Professional Efforts Research Articles

Professional Standards and Educational Leadership: Higher Secondary Teachers’ Behavioral Intention Towards Adopting New Teaching Technologies

Integrating new teaching technologies in education has transformed the traditional classroom environment, offering innovative methods for teaching and learning. With the rapid advancement in digital tools and platforms, educational institutions are increasingly adopting these technologies to enhance instructional practices, engage students, and improve learning outcomes. Therefore, this research aimed to investigate the higher secondary teachers’ behavioral intention towards adopting new teaching technologies in the context of professional standards and educational leadership. The study adopted a descriptive research design and utilized a quantitative research approach. A standardized questionnaire and a web-based purposive sampling method were used to collect 350 data from higher secondary teachers in Bangladesh. The data was assessed, and the hypotheses were analyzed using a process called partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The PLS-SEM analysis identified a notable link among perceived ease of use, enjoyment, usefulness, and behavioral intention in the context of professional standards and educational leadership. This study is highly significant for educational institutions and policymakers that aim to enhance teacher job satisfaction and teachers’ quality. Educational technology should feature an interface that is easy to use, engage the user’s interest, and fulfill its intended function efficiently. Furthermore, it is imperative to tailor training programs to aid teachers’ assimilation of the technology. School administrators must enact professional development efforts, encourage the effective use of technology, establish support networks, and provide adaptable solutions to meet the unique needs of instructors. These variables can potentially increase the rate of acceptance and satisfaction with technology in educational institutions.

Exploring The Impact of Educational Leadership on Secondary School Teachers' Professional Growth: A Comprehensive Survey

The study titled "Educational Leadership: A Survey on Secondary School Teachers" was conducted in the Sadar block of Balasore, Odisha, with a focus on 121 teachers from 19 secondary schools. A sample of 93 teachers, selected using the Raosoft sample size calculator at a 95% confidence level through stratified random sampling, participated. The research aimed to explore leadership qualities among secondary school teachers, specifically comparing the perceptions of science and humanities teachers. Using percentage analysis, the study analyzed quantitative and qualitative data collected via questionnaires and standardized tools. The findings revealed that teachers generally have a positive perception of leadership traits such as interpersonal relations, intellectual operations, and emotional stability. However, many indicated a need for improvement in ethical and moral strength. While communication adequacy and operational citizenship were rated positively, a minority of teachers gave lower ratings in these areas. The study concluded with recommendations for schools to offer professional development programs, mentorship initiatives, and collaborative efforts to enhance leadership skills. Access to workshops, relevant literature, and conferences was suggested as essential for fostering continuous growth in educational leadership among teachers. Key words: Educational Leadership, Secondary School Teachers, Teacher Perceptions, Leadership Qualities

Decolonising the European conservation curriculum

European conservation-restoration training programmes offer curricula that tend to be rooted in Eurocentrism. Over the last decades, conservation scholars have called for a re-interpretation of the sector, based on a need to acknowledge and respond to global social developments, including the call for decolonisation—calls that would naturally change training programmes. In Australia and Canada, for example, training programmes long ago embarked on a path of reforming their curricula and including non-Eurocentric ways of conserving. On the other hand, higher education programmes in conservation in Europe have only recently begun to discuss alternatives to their current curricula. To address this concern, this article focusses on approaches aimed at ‘decolonising the curriculum’ as a means for European conservation training programmes to achieve greater alignment with current social developments. Such approaches may serve as a strategic device for formulating recommendations geared to triggering curricula transformations and bringing them into line with major social issues in our contemporary world, as well as to provide a broader and more diverse epistemic foundation for the professional efforts of future conservation experts.

