Higher education institutions have focused their efforts on promoting research seedbeds as a strategy for formative research. In this regard, the impact of such a strategy remains unknown due to the lack of models that enable its evaluation. Therefore, this study aimed to design an evaluation model for the academic productivity of research seedbeds based on the available evidence in the literature. To achieve this, a systematic review was conducted following the PRISMA model, analyzing 53 documents including articles, book chapters, and conference proceedings from the SCOPUS, ProQuest, Jstor, Scielo, and ScienceDirect databases. The results identified indicators that allowed for the design of a model based on six constructs: research training, institutional capabilities, bibliographic production, innovation and development, social appropriation of knowledge, and human resource training. It was concluded that the indicators evaluating research seedbeds seek greater scientific development involving students and improving the quality of research products, which directly impacts the institutional research mission.

The importance of research competence in pre-service teacher education has been highlighted in many studies, but concerns over the lack and inconsistency of definition, measurement, and development of research competence still exist. This poses a challenge for pre-service education programmes to provide quality education to pre-service teachers in this area. Through a systematic literature review it was found that there is a gap in the existing literature regarding the definition of research competence in pre-service teacher education, as there seems to be no consensus on the definition. There is, however, an agreement that the development of research competence is an important part of study programmes, as it contributes to higher quality education of pre-service teachers. Addressing this, the review proposes a concise definition of research competence as a multifaceted construct that includes critical thinking, self-directed learning, and organizational skills essential for effective research. The review also highlighted a lack of consensus on the most appropriate frameworks and tools to use in measuring research competence in pre-service teachers, with studies using various frameworks and tools that differ in terms of research methods, instruments and sample characteristics. The results suggest that there is a need for greater attention to be paid to the definition and measurement of research competence, as well as its development within pre-service teacher education programmes.

This study investigated young children’s recognition of social rules and responses to social-conventional transgressions in Japanese preschool settings. One hundred twenty-six children aged three to six years old heard four hypothetical stories that describe typical social-conventional transgressions in Japanese preschools. They were asked about their feelings when they witnessed each transgression (emotional response), whether they thought it was better to follow social rules and act like everyone else (social convention judgment), their justification for the judgment, and their willingness to play with the transgressor (interaction judgment). Most participants in all age groups valued following social rules and judged that the transgressor should act like everyone else, but five-year-olds generated more group- and other-oriented justifications for the judgment. Although there were no significant age group differences in interaction judgment, further analysis showed that three-year-olds’ willingness to play with the transgressor was positively related to their positive emotion, whereas such relationships were not found in four- and five-year-olds. The results demonstrate that Japanese children’s responses to social-conventional transgressions become more social and complex throughout young childhood in the Japanese cultural context.

Service-learning (SL) emphasizes the fusion and integration of community service and academic learning, while Physical Education (PE) is oriented towards community health and well-being, aligning with Sustainable Development Goals. The study's primary objective is to discern the benefits perceived by PE students when engaged in SL courses and to test the correlation between benefits and the motivational climate they experience. Additionally, the research explores potential gender-specific variations in students' attitudes. The research was conducted with a survey on a sample of 58 students responding to a Motivational Climate in Physical Education Scale (MPCES) and the SErvice LEarning Benefit Scale (SELEB), which assesses the motivation of students and their perceptions of SL benefits. Descriptive statistics was used to analyse the data. Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to test the relationship between the core constructs - SL benefits and student motivation, and t-tests to evaluate gender differences in SL benefits. Key findings underscore that students primarily perceived the greatest advantages from SL in the domain of knowledge application, with comparatively lower scores in general life skills. Notably, female students, on the whole, exhibited higher ratings in both SL benefits and student motivation compared to their male counterparts. Nonetheless, specific exceptions emerged in certain sub-scales, including social relatedness and ego climate within the MPCES scale, as well as critical thinking within the SELEB scale. According to the results, it is suggested that cultivating a student-centered learning environment can augment engagement and motivation in the realm of physical education (PE). Furthermore, the delineated gender differences offer valuable insights for educators, highlighting the need for tailored approaches to accommodate the diverse preferences and requirements of male and female students.

The world eagerly anticipates advancements in AI technologies, with substantial ongoing research on the potential AI applications in the domain of education. The study aims to analyse publications about the possibilities of artificial intelligence (AI) within higher education, emphasising their bibliometric properties. The data was collected from the Scopus database, uncovering 775 publications on the subject of study from 2000 to 2022, using various keywords. Upon analysis, it was found that the frequency of publications in the study area has risen from 3 in 2000 to 314 in 2022. China and the United States emerged as the most influential countries regarding publications in this area. The findings revealed that “Education and Information Technologies” and the “International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning” were the most frequently published journals. “S. Slade” and “P. Prinsloo” received the most citations, making them highly effective researchers. The co-authorship network primarily comprised the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, and China. The emerging themes included machine learning, convolutional neural networks, curriculum, and higher education systems are co-occurred with AI. The continuous expansion of potential AI technologies in higher education calls for increased global collaboration based on shared democratic principles, reaping mutual advantages.

