Digital security awareness is an essential competency for students in dealing with online risks. This study aims to compare the effectiveness of two serious game genres, namely visual novel and quiz mini game, in improving digital security awareness among junior high school students. A descriptive qualitative approach with descriptive quantitative support was employed, involving 27 students from a single junior high school class. The research procedure included a pre-test, gameplay sessions of a visual novel (approximately 20 minutes) and a quiz mini game (approximately 15 minutes), a post-test, and semi-structured interviews. Pre-test and post-test data were analyzed descriptively, while interview data were examined using thematic analysis. The results indicate that visual novels are more effective in fostering conceptual understanding through contextual narratives, whereas quiz mini games are more effective in enhancing learning motivation through interactive challenges. These findings suggest that a hybrid learning model combining both genres has the potential to optimize students’ conceptual understanding and learning motivation in digital security education.

Using Community Syndromic Surveillance to Anticipate Enterovirus-Related School Class Suspensions: A Real-Time LSTM Approach.

This study investigates the dynamic features of language production in senior three students’ English continuation writing. Traditional writing instruction and assessment, which rely on static and linear models, fail to explain the complex fluctuations students exhibit in lexicon, syntax, and discourse construction. To address this issue, the study adopts Complex Dynamic Systems Theory (CDST) as a new analytical framework. Using textual analysis combined with case analysis, the study examines 14 continuation writing texts completed by senior three students from a natural class in a key high school in Taiyuan during a mock exam in the first semester of the 2025 academic year. The analysis focuses on three dimensions: lexicon, syntax, and discourse cohesion. The results show that students’ continuation texts are not simple accumulations of linguistic elements but complex systems characterized by fluctuation and self-organization. Specifically, vocabulary use exhibits obvious nonlinear waxing and waning; syntactic structures show dynamic competition between complex and simple forms; and discourse cohesion emerges as overall coherence from the interaction of micro-level elements. The findings indicate that CDST offers an ecological perspective for understanding students’ writing production. Students should rationally view the nonlinear fluctuations in their writing process, adjust their task-response strategies appropriately, and actively identify and utilize their own linguistic resources, thereby enhancing their English writing competence more effectively.

There is a longstanding and well documented shortage and maldistribution of rural physicians in the United States. Students from rural backgrounds are underrepresented in U.S. medical schools and rural practice interest declines collectively for students between matriculation and graduation. Understanding characteristics of institutions that sustain rural interest will inform strategies to support medical students' rural career goals. The authors collected rural practice intent for a three-year cohort of all U.S. medical students using the Matriculating Student Questionnaire (MSQ: 2013-2015) and Graduation Questionnaire (GQ: 2017-2019). Authors analyzed students' change in rural intent from matriculation to graduation among all schools individually by calculating, for each 3-year cohort, proportions of students expressing rural interest on the MSQ (or GQ) divided by the total number of students completing the MSQ (or GQ) and displaying this data graphically. Authors also explored characteristics of those schools that matriculated and sustained a high proportion of students with rural interest. Student cohorts at almost all medical schools became less interested in rural practice during their medical education. The mean of the average percentages of students with rural practice intent for all schools declined from matriculation (9.1%, SD 7.1) to graduation (7.7%, SD 5.9; P < .001). Twenty-five schools matriculated or graduated a high proportion of students interested in rural practice. Those schools with the strongest maintenance of rural interest had large rural cohorts, admissions preference for rural students, and defined rural programs. The decline in rural practice interest during medical school, combined with underrepresentation of rural medical students, exacerbates the U.S. rural physician workforce shortage. Medical schools admitting students interested in rural practice should target strategies to foster this interest throughout training, including building cohorts of students of rural origin within medical school classes and providing opportunities for rural training through defined rural programs.

Education is the main foundation for facing the flow of globalization and the development of the industrial revolution towards society 5.0. Therefore, the education system continues to transform and expand the use of digital technology. One way to do this is to present digital learning content through the development of interactive learning multimedia. The results of the study indicate that the science learning media used in high school classes remain one-way and teacher-centered. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to develop an interactive multimedia STAFA that is valid, practical, and effective in improving student learning outcomes. This study uses the Research and Development (R&amp;D) method using the ADDIE model. The research subjects were class X E2 students at SMAN 1 Siberut Tengah. Research data was obtained from students, teachers, and a team of experts who were then tested for validity, practicality, and effectiveness. The results of this study are interactive multimedia STAFA that are valid, practical, and efficient. Media experts gave an average product validity score of 97%, material experts 89%, and language experts 99%. All experts gave scores in the very valid category. The results for teacher responses were 95% and for students, 90%, in the very practical category. The effectiveness of media on learning outcomes shows an N-Gain score of 0.60, indicating a moderate and effective effect on the learning process.

