Educational Matters Research Articles

Arts education matters, what are we waiting for? Perceptions of initial teacher education students in Australia

ABSTRACT The Arts are known to foster creativity, empathy, self-efficacy, social awareness, and critical thinking skills. Engagement in and through the Arts contributes to building social cohesion while supporting wellbeing. This research takes place in Australia were the Arts (Dance, Drama, Media Arts, Music, and Visual Arts) play an important role in society, and across school curriculum. This paper forms part of a wider study (name to be inserted). We explore student perceptions in relation to ‘Why Arts Education is important in primary schools?’. Students undertaking initial teacher education (ITE) primary programmes participated (September–December 2023, n = 120) by completing an online survey. Qualtrics Stats IQ were used to statistically analyse quantitative data, and Reflexive Thematic Analysis was employed for qualitative data analysis. Given the sample size, generalisations cannot be made to all Australian universities. The two themes (valuing Arts Education, and opportunities and implications) highlight student perceptions of Arts Education. Whilst recommendations are offered, further investigation into the benefits of teaching the Arts across all areas of the curriculum is needed. If Arts Education matters, then why are we waiting to include it in all schools and ITE programmes?

Does Character Matter in Surgical Education and Can You Teach It?

Does Character Matter in Surgical Education and Can You Teach It?

Adequate bowel preparation of patients undergoing screening colonoscopy : Does educational status matter? Aretrospective data analysis.

In order to achieve ahigh-quality screening colonoscopy, ahigh-quality bowel preparation is essential. To perform an adequate bowel cleansing patients need to understand and act on medical information, also known as health literacy. This study aimed to analyze the relationship between the patients' educational status as aproxy for health literacy and adequate bowel preparation. Aretrospective analysis of data collected within the Austrian national colorectal cancer screening program from 2012 to 2022 was conducted. The database contains information on the quality of bowel preparation as well as the academic degree of the patients. Variables were used to perform alogistic regression analysis, with bowel preparation quality (based on the Aronchick scale) as the dependent variable and completed tertiary education as independent variable, and sex and age as control variables. Atotal of 329,778 patients aged 30-99years were included in the analysis. Within the group of academics, 88.46% (n = 21,883) were adequately prepared whereas in the group of non-academics, 84.79% (n = 258,641) were found to have ahigh bowel preparation quality. The odds ratio (OR) for academics to have an adequate bowel preparation quality was 1.37 (95% confidence interval, CI 1.32-1.43; p < 0.001). Patients with atertiary education showed better bowel preparation quality than non-academics in Austria. Therefore, it is important to improve strategies on how to inform also less educated persons to facilitate abetter screening colonoscopy quality and to optimize the use of resources from aclinical as well as apublic health perspective.

An Integrated Framework for an Educational Early Warning System with Mentor Matching

"Education is the key to success,” one of the most heard motivational statements by all of us. People engage in education at different phases of our lives in various forms. Among them, university education plays a vital role in our academic and professional lives. During university education many undergraduates will face several challenges demanding from educational matters to socio-economic problems. In such situations, many undergraduates tend to abandon the degree programs halfway leaving them incomplete. Hence creating an Educational Early Warning Systems (EEWS) to predict and identify at-risk students in the early stages of the degree programs will improve the graduating ratio against the dropouts. Further, mentoring is another aspect in education where it can be used in undergraduate studies to address students individually. There exist many separate frameworks for EEWS and mentoring, but there exists a lacuna for an integrated framework for the two aspects. Having an integrated framework to identify at-risk undergraduates and matching the best matched mentor would be more impactful and effective for the universities to control dropouts. This study has proposed an integrated framework namely as “GRADGROOM” as a solution to the identified lacuna by extending EEWS framework with mentor matching which performs at-risk undergraduate prediction and mentor-mentee matching for them. Through two case studies at a local university, the study has concluded that a proper mentoring process conducted immediately after being identified as at-risk students will be highly beneficial to reshape their study patterns to align with the correct route of studying.

Why does the brain matter for education?