Review of Influencing Factors of Patients' Medical Choice Behavior in Online Health Community

The development of information technology has made online medical communities a new avenue for addressing medical resource shortages. However, the complexity of information and the asymmetry between physicians and patients makes patients confused when they consult in online health community (OHC). This study systematically analyzed and summarized relevant theories and factors influencing patients' medical choice behavior through literature review. The objective is to offer guidance for patients' decisions in selecting physicians and to support the sustainable development of online medical community platforms, as well as to provide practical insights for further exploration in this field. Objective: This review examines recent theories and factors influencing patients' medical choice behavior in online health community (OHC), aiming to offer insights for patient choice regarding physician selection and the sustainable development of online medical platforms. Methods: A literature analysis was conducted to summarize studies on patients' medical choice behavior in OHC, identifying relevant theories and influencing factors. Results: The analysis identified seven key theories in the study of patients' medical choice behavior: signal theory, trust theory, social capital theory, social exchange theory, the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) model, the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), and the opportunity-motivation-ability (OMA) framework. Factors such as physicians' professional capital, online effort, service quality, online reputation, patient preferences and disease heterogeneity significantly influence patients' medical choice behavior. Conclusion: There is a trend toward integrating multiple theories in understanding patients' medical choice behavior in OHC; however, interdisciplinary research remains limited. Most studies focus on patients’ medical choice behavior from the physicians' perspective, while research from the patients' viewpoint is lacking. This study suggests two future research directions: enhancing the integration of multidisciplinary theories and expanding the scope of research subjects.

The hierarchy of needs for laboratory medicine requires a foundational care delivery model

Under the collective weight of growing test volume, staffing constraints, and Medicare reimbursements cuts, an enhancement-based, alternative payment structure focused on rewarding the laboratory's care delivery efforts via benchmarking is appealing. However, achieving a value-based payment model requires the development of an inclusive laboratory care delivery model (LCDM) framework. Today, a holistic, practical LCDM framework for laboratory medicine does not exist. However, such creation is essential for establishing unifying tenants of practice for value-tracing by which standardized key performance and population health indicators can be derived. LAB-CARES is the first step in formulating an LCDM with the primary objective of defining and streamlining the processes and strategies necessary to deliver and articulate the value of diagnostic excellence across the healthcare system. The goal of LAB-CARES is to maximize efficiencies, enhance quality, disseminate clinical expertise, increase patient safety, and promote integrative practice. LAB-CARES is designed to improve an individual patient's quality of life (longitudinal laboratory results – beyond one test) and their surrounding communities (e.g., through surveillance and prevention – beyond one patient). Further professional conversation and efforts are paramount to integrate LAB-CARES as a formalized structure within the healthcare landscape.

Self-Efficacy and Teaching Competence of TLE Teachers as Mediated by Performance Standards

This quantitative study investigated the mediating role performance standards among on the relationship of teaching competence and self-efficacy of Technology and Livelihood Education (T.L.E.) teachers. Data were collected 200 T.L.E. teachers to assess these variables using statistical analysis including mean, correlation, regression, and Path analysis. Findings indicated high levels of self-efficacy, teaching competence, and performance standards among T.L.E. teachers. Notably, self-efficacy significantly influenced teaching competence and performance standard partially mediated the other two variables. This study emphasized the importance of continuous professional development and collaborative efforts to maintain high performance standards in TLE education. Recommendation included investing in specialized continuous professional development, fostering self-efficacy through mentorship and support programs, and promoting collaborative efforts to sustain performance standards. Integration of targeted interventions to strengthen performance standards. Integration of these recommendations by educational stakeholders could foster a vibrant TLE environment, ensuring quality education and professional growth for both educators and students.

Building Community and Developing Professionally through FUN Final Friday Sessions.

FUN Final Fridays (FFFs) are a professional development effort resulting from a pandemic-inspired virtual pedagogical meeting. Over the past three academic years, Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience (FUN) has hosted FFFs as monthly professional development sessions. These sessions offer a mechanism to address current issues in higher education with emphasis on topics relevant to neuroscience educators. Broadly, topics covered in FFF sessions fall under three areas: a faculty focus that addresses issues of wellness and professional opportunity; a diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging focus that addresses how to advocate for justice through education; and a pedagogical focus that address classroom strategies and issues that affect student learning. We share here our experiences and lessons learned regarding selecting topics, identifying facilitators, navigating timing across a semester, and engaging participants with a goal of providing a framework for successful professional development so that other institutional and departmental leaders can contribute meaningfully to the growth and development of their colleagues.

Exploring the Impact of School Leadership on Professional Development in Panabo City Division, Philippines: A Mixed-Method Explanatory Research Study

This study investigates the relationship between school leadership and professional development in the educational setting of Panabo City Division, Philippines. Using a mixed-methods approach, quantitative data were collected through surveys of teachers and school leaders, while qualitative insights were garnered through focus groups and interviews. The data show that school leaders are widely regarded positively, with high mean scores indicating effective participation, supportive behaviors, and clear communication. Similarly, professional development efforts received excellent marks for continual learning, reflective practice, collaborative networking, and creative teaching methods. Statistical research shows a substantial positive association (r = 0.90, p < 0.05) between school leadership and professional development, highlighting the importance of leadership in creating a supportive atmosphere for teacher development. Qualitative findings reveal how supportive leadership behaviors such as resource allocation, collaborative learning communities, and appreciation of teachers' contributions improve professional development outcomes. These findings have practical significance for educational policymakers and school leaders looking to improve leadership practices and maximize professional development programs, which enhances teaching effectiveness.

Teacher Agency of Novice Teachers: A Scoping Review

Global policies, accountability standards, and various challenges in education around the world have a negative impact on the professional lives of novice teachers. Teacher agency has gained attention as a popular topic that offers different, new perspectives for teachers' professional development and efforts to improve the quality of education. The present study aims to examines the agency of novice teachers. For this purpose, the distribution of the compiled studies by years, countries, research method, sample size, experience level, and subject was examined. It also examined the barriers to novice teachers' agency and the findings of studies focusing on novice teacher agency. In order to identify the relevant peer-reviewed studies in the literature for scoping, research was conducted in the Web of Science, ERIC, Scopus, PsychINFO, and MEDLINE databases. The studies obtained from the databases were accessed in 53 studies using PRISMA research methodology. The study was prepared according to the stages of the scoping review methodology created by Hilary Arksey and Lisa O'Malley. As a result, the conditions affecting the agency of novice teachers were evaluated from teacher education, school context, and policy perspectives, and recommendations were made to researchers, teacher educators, and policymakers.

The role of citizen science in monitoring forest pests: A collaborative approach

Forests are complex ecosystems facing threats such as climate change and invasive pests. Climate change increases forest vulnerabilities through droughts and extreme weather, while invasive pests intensify these challenges. Traditional pest monitoring, once limited to experts, is being transformed by citizen science, engaging the public in research and monitoring. Projects like iNaturalist expand monitoring reach, enhance early pest detection, and foster environmental stewardship. Citizen scientists provide valuable data supporting rapid responses and collaboration with plant health specialists. Technologies like drones and environmental DNA empower volunteers and improve data accuracy. Despite limitations like species identification difficulties, comprehensive training and expert validation enhance data reliability. Case studies on tree health surveillance and Cerambyxcerdo management show citizen science's effectiveness in increasing surveillance and fostering community-based monitoring. Involving citizens in setting objectives and interpreting data creates impactful conservation outcomes. Integrating citizen and professional efforts ensures thorough monitoring and effective pest management, bridging the gap between research and practical conservation to promote sustainable forests. This article highlights the critical role of citizen science in forest health monitoring, emphasizing clear objectives, appropriate tools, and sustained public engagement. Keywords: Citizen Science, Forest health, Climate change, invasive pests.

Perspectives of Students and Teachers Form Continuing Professional Development: Challenge And Obstacle