Chronic headaches are one of the most prevalent health complaints in children and are associated with substantial impairments in daily life. Given the scarcity of specialized pediatric chronic pain treatment, educational websites delivering evidence-based information in a comprehensible, child-friendly way offer a promising alternative. In this pilot study, a single-arm intervention was conducted to investigate changes in headache outcomes following a guided, website-based pain education (Los Cabezudos) for Spanish schoolchildren and to explore associations with age. From eight school classes, all children who consented were eligible to participate. N = 210 schoolchildren (10-14 years; M = 11.8, SD = 1.2) participated in two guided website-based headache education sessions at school. Headache knowledge, pain self-efficacy, pain intensity, and pain interference were measured before the intervention and at 1- and 2-month follow-up. Linear mixed multilevel models were used to detect the effects of time. Significant improvements were observed across all outcomes. Headache knowledge (b = 0.20, p < .001), pain self-efficacy (b = 0.22, p < .001), pain intensity (maximum: b = -0.27, p = .002; average: b = -0.27, p = .001), and pain interference (b = -0.30, p = .002) all improved significantly over time in children with recurrent headaches (n = 26). No significant interactions with age were found. The results support the potential of a website-based educational intervention to improve key headache-related outcomes: knowledge, self-efficacy, intensity, and interference. Future randomized controlled trials are warranted to investigate the long-term effectiveness of pediatric website-based pain education.

The impact of emotional abuse: A longitudinal study on detachment and anxiety in adolescents.

Background and AimsMedical schools seek to prepare students to work effectively with individuals from a variety of backgrounds. This study examined whether selected attributes of matriculants were associated with how graduates self‐assessed their skills to work with individuals from different backgrounds.MethodsThis retrospective cross‐sectional study used data from 139,681 matriculants in 973 cohorts (2013‐2014 to 2019‐2020) at 139 U.S. MD‐degree medical schools, and who graduated through 2022‐2023. From the AAMC Graduation Questionnaire, we used the survey item, “The diversity within my medical school class enhanced my training and skills to work with individuals from different backgrounds,” to create the cohort‐level outcome measure Self‐Assessed Skills at Graduation (SASG). For our independent variable, we created a Gower distance‐based composite measure of within‐cohort variation based on selected socio‐demographic attributes (gender, race/ethnicity, and parental education), called Student Attribute Variation (SAV). Higher SAV values indicated greater heterogeneity in selected attributes.ResultsSAV was positively correlated with SASG (r = 0.50, p < .001). Multilevel regression confirmed this association.ConclusionFindings highlight that greater variation in student composition is related to higher perceived development of professional skills.

In immersion settings, children are immersed in a language that may not be their home language. Bilingualism, speaking in two languages, and biliteracy, reading and writing in two languages, are goals of immersion education. This study investigates the teaching and learning of reading in Irish, a minority language, and includes immersion primary schools in the two jurisdictions in Ireland. The study focuses on pupils in the higher classes in primary schools, when reading in two languages has been established, to investigate how they read in Irish. Findings from questionnaires inform a description of teaching and learning of reading in Irish. Differences and similarities across the jurisdictions are evident. Hornberger’s [(1989) ‘Continua of biliteracy'. Review of Educational Research 59 (3): 271–296. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543059003271] and Hornberger’s [(2003) Continua of biliteracy: An ecological framework for educational policy, research, and practice in multilingual settings (Vol. 41)]. Multilingual Matters continua of biliteracy is used as a theoretical framework to highlight and explain current practice and disclose areas of power imbalances between majority and minority language instruction.

