Frontiers in Education最新文献

{"title":"Six factors facilitating teachers’ use of research. An experimental factorial survey of educational stakeholders perspectives","authors":"Nathanaël Jeune, Jacques Juhel, Philippe Dessus, Ignacio Atal","doi":"10.3389/feduc.2024.1368565","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2024.1368565","url":null,"abstract":"Teachers’ use of research has been increasingly advocated for in the past few decades, and some research has documented the factors which positively or negatively influence teachers’ use of research. However, the existing research does not give relevant information to prioritize between different ways to facilitate teachers’ use of research. In addition, different professionals working in education may have divergent opinions about such priorities. This study therefore asks what are the factors that most influence teachers’ use of research according to teachers, teacher trainers, educational decision makers and researchers?We conducted a factorial survey experiment on six factors with 100 participants (pilot study) and 340 participants (main study) to identify which factors were perceived as influencing the most teachers’ use of research and to compare respondents’ perceptions according to their main role in education.This study shows that support for research use by the institution and instrumental utility of research are the factors that were judged as most impactful. Some categories of respondents had conflicting views about specific factors, for instance researchers perceiving teachers’ involvement in research as less likely to facilitate teachers’ use of research.These findings can help decision-makers and teacher-trainers with limited resources to allocate them in a more effective way, while taking into consideration the disagreements across professions in order to resolve possibly arising conflicts.","PeriodicalId":52290,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-05-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140965868","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Shadows in the system: exposing and eradicating ghost students","authors":"Jobin Jose, Nancy J. Fernandez, C. S. Anuja, Rinu V. Antony, S. M. Anitha","doi":"10.3389/feduc.2024.1403323","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2024.1403323","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":52290,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-05-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140962951","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Research into the impact of an imbalanced teaching-academic research evaluation system on the quality of higher education: based on the mediation effect of the sense of belonging to a university","authors":"Xiao-Wu Wang, Yi-Cheng Zhang, Qiang Du","doi":"10.3389/feduc.2024.1348452","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2024.1348452","url":null,"abstract":"University faculties are duty-bound to shoulder the functions of both teaching and doing scientific research, but they have been repeatedly criticized for emphasizing research over teaching. The current study analyzes the imbalance between teaching and scientific research in faculty evaluation system from three aspects through both quality study and quantity study: the evaluation subject, the weights difference in promotion, and the prediction of salary. Based on that, the influential effects of unbalanced evaluation system on long-term development of education has been explored. The current study also puts forward the moderating effect of the sense of belonging to colleges and universities. The result shows organizational belonging can significantly weaken the negative effects of the unbalanced evaluation system on education. Based on this, this paper makes further suggestions on the construction of university faculties’ evaluation system and the promotion of their sense of belonging.","PeriodicalId":52290,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140970944","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Exploring alternative assessments during COVID: Instructor experiences using oral exams","authors":"Theresa Gaines, Nikita Lauren Burrows","doi":"10.3389/feduc.2024.1379886","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2024.1379886","url":null,"abstract":"Research into conventional summative assessment methods, such as written exams, has been extensively documented in the literature. However, as academia evolves in response to changing dynamics, there is a growing demand for more robust summative assessment approaches. Oral exams have emerged as a noteworthy form of summative assessment with intrinsic formative qualities, enabling instructors to delve deeply into students’ comprehension within a meaningful learning framework. Considering the constraints imposed by the traditional written examination format during the COVID pandemic, two educators implemented oral assessments in their chemistry courses, one in general chemistry and the other in organic chemistry. This article presents a comprehensive account of their approach, course structure, rubrics, documentation procedures, and the challenges associated with implementing oral exams. Furthermore, the authors offer insights derived from perceived course outcomes, experiences, collaborative efforts, and reflections from this transformative process. Through candid exploration, this article delves into both the potential advantages and the hurdles associated with the adoption of oral exams in chemistry education. It serves as a valuable resource for educators seeking innovative assessment strategies.","PeriodicalId":52290,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140969568","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Understanding the interplay between teacher self-efficacy, teacher–student interactions, and students’ self-regulated learning skills at different levels of classroom ecology","authors":"Niels J. de Ruig, Marjolein Zee, Peter F. de Jong","doi":"10.3389/feduc.2024.1392907","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2024.1392907","url":null,"abstract":"Studies pinpoint the importance of exploring factors in the classroom environment that might foster students’ SRL-skills in various domains. This study explored specific teacher and classroom factors, including self-efficacy for SRL-skills (TSE) and teacher–student interactions in relation to students’ self-regulated learning skills in various domains (metacognitive, motivational, and behavioral). Additionally, the moderating role of teacher–student interactions in the relationship between TSE and SRL-skills was examined.Third-to sixth grade students (N = 1,278, 46.9% boys) from 63 classrooms of Dutch elementary schools completed reports about their metacognitive, motivational, and behavioral SRL-skills. Teachers reported on their TSE for eight randomly selected students from their classes. In addition, the Classroom Assessment Scoring System was used to observe the quality of teacher–student interactions.Multilevel analyses generally revealed that individual students reported better metacognitive, motivational, and behavioral SRL-skills when their teachers felt efficacious in teaching SRL-skills. However, none of the associations at the class level were significant. Moreover, when high-quality teacher–student interactions were observed, students reported lower levels of metacognitive, motivational, and behavioral SRL-skills. No moderating effect of teacher–student interactions on the relation between TSE and SRL-skills was found.These findings show that specific measures of TSE at the appropriate level of analysis may help to better explain variation in TSE and students’ SRL-skills.","PeriodicalId":52290,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140966830","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Seven years of embracing the sustainable development goals: perspectives from University of South Africa’s academic staff","authors":"G. Nhamo, L. Chapungu","doi":"10.3389/feduc.2024.1354916","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2024.1354916","url":null,"abstract":"As this article was being finalised, the world was left with less than 7 of the 15 years of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) implementation to 2030. There were still huge gaps in the attainment of the SDGs in institutions of higher learning globally, especially that COVID-19 brought a barrier leading to a known pushback. However, the pandemic did not imply there was no work done prior, during and after COVID-19. This article investigates the extent to which the University of South Africa’s academic staff activated and mainstreamed the SDGs in their core mandates between 2016 and 2022. Data was generated through a survey (n = 121), participatory action research, and document analysis. It emerged there is a greater degree of awareness of the SDGs, with 78% of academic respondents confirming this. However, the percentages drop across the four core mandate areas when it comes to SDGs implementation. About 52.6% of academics indicated they were promoting SDGs in their teaching, research (63.3%), community engagement (55.5%) and academic citizenship (54.5%). Findings further reveal key enabling institutional policies like the SDGS Localisation Declaration, and the Africa-Nuanced SDGs Research Support Programme. Large gaps remain on the publication front, where over 60% of the responding academics had not published an article explicitly on SDGs. There is also bias in publications towards certain SDGs. The work recommends that University of South Africa management continue raising awareness on the SDGs and systematically address barriers identified in the main article to enhance the mainstreaming of the SDGs across all core mandate areas.","PeriodicalId":52290,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140968341","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Explaining primary school teachers’ intention to use digital learning platforms for students’ individualized practice: comparison of the standard UTAUT and an extended model","authors":"Leonie Kahnbach, Alina Hase, Poldi Kuhl, Dirk Lehr","doi":"10.3389/feduc.2024.1353020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2024.1353020","url":null,"abstract":"Though technologies for individualization appear to benefit primary school students’ learning, studies suggest that their integration remains sparse. Technology acceptance research has largely focused on exploring teachers’ general acceptance of educational technologies, although factors might predict usage intentions differently depending on the specific usage purpose of an educational technology. Digital learning platforms for individualized practice are comparably challenging and complex to use and so far, predictors of primary school teachers’ intention to integrate such technologies into lessons are largely unknown. Meanwhile, research on teachers’ technology acceptance generally lacks comparability due to the absence of a shared theoretical model and usage purpose specification.In a sample of 272 German primary school teachers, this study aims to identify predictors of teachers’ acceptance of digital learning platforms for students’ individualized practice in consideration of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT). To ensure a shared understanding, teachers were provided with a video which specified the addressed usage purpose. Regarding teachers’ usage intention, the explanatory power of the standard UTAUT predictors was investigated and compared with an extended UTAUT model accounting for seven additional context-specific predictors.The standard UTAUT significantly explained teachers’ usage intention, with performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and the availability of the necessary technical infrastructure showing significant associations with intention. However, neither a significant nor meaningful increase in explained variance was observed for the extended UTAUT model.Results suggest that the standard UTAUT model is sufficient in explaining teachers’ usage intention and that its extension by context-specific predictors provides no added value. Acceptance facilitating interventions should therefore target performance and effort expectancy as well as the availability of technical infrastructure. Thus, underlining that successful implementation of complex educational technologies should consider both, individual and structural factors.","PeriodicalId":52290,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140973029","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Education 4.0 framework for sustainable entrepreneurship through transdisciplinary and abductive thinking: a case study","authors":"Patricia Torres-Sánchez, Antonio Marcelo Juárez, Jhonattan Miranda","doi":"10.3389/feduc.2024.1392131","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2024.1392131","url":null,"abstract":"The global challenges and