Search Results for
"Students"

This research explores how Learning Management Systems (LMSs) can facilitate the implementation of storytelