This study examines the complexity of reading comprehension passages in the English component of the 2025 National High School Graduation Exam. It estimates the CEFR-aligned difficulty levels of passages from the 2020-2025 examinations using quantitative measures and qualitative CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) descriptors and compares them against the B1 benchmark specified in the national curriculum. The findings suggest a substantial increase in difficulty over time, with passages in the 2025 examination exhibiting complexity characteristics associated with C1-C2 levels in terms of lexical and readability demands. These levels considerably exceed the B1 requirement outlined in the 2018 General Education Curriculum. The results suggest a growing mismatch between curriculum standards and examination demands, raising concerns about validity, equity, and fairness. The study contributes to international discussions on high-stakes language testing by highlighting the importance of curriculum-assessment alignment and transparent test design in promoting pedagogical coherence and educational justice.

Awareness of children's rights (CR) is fundamental to safeguarding children from abuse, ensuring their well-being, and enabling their access to a dignified standard of living. However, little is known about how Turkish students (TS) and Syrian migrant students (SMS) perceive and internalize these rights in contexts marked by migration and vulnerability. This study employed an explanatory sequential mixed methods design to examine and compare CR awareness among TS and SMS in Türkiye. Quantitative data were gathered from 437 TS and 434 SMS through standardized surveys, whereas qualitative data were obtained through in-depth interviews and a drawing activity, whereby 15 students from each group illustrated their perceptions of CR. Statistical analysis revealed that TS exhibited slightly higher levels of awareness regarding some CR than SMS. Nonetheless, item-level comparisons highlighted both convergences and divergences in specific rights domains, shaped by contextual and experiential differences. Thematic analysis of interview data yielded three primary themes: rights commonly recognized across both groups; rights uniquely identified within a specific group; and instances where responsibilities were misconstrued as rights. Furthermore, the findings elucidate how lived experience and social context influence the conceptualization and prioritization of CR. By providing a comprehensive and comparative exploration of rights awareness among TS and SMS, this study offers critical insights for international policy discussions on child rights and education-particularly in relation to vulnerable and migrant populations. The results underscore the necessity of context-sensitive educational interventions and the inclusion of diverse child perspectives in rights-based programming.

ABSTRACT Residential care is a key component of child welfare systems, particularly for adolescents with complex support needs. Trauma-informed care (TIC) emphasizes safety, predictability, and supportive relationships by recognizing the pervasive impact of trauma on development. While previous research has examined TIC extensively at the program level, less is known about how trauma-informed elements are represented in residential care service descriptions used in public procurement processes. This study examined how trauma-informed elements are represented in Finnish residential care service descriptions and how these elements relate to one another. A qualitative content analysis of documents, complemented by a co-occurrence analysis, was conducted on 84 anonymized residential care service descriptions. Following an abductive approach, the codes were refined into three trauma-informed elements: dyadic, systemic, and integrated. Trauma-informed dyadic elements, particularly key-worker meetings, were most frequently described. Systemic elements such as structured routines, youth and parent participation, and multi-professional collaboration were also widely described. However, explicit integration of these elements was rare. While dyadic and systemic structures supporting safety and participation were described, limited integration across elements suggests a need for more coherent and context-sensitive TIC models that bridge relational and organizational practices. These findings may also inform international discussions on how trauma-informed care can be operationalized and integrated within residential care systems.

The role of housing in patient health: Practitioner insights and protocol review.

Background: Bulgaria has had a statutory mediation framework for over two decades, yet mediation remains underused compared with court adjudication. In the context of judicial reform and caseload reduction, Bulgaria adopted rules in 2023 that introduced mandatory judicial mediation pursuant to which parties to pending court proceedings are required to attend a free-of-charge mediation information session of up to three hours before the first open hearing. The provision was scheduled to come into force on 1 July 2024. On that date, however, the Bulgarian Constitutional Court (Decision No. 11 of 1 July 2024, Constitutional Case No. 11/2024) declared the core provisions of the reform unconstitutional, reviving the question of how far the legislature can require a mediation step without impairing access to justice. In July 2025, Bulgaria adopted a revised model centred on mandatory participation in a mediation information meeting during pending proceedings for specified categories of disputes subject to additional referral by judges. This article analyses the new model, positions it within European approaches, and identifies design requirements for legislation that can stimulate mediation uptake without creating procedural barriers. Method: The article employs doctrinal and comparative legal analysis. It examines the 2025 amendments to the Bulgarian Civil Procedure Code and the Mediation Act, introducing mandatory participation in a mediation information meeting, and considers them in light of the Bulgarian Constitutional Court’s reasoning on proportionality and effective access to court. It situates Bulgaria’s approach within European standards, particularly the interpretation of mandatory ADR/mediation models by the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights, as well as the mandatory mediation models applicable in Italy, Lithuania, Spain, Greece, and Cyprus. The analysis also draws on international discussions on the design features of effective mandatory mediation models, including incentives, costs, procedural safeguards, and protections in cases involving violence or risks to children, to offer suggestions regarding the features an effective mandatory mediation approach should adopt. Results and Conclusions: The 2025 Bulgarian mandatory mediation model is best characterised as a hybrid: it combines a legislatively defined set of case types with broad judicial discretion and multiple statutory exceptions. It compels attendance at an information meeting (not mediation itself), does not require settlement, does not automatically stay the court case, and limits adverse costs consequences to a modest fee, all features aimed at meeting constitutional proportionality requirements. At the same time, its effectiveness will depend on implementation choices (funding, quality control of mediators, clear referral criteria, and workable incentives). The Bulgarian trajectory confirms the broader European trend: mandatory or semi-mandatory mediation mechanisms can be compatible with the right to effective judicial protection, but only when designed to avoid turning ADR into a procedural barrier and when safeguards for vulnerable parties are robust. The ultimate conclusion is that it may be advisable to adopt uniform, mandatory mediation procedures that apply across the EU and form the backbone of an efficient mediation ecosystem across the Union that truly promotes out-of-court dispute settlement.

ABSTRACT The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 represents a comprehensive restructuring of India's higher education system, yet systematic investigation of its influence on institutional service quality remains limited. This research investigates NEP 2020s influence on service quality dimensions (reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy, and responsiveness) highlighting significant disparities among stakeholder perceptions. Using quantitative methodology, the study surveyed 760 stakeholders (students, faculty, administrators) from 20 diverse institutions implementing NEP 2020, using a validated SERVQUAL-based instrument. Results indicate substantial perceptual disparities. Administrators report higher satisfaction while students highlight ongoing deficiencies in tangible infrastructure and responsiveness. Regional analysis reveals a widening digital divide, with urban institutions implementing policies more robustly than rural counterparts. Integrating SERVQUAL with Policy Enactment Theory and Stakeholder Theory, the study enhances understanding of how national reforms produce differentiated institutional outcomes. Findings demonstrate that policy effectiveness depends on local capacity, stakeholder alignment, and contextually responsive implementation. These results provide important insights for countries managing large-scale higher education expansion, emphasizing tension between universal quality standards and institutional diversity. The study contributes by exposing systemic asymmetries in reform trajectories and supplying empirical evidence for international discussions on quality assurance in post-massification environments.

Most proposals for mitigating climate change assume that economic demand should grow without constraints so depend primarily on technology innovations to substitute today's activities with emissions-free alternatives. However, the potential for such "invisible technology substitutions", which could allow high-resource lifestyles to continue unchanged, is often overstated and disguised by burden-shifting. For example, plans may depend on synthetic fuels without accounting for its supply, or on negative emissions technologies without accounting for their power or land area requirements. Here, we show that all net-zero plans depend fundamentally on three resources: emissions-free electricity, biomass, and carbon storage. Using a comprehensive calculator, we reveal the high risk of shortages of these fundamental resources by comparing aggregated demands of net-zero plans, published by business, government, and industry bodies, against likely global availability in 2050. The calculator builds on physical models of 170 processes derived from an extensive literature search. Our results demonstrate that most climate policy proposals, which depend primarily on "invisible technology substitutions", require an improbable expansion of the fundamental resources in the time available, indicating significant risks of under-delivery. We demonstrate an alternative mitigation plan built on a credible forecast of resource availability, revealing overlooked opportunities for innovations in policy, service supply, and financing: feasible zero-emission futures necessitate end-user participation and changed economic demand, which are largely disregarded in current international policy discussions.

ABSTRACT In the pursuit of world-class universities, cultivating innovative research talent has become a strategic priority globally. Although direct-entry PhD students are increasingly recognised as important contributors to research innovation, scholarship lacks a systematic and empirically validated framework for conceptualising their comprehensive competencies. Adopting a competency-based perspective, this study develops and validates a structural model based on mixed-methods data from Chinese universities, comprising comprehensive professional knowledge and skills, multidimensional self-concept, cognitive traits, and composite motivation. By empirically grounding and testing this framework, the study contributes to international discussions on doctoral education quality and offers evidence-based implications for competency-oriented doctoral training reform.

Health influencers are increasingly present on social media, with around 150,000 healthcare professionals involved in France. Their stated goal is to democratize medical information, in a context where 61% of internet users admit to being influenced by this content. In response to this boom, the legal framework has gradually been structured and relaxed. At the same time, ethical regulations remain central. While the principle that medicine cannot be practiced as a business remains firmly established, a notable change has taken place since 2020: doctors can now communicate, provided that the information is accurate, scientifically based, cautious, and devoid of any promotional purpose.The French National Medical Council is exercising increased vigilance and published a charter for responsible content creators in 2025. Physician influencers must therefore reconcile legal and ethical requirements by clearly distinguishing between health information and advertising, ensuring transparency of financial links, and avoiding any commercial incentives. This vigilance could intensify in the future, in the context of European and international discussions on the regulation of online health content.

This study examines trends in IoT security standardization within ITU-T Q6/17 and Q6/20 to assess the evolution of international standards for protecting the IoT ecosystem. The review encompasses both published standards and ongoing work items from the 2025-2028 study period. Each document is reviewed based on its objective, scope, technical focus, target system, and application domain, and is subsequently reclassified according to IoT ecosystem layer. The analysis shows that IoT security standardization within ITU-T is developing along two main trajectories. Q6/17 develops common security frameworks and enabling technologies applicable across the IoT ecosystem, whereas Q6/20 addresses domain-specific application security by translating those common security technologies into operational requirements for smart cities, energy infrastructures, and intelligent transportation systems. The study further reveals that the relationship between the two Questions extends beyond a simple horizontal-vertical division. In multiple areas, the two streams are expanding their scopes competitively, resulting in points of intersection. RF-based authentication and energy infrastructure security exemplify cases in which common security technologies and domain-specific requirements conflicted. These findings suggest that South Korea should develop implementation and validation experience in applying common security technologies within real-world service domains. Furthermore, these outcomes should be integrated into both international standardization discussions and domestic certification and conformity assessment frameworks.

Indonesia’s repeated exposure to hydrometeorological hazards, particularly floods, makes disaster preparedness a pressing educational concern from the early years of life. Yet research on disaster learning for young children remains limited, and gamification has rarely been examined in this area with sufficient conceptual precision. This study addresses that gap through a systematic literature review guided by PRISMA 2020, focusing on how gamified approaches have been used in flood-related disaster education for early childhood contexts. Searches of Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, Wiley Online Library, and DOAJ covered publications from 2015 to 2025. Of 340 records identified, 28 studies met the inclusion criteria and were synthesised through thematic analysis and narrative synthesis. Three recurrent patterns emerged. Gamification was most educationally meaningful when it functioned as pedagogical scaffolding rather than as a reward system, enabling children to approach abstract risk through staged, participatory learning. Play-based simulation, feedback, and repetition also appeared to create psychologically safer ways of engaging difficult topics. Its value, however, was strongly shaped by context, especially in settings marked by uneven infrastructure, limited pedagogical resources, and high disaster exposure. The review therefore does not support broad claims that digital enhancement is inherently effective in disaster education. Instead, it suggests that gamification matters when it is developmentally grounded and carefully aligned with early childhood pedagogy. The study contributes to international discussion by recasting gamification less as a motivational device than as a form of pedagogical mediation in early childhood disaster education, particularly in settings where vulnerability is high and educational conditions are uneven. It also points to the need for further work across a wider range of hazards, settings, and pedagogical designs.

BackgroundMaster’s degree programs in advanced nursing practice have been established in Switzerland for approximately 2 decades, and the role of advanced practice nurses (APNs) is increasingly embedded within the Swiss health care system. Despite their growing presence, there remains a lack of clarity and consistency regarding this progress; persistent ambiguity in role definitions, expectations, and competencies continues to hinder consistent implementation and contributes to uncertainty for both APNs and employers. Existing research has not sufficiently examined how APN competencies and role perceptions develop during graduate education and the early transition to practice. This substudy of the EDUCate research initiative, EDUCate–Competence and Role Development (EDUCate C-ARE), focuses exclusively on a defined cohort of master’s students and follows their competence and role development longitudinally.ObjectiveThe EDUCate C-ARE substudy aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of how APN competencies and role perceptions change during a master’s program and in the first year following graduation (research question [RQ] 1), identify factors that facilitate or hinder their development (RQ 2), and explore challenges that APNs report during this process (RQ 3).MethodsA longitudinal convergent mixed methods design will be applied. Quantitative data on APN competencies are collected using the Advanced Practice Nursing Competency Assessment Instrument at 4 time points (T0-T3), and qualitative data are generated through semistructured interviews at 3 time points (I1-I3). The quantitative and qualitative strands are analyzed independently and subsequently integrated using joint displays and narrative weaving to highlight convergence, complementarity, or divergence. Data collection spans 4 years, beginning in September 2023.ResultsBaseline (T0) and midprogram (T1) quantitative data have been collected, with 141 students responding at T0 (full time: n=25, 17.7%; part time: n=56, 39.7%) and T1 (full time: n=17, 12.1%; part time: n=43, 30.5%). Data collection at T2 is ongoing. Initial analyses have been completed for T0 and T1. Qualitative interviews at I1 have been conducted and preliminarily analyzed (full time: n=6; part time: n=20). Data collection for full-time students is expected to conclude by May 2026, with preliminary findings anticipated by August 2026; for part-time students, data collection will continue until August 2027, with initial findings expected by October 2027. Integrated study results are anticipated by late 2026, with final analyses following completion of all data collection phases.ConclusionsThis study will generate longitudinal evidence on APN competence and role development in a Swiss master’s cohort. By developing a conceptual, explanatory model of competence acquisition, role perception, and influencing factors, the study is expected to inform curriculum development, strengthen role clarity, and support the evidence-based implementation of APN roles in the Swiss health care system. Findings will contribute to national and international discussions on APN competency frameworks and professional role development.

This commentary introduces Türkiye's national clinical protocol for neuroradiological ancillary testing in brain death determination, which was developed to address persistent variability in imaging-based practice; it was first published in Turkish (2025) and subsequently translated into English (2026). It outlines a pragmatic national framework for the standardized use, interpretation, and reporting of computed tomography angiography, digital subtraction angiography, and transcranial Doppler ultrasonography while reaffirming that brain death remains a clinical diagnosis. By emphasizing practical examples, structured reporting, common pitfalls, and pediatric considerations, the protocol aims to improve consistency and interpretive reliability while contributing to the broader international discussion on ancillary testing.

ABSTRACT This study analyzes the representation of religion in ten editions of geography textbooks used in Chinese junior high schools, employing a framework of superdiversity and educational equity. Informed by Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital and Freire’s critical pedagogy, the analysis explores how certain forms of religious knowledge are emphasised while others receive limited attention within textbook narratives. The patterns identified include: (1) a focus on the ‘Big Three’ – Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism – at the expense of a broader belief systems; (2) the depiction of religion in largely abstract terms, with limited connection to lived social and cultural contexts; and (3) minimal engagement with ethical discussions related to equality, diversity, and social responsibility. Taken together, these patterns indicate that textbook representations tend to standardise and simplify religious knowledge, which may constrain students’ opportunities to engage with religious diversity in more nuanced ways. By situating these findings within international discussions on curriculum development and religious literacy, this study highlights the role of geography textbooks in shaping students’ understandings of cultural difference and coexistence. It argues for curriculum reflection and revision that place greater emphasis on inclusivity, critical awareness, and intercultural dialogue in geography education.

The purpose of this paper is to review the modern curricula of language teaching in Greek preschool education, tracing their evolution from the landmark 1989 syllabus to the implementation of the new 2021 curriculum. The study employs a qualitative policy document analysis of official preschool language curricula issued by the Greek Ministry of Education in collaboration with the Institute of Educational Policy (IEP), between 1989 and 2021. The review analyzes the key pedagogical and theoretical shifts that have shaped early childhood language education over three decades. It follows the progression from a didactic, skills-based model to the introduction of child-centered, interdisciplinary methods and the concept of "emergent literacy" in 2003. The analysis then highlights the formal integration of "critical literacy" as a core theoretical approach in the 2014 revision, culminating in the adoption of a comprehensive "multiliteracies" framework in the 2021 curriculum. The findings demonstrate a clear and progressive trajectory towards a more sophisticated, theoretically-grounded framework that views literacy as a complex, socially-situated practice. This evolution underscores a commitment to developing active, critical thinkers and reflects the understanding that high-quality preschool programs are a key pillar for a child's success in school and in life. This review contributes to international discussions on early childhood literacy by showing how national curriculum reforms in Greece reflect broader global trends toward emergent literacy, critical literacy, and multiliteracies approaches. The review concerns Greek public kindergarten curricula for children aged 4–6, focusing on Greek as a first language.

Compensation for mental distress in preschool children is a crucial mechanism for protecting their personality rights, yet current judicial practice in China relies heavily on judicial discretion and lacks child-sensitive standards for determining severity. Following the enactment of the Preschool Education Law of the People's Republic of China in 2025, the principle of the Best Interests of the Child has placed new behavioral and developmental requirements on decision-making, particularly regarding the recognition of children's expressive limitations and psychological vulnerability. Drawing on representative judicial cases, this research identifies inconsistencies in current adjudication-primarily between factual presumption and medical proof-and highlights their failure to reflect preschoolers' developmental characteristics. To address this gap, we construct a child-centered liability determination framework integrating the Lundy model of child participation and Nussbaum's Capabilities Approach. This framework provides a structured method for incorporating children's voices into proceedings and offers multidimensional criteria for assessing capability impairment as an indicator of mental distress severity. These findings suggest that the framework can help reduce excessive discretion, strengthen developmental sensitivity, and promote more consistent and equitable adjudication. Beyond the Chinese context, this research offers an analytical lens for advancing international discussions on child-centered mental distress assessment and children's rights protection.

