Due to irregular daytime routines, chronotype changes, side jobs and exam periods, after the COVID-19 pandemic, university students are trying to find new balances in their everyday life. The aim of the present study is to analyze the impact of daytime chronotype and hour preferences for the circadian rhythm on academic achievement among university students, considering their sleep habits and class frequencies in daytime and nighttime classes. Furthermore, this study aimed to analyze the differences in chronotype preferences with regard to age, sex, and academic schedule students are attending. A sample of 87 university second-year Psychology and Management students attending the academic year 2021/2022 after the governmental relief measures of the COVID-19 pandemic completed a 13-item questionnaire on sleep habits and preferences. Further variables encompassed sleep behaviors, such as age, sex, daytime and nighttime classes, as well as academic achievement. The results of the study showed that university students had a higher preference for the morningness type. Additionally, chronotype traits explained 30% (values from regression analysis) of academic achievement but did not directly impact academic results. The sleep–wake cycle diverged among age groups because the youngest participants (19–21 years old) and older participants (35–44 years old) reported higher academic scores during the first semester and the full academic year. No significant differences were identified with respect to sex. There is a lack of literature explaining the effect of sleep hours on academic achievement among students after stay-at-home rules during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, it is imperative to understand the difficulties students face with regard to their studying hours, working shifts, and daytime or nighttime classes to create a sustainable university system that attends to students’ needs and necessities.

Publishing research is crucial and is of utmost significance. However, it is a daunting task for most researchers, especially if one is a beginner with very limited experience. The generalizability of much of the previously published research was limited to the negative aspects of the publishing process rather than the whole circumstances they had to face. Therefore, this article sought to explore the experiences of preservice teachers as novice researchers in publishing their research outputs in a research journal. This study employed a qualitative-phenomenological approach. Five major themes emerged from the interview with eight purposively selected former preservice teachers who had first-time encounters in publishing that the research investigates. These themes were encapsulated through the acronym “FLAME,” namely: (a) facing personal circumstances, (b) leveraging positive dispositions, (c) acknowledging dependency on research promoter, (d) meeting publishing standards, and (e) encountering poor physical and mental well-being. This article concludes that the journal publishing process is a multidimensional and enriching experience, providing the full spectrum of positive and negative experiences for novice researchers. This paper highlighted some implications that can be used as a guide to support novice researchers in the publication process.

Although central governments, particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean, have defined reducing school dropout rates as a priority, and drawn policies accordingly, there are still young people who do not finish secondary education, and numbers are still alarming. Therefore, it is necessary to observe educational communities and analyze how they interpret and implement guidelines issued by the central government. The following study sought to describe the institutional and teaching practices deployed by four high schools in Valparaíso (Chile) in order to achieve student retention. A qualitative approach was employed. The management team, support professionals, teachers, students, and their families were interviewed. The information gathered was analyzed using the Grounded Theory. As a main finding, establishments use practices such as monitoring attendance, providing support to students facing problematic situations, and encouraging them during class, through a series of strategies. It is recommended that researchers implement this type of methodology for other study objectives, and that the central government consider these results to provide feedback on its policies.

This study aims to analyse the relationship between critical thinking and the learning experience provided by instructors through active learning models, specifically Project-based Learning (PjBL) and Simulation-based Learning (SBL), to the potential achievement of academic performance in undergraduate students. The main analysis technique employed in this research was logistic regression, with additional analysis techniques including discriminant validity, EFA, as well as Kendall’s and Spearman’s correlation, serving as a robustness check. The results of this study indicate significant correlations and effects of critical thinking (CT) on academic performance. Higher levels of CT are associated with a greater likelihood of achieving academic excellence, as indicated by the cum laude distinction, compared to not attaining this distinction. Experiences of receiving PjBL (0.025; 6.816) and SBL (0.014; 14.35) predicted the potential for improving academic performance to reach cum laude recognition, relative to not achieving this distinction. Furthermore, other intercept factors need to be considered to achieve cum laude compared to not achieving cum laude. We recommend that policymakers in higher education, instructors, and others focus on enhancing critical thinking and utilizing both Pub and SBL as learning models to improve students’ academic performance.

This paper presents the meaning and characteristics of collaboration between school counsellors, school principals, and teachers in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in Slovenia and the extraordinary situation in which work in educational institutions changed dramatically overnight and the community of students and professionals moved into a virtual space. In the first part of the paper, we highlight that a strong network of professionals in an educational institution is key to achieving the vision, goals and quality of educational work. In the second part of the paper, we present the results of a survey conducted through an online questionnaire among 328 Slovenian counsellors during the first wave of COVID-19 in April 2020. The results of this survey show a positive attitude of counsellors towards collaboration with principals and teachers. The emergency situation has raised awareness among all school professionals about the importance of mutual support, while providing an opportunity to reflect on ways to improve mutual collaboration and build mutual relationships that enable quality pedagogical work. One of the biggest challenges for any school community now is to maintain the sense of alliance and mutual support that was created in many schools during the pandemic.

The current research aims to analyze art teaching as an inclusive factor and pays attention to diversity in excluded populations to meet the needs of students in the pandemic context. In regard to methodology, we used the naturalistic paradigm, a qualitative approach, and an inductive method with a phenomenological and hermeneutical design. The data collection techniques we used were semi-structured interviews with teachers of the Regular Basic Education in Peru. The findings show that through the mediation of diverse artistic languages and the implementation of different didactic strategies, it is possible to achieve an interaction free from exclusion barriers, driven by good teaching practices that enable the inclusion and attention to the diversity of students, providing them with opportunities to develop capacities and skills to establish better coexistence. We concluded that art education comprises a lasting learning process that guarantees a healthy environment for peaceful coexistence, which today, inclusive teachers, parents, and students should keep in mind.

Kindergarten educators represent the first contact of children with the institutional environment. In this article we assume that kindergarten educators have a significant impact on children's perception of their first/mother tongue and their language development. Language is one of the core kindergarten curriculum areas in which the educator needs to be adequately empowered to set an example for the children, while at the same time developing their communicative competence which is the basis for (later) efficient communication. We carried out a questionnaire-based survey involving 236 students pursuing early childhood education in all three public universities in the Republic of Slovenia which prepares students for the role of kindergarten educators in order to study their perceptions of the language. The questionnaire-based survey was answered by students in their first and third years i.e., when starting and finishing their studies. A large majority of future kindergarten educators consider their positive attitude towards language in general to be extremely important for kindergarten children as language forms the basis for all other curriculum areas. Also, when surveyed, almost all future kindergarten educators considered it essential to be proficient in the language and to encourage language development in children by following their own example. Furthermore, they believe it is important to have a well-developed linguistic capability (language knowledge), to have the capability of crafting linguistically accurate written content and to master a suitable literary expression.

School attendance problems are of great research interest, which is reflected in the increase of scientific publications. This increase hinders the adequate follow-up and updating of the scientific community on the subject. The aim of the present bibliometric study lies in the review of the scientific literature published on school attendance problems during 2014-2021. A bibliographic search and analysis of scientific articles was performed, obtaining a definitive sample of 700 documents. Results were extracted and analyzed for the following indicators: temporal productivity, productivity by authors, co-authorship index, productivity by journals, use of topics, research areas addressed and types of samples used. The number of publications indicates a progressive increase of interest on the subject, which has not corresponded to the creation of a specific journal on the subject. There is also evidence of the need for consensus on the topics to be used; the preference for knowing the factors associated with school attendance problems over other areas of research; and the generalized use of community samples as opposed to more specific ones. In conclusion, the characteristics researched on school attendance problems are presented; knowledge that will facilitate the establishment of intervention processes applicable to different contexts and realities.