Continuous professional development (CPD) for teachers is crucial for enhancing their professional capabilities, particularly in pedagogical skills. Despite its importance, several barriers and challenges impede the effective development of the teaching profession. This study aims to investigate these obstacles through the perceptions of elementary school students and teachers, providing insights into the current state of CPD in education. A survey method was used to gather data from 150 participants, including students and teachers, to explore their perceptions of CPD. The survey focused on various aspects of CPD, including educational practices, learning processes, professional development activities, and supporting mechanisms. The findings revealed significant differences in perceptions between students and teachers across the examined aspects. Teachers predominantly prioritized the learning process in their professional development efforts. Major obstacles identified included a lack of motivation and insufficient intervention for practicing teachers. Additionally, a critical challenge for teachers was the deficiency of high-quality resources necessary to conduct effective research in learning methodologies. The disparity in perceptions between students and teachers highlights the need for more targeted CPD programs that address the specific needs of educators. Enhancing motivation and providing adequate support and resources are essential for overcoming these barriers. Addressing these challenges can lead to more effective teaching practices and ultimately improve the quality of education. This study underscores the importance of understanding the barriers and challenges to CPD from both students' and teachers' perspectives. By prioritizing the learning process and addressing motivational and resource-related issues, stakeholders can better support the professional development of teachers, leading to improved pedagogical outcomes.

A Road Map for Planning Course Transformation Using Learning Objectives.

The Vision and Change report called for biology educators to transform undergraduate biology education. The report recommended educators transparently state what students should know and be able to do and create assessments to measure student learning. Using backward design, learning objectives (LOs) can serve as the basis for course transformation. In this essay, we present a roadmap for planning successful course transformations synthesized from the literature.We identified three categories of critical features for successful course transformation. First, establishing a sense of urgency and offering faculty incentives to engage in this time-consuming work creates a needed climate for change. Second, departments are empowered in this process by including key stakeholders, building faculty teams to work collaboratively to identify LOs used to drive pedagogical change, develop assessment strategies, and engage in professional development efforts to support the process. Third, there must be intentional effort to manage resistance and ensure academic freedom and creativity in the classroom. General recommendations as well as areas for further research are discussed.

Attention-Like Multimodality Fusion With Data Augmentation for Diagnosis of Mental Disorders Using MRI.

The globally rising prevalence of mental disorders leads to shortfalls in timely diagnosis and therapy to reduce patients' suffering. Facing such an urgent public health problem, professional efforts based on symptom criteria are seriously overstretched. Recently, the successful applications of computer-aided diagnosis approaches have provided timely opportunities to relieve the tension in healthcare services. Particularly, multimodal representation learning gains increasing attention thanks to the high temporal and spatial resolution information extracted from neuroimaging fusion. In this work, we propose an efficient multimodality fusion framework to identify multiple mental disorders based on the combination of functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging. A multioutput conditional generative adversarial network (GAN) is developed to address the scarcity of multimodal data for augmentation. Based on the augmented training data, the multiheaded gating fusion model is proposed for classification by extracting the complementary features across different modalities. The experiments demonstrate that the proposed model can achieve robust accuracies of 75.1 ± 1.5 %, 72.9 ± 1.1 %, and 87.2 ± 1.5 % for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and schizophrenia, respectively. In addition, the interpretability of our model is expected to enable the identification of remarkable neuropathology diagnostic biomarkers, leading to well-informed therapeutic decisions.

Educators' invisible labour: A systematic review

AbstractThe hidden or overlooked nature of many of educators' professional activities complicates the already difficult task of supporting educators' labour—in both K‐12 and higher education settings. These efforts can be understood as types of invisible labour. Following PRISMA standards, we conducted a systematic literature review to answer a single research question: How have scholars framed educators' professional activities in terms of invisible labour? This systematic review searched 10 educational databases and identified 16 peer‐reviewed journal articles spanning 2011–2021. From thematic analysis of these studies, we developed a model of five types of invisibility that intersect and mask educators' professional efforts: background, care, precarious, identity and remote labour. The review also showed several overall themes related to educators' invisible labour, which we discuss in connection to the literature: effort is often semivisible, invisibility is subjective, effort by marginalised educators is often overlooked, labour in unexpected places often means effort is overlooked, and there are layers of factors masking effort. We then discuss implications for practice, starting with five invisible labour questions to prompt reflection, then how to apply invisible labour as an improvement lens for identifying needs, allocating resources, analysing jobs and tasks, and evaluating performance.