The present study aimed to improve the speaking skills of university students at the B1 level who presented limitations in their oral competence. An educational methodology based on designing and implementing an application adapted to the Common European Framework of Reference was developed and applied to boost language performance. A case study was used to conduct the two stages of this research; the former had to do with a control group where intervention was carried out using non-probabilistic sampling with students of the Computing Faculty; a pretest was applied to test the knowledge acquired in their classroom sessions during the first quarter in 2020. The second process was tracking an experimental group, which was assessed after implementing the developed methodology using the app "4skillsweb". A posttest was used to evidence learners' progress during the COVID-19 lockdown, and the results showed improved oral competence in aspects such as grammar and vocabulary, discourse management, pronunciation, and interactive communication, with about 95% confidence in its validation. A qualitative-quantitative methodology was used to determine the influence of the English app. A t-students test was implemented to corroborate the data analysis taken by both groups through SOFTWARE JMP v 11.0.0G.

Listening is a language skill that is acquired in childhood but can be improved throughout the educational process. It is of great importance in both educational and everyday life. The objective of this study is to identify the importance given to listening training by students, assess their listening skills, and determine what can be done to improve their listening skills to top levels. The study group consists of 50 Turkish language teachers from various primary and secondary schools in Turkey and Northern Cyprus. A 9-question interview form was used to collect data. The data obtained were analyzed using content analysis, frequencies, and percentages. Based on the results, most Turkish language teachers revealed that their students do not listen sufficiently to their teachers, and the reasons for this could be related to the school, teachers, curriculum, or the students themselves. Additionally, the teachers stated that it is essential to emphasize the importance of listening to students in the first place, and it could be beneficial to increase the number of listening activities in the course books and assess and evaluate listening skills more frequently.

Critical thinking is a skill that enables individuals to keep pace with changes and enhances crucial competencies for contemporary competitiveness. Many researchers have studied learning management approaches to develop students' critical thinking, resulting in a substantial body of knowledge but lacking clear systematic summaries. The researchers aimed to (a) examine the effect sizes and research characteristics influencing students' critical thinking, and (b) compare the effect sizes of learning management approaches after adjusting with propensity score matching from 108 graduate research published between 2002 and 2021. Data were collected using research characteristics recording forms and research quality assessment questionnaires. Effect sizes were calculated using Glass's method and analyzed through random effect, fixed effect, and regression meta-analysis. Findings revealed that (a) research on developing learning management approaches influences students' critical thinking at a high level (d ̅ = 1.669), with nine research characteristics, including the field of publication, courses, total duration, teacher learning process, learning media, measurement and evaluation, research design, research statistics, and research quality, statistically significantly influencing students' critical thinking, and (b) after adjustment, inquiry-based learning significantly influences students' critical thinking. Recommendations for developing students' critical thinking include learning activities that encourage problem exploration, expanding thinking through collaborative analysis, and applying diverse media and activity sheets tailored to context suitability.
 

<p style="text-align:justify">The primary objective of this study was to determine how students and teachers in primary schools view the classroom climate and its dimensions: (a) peer relationships and (b) student-teacher relationships. Additionally, the study aimed to explore the role of students&#39; age (11-12 years old - 7th grade students vs. 14-15 years old - 9th grade primary school students) and gender on their perceptions of the school climate. Classroom climate was measured with the &quot;Classroom Climate Questionnaire&quot;, which was completed by a total of 1,531 students (792; 51.6% female) and 348 teachers (296; 84.6% female). The findings of the study indicated that both students and teachers generally perceived the classroom climate as being relatively neutral to positive. However, teachers tended to report more positive classroom relationships compared to students. Furthermore, the study found no significant gender-based differences in how students perceived the classroom climate, peer relationships, and student-teacher interactions. However, differences were identified based on the age or grade level of the students. The results were discussed in the context of the students&rsquo; psychological development characteristics and the aspects of socio-emotional learning within school environments, also considering educational policies for achieving greater school quality.</p>

This research attempts to map the trend of research related to differentiated instruction (DI). The research was conducted in May 2023 by researching research articles in the Scopus database. The search data from Scopus used title, abstract, and keyword searches. Research articles were analyzed descriptively based on year of publication, journal name, affiliation, country, and researcher name. The article database from Scopus was analyzed through VOSviewer and RStudio software so that a bibliometric map could be depicted in research related to DI. Based on the Scopus analysis results, it showed that publications of articles related to DI had increased from 2011 to 2021, although it decreased in 2016. The journal with the largest contributor to the publication of research articles related to DI was the Teaching and Teacher Education Journal. Vrije Universitiet Brusel was the university with the most published articles on DI. The country that contributed the most to the research articles related to DI was the United States. Struyven was the most productive scholar related to DI. Through network visualization, it was revealed that the evolution map of research related to DI was divided into five clusters.