The present special issue on mind, brain and education (educational neuroscience) contains four papers that employ a neuroscience-informed approach to educational phenomena, including dyslexia, academic self-concepts, bullying and the effect of mindset on learning. This commentary positions the papers with respect to the goals and methods of educational neuroscience, placing them on a continuum of approaches from basic research to applied intervention. We argue that a focus on the brain matters for teachers because it increases understanding of how learning works and the factors that influence learning outcomes and student well-being without being reductionist. Constraints on learning that arise from biology sometimes seem arbitrary outside a neuroscience framework (several examples are provided). A neuroscience perspective encourages a more holistic and developmental view of learning than a narrow cognitive (memory) oriented approach. Because educational neuroscience is an inherently translational field that relies on dialogues between researchers and practitioners, we argue it is important to understand how teachers view the field and how insights from the science of learning might usefully feed into their practice. We then assess the insights, strengths and limitations of the four papers, as well as the potential that their respective lines of work offer.

A Study on the Evaluation Method of Integrated Subject matter of Special Education as their lives

A Study on the Evaluation Method of Integrated Subject matter of Special Education as their lives

Addressing the paradox in entrepreneurial education's impacts

Does entrepreneurship education matter? We answer this overarching question based on a recent empirical study of how such training impacts personal, firm-level, and societal outcomes over a wide range of organizations where it has been applied. The analysis provides a better understanding of the current contrast between entrepreneurial education's significant positive micro-level effects and its lack of significant effects at the macro-level (e.g., in national start-up rates). We base the results on a survey of students who graduated from formal entrepreneurship programs in the last decade; we ask them about their education, their individual entrepreneurial performance at whatever organizations they then contributed to, that organization's performance, and several other outcomes of interest to society (e.g., innovations). We find not only the usual contrast in micro- and macro-level effects, but also new results in between – i.e., at the organizational level where it appears educational benefits begin to dissipate. We then use these results to not only generate a set of relevant possible explanations, including a novel narrative for that current contrast based on a solid analogy, but also to propose several new recommendations to improve the outcomes studied.

Trickster teaching and the anthropocene: disrupting the explicitification of pedagogy, people and planet

In cultures committed to making everything explicit, calling for trickery in education seems suspicious. However, for better or worse, trickery is already prevalent in education. In particular, it quietly persists in assumptions it is possible and desirable to be explicit about many educational matters, including learning intentions, and knowledge of self and others. In this philosophical and autobiographical inquiry, we explore trickery’s role in disrupting and exposing this presumptive transparency, and in working with the educational possibilities that then arise. In parallel, we take note that the Anthropocene is an ambiguous and undetermined situation, which promises to trick whoever seeks secure diagnoses and prescriptions of what is at stake. There are therefore confluences between disrupting explicitification in classroom ecologies and ecologies of the broader world. Suspicious of habits that foreclose people’s ability to respond to events as they arise, trickery surfaces and engage ambiguities, contradictions, and potentials inherent in the invisible and assumed. Despite such antics, the trickster is no mere jokester. As she deals in duplicity, confusion, and concealment, she attends evermore carefully to sincerity, trust, and revelation, to the freedom of people and planet, and to the ongoing threats and promises of a perpetual return to harmony.

Educational boundaries explain strength and variation in global fertility convergence

This paper shows that the level and timing of fertility are converging strongly over different measures of educational attainment using 65 years of data from 146 countries. Global convergence patterns are primarily driven by high-income societies, while sub-Saharan Africa is the world region that is converging most slowly, if not converging at all. Most importantly, levels of education matter heavily for explaining strength and variation in global fertility convergence, with two intersecting educational gradients suggesting: (i) stronger convergence over tertiary education followed, in turn, by secondary and primary; (ii) stronger convergence over education completed relative to education attended. Our findings provide important insights for addressing key challenges in global development and demography, and for informing policymakers as they evaluate the suitability of specific educational policies aimed at further narrowing inequalities between societies—such as supporting higher education as well as the successful completion of targeted educational cycles.

Fostering Tech Integration: Teachers' Attitudes Mediating Lifelong Learning and Technology Integration Self-Efficacy

What matters in education now is teaching and learning in a transformational era. It is primarily about what we demand from education and how we acquire information. To manage the dynamism of learning and teaching, it is crucial to research the teachers’ integration of technology in the context of lifelong education. This study investigates how teachers’ perspectives of lifelong learning and technology attitudes influence technology integration self-efficacy. A structural equation model was constructed to represent the causal relationships between variables. In the 2021-2022 academic year, 386 teachers from various high schools in Eskişehir, Türkiye, were selected using the stratified sampling method. Descriptive analysis and simple linear regression analysis were used to analyze the data, and exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis determined the structural validity of the scales. The validity of the structural equation model was tested by means of path analysis and the model was found to be acceptable. Results show that teacher attitudes mediate between lifelong learning and technology integration self-efficacy, thereby influencing successful technology integration in the classroom. Examining the relationship between teachers’ perceptions of lifelong learning and their level of competence in adapting to technological advances is expected to contribute to relevant studies in this area.

