Learning In Education Research Articles

InnovatEd

The Melbourne InnovatEd program at the University of Melbourne supports innovation in educational technology, addressing the crucial need for innovative solutions in teaching and learning in higher education. By fostering a holistic approach, InnovatEd empowers educators and students to identify problems and devise impactful solutions. Established in 2019, the program offers a Bootcamp and an Incubation Funding Program, providing space, tools, support, and funding pathways. The Bootcamp engages participants in developing innovation skills, while the Incubation Program offers tailored support to bring ideas to fruition. Over five years, InnovatEd has supported 23 teams, enhancing teaching and learning through EdTech. The program has successfully cultivated connections within the University and industry, facilitating real-world project development and fostering an entrepreneurial mindset. Innovation programs in large organisations, such as InnovatEd, face challenges such as ensuring technology sustainability, providing post-program support, and addressing cultural barriers. InnovatEd aims to establish robust support structures and promote continuous innovation, essential for improving education in the age of AI.

From How Much to Whodunnit

The arrival of ChatGPT and other generative AI (genAI) tools has ushered in a new era in education and presented significant challenges to academic institutions. It has also delivered new concerns for educators who seek to support, and to certify, students’ learning. In addition, the potential and in some cases the necessity for students to learn to engage these new tools in preparation for future work in a professional or research context is emerging apace. This raises important questions for the form and focus of student learning in higher education. It also calls for guidance for educators, especially those who may not be familiar with the operation or implications of these new technologies for their teaching. This paper presents an innovative typology for designing assessment in this context, and that offers language to discuss academic integrity issues and to authorise AI use. The typology draws on and extends scholarship related to groupwork, considering the role of the genAI as a ‘group member’. It provides examples of related approaches to assessment design, and of level descriptors that educators may use as a basis for rubrics to recognise and define the qualities of good student use of genAI tools in this context.

Learning designers

The contemporary post-digital university is ever more dependent on the expertise and labour of ‘third space’ professionals such as learning designers. Reporting on the initial findings of a recent survey, this paper presents a snapshot of the people who do the work of learning design, their perspectives on their work and their contributions to teaching and learning in higher education. Four defining characteristics emerged through thematic analysis of 90 survey responses: 1) learning designers come from varied academic and professional backgrounds; 2) our job functions, working conditions and organisational settings can vary significantly; 3) our work practices—and so the knowledge and skills required for the role—can be highly diverse; 4) despite the variety, a shared motivation and sense of purpose is shaping emergent professional identities. Adopting a socio-material lens, this paper presents a rich picture of an expanding profession, providing vital insights into the practices, identities, and impact of learning designers.

Themed Restaurant Examination to Improve Student’s Knowledge and Skills in Food and Beverage Management Class

The paper emphasizes the importance of practical knowledge and hands-on experiences in hospitality education, particularly in food and beverage management. Themed events provide a platform for students to apply their theoretical knowledge, develop practical skills, and face real-world challenges. The event, centered around the culinary heritage of Tuscany, showcased student creativity and attention to detail. The event was successful overall, with positive guest feedback and student committee evaluations. However, areas for improvement were identified, including coordination issues, delays, and food quality inconsistencies. These findings highlight the need for better planning, coordination, and attention to detail in future events. In conclusion, the event provided valuable experiential learning for hospitality management students, allowing them to apply knowledge, develop skills, and navigate challenges. While the event showcased student capabilities, areas for improvement were identified, emphasizing the importance of continuous enhancement in execution and attention to detail. This research contributes to understanding the effectiveness of themed events and experiential learning in hospitality education, informing future improvements in preparing students for internships and careers in the industry.

Fostering professional capacity for blended teaching and learning

Blended learning (BL) in higher education (HE) has for decades been considered a transformative way for universities to reach a wider range of students, increasing equity and availability to meaningful learning experiences. However, there is little in the BL literature around teaching academics and instructional designers’ experiences and perspectives on BL. This case study explores collaborative redesign through the reflections of a team comprising an academic Unit Chair, Learning Designer, and a Sessional Lecturer. It illustrates how a collaborative BL redesign process strengthened a unit that in 2022 had been deemed to be unsuccessful, and built educator capability through professional learning (PL). The result was a pedagogical and learning shift, which led to the unit’s successful delivery for online and on campus students in 2023. The findings have implications for BL and insight into collaborative design team experiences offering value to the academic community at large and foregrounding the value of pursuing a ‘ground-up’ collaborative BL redesign model.

Challenges and opportunities in using ChatGPT as a team member to promote code review education and self-regulated learning

In this study, we examine the use of ChatGPT as a team member to enhance code review education and promote self-regulated learning among programmers of varying experience levels. A case-study approach was used to answer three research questions about code quality, perceived benefits, and challenges. Participants reported diverse perspectives on the quality and utility of ChatGPT-generated code, with novice programmers gaining a deeper understanding of code interactions and experienced programmers refining their code through iterative prompt optimisation. Despite the benefits, challenges emerged, such as concerns about the potential negative impact of generative AI on learning experiences and the difficulties posed by foundational knowledge gaps in effectively interacting with ChatGPT. The findings suggest that ChatGPT is a promising tool for supporting code review education, especially for novice programmers, and for fostering self-regulated learning strategies like elaboration and metacognition. Future research should validate these results with larger sample sizes and address the identified challenges to better integrate generative AI tools in educational contexts.

Leadership in the Third Space

In higher education, the third space can be defined as a place where blended professional and academic roles and skills overlap to achieve common goals which primarily focus on student outcomes. This liminal space can be challenging to lead in as third space areas are typically complex, with a great need for problem-solving and resourcefulness. Career pathways for third space leaders do not follow a straightforward or linear trajectory and fit-for-purpose training and education opportunities for these roles are scarce. Examples of third space environments are educational design, learning design, learning technology and quality assurance. This paper explores common leadership traits and super-powers (key strengths or unique skills), which could contribute to a model for effective leadership in the third space.

AI-Assisted Pedagogies

This paper advocates using large language models (LLMs) to enhance students' open-ended mathematical problem-solving skills. The literature review reveals that using large language models (LLMs) in educational settings is an emerging field with limited research evidence. Much of the existing literature focuses on the perceptions of educators and other stakeholders and evaluations of LLM model accuracy rather than their potentially transformative impact on educational outcomes or personalised learning in mathematics. This paper reports on the ongoing development of a study to provide such evidence. It presents expected results derived from our preliminary development work, which suggests that teaching students to utilise LLMs like ChatGPT effectively can enhance their critical thinking and analytical skills in mathematical problem-solving. Initial observations and iterative refinements inform these anticipated outcomes during the pilot phase of our research.

Variations of Australian university teachers’ conceptions of teaching with GenAI

The recent emergence of GenAI (GenAI) has generated significant interest and intense debate in higher education learning and teaching. Under this scenario, researchers and policy makers have begun to gain an understanding of what factors may influence university teachers’ acceptance and use of GenAI in teaching. Research has shown that how teachers conceptualise teaching shape their pedagogical approach to some degree. Using a phenomenographic qualitative research design, the study examined variations of Australian university teachers’ conceptions of teaching with GenAI via semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis of the interview transcripts was conducted to identify themes prior to a second pass inductive analysis, enabling the researchers to compare and contrast perspectives. Three qualitatively different conceptions were identified: 1) GenAI is used in teaching to develop students’ understanding, critical thinking, and reflection; 2) GenAI is used in teaching to reproduce learning and teaching artefacts; and 3) GenAI are just tools, only having limited applications in teaching. Of the three categories of conceptions, only the first category was student-centred/learning-focused conceptions, which aimed to use GenAI in teaching to support students’ learning and understanding. This work will provide educators with a framework to utilising GenAI in the classroom to support student-centred learning.

Enhancement of helping skills using videos and blended learning in social and health care education

ABSTRACT Students in social and health care education often encounter difficulties translating the concepts in communication into the complexities of interpersonal dynamics and diversified contexts in practicums. Most previous resources were developed in English, and some Chinese materials were not up to date. In this project, social work teachers produced two sets of videos and initiated coursework revamping by engaging students in producing more communication skills videos. An e-learning community has been set up for the storage of teacher’s demonstration videos and quality student videos. The video was applied in skill practice courses and disseminated to social work practicum supervisors and students during the pandemic, as their face-to-face learning opportunities were restricted. Students reported improvements in levels of skills and competence after watching the videos. It shows that videos on communication skills can be further promoted as a blended learning strategy in professional practice training.

Learners Progressive Insight and Scholastic Triumphs Enhanced by School Facilities

The availability of basic facilities in institutes impact academic performance of students in all domains. Governments and societies around the globe strive to improve their educational systems so youth may avail the opportunity of reaching institutes to acquire the knowledge and skills, leading a healthy and constructive vivacity. Key inputs to the education system, such as curricula, trained teachers, sufficient institutional facilities and infrastructure, help to improve the quality of education. Present study emphasizes the impact measurement and evaluation of primary facilities in schools and their role in enhancing student educational growth and learning. The accessible population was selected based on research interest, centered on the non-probability convenience sampling. A total of eighteen key facilities were targeted and response analysis of participants was evaluated based on the hypothesis regarding impact of school facilities on student progress. Findings of present study conclude that educational achievements are negatively impacted by inadequate level of physical facilities and nonconductive learning atmosphere. Results highlighted critical interpretations where sufficient school infrastructure and strong child-parent interaction enhance progressive insight among students. These findings are evident as continuous improvement of school facilities build a foundation of institutional priming, optimizing learners overall growth and scholiastic triumphs.

Educational Leadership in Improving School Performance and Teacher Professional Development: A Literature Review

The purpose of this study is to examine and describe educational leadership in improving school performance and teacher professional development. This study uses a literature review approach and uses data collection methods in the form of journals and scientific articles related to research studies. The analysis used in this study includes a review of the latest research findings and screening of relevant research materials in sequence. This study reveals that educational leadership plays a role in improving school performance and encouraging teacher professional development. The instructional and distributed leadership models, as well as the professional learning community approach, show that collaboration, ongoing support, and focused professional development are key to achieving educational goals. Effective leadership not only improves teacher performance, but also contributes to improving the quality of education and student learning outcomes as a whole.

The Double-Coded Self in Higher Education: Student Self-Formation and Social Sustainability

ABSTRACT Education for social sustainability rests on (1) individual learning agency, and (2) graduates prepared in relations between the individual and collective society, in the context of open ontology and emerging ecological, social and political challenges. The self-determining learner in higher education, with antecedents in Confucian self-cultivation and Bildung, is engaged in conscious self-formation, incorporating reflexive autonomous agency, the will to learn, and immersion in knowledge and relational experiences. Self-making is pervasive in other spheres of life suggesting that it can become integral to higher education. The article reviews self-formation, and individual/social relations, in two traditions: the Chinese civilisational zone and Euro-America. It focuses especially on the double-coded self in each tradition (the reflexive coupling of the inner self and social self), emerging forms of individuality in China, and Michel Foucault’s account of the impact of early Christianity in separating the individual and social in Euro-America. In the Sinic configuration, individual growth and social responsibility are well understood but the individual is crowded by layers of social demands. Euro-America gives students more room but renders the social domain opaque: individual detachment from social responsibility is rife. What is needed is a half-way house: students free from coercion who are prepared in their duties to the community.

Rapid Transition to Virtual Learning in Postgraduate Medical Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Tanzania: A Qualitative Study.