This study investigates how Pancasila Student Profile (PPP) values are integrated into an advanced English as a Foreign Language (EFL) textbook developed under Indonesia’s Kurikulum Merdeka. Focusing on texts, tasks, and assessments, the study examines how character values are not only represented but also operationalized through instructional design. Using a qualitative content analysis approach informed by educational psychology, the analysis maps the distribution and enactment of six PPP dimensions across instructional components.The findings indicate that critical reasoning, global diversity, and mutual cooperation are most prominently embedded, particularly through discussion texts, collaborative activities, and argument-based tasks. In contrast, faith and noble character and independence appear more frequently as thematic messages than as structured competencies supported by explicit task design or assessment criteria. The results further reveal partial misalignment between value intentions and instructional accountability, as only a limited subset of values is consistently assessed.These findings contribute to international discussions on cultural and character integration in EFL curricula by demonstrating that value internalization depends less on thematic visibility and more on how tasks and assessments activate psychological processes such as reflection, perspective-taking, collaboration, and evidence-based judgment. The study offers a framework for evaluating character integration in language textbooks and provides practical implications for curriculum designers, textbook developers, and teachers working in value-oriented EFL contexts.

This article recovers a moment in environmental thinking that connected food, nature, and global order. It traces the rise of pictograms in food policy from the 1940s to the 1960s, a style of design that was popularized by an influential circle of political economists and left-wing politicians. Recovering the visual method through the archive of Otto Neurath and his British interlocutors, the article shows how visual statistics extended welfare reform discourse beyond unemployment and national insurance to encompass agriculture and environmental concerns. These ideas were part of international discussion on development, but they proved particularly impactful in Britain, which was navigating conversations about global natural resources at the end of empire. This thread of British environmental thought connected domestic social issues with global, postimperial development, as policymakers, economists, and illustrators worked through food and its visual representation to reimagine global ecological order.

ABSTRACT This paper examines how AI literacy is conceptualised in Swedish upper secondary school policy documents that govern a newly introduced AI subject. Drawing on Green’s 3D literacy model comprising operational, cultural and critical dimensions, the authors analyse the curriculum and support materials to explore how these dimensions are represented and what this implies for teachers, teacher educators and students. The analysis shows a strong emphasis on operational literacy, some presence of cultural literacy and a limited focus on critical literacy, particularly its agentive dimension. The authors argue that this imbalance may constrain students’ opportunities to critically engage with AI as a sociotechnical phenomenon and limit teachers’ ability to support such engagement. The study contributes to international discussions on AI education by highlighting the need for a more holistic and critical approach to AI literacy, with implications for curriculum design, teacher preparation and educational policy.

The idea that education plays a crucial role in global development, particularly through the concepts of Higher Education for Sustainable Development (HESD) and Transformative Learning (TL), has gained significant attention in research, policy, and practice over the past few decades. Theoretically grounded in the principles of creative and deep learning, transformative learning involves the development of key competencies such as critical thinking, creativity, self-reflexivity, and individual awareness. Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has evolved within international policy discussions as a key mechanism for achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Shaped mostly by UNESCO’s initiatives, namely the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD, 2005–2014), and the Global Action Programme (GAP) on ESD (2015–2019), the ESD agenda has been introduced through five priority action areas, and the ESD for 2030 Framework (2020–2030), as part of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. International policy frameworks – particularly those framed by UNESCO – emphasize education’s potential to foster values, competences, and forms of agency required for sustainable and just societal transitions. However, ESD faces profound challenges, not only in developing competencies such as critical and adaptive pedagogies and participatory teaching methods but also in addressing structural barriers within higher education, particularly those imposed by neoliberal policies. As a response to these tensions, this paper proposes an analytical framework that integrates UNESCO’s five ESD priority action areas with Wals’s four dimensions of transformative learning (transcultural, transgenerational, transdisciplinary, and transgeographical). The framework provides a critical perspective to examine how higher education can move beyond normative or instrumental interpretations of sustainability towards more emancipatory, systemic, and transformative approaches. By using a hermeneutic and conceptual-framework analysis of UNESCO policy documents and scholarly literature on ESD and TL, the paper presents the evolution of ESD and identifies limitations in its current implementations. The paper outlines key challenges and offers policy perspectives for embedding critical transformative learning approaches in higher education environments.