problems that threaten sustainability and human well-being demand the provision of creative, innovative, and affordable solutions so that they are within the reach of different levels of society. From the point of view of Higher Education, this is a major challenge since it is responsible for training new generations with the competencies and knowledge that allow them to respond to contemporary challenges and problems. This study provides a framework to promote sustainable entrepreneurship through transdisciplinary and abductive thinking. This combination of approaches will allow students to identify, analyze, and understand contemporary problems and, through a systematized process based on the “design thinking” design model, propose creative, innovative, and affordable solutions that can be implemented through entrepreneurship mechanisms. The identified findings that will be presented in this work are (i) the relevance of the Education 4.0 model as a reference to promote transdisciplinarity in a current teaching-learning context, (ii) The relevance of “design for sustainable development” as a trigger for sustainable entrepreneurship, (iii) The formation of desirable competencies in the profile of the higher education student based on transdisciplinarity and abductive thinking within the active learning process, and (iv) quantitative and qualitative measurement that allows measuring acceptance and evaluation of the long-term sustainability of the solutions obtained. This work will present the implementation of the proposed framework through a case study. This case study allowed us to identify elements of the proposed reference framework. The case study will address the problem of water scarcity and pollution, describing initiatives to achieve ODS 6, where it explains how sustainable and visionary solutions can be forged through transdisciplinary collaboration and abductive thinking. The project named “STEAM-mural fountain” done by a transdisciplinary working team between academia-society-industry is described, which aims to make technological advances in water treatment and monitoring visible to society.","PeriodicalId":52290,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140974575","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Cross-cultural communication across STEM disciplines","authors":"Taejung Ma, Anne M. Lucietto","doi":"10.3389/feduc.2024.1373558","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2024.1373558","url":null,"abstract":"Collaboration across cultures in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields has become increasingly common. This means many STEM professionals in US-based companies now work with professionals from other cultures. In this global context, cross-cultural knowledge is crucial for effective communication. Without this knowledge, there can be misunderstandings and discomfort. Different cultures use different communication styles, which has been studied by the field of communication. The concept of high and context low-context culture is used to discuss the role of contextual cues in communication. High-context cultures rely on implicit language and contextual and situational cues, while low-context cultures use explicit language. Although no culture is strictly high or low context, this concept is important as it helps us understand how our communication style can be influenced by cultural characteristics. There is a growing need to support and encourage students to become interested in pursuing careers in STEM fields. Many STEM programs in the United States have emphasized the importance of collaboration to meet this need. However, effective collaboration requires effective communication, and students often lack opportunities to explore how they can communicate effectively with collaborators from other cultures and countries. To bridge this gap, this article proposes incorporating communication into STEM courses for undergraduate students. The course will include learning opportunities about low and high-context cultures and guest speakers. This article aims to provide insights into how communication content can prepare undergraduate students to become culturally competent STEM professionals.","PeriodicalId":52290,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140976058","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Physical and mental wellbeing, teaching efficacy and school connectedness—A study with preschool teachers in Portugal","authors":"Marco Ferreira, Ana Barqueira, José Reis-Jorge, Patrícia Pacheco, Rita Brito, Isabel Baltazar","doi":"10.3389/feduc.2024.1408544","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2024.1408544","url":null,"abstract":"This article aims to investigate correlations between physical and mental wellbeing, teaching efficacy and school connectedness and to explore the relationship between those dimensions and sociodemographic variables such as age, teaching experience, academic qualifications, education sector, and geographical regions. For this purpose, an online questionnaire was applied to 450 preschool teachers. To assess physical and mental wellbeing the PISA 2020 teacher questionnaire was used, and to evaluate teaching efficacy and school connectedness the Subjective Teacher Wellbeing Questionnaire was applied. Descriptive statistics were calculated for all variables. The reliability, internal consistency and suitability of the data for factor analysis. were assessed for each of the questionnaires. The ANOVA test and Kruskal–Wallis’s test were used to identify significant differences between the dimensions under analysis and sociodemographic variables. The results show that school connectedness is positively related to teaching efficacy and the same positive association occurs between physical and mental wellbeing. A negative association is observed between school connectedness and physical and mental wellbeing and teaching efficacy and physical wellbeing and mental wellbeing. The results also indicate that older preschool teachers and those with more years of experience had a significantly higher score in teaching efficacy than their younger and less experienced counterparts. The preschool teachers from the Porto and North Regions of Portugal had significantly higher scores in the mental wellbeing dimension when compared with their colleagues from other regions of the country.","PeriodicalId":52290,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140973098","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}