Teaching is a demanding and complex exercise, exposed to the direct or immediate resolution of multiple problematic situations, whether pedagogical, relational, or socio-affective. The teacher's personal resources are often insufficient to cope with the profession's demands. The research reports that there is a gap between research and educational practice. Hence, the objective of this research was to analyze the criteria used by early childhood educators to attribute validity to the written sources of information that guide their pedagogical decisions. The present study follows a qualitative research methodology. The sample for this study was non-probabilistic and consisted of 18 early childhood educators who participated through semi-structured interviews and discussion groups. The data obtained were analyzed by inductive categorization using NVivo 14. The findings revealed that the validity criteria assigned by the educators about the sources of information related to theoretical aspects is mainly attributed to the texts and authors they know, while those referring to practical aspects are attributed to their own experiences or the other educators at the same level. The results showed that specific information and obtaining it in the shortest possible time were the criteria that determined the use of information sources.

Analytical thinking is crucial for developing problem-solving, decision-making, and higher-order thinking skills. Many researchers have consistently developed learning management models to enhance students' analytical thinking, resulting in extensive knowledge but lacking clear systematic summaries. This study aims to: (a) explore the effect sizes and research characteristics influencing students' analytical thinking, and (b) compare the effect sizes of learning management models after adjusting for propensity score matching. In exploring 131 graduate research papers published between 2002 and 2021, the research utilized forms for recording research characteristics and questionnaires for assessing research quality for data collection. Effect sizes were calculated using Glass's method, while data analysis employed random effects, fixed effects, and regression meta-analysis methods. The findings indicate that (a) research on learning management models significantly impacts students' analytical thinking at a high level (d̅ = 1.428). Seven research characteristics, including year of publication, field of research, level, duration per plan, learning management process, measurement and evaluation, and research quality, statistically influence students' analytical thinking, and (b) after propensity score matching, learning through techniques such as KWL, KWL-plus, Six Thinking Hats, 4MAT, and Mind Mapping had the highest influence on students' analytical thinking. Recommendations for developing students' analytical thinking involve creating a learning management process that fosters understanding, systematic practical training, expanding thinking through collaborative exchanges, and assessments using learning materials and tests to stimulate increased analytical thinking.

This comprehensive systematic review delves into the increasing prevalence of integrating chatbots into language education. The general objective is to assess the current landscape of knowledge regarding chatbot utilisation and its influence on three crucial elements: students' skills, attitudes, and emotions. Additionally, the review seeks to scrutinise the advantages linked to incorporating chatbots in foreign language teaching, exploring their potential benefits while considering limitations and potential negative impacts on specific skills or user experiences. Consequently, this research offers valuable insights into the application of chatbots in foreign language education, shedding light on their potential advantages and areas that warrant further exploration and enhancement. The integration of chatbots in language learning, despite certain limitations, generally yields positive outcomes and enhances educational results in students' skills. Its characteristics can also influence a language learner's attitude, impacting factors such as motivation, interest, autonomy in learning, and engagement or even their sense of fun. Additionally, chatbots prove to be helpful in creating emotionally positive learning environments and can contribute to boosting students' self-esteem and self-confidence.

The development of communicative competence is a fundamental goal of Slovene language teaching in Slovene primary schools. As part of this goal, reading literacy is also being developed. In the project Reading Literacy and the Development of Slovene–ARLEM (Awareness, Reading, Language, Evaluation, Models), a reading comprehension test for fifth and eighth grade has been developed, consisting of four tests. This article focuses on two of them, the Vocabulary Test and the Reading Comprehension Test for fifth and eighth grade. A study conducted among more than one thousand students showed a correlation between students’ vocabulary comprehension and reading comprehension, and a relationship between these two variables and teachers’ assessment of students’ reading and students’ grades in the school subjects Slovene, math, and social studies / history. The results also show that, on average, boys score lower than girls, that on average, students whose first language is not Slovene score lower than students whose first language is Slovene, and that students who receive additional professional help with reading score lower than students who do not need additional help with reading. The results confirm the importance of developing vocabulary and reading skills randomly and in a planned way in all school subjects. Furthermore, the results show the importance of acquiring reading techniques over time and developing reading motivation. Furthermore, the results show the need for cross-curricular integration, individualization, and differentiation.