Effect of Parental Involvement by the Headteachers in the Education of their Children on Students Retention in Masinga Sub-County, Kenya

The study focuses on the effect of parents’ involvement by head teachers in the education of their children and students’ retention in secondary school education in Masinga sub – county Kenya. It was guided by the following objective: to determine the extent to which parents’ involvement by the headteachers in the education of their children influences students’ retention in secondary school education. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The study was anchored on Epstein theory. The target population was 50 head teachers,50 deputy head teachers and 5022 form 3 and 4 students. Purposive, stratified proportionate sampling and simple random sampling were employed to sample 25 head teachers, 25 deputy head teachers and 370 students. Data collection instruments included questionnaires for headteachers and students, an interview guide for deputy headteachers and a document analysis guide. Validity of the research instruments was ascertained through expert judgement and piloting. Reliability was achieved through test – retest method where the instruments were piloted in a time interval of two weeks and the two results were correlated using Pearson’s product moment correlation method. Further, inferential analysis was employed that involved correlational analysis at a 0.05 level of significance. The hypothesis was accepted or rejected at 0.01 level of significance. The findings showed that there is a positive correction between parents’ involvement in the education of their children and students’ retention (r = 0.811; p = 0.00), hence the hypothesis was rejected and an alternative hypothesis accepted. The study concluded that the head teachers’ efforts to engage parents in the educational matters positively influence students’ retention. The study recommends that head teachers should use more communication strategies in order to involve all the parents in the education of their children.

예비유아교사의 현장실습을 통한 변혁적 역량 탐구

Objectives The purposes of this study were seek to explore the transformative capabilities of prospective early childhood teachers through early childhood education field practice experiences. Methods The study was conducted using qualitative research methods, and the participants were 15 pre-service early childhood teachers from K University in Gyeonggi-do. Data were collected through play observation records and reflection sheets in 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old classes, and the collected data was divided into high and low categories based on the extracted key keywords and qualitatively analyzed to derive results. Results The transformative competencies of prospective early childhood teachers through field practice were, first, respecting children with a loving heart and attitude as a basic competency, discovering personality and aptitude as an early childhood teacher, and establishing a teaching perspective with expectations of becoming an early childhood teachers. Second, the ability to understand the field was found to be overcoming fear and tension by understanding the field and learners, understanding the teacher's role by integrating knowledge and technology, and acquiring practical knowledge through decision-making in dilemma situations. Third, future response capabilities included practicing adaptability and flexibility according to change, establishing sensitivity to various perspectives through a sense of community, and utilizing information technology by incorporating ideas. Conclusions In order to improve the transformative capabilities of prospective early childhood teachers, the need for a practical program that allows students to experience learning through educational service experience and subject matter connection linked to daycare centers and kindergartens was discussed.

Nexus between Financial Inclusion and Poverty: Does the Country's Education matter? Evidence from Lower-Middle-Income Countries

There are special relations between financial inclusion and social inclusion with the latter being one of the best addressed when people have access to financial services. This paper explores effects of financial access on poverty, while incorporating moderation effects by years of schooling. Therefore, this study utilizes unbalanced panel data of 17 lower-middle-income countries itself and both the above mentioned static and dynamic panel model to conduct a strict panel data analyse. The analysis of data, employing the Composite Financial Inclusion Index (CFII) as an instrument to assess financial inclusion, shows that the level of financial inclusion and poverty in these countries are negatively related and sharply influenced. Also, the study discovers that there is a positive correlation between the financial inclusion, and Poverty reduction after controlling the effects of education attainment. They provide useful recommendations for policymakers, institutions dealing with money, and governments. First, financial services must be brought nearer to the poor populations which can reduce poverty level in the society. Second, a subsequent improvement of the education level is required to achieve the best results for financial inclusion on poverty reduction.

Attitudes toward statistics among business students: Do majors, mathematical background, sex, and field of secondary education matter?

AbstractStatistics knowledge, literacy, and skills are vital to undergraduates' academic and professional careers. Students' attitudes toward statistics play a vital role in their understanding of the importance of statistics. Therefore, it is important to examine their attitude toward statistics. This study investigated the attitude of 153 business students toward statistics and the factors that affect this attitude using the Survey Attitudes Toward Statistics (SATS‐36) scale. It also investigated the relationship between attitudinal components and students' demographic and academic characteristics. Five components underlying students' attitudes toward statistics were identified using exploratory factor analysis. Further, a background in quantitative subjects and demographic characteristics was found to affect students' attitudes toward statistics. The results suggested that statistics should be taught in a more practical way to relate it to students' lives, and teachers must adopt active learning methods in which students work with data and real‐life examples.

Do Video Games Enhance Competencies &amp; Skills? Study Case: Civil Engineering Students

The following article is a text that shows the relevance of including video games as part of an academic technique that promotes coexistence, communication, teamwork, develop some skills, competencies, and creativity among members of the university community -professors and students-. The objective of this research is to show the results obtained in a dynamic organized by the Civil Engineering department of a private university in Puebla, Mexico. The idea is to hold a private session and play “Call of Duty: Warzone II”. It should be noted that with this activity the students can learn a specific content, in this case, the analysis of a hydraulic press, how it is built and how it works. In addition, the activity carried on, helped to create a better bond between teachers and students, but above all, showed the possibilities to generate greater interest in learning and to get the students actively involved in one topic. The theoretical framework on which this research lies in the following topics: Game-Based Learning -GBL-, innovative education focused on video games as community generators, and the importance of the development of certain skills among college students. The methodology that this study has, is quantitative. Particularly, a questionnaire -Likert scale-, is carried out to the students who participated in this dynamic. The main results show that the people who were in the virtual session are excited to interact under another type of scenarios that goes beyond the classroom, and that “breaking” the barrier between teacher and alumni becomes a differentiating and innovative element. In educational matters, they consider that the learning obtained from a video game is something that they had not contemplated; Added to this, the students ensure that working as a team, communicating their needs and doubts between peers, and getting involved in this kind of forums helps generate greater interest in engineering and acquire new knowledge. Finally, it can be concluded that video games nowadays are an indispensable tool not only to foster an online community but to take the teaching and learning process to another level.

Prevention of extremism and terrorism in schools: experience of the republic of Dagestan

The article presents the results of the study of preventive anti-terrorist educational work among students of general education schools of the Republic of Dagestan. It is noted that this work with school youth is carried out systematically and comprehensively with the participation of not only teachers, but also external subjects of preventive influence on adolescents from among representatives of law enforcement agencies, various ministries and departments authorised in the field of youth, information and state national policy, cultural and art figures, representatives of the official Muslim clergy, athletes, deputies, veterans of the Special Military Operation and other public opinion leaders. It was revealed that the main format of this work is a thematic preventive conversation with schoolchildren, that requires certain pedagogical skills and competencies. Using a formalised expert survey of school teachers and a series of research interviews, an assessment of the effectiveness of this activity was identified, as well as problems that hinder the improvement of the quality of anti-extremist educational work with Dagestani youth. Noting the importance and usefulness of this work, the interviewed teachers point to a number of problems and factors that reduce its effectiveness. The workload of teachers with &amp;amp;quot;paperwork&amp;amp;quot;, frequent demands for various kinds of reports on the work done, formalism, holding events without taking into account the age and individual characteristics of students, incompetence, lack of understanding and support from the parent community, weak interest in such events from both teachers and schoolchildren and a number of other factors hinder the improvement of the quality of anti-terrorist educational work with Dagestani youth. It seems that the prevention of extremism and terrorism is part of the general educational impact of the comprehensive school institution on a child, raising him to be a moral, law-abiding and patriotic citizen. To improve the quality of this work, it is important to raise the authority of school teachers at the state level, since a teacher without authority is a bad educator for teenagers not only in the area of countering the spread of the ideology of extremism and terrorism, but also in the matter of spiritual, moral and patriotic education in general.

Does Discipline Selection Based on Personal Interest Matter in Higher Education? Reflecting Students’ Perceptions

This study examines students' perceptions of self-interest-based discipline choice and its effect on educational excellence in tertiary education. The main objective was to analyze the effect of self-interest-based discipline selection on educational excellence at the BS level program. A mixed-method approach was adopted. A phenomenological design was applied for the qualitative part while a survey research design was utilized for the quantitative part. The target population consisted of BS (7th &amp; 8th semesters) students from 10 higher education institutions (HEIs) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Word Cloud and Thematic Analysis were used for qualitative data analysis, while Pearson (r) and Linear Regression were applied as inferential statistics for the quantitative part. The findings reveal a moderate positive association between self-interest-based discipline selection and academic success. Recommendations include encouraging learners to choose discipline aligned with their self-interest instead of relying on others. Parents, teachers, and other stakeholders should respect learners' interests.