Young people in sub-Saharan Africa, especially in rural areas, face numerous daunting geographic and psychosocial barriers to accessing sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services and information. Adolescents worry that providers will be judgmental and not accord them privacy and confidentiality. They are also concerned that community members or extended family may see them waiting for SRH services, which could lead to parental perceptions of promiscuity and punishment. Because they lack comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) in schools, youths often have serious misconceptions about contraceptives. To address these barriers and increase youths' uptake of SRH services, the After-Hours Adolescent Project (AHAP) was created as a low-cost intervention for rural government health facilities. The main strategies involved extending clinic hours into early evening to be more convenient and confidential for youths, and training newly-graduated nurses to serve as AHAP nurses. AHAP was tested using a randomized cluster design in thirteen government health facilities in Western Kenya. The study examined two intervention types-the full intervention, which included having AHAP nurses conduct CSE classes in nearby schools and community locations; and a partial intervention, which was entirely clinic-based. After one year, AHAP increased young people's use of SRH services by 87% (full intervention 97%; partial intervention 77%), whereas comparison facilities saw no change. The full intervention facilities also attracted significantly more female and younger SRH clients. Additionally, improved nurse SRH attitudes after AHAP training were sustained. In sum, AHAP was acceptable and effective in rural settings, but requires ongoing budget outlays for nurse salaries.

This study aims to develop a learning medium in the form of a paper pulp model of a volcanic eruption for disaster mitigation lessons integrated into fourth-grade Indonesian language classes in elementary school, as well as to test its validity and practicality. As a country prone to volcanic eruptions, Indonesia requires concrete and interactive learning media so that fourth-grade students, who are at the concrete operational stage, can understand the process of volcanic eruptions and mitigation efforts. The model is made from paper pulp, which is inexpensive, easily obtainable, and environmentally friendly, and is equipped with a simple simulation mechanism to depict the flow of lava caused by magma pressure. The study employed a Research and Development (R&amp;D) approach, comprising the following stages: needs analysis, design, prototype development, expert validation, revision, and limited testing. Validation was conducted by fourth-grade teachers using a 1–4 scale validation sheet covering five aspects (practicality, appearance, feasibility, safety, and content appropriateness).Practicality was assessed through teacher observations and student questionnaires administered to 23 fourth-grade students. The validation results showed an average score of 4.00 (Highly Valid) across all aspects. The practicality of the media reached 95% (Highly Practical) according to teachers, and an average score of 3.8 (Highly Practical) according to students. This media proved suitable for use without revision, easy to operate within 2 × 35 minutes, and capable of increasing student engagement and understanding of disaster mitigation material in a concrete and enjoyable way. This study provides an economical and contextual alternative media made from local materials for teachers in disaster-prone areas.

This study investigates the pedagogical use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in a second-year high school class at ECIT Riachão do Poço, aiming to understand how AI-mediated practices enhance students’ critical thinking, creativity, and engagement. An action research approach guided the intervention, conducted across sixteen sessions that included workshops on creating games, websites, images, and texts. Data were produced through systematic classroom observations and analysis of student work. Results indicate increased participation, reduced anxiety when performing tasks, and greater creative autonomy, particularly as students learned to refine prompts, compare outputs, and justify decisions. The activities suggest that AI, when intentionally integrated and supported by teacher mediation, contributes to more meaningful learning environments connected to students’ realities. The study concludes that teacher mediation is essential to transform spontaneous AI use into a critical educational practice, strengthening students’ technological, expressive, and authorial development.

ABSTRACT Introduction There is a body of research that describes the importance of the Activist Aproach (AA) as a way to improve students' motivation, engagement and learning in physical education (PE) (Shilcutt, J. B., K. Oliver, and C. Luguetti. 2024. An Activist Approach to Physical Education and Physical Activity: Imagining What Might Be. Taylor & Francis). However, most studies focus on secondary schools, pointing to a need to explore AA in primary schools. Purpose This study explores the enactment of the AA in a primary PE class in Brazil. Theoretically, we draw from bell hooks (2014. Teaching To Transgress. Routledge) and her concept of teaching to transgress. Methods This was participatory action research (PAR) carried out in 4th grade PE class in a state primary school in Brazil. Twenty students aged nine to eleven participated, including seven boys and thirteen girls, as well as a researcher, a PE teacher and two critical friends. Data collection took place during 70 lessons and included field notes, student work sessions, artifacts, focus group with students and debriefing session recordings. Reflective thematic analysis was used to analyse data. Findings Two key themes were generated. The first highlighted the importance of creating a learning community to confront violence in PE classes. Violence and exclusion discouraged participation, especially for girls and less skilled students. The second theme described how a day-by-day curriculum was created to critique and negotiate social injustices. This co-construction involved experimentation, critique, redesign and the creation of inclusive games. Conclusion This study highlights the transformative potential of AA in primary school physical education, showing that breaking with traditional practices becomes possible when children's experiences are placed at the centre of pedagogical decision-making. By creating learning communities to address violence and co-constructing the curriculum on a daily basis through dialogue, experimentation, and negotiation of injustices, AA promoted more inclusive and democratic forms of participation. The results demonstrate that it is possible to build a pedagogy committed to social justice, capable of generating significant changes in the way children relate, participate and give meaning to their experiences in physical education. Impact statement This study contributes to the field by demonstrating how the AA can be meaningfully enacted in primary PE to confront violence, address participation inequalities and promote social justice. By showing how children's lived experiences can guide curriculum co-construction, it offers practical insights for educators seeking to create more democratic and inclusive learning environments. The study expands the understanding of the AA beyond secondary schooling and provides concrete pedagogical strategies that can inform both future research and everyday teaching practice.

