limitations/implications This study has certain limitations that should be acknowledged. It was conducted in a single nursing school using a convenience sample, which may limit the generalizability of the findings. The measurement instrument for nursing care of high-risk newborns had a reliability coefficient of KR 0.64, which falls below the generally recommended threshold for research instruments; the marginal reliability may have attenuated the reliability of the findings. Moreover, the relatively short six-week intervention period, together with the absence of a control group, may have constrained the ability to fully capture long-term effects and critical thinking outcomes. Future research extending this line of inquiry should adopt more rigorous designs than the single-arm pretest-posttest approach used here: a two-arm design comparing HFS with standard clinical practicum or lower-fidelity simulation, ideally with random assignment at the group or cohort level, would allow the improvements observed here to be attributed more confidently to the HFS intervention itself rather than to maturation, repeated testing, or concurrent curricular exposure. Multi-site replication would also address the single-institution, convenience-sample limitation of the current study. The instrument would need to undergo further psychometric testing so that its reliability could reach an adequate standard, and appropriate control groups are warranted to strengthen the evidence base. Plausible confounders were not controlled for in this single-arm design. Concurrent coursework and clinical placements during the six-week intervention period may have independently contributed to gains in knowledge and critical thinking, apart from any effect of HFS itself. Finally, as noted above, the study was powered to detect only moderate-to-large effects (dz = 0.33); the non-significant overall critical thinking result should therefore be interpreted with this power limitation in mind rather than as evidence that HFS has no effect on critical thinking. Practical implications Our study findings may serve as an inspiration for nursing educators to embed HFS into their curricula, not only to motivate students but also to encourage active learning strategies and ultimately improve patient outcomes. Originality/value Simulation-based learning (SBL) offers a structured, context-driven approach that enhances critical thinking, problem-solving, and real-world application of knowledge. It also complies with regulations mandating nursing students to engage in simulation-based training before entering clinical practice, ensuring safety and competence. By supporting lifelong learning and addressing technological disruptions, SBL aligns with the pedagogical foundation of HFS, emphasizing improved learning outcomes, the integration of digital technology, and a commitment to social progress.
