Through creative thinking, it is possible to acquire new attitudes and a view of the world, not only of mathematics but from several sides (Kamp, 2016). Creativity in mathematics can be defined as a process based on sensitivity to problems, deficiencies, gaps in knowledge and sensitivity to identifying missing elements, revealing difficulties in finding solutions, making estimates, formulating hypotheses, and verifying them and then forming a conclusion (Mann, 2006). The concept of critical thinking is closely related to creativity. Its essence, not only in mathematics, lies in the way of formulating and asking questions. Broader assigned tasks or complex problems lead students to new data and knowledge, which naturally creates the ability to think critically. The paper focuses on problem posing and the development of critical thinking through the creation of tasks based on Bloom's taxonomy and criterial testing requirements. Part of the paper will also be a description of the process of creating math problems, their evaluation, compiling a test based on various criteria, diagnosing students based on the results and proposing further work with students.

The Centre for Lifelong Learning (SELL) at Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences (INN) has been crafting tailored, flexible educational programs for working adults for thirty years, seamlessly integrating education with professional life. This paper underscores SELL's pivotal role in furnishing pertinent formal and informal education for individuals and businesses in the workforce, aligning with governmental strategies for lifelong learning. Our study poses two research questions: RQ1. What are SELL's current key functions and activities? RQ2. How can SELL bolster political agendas and address future workforce learning needs? Through document analysis spanning Norwegian authorities, INN, and SELL, we found concordance between governmental lifelong learning policies, INN's strategy, and SELL's focus areas. However, there's a gap in follow-up and prioritization. Recommendations include establishing dedicated units for external activities at educational institutions and fostering closer collaboration between academia and industry to enhance the relevance of offered competencies. Direct engagement between educational institutions and learners is crucial, possibly facilitated by streamlined access. Strengthening this cooperation is imperative for advancing workforce competence in tune with market demands. Keywords: Education, lifelong learning, work life, document analysis

This paper analyzes essay writing in AI (ChatGPT) and high school students, focusing on their use of specific details. Discussing the writing examples from Waltzer, Cox, and Heyman’s study, we employ Aristotle’s rhetorical theory to explore how clarity is achieved through specificity in writing. The analysis reveals both ChatGPT and students commonly omit detailed content, affecting clarity and argumentative strength, which affects how humans may detect AI-generated text. The paper suggests reinstating elements of classical rhetoric pedagogy in writing courses, particularly the style device of specificity. This will, we believe, not only improve student writing but also help educators to detect AI-generated text.

Digital technology (DT) does not come with a ‘menu’ of what teachers can select to transform their instructional practices; it is through use and reflection in/on practice that potential affordances are abstracted. Computer simulation (CS) as DT was explored through auto-ethnography, reflexivity, and action research. The findings of the study revealed that the use of DT when teaching is a sense-making process employed to respond to the contextual and situational demands of the concerned teacher. It is a dynamic and unpredictable situated practice that is focused on the emergent affordances resulting from the interface between technology and pedagogy. The aim is to craft a ‘contextualized’ technology-driven pedagogy to meet the teaching and learning needs of learners in rural schools. It is a professional learning activity that develops self-knowledge and skills that enrich the knowledge base of the individual teacher. Such knowledge contributes to practice innovation, where DT is adopted and adapted to make learning interesting and inclusive and where it engages learners in constructing their knowledge and developing skills to achieve set learning outcomes. The findings are more descriptive than prescriptive since teaching endeavours cannot be cloned but could assist other teachers who might be interested in using DT in their specific contexts. Keywords: digital technology, learning, reflection, rural schools, teaching

Peer mentoring has long been employed as a method of facilitating the learning process with peer mentors or learning facilitators as also described in this paper, serving as an alternative to faculty teachers. However, there is dearth of qualitative studies exploring the experiences of learning facilitators teaching or mentoring (the two terms will be used interchangeably) in an online environment. The aim of this study is to examine how undergraduate students at the largest college in Greece experienced and evaluated their roles as learning facilitators and to what extent their role was hindered or enhanced in a virtual setting. I conducted semi-structured interviews with learning facilitators who have experienced both online and face-to-face peer mentoring. Upon the transcription of the interviews verbatim, I performed qualitative thematic analysis. The results revealed that all peer mentors prefer face-to-face mentoring to e-mentoring and unanimously believe that online mentoring cannot replicate the practices of face-to-face peer mentoring. Keywords: mentoring, online, higher education, impact