ABSTRACT Background and Context Computational thinking is a key part of primary school education, often taught with programmable robots. These robots are typically controlled using one of two modes: a “plugged-in” block-based software environment or an “unplugged” mode relying on direct physical interaction without screens. Objective This paper investigates whether an initial unplugged robot experience (using Ozobot robots) enhances primary school children’s learning of concepts in a subsequent block-based programming environment (using Codey Rocky robots), and how this affects their overall enjoyment. Method A quasi-experiment with 134 children from 8 school classes compares a treatment group (Ozobot then Codey Rocky workshop) with a control group (Codey Rocky only). Learning was assessed via pre- and post-test questionnaires on programming concepts; meanwhile, enjoyment and experiences were evaluated through surveys and observation. Findings Children enjoyed both approaches. While the unplugged Ozobot experience did not yield immediate conceptual gains, the results suggest it may have supported learning outcomes during the subsequent Codey Rocky workshop. Implications Within the scope of this intervention, preceding block-based coding with unplugged activities shows potential as a pedagogical strategy for priming students for abstract programming. Future research should investigate how to optimally combine these approaches.

ABSTRACT Augmented reality (AR) is increasingly integrated into science education, yet the role of teacher support in fostering students' self‐efficacy within AR‐based inquiry learning remains underexplored. This mixed‐methods study investigated the effects of the AR‐based inquiry learning activities on students' science self‐efficacy in various dimensions, as well as the impact of teacher support and students' attitudes toward the features of the designed AR learning environment on students' science self‐efficacy. The study involved 114 Grade 5 students from four classes of a primary school in Singapore. The results showed that the use of AR significantly improved students' conceptual understanding and science communication self‐efficacy. Teachers' emotional support played a key role in conceptual understanding and practical work self‐efficacy, while instrumental support was particularly influential in everyday application. Both forms of teacher support significantly contributed to science communication self‐efficacy. Additionally, students' attitudes toward the AR features partially mediated the effect of emotional support on conceptual understanding self‐efficacy. These findings provide insights for both researchers and practitioners into the importance of and design consideration for adaptive teacher support in optimizing AR‐based science learning in primary school classrooms.

Peer-to-peer dialogue can enhance students’ understanding of mathematics by stimulating active processing and articulation of knowledge. However, this type of interaction also places demands on working memory, which may hinder learning if cognitive load becomes excessive. To optimize classroom dialogue, it is important to distinguish between different types of cognitive load: intrinsic load (IL), extraneous load (EL), and germane load (GL). Existing self-report instruments do not account for the distinct cognitive demands associated with students’ roles as listeners or explainers. This study aimed to develop and validate a questionnaire to measure IL, EL, and GL separately for both listening and explaining roles during peer-to-peer dialogue in secondary mathematics classrooms. The development process involved a literature review, analysis of existing instruments, adaptation for adolescent learners, and integration of mathematical dialogue characteristics. The resulting instrument consists of 18 items, 9 for each role. To validate the instrument, two studies were conducted using peer instruction in Dutch secondary school classes (&lt;i&gt;n&lt;/i&gt; = 65 and &lt;i&gt;n &lt;/i&gt;= 32; ages 15-17). Principal component analysis confirmed a three-factor structure aligned with the three types of cognitive load for both roles. The results suggest that the questionnaire is a promising tool for measuring differentiated cognitive load during classroom dialogue. It may inform instructional design aimed at balancing cognitive demand and supporting effective peer interaction in mathematics education.