The Attraction-Selection-Attrition (ASA) model is a prominent framework for supporting employee retention, stating that organisations attract, select, and retain people who share their values. However, the ASA model only extends to the end of the recruitment stage and lacks clarity on how to assist newcomers in the assimilation process when they first join the organisation. This research proposed a refinement of the ASA paradigm by incorporating the assimilation process of new hires into the new school culture and environment. This study employed a qualitative research approach by interviewing ten participants about the retention process from high teacher retention international schools in Malaysia. Thematic data analysis revealed a new paradigm, 'Attraction-Selection-Onboarding-Retention (ASOR), ' designed to increase teacher retention in international schools. The ASOR model could assist school administrators and human resource managers working in a related setting in properly engaging the workforce to increase teacher retention. This would benefit school sustainability, performance and the local community's economy.

Our research aim is to describe how Preservice Teachers (PSTs) can rehearse and prepare for leading productive talks in mathematics and other subjects. Based on literature and previous research on what constitutes productive talks, we focus on questions and talk moves in this case study, where we follow three groups of PSTs during their practicum, practicing conducting productive talks in mathematics. Our research questions are: What kinds of questions do PSTs ask? What kinds of talk moves do they use? How do these questions and talk moves contribute to the PSTs breaking the IRE (Initiation–Response–Evaluation) pattern and moving towards more productive mathematics talks with complex exchanges of questions and responses? And furthermore: How can we use these findings to improve teacher education in this field? We find that leading productive talks in the mathematics classroom is a challenging task, but there is variation between our three groups in what they struggle with. In accordance with previous research, we also find that the third turn in the exchange, following up after a question and a response is a crucial point in the conversation. One recommendation for teacher education is that video filming and analysing classroom talks might help PSTs to become conscious of and improve on this point. Further research is needed both on long term effect of such practice and focus, and on other ways to improve classroom talks in mathematics and other subjects.

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.

This study aims to analyze the effects of working memory capacity and learning styles of prospective mathematics teachers on their ability to solve higher-order thinking problems. In the present study, learning style was considered students' tendency to learn visually or verbally. In addition, the types of higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) problems are complex and non-complex. Multiple regression tests were used to analyze the effects of learning style and working memory capacity. An ANOVA test was also conducted to analyze the ability of each group to solve each HOTS problem. In addition, one hundred twenty-six prospective mathematics teachers voluntarily participated in this study. The study found that learning styles only affected visual problems while working memory capacity (WMC) only affected the ability to solve complex problem-solving skills. Furthermore, WMC affected the ability to solve complex HOTS problems, not non-complex ones. The ability of visual students to solve HOTS problems will greatly increase when the problems are presented in visual form. On the other hand, the obstacle for visual students in solving verbal problems was to present the problem appropriately in visual form. The obstacle for students with low WMC in solving complex HOTS problems was to find a solution that met all the requirements set in the problem.

STEM education is an irreplaceable movement of educational systems across the globe in the 21st century. Both Pre-K, K-12, and higher education institutions consider STEM as an innovative approach to integrate and reform the teaching and learning processes. The purpose of this paper is to examine the development of studies on STEM in the Early Childhood Education context from 1992 to 2022. We investigated a dataset of 308 scholarly works from the Clarivate Web of Science database and figured a diversified collection of research focuses on topics such as children’s readiness, outcomes, teachers’ competency in designing and implementing STEM activities, and the role of computational thinking and robotics. The findings of this paper revealed the dominant contribution of researchers from the USA regarding research quantity and impact, as well as their collaborations with researchers from Western countries. In addition, we also figured out the top influencing authors, documents, and journals as a suggestion for scholars who are new to this topic. However, we would like to note that our findings depended on the quality of the imported database from the WoS system, which covers top-tier journals only.