Teacher shortage is reported to be a challenge worldwide. In a recent report, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) reported the need for some 44 million new teachers in schools to reach the Agenda 2030 targets. Attracting, recruiting and retaining new teachers is difficult in relation to both geographical areas and in certain subjects, being a common challenge of many developed countries and is seen in many countries of the world. Teacher shortage and the lack of teachers has consequences as teaching in schools, students’ learning and therefore the quality of education is affected. The aim of this paper was to study teacher shortage in schools through a literature review in order to explore the causes of the teacher shortage described in current literature and understand these causes based on teacher attrition, teacher recruitment and teacher retention. The included articles of this literature review were peer-reviewed articles regarding teacher shortage from 2018-2023 which were identified using the Scopus database. Some 52 of articles met the inclusion criteria of this literature review. The articles represented 18 different countries all over the world. The chosen methods of the studies also varied, for example, qualitative and quantitative studies. The content of the included articles was thematically encoded and categorized by the described a) reasons behind, b) area/subject c) and discussed solutions. The themes were identified inductively; they were strongly linked to the data, and the steps of qualitative content analysis were followed to identify these themes. The overall conclusion is that teacher shortage is multifaceted and complex. There are many reasons behind teacher shortage and there are many aspects that interact on several different levels. In order to alleviate teacher attrition and promote teacher recruitment and retention, collective initiatives by many of the stakeholders involved will be necessary. Keywords: Professional development, qualitative content analysis, research review, teachers, teacher shortage

Pro-Me-ToM (Promoting Metacognitive and Theory-of-Mind Skills) is an Erasmus+ collaborative project funded by IDEP (Foundation of European Programs for Lifelong Learning) and has been conducted by researchers from five countries (i.e., Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Portugal, and Romania), aiming to both investigating and to promoting teachers’ and students’ metacognitive skills. Within this project a well-designed educational intervention has been developed, translated and applied in five countries. Specifically, this research project aimed to enhance such skills as metacognitive skills, epistemic beliefs and theory-of-mind skills of both teachers and students. These critical skills are examples of students' higher-order thinking, and are expected not only to help students to "learn how to learn" throughout their lives, but also to enable them to interpret human behavior in order to coexist functionally with others. This paper describes a specific educational intervention program implemented through “Action Research”. The training program consisted of 12 (2-hrs) sessions, it has been implemented in the five participating countries, and all participating teachers and their students were administered a pre- and post-test (still being analyzed). This paper focuses and presents the pillars of the training program as well as examples of the intervention program content and tools. Keywords: metacognition, theory-of-mind, epistemic beliefs, teachers’ training program, intervention

This study aimed to determine whether or not curriculum fidelity can be significantly predicted by certain demographic variables and level of curriculum literacy in elementary school teachers. The study was designed as a relational survey study and involved the participation of 250 elementary school teachers. For data collection, a personal information form (PIF), the Curriculum Fidelity Scale (CFS), and Curriculum Literacy Scale (CLS) were used. The data collected were analysed using multiple hierarchical regression analysis. According to the findings, gender, seniority, class size, course load, class level, and the number of students with special educational needs (NSSEN) explained 8.7% of the adherence dimension of the CFS. The reading and writing dimensions of the CLS significantly predicted the adherence dimension of the CFS at 4.6%. The predictive variables, i.e., gender, seniority, class size, course load, and NSSEN, explained only 2% of the adaptation dimension of the CFS. The reading and writing dimensions of the CLS significantly predicted the adaptation dimension of the CFS at 19.2%. In summary, the elementary school teachers' adherence behaviours in terms of curriculum fidelity were mainly impacted by demographic variables, whereas their adaptation behaviours were mainly impacted by curriculum literacy. Keywords: curriculum literacy, curriculum fidelity, curriculum