Geography education seeks to encourage an appreciation of the diverse ways people relate to, value and understand place. Indigenous-led geography education offers multiple ways of relating to and learning about place that centres care and repair. Storytelling, in its diverse narrative and creative forms, is a core element of Indigenous ways of knowing and a powerful mode of learning. This commentary introduces, and offers reflections on, an ongoing project aiming to develop Country-led pedagogy in a highly valued water place within settler colonial Australia. Country-led pedagogy is a form of Indigenous-led geography education which invites people, in this case high school classes and a youth group, to learn from being on Country. While curriculum objectives are accommodated in the process, learning from Country is the priority, via storying and approaching repair in water places. As a collaboration between Country, local Aboriginal people, young people, natural resource managers, educators and researchers, we document how Indigenous-led geography education can contribute to transitions to more sustainable futures.

Education has gone through various phases, and entered the transformative school mode which can be said to change the existing order of the previous schooling system or procedures, because many modes can be done in the transformative school, students can learn in school buildings or classes, or in the field or real industry or the real world of work, with the introduction of a wider and more complex world, this is one of them. This research tries to create and analyze transformative schools in 3 algorithms, namely regression algorithms, classification algorithms, and clustering algorithms that provide a detailed analysis of the results of the analysis of transformative schools currently promoted by the government. from the results of the analysis raises performance conclusions, and in this phase a conclusion can be drawn whether the Transformative school is able to provide answers about the performance of teachers, students, teacher education levels, school locations, number of students, learning methods, or any paramaters that can provide detailed and detailed answers to get performance analysis from Machine Learning, and Work Performance of teachers in Transformative schools with precision. Quantitatively, the value of performance is determined by innovation by 43.2%, followed by technological capabilities and collaboration, 27.9% and 17.2% respectively. and based on cluster level, cluster 3 is the best with 118 educators, cluster 0, 127 educators with high innovators, and cluster 2, 126 educators, and cluster 1 with 129 educators. and from the paradox of transformative practices 30.6% are high Adopters

This study aimed to collect survey data on physical activity and organized sport participation among children across different weight categories. Using online data collection, 906 parents provided information about 1002 children (age = 10.9 ± 2.5 years, body height = 150.2 ± 16.4 cm, and body mass = 42.4 ± 15.8 kg). Most children (79%) achieved the recommended 60 min. of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) per day; 50% participated in club sports; and 41% took part in organized sports. Most of them (69%) were in the healthy weight category, 7% were underweight, and 22% of the children were overweight or obese. Participation in sports activities among overweight and obese children was nearly as high as among their peers. Achieving 60 min. of MVPA/day was associated with significantly lower odds (OR = 0.51 CI: 0.30-0.85; p < 0.01) of childhood obesity in the total sample. Football was the most popular club and organized sport among boys, while dancing was most preferred among girls. The preferred sports were generally well-suited to the respective weight categories. The relatively high levels of physical activity observed may be explained by daily physical education (PE) classes in schools and governmental support for sports. Our findings suggest that further research is needed to support effective obesity prevention, particularly those examining dietary habits and other lifestyle factors.

ABSTRACT Does state-led patriotic education effectively shape young people’s political and moral values? Many regimes introduce state-sponsored civic and patriotic classes in schools and universities with the aim of influencing the younger generation’s social and political orientations. Yet, it remains unclear whether such educational interventions are effective in influencing young people’s political beliefs. To investigate this issue, we turn to the contemporary Russian context. This paper leverages a natural experiment conducted in Russia to achieve causal inference regarding the impact of state-led patriotic education on youth social and political values. Specifically, we exploit the introduction of a compulsory class, “Conversations About Important Things,” implemented by Russian authorities in 2022 across public high schools. Utilizing data from an online survey of 410 current university students, we compare moral and political values between students who participated in the class (freshmen during the 2023–2024 academic year) and those who did not (earlier cohorts for whom the class was unavailable). Our findings underscore the effectiveness of the new curriculum: students exposed to the class demonstrate significantly stronger agreement with statements prioritizing political loyalty as a key national value compared to their peers who lacked such exposure.