It is known that the COVID-19 pandemic led to learning losses among students both domestically and internationally. Therefore, situational and casual factors were examined to discover and understand them so that learning loss could be reduced or recovered from. This research aimed to: (a) study learning loss situation; and (b) develop and examine the causal model of learning loss among lower secondary school students affected by the pandemic. The sample included 650 Grade 7-9 students selected by multi-stage random sampling. The data was collected using a self-developing questionnaire as a research instrument. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent samples t-test, ANOVA, and structural equation modeling (SEM) through the LISREL program. The findings were: (a) Lower secondary school students had an average academic achievement learning loss at the moderate level with the highest mean of learning loss in mathematics (M=3.012, SD=1.074), and an average learning characteristics learning loss at the medium level (M=2.824, SD=0.842). Several situational factors had a different effect depending on the school size with a statistical significance of .05.; and (b) the causal model showed the learning loss of grade 7-9 students was consistent with the empirical data (χ2=46.885, df=34, p= .069, GFI=0.991, AGFI=0.964, CFI=0.999, RMSEA=0.024, SRMR=0.014).

This research aimed to explore the influence of a robotic program using the robot kit "RoboBuilder RQ+110" on students' attitudes toward effective communication. The study used a quantitative research design and involved 475 grade 4 (10 years old) students from Malaysia's Selangor and Malacca states. A quasi-experimental research (pre-test & post-test) approach with control and experimental groups was adopted, and the data were analyzed with inferential statistical test and repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) using SPSS 25 software at 0.05 significance level. Questionnaires were administered to collect data from the experimental and control groups. The results showed statistically significant changes (α ≤ .05) in attitudes toward effective communication for the experimental group that received a robotics program compared with the control group. The study results suggest that innovative technological tools or programs such as robotics programs are recommended as innovative science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) program rooted in constructivism to improve students' attitudes toward effective communication.

Given the insufficient involvement of business investments in adult education, this study focused on the factors that motivate managers and entrepreneurs to invest in continuing education. For this purpose, we conducted a systematic literature review of studies referenced in Scopus and Web of Science since 2015. The factors for training were classified into four levels: personal, organizational, industry-related, and national. The results indicated that the inside firm-related determinants are the most studied and essential. A consensus emerged in the relevant literature on the positive impact of a supportive workplace culture, a learning orientation, formalized human resource development practices, and employee voice. The long-term orientation of managers and the perception of employees’ flexibility and adaptability to change also play a role. The study highlights the increasing pressure from regulations and market competition, as well as the (in)capability of universities to provide training tailored to the specific needs of companies. Although institutional factors appeared to predominate, economic considerations also influence training decisions; the latter means that the two underlying theories – institutional theory and human capital theory – complement each other when explaining employers' incentives to invest in training.

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.

Understanding graphs in the dynamics of market (DM) is a challenge to learners; its teaching demands a specific kind of teacher’s knowledge. This study aims to examine the topic-specific pedagogical content knowledge (TSPCK) of experienced economics teachers in teaching graphs in DM to enhance learners’ understanding of the topic. It reports using a qualitative approach underpinned by the TSPCK framework for teaching specific topics developed by Mavhunga. Data were collected through classroom observations and analyzed thematically using a case study of two economics teachers. The study revealed that adopting a step-by-step approach and the use of worked graphical examples promote an understanding of graphs in DM. It also established that active learning is preferable to the predominant chalk-and-talk (lecture) method of teaching graphs in DM. The study proposed a Dynamics of Market Graphical Framework (DMG-Framework) to enable teachers, particularly pre-service teachers in lesson delivery, to enhance learners’ understanding of graphs in DM. The result of this study will broaden the international view in the teaching of graphs in DM.

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.

The present study explores the Quality of Life (QoL) of young people with intellectual disabilities engaged in a social farming initiative, known as ‘‘Tuttincampo: Social Farming and Inclusivity’’. The project stands as an innovative approach to improving social inclusion and providing vocational education and training. The initiative seeks to offer a viable alternative to traditional rehabilitation day centers by establishing a network of both public and private institutions. To explore the QoL of the young people we analyze data from the Personal Outcome Scale (POS), a tool that investigates the perception of QoL through self-assessment and hetero-assessment. Data were collected at the beginning and at the end of the social agriculture project. The results obtained confirm the importance of planning pedagogical actions to support social inclusion and vocational training for people with intellectual disabilities, highlighting, as well, the potential of social farming as a new “space” to achieve a higher level of QoL.