Професор Олександр Комарніцький: вражаючі досягнення талановитого історика, краєзнавця, педагога (до 50-річчя від дня народження та 25-річчя педагогічної та науково-педагогічної діяльності)

Modern Ukrainian historical science and national university education periodically undergo changes in their personnel as an important condition for renewal, improvement, and progress. The reproduction of scientists takes place at the highest level every time, considering modern requirements, advanced national and world practices, and the quality of training. It is important that this process leads to the emergence of a cohort of bright, talented, generally powerful, and patriotic personalities capable of ensuring the development of national industries in accordance with world trends. Fresh scientific and teaching forces from time to time replenish their structures practically throughout Ukraine, enrich their worldview and practical activities, and receive fair recognition at the level of their collectives; that is why it is so important to know and popularize their experience to take into account in the training of the next generations of scientific and teaching personnel, which will guarantee the necessary progress. The purpose of the article is a complete and extensive biographical essay about the formation of a personality, multifaceted scientific-pedagogical, administrative and public activities of the well-known Ukrainian historian, local historian, organizer of scientific research in the section of the Faculty of Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Oleksandr Borysovych Komarnitskyi, who is an example of faithful service to Ukrainian historical science, local history, as well as the training of highly qualified pedagogical and scientific personnel for our country. The methodological basis of the research is the principles of historicism, objectivity, comprehensiveness, and systematicity. They are implemented by applying such research methods as analytical, synthetic, descriptive, chronological, biographical, synchronous, diachronic, and others. The scientific novelty of the work lies in presenting for the first time the main stages of the life and professional journey of the well-known historian, professor, and public figure O.B. Komarnitskyi, their most significant results and achievements, which are important for understanding the personality of the scientist, his role in the development of the scientific and pedagogical team of the faculty, as well as the possible consideration of this accumulated experience in the process of training the next, patriotically minded, generations of teachers, scientists, and local historians. Conclusions. The personality of the well-known scientist-historian, professor O.B. Komarnitskyi, was formed and improved over a long period of time in fairly favorable family, school, industrial, and university conditions, among which the home, school, and university upbringing, extremely positive moral and psychological climate and high-quality professional level in the workforce of Kamianets-Podilskyi Ivan Ohiienko National University. Decisive in this process was great organization, diligence, purposefulness, and perseverance of the student, and therefore of the young scientist, his mentors’ professional efforts, and the university management’s help. The impressive achievements of the scientist not only contributed immensely to various components of Ukrainian historical science, local studies, and the improvement of the practice of training national personnel but also revealed new facets of his talent, opportunities, and prospects for even greater creative self-realization, became an undeniable example for talented youth to follow.

A framework for designing experimental tasks in contemporary physics lab courses

While lab courses are an integral part of studying physics aiming at a huge variety of learning objectives, research has shown that typical lab courses do not reach all the desired goals. While diverse approaches by lab instructors and researchers try to increase the effectiveness of lab courses, experimental tasks remain the core of any lab course. To keep an overview of these developments and to give instructors (and researchers) a guideline for their own professional efforts at hand, we introduce a research-informed framework for designing experimental tasks in contemporary physics lab courses. In addition, we demonstrate within the scope of the EU-co-funded DigiPhysLab project how the framework can be used to characterize existing or develop new high-quality experimental tasks for physics lab courses.

Infusing Evidence-Based Instruction in Two Middle School Settings

This article reports on a project implemented to help middle school teachers provide evidence-based instruction and intervention to students with mathematics learning disabilities (MLD) and mathematics difficulties (MD). Multiple sources—interviews, surveys, and field notes from formal and informal observations—were used to gather data on teacher perceptions and feedback on what worked and what did not in this professional development effort. We also examined the mathematics achievement of students with MLD and MD and compared their growth to that of their typically performing peers at the two participating schools. We highlight and discuss the key issues and concerns that emerged from this implementation study.

Broadening Participation in Biology Education Research: A role for affinity groups in promoting social connectivity, self-efficacy, and belonging.

Discipline-based education research (DBER) has experienced dramatic growth over recent years, but with growth comes concerns about whether DBER efforts accurately represent the education landscape. By many measures, DBER does not feature a representative range of institutional contexts or a diverse array of voices. Numerous professional development efforts have sought to broaden DBER participation. However, few studies investigate factors that increase engagement by individuals from underrepresented contexts. Drawing on theory related to belonging, self-efficacy, and social learning communities, we investigated persistence in an affinity group aimed at engaging community college faculty (CCF) in biology education research (BER). CCF and CC contexts are dramatically underrepresented in BER in comparison to their central positioning in higher education. We conducted a 4-y study of CCF participants' sense of belonging, self-efficacy, and network connectivity. Our results suggest a relationship between social connectivity, belonging, and persistence in the community, indicating an increase of either of these factors may increase persistence. Self-efficacy increased alongside belonging within the affinity group, which correlated with belonging in BER broadly. These results might inform efforts to engage underrepresented groups of DBER scholars and suggest that such efforts go beyond provision of resources and skills, to focus on building social connections.

Teachers' perceptions of the epistemic aims and evaluation criteria of multiple text integration

The importance of intertextual integration in current information societies has led to extensive research on how to foster students' integration competence. Although teachers have a central role in promoting integration skills, research into their perceptions of intertextual integration tasks is still scarce. Hence, the purpose of this study was to explore language arts teachers' views on the epistemic aims and evaluation criteria of intertextual integration. Fifty-four language arts teachers were asked to evaluate three integrated essays, supposedly written by students, that reflected typical violations of key integration quality criteria. In addition, they responded to open-ended questions about intertextual integration aims and evaluation criteria. Teachers successfully identified only about a third of the integration quality criteria violations that were embedded in the essays. Nonetheless, they collectively raised diverse evaluation criteria that addressed content selection and understanding, argumentation quality, source use and intertextuality, structure and organization, and language sophistication. Teachers' most prevalent aims were related to information processing and to the development of learners’ reading and writing skills. However, teachers also referred to knowledge-building goals. Quantitative and qualitative analyses revealed interrelations between teachers' perceptions of evaluation criteria and their integration aims. Overall, these findings demonstrate that language arts teachers have rich multiple-text integration task models. At the same time, they suggest that many teachers might not perceive intertextual integration as an opportunity for knowledge building and for developing learners’ critical thinking. The results of this study can inform professional development efforts to support instruction of intertextual integration.

Incorporating vertical collaboration to address sustainable development goals: the Monarch Route Project

Higher Education Institutions in their societal transformative role need to effectively integrate the UN‘s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the 2030 Agenda into their curricula. Our goal is to inspire and trigger the discussion in the academic community on learning environments for education for sustainable development. We report The Monarch Route (MRP), a project conducted at Tecnologico de Monterrey and awarded with the 2018 Premios Latinoamerica Verde. Engaging all the students enrolled in the different semesters of the Sustainable Development Engineering (SDE) program, it adopted a research-based learning methodology, which is highly flexible at setting the final deliverables and due dates. It also implemented horizontal (intraclass), vertical (interclass), and interdisciplinary (multiple courses) student collaboration. In partnership with a non-governmental organization, the MRP aimed to reverse the extinction threat to the monarch butterfly while benefiting rural communities along the butterfly’s migratory route. With an exploratory action research approach, we analyzed the data gathered 2 months after the end of the courses: A survey on the perceived learning outcomes (87% confidence level) and a letter for future classes sharing their experience on the MRP, both optional. The analysis included a mixed methodology, i.e., quantitative and qualitative, including text mining, which evidenced that the participants strengthened both, transverse competences (collaboration, citizenship, communication, and critical thinking) and disciplinary competences (subject matter). The MRP is innovative for its dynamic structure that resembles the interconnectedness of real professional practice, scientific research, and environmental conservation efforts. In addition to the disciplinary application and societal relevance, the instructional design of MRP reflects that contributing to 2030 Agenda requires a multi-faceted approach, involving educational institutions, community partnerships, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Traditional education no longer fulfills our needs to face environmental challenges; academics, institutions, and governments are encouraged to implement policies and strategies to educate for a sustainable and better future for humanity and the planet.