Disability and Poverty Among Persons with Disabilities: The Role of the Church

People with disabilities (PWDSs) are usually left out of the mainstream education and socio-economic activities. These include those with sensory, physical, and cognitive disabilities. The United Nation's Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006) and Kenya's Persons with Disabilities Act (2004) address issues affecting PWDSs to promote, protect, and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms, promote respect for their dignity as well as facilitate the full participation in all sectors of society. Despite these efforts, PWDSs continue to be marked by experiences of discrimination, prejudice and inequality. Religion and Theological interpretations of disability have significantly shaped the ways in which society relates to PWDSs thereby reinforcing marginalization and exclusion in the social, economic, political, educational and religious life of the society. This presentation is derived from a study on promoting awareness and participation of PWDSs in education and other community-based programs in Siaya County. This action research study investigated the relationship between poverty and Disability from the perspective of PWDSs. Data was collected using focus group discussions and interviews. The main finding was that PWDSs are living in poverty, which they attribute to being disabled. The church, perceived to have a role to play in community welfare did not seem to have a structured way of identifying or providing for PWDSs, who are incidentally members of their churches. In matters of education, it was found that there are many children with disabilities out of school that members of the clergy were aware of but seemed to have no way of engaging stakeholders to support them. Misinterpretation of religious teachings seemed to have a bearing on how PWDSs were perceived. It is recommended that the church should take active role in identifying and engaging relevant stakeholders in providing services, including education, for PWDS.

COP28 roadmap: Do ICT, education, and renewable energy consumption matter for environmental quality? Quantile evidence for emerging economies

Renewable energy consumption (REC) is not the only potent tool that can ameliorate the difficulties associated with rising CO2 emissions and ecological distortions. Besides, the role of ICT penetration and education on environmental quality cannot be overshadowed by their contributions to economic growth and improved human well-being. This study scrutinizes the effects of ICT, education, and REC on the ecological footprint (EF) and CO2 emissions in the IMF-selected emerging economies. The study utilizes three variables for the ICT index, computed through principal component analysis. The augmented mean group estimator results suggest that ICT, education, and REC reduce the EF, whereas FDI contributes significantly to environmental degradation. On the flip side, ICT reduces CO2 emissions and EF in both the medium and upper quantiles. It suggests that ICT penetration heals the environment and that a higher level of ICT consumption could be a panacea for sustainable development in emerging economies. The causality results show evidence of a feedback causality between economic growth, REC, and CO2 emissions. However, a unidirectional causality flows from economic growth and FDI to EF. Finally, to maximize the benefits associated with the positive effects of REC and ICT on environmental betterment, several renewable energy and ICT policies have been mentioned and discussed.

Can patient education initiatives in primary care increase patient knowledge of appropriate antibiotic use and decrease expectations for unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions?

Healthcare globally is increasingly threatened by antibiotic resistance. Misunderstanding of the appropriate use of antibiotics is common within the general population, therefore patient education could be a useful tool to employ against antibiotic resistance. Patient satisfaction with healthcare is important, and antibiotic awareness is crucial to avoid disappointment when antibiotic stewardship is practiced. This review aims to identify whether patient education is an effective tool to improve knowledge and awareness of the appropriate use of antibiotics and whether it has an effect on expectations of or prescription rates of antibiotics. Embase, Medline, Web of Science, PubMed, and Cochrane Library were searched to identify studies examining the impact of various forms of patient education on awareness of appropriate antibiotic use and antibiotic prescription rates. Reference lists of eligible studies were also screened. Three hundred and fourteen unique studies were identified, of which 18 were eligible for inclusion. All studies were of good quality. Three studies examined public health campaigns, five examined leaflets, two examined posters, three examined videos, four used mixed interventions and one study examined a presentation. The results were too heterogenous to perform a meta-analysis. Patient education is an effective tool to increase public knowledge and awareness of the appropriate use of antibiotics, and can reduce the expectation of or prescription rates of antibiotics. The form of patient education matters, as interventions involving active learning and engagement demonstrate significant positive outcomes, whereas passive forms of learning do not appear to have any effect on understanding or prescriptions.