The effect of the progressive utilization of virtual learning (VL) in postgraduate medical education (PGME) is contentious. During the COVID-19 pandemic, VL was up-scaled to bridge the education delivery gap. How this impacted learning experiences in PGME is an area that needs to be explored for the progressive context-specific application of VL. This phenomenological study aimed to explore the postgraduate medical faculty's and residents' experiences with the rapid shift to VL. Through an interpretivist paradigm, this study used in-depth individual semi-structured interviews and prompts to explore the full breadth of the participants' experiences. A purposive sampling method was used, and qualitative content analysis was employed in an iterative process until data saturation. Data was collected between January 2021 and July 2021. Member checking was done to ensure validity. The AKU-ERC granted ethical approval, with reference AKU/2020/098/fb. Ten participants were recruited for the study. Positive experiences were greater access to learning materials and improved learner confidence. In contrast, limited supervision, and lack of assurance of participants' engagement emerged as a negative VL experience. The components of critical thinking and problem-solving skills were unaffected by virtual case-based learning. However, the aspects of acquiring clinical and surgical skills emerged as a difficulty in accepting VL as a valid mode for attaining these competencies. To improve experiences of VL, participants' drive, engagement, technological inadequacies, and instructional design should be optimized.

Analysis of Gender Issues in Computational Thinking Approach in Science and Mathematics Learning in Higher Education.

In the contemporary era, Computational Thinking has emerged as a crucial skill for individuals to possess in order to thrive in the 21st century. In this context, there is a need to develop a methodology for cultivating these skills within a science and mathematics content education framework, particularly among pre-service teachers. This study aimed to investigate the impact of Educational Robotics on the development of Computational Thinking skills, with a particular focus on the role of gender, through a scientific and mathematical content teaching approach. A pre-experimental design with a quantitative approach was employed, and it was implemented with a total of 116 pre-service teachers, 38 males and 78 females. The results demonstrated a notable enhancement between the pre-test (8.11) and post-test (9.63) scores, emphasising specific concepts such as simple functions, while, and compound conditional. With respect to gender, statistically significant differences were identified prior to the intervention, but not following its implementation. The high level of Computational Thinking exhibited by both genders was comparable (53.85% in females and 55.26% in males) following the intervention. This indicates that the intervention is a promising approach for enhancing Computational Thinking proficiency, independent of gender and initial proficiency levels. The implementation of Educational Robotics in the teaching of science and mathematics enables the enhancement of Computational Thinking abilities among pre-service teachers, while reducing the observed gender disparity in this area of skill development.

Harnessing Artificial Intelligence for Personalized Learning Pathways: A Framework for Adaptive Education Management Systems

Abstract. The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into education is revolutionising how we deliver personalised learning, where curriculum, pedagogy and assessments are dynamically adjusted to meet the demands of each learner. In this paper, we examine the role AI can play in the construction of personalised learning pathways, and explore its applications for K-12 education, higher education and lifelong learning. We highlight that AI-driven systems such as Summit Learning, Pounce at Georgia State University, and IBMs Watson Talent are helping to measure dramatic improvements in student and employee outcomes, ranging from retention rates, academic performance, to engagement levels. We show how AI can enable student profiling, adaptive learning path generation, and ongoing assessment via the continuous feedback loops that are critical to transformative personalised learning. We also highlight some of the key challenges related to how education (eg, data privacy, scalability and equity), and showcase case studies and data from AI applications in different educational contexts to demonstrate the potential of personalised learning enabled by AI. In summary, this paper underscores the benefits and challenges of implementing AI in education, providing a perspective on how AI is likely to shape the future of learning.

Revolutionizing education with AI: The adaptive cognitive enhancement model (ACEM) for personalized cognitive development

Abstract. The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into education has opened doors to personalized learning experiences. This paper introduces the Adaptive Cognitive Enhancement Model (ACEM), a cutting-edge AI-driven framework designed to personalize cognitive development for students. Leveraging advanced machine learning algorithms and quantitative analysis, ACEM adapts educational content and learning strategies to individual cognitive needs. The model encompasses five key components: cognitive profiling, adaptive learning paths, intelligent feedback, motivational strategies, and longitudinal tracking. Through quantitative analysis and mathematical modeling, the paper demonstrates how ACEM significantly enhances learning outcomes compared to traditional education models. The discussion section provides a detailed exploration of each model component, its architecture, and its role in optimizing personalized cognitive development. Furthermore, challenges such as data privacy, scalability, and model interpretability are examined, alongside potential solutions. The conclusion underscores the transformative potential of ACEM in revolutionizing education.

Development of Multilingual-Based LMS to Improve the Accessibility of Islamic Religious Education Learning Resources for Diaspora Residents in Japan

This research aims to develop a multilingual-based Learning Management System (LMS) to increase the accessibility of Islamic Religious Education (PAI) learning resources for Indonesian diaspora residents in Japan. Limited access to PAI materials and language barriers are the main challenges for the diaspora in maintaining religious education in foreign countries. Therefore, the development of this LMS is expected to provide practical solutions through the provision of an accessible and user-friendly platform, which can be operated in multiple languages, including Indonesian, English, and Japanese.The research method used is a development research (R&D) method with the ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation) model. At the analysis stage, a survey of user needs related to PAI learning resources and the language challenges faced was carried out. At the design stage, the LMS is designed to support multilingual use, equipped with features that facilitate distance learning. The LMS prototype was then developed and tested on a number of diaspora users in Japan. Implementation is carried out through an evaluation of the use of LMS directly, followed by data collection to measure the effectiveness of the platform.The results show that this multilingual-based LMS significantly improves the accessibility and understanding of users of PAI materials. as many as 85% of respondents reported that they experienced a significant increase in understanding of religious materials after using the LMS, successfully overcoming language barriers and providing practical solutions for diaspora users in Japan to access religious education more easily and flexibly. This study concludes that the development of multilingual LMS is an effective strategy in supporting the sustainability of religious education for diaspora communities abroad.

Pathways to motivation and learning in English language education: a case of two youths engaging in multiliteracies

Purpose This study investigates the effect of digital multimodal composing (DMC) on student motivation and literacy in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts. It explores how students engaged in creating digital animations to respond to literary texts and the implications for integrating DMC into traditional literacy practices. Grounded in social semiotic theory and Self-Determination Theory, this study aims to understand how digital composing influences student engagement, motivation and literacy development. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative data were gathered over a six-month period using a combination of student surveys, semi-structured interviews, reflection logs and student-produced scripts/animations. This study focused on two university students who engaged in multimodal projects as part of their extracurricular EFL activities, examining their processes and reflections. Findings Students demonstrated strong intrinsic motivation during DMC processes, largely due to the social affordances provided by digital multimodal composing. By combining traditional literacy skills with digital practices, students experienced enhanced creative expression, enhanced meaning-making and a deeper understanding of literary texts through the production and sharing of animated videos. This process promoted both emotional and cognitive engagement, emphasizing the importance of teacher guidance and digital tools in creating a more dynamic and supportive learning environment. Practical implications This study outlines a practical approach to DMC through a structured process: selecting and reading a book, proposing a change as if requesting it from the author, creating and sharing a video on YouTube to explain the change and reflecting on the experience. This approach can guide educators in designing activities that deepen student engagement, enhance critical thinking and integrate digital tools with traditional learning methods. Originality/value This study contributes to the understanding of how digital technologies can transform traditional literacy practices, offering insights into the benefits of multimodal composition for language learning and motivation in EFL contexts. It provides practical examples of how students and teachers can leverage digital tools to enhance literacy education and prepare students for 21st-century challenges.

Study on the Factors Affecting Quality of Learning in Global Education

Study on the Factors Affecting Quality of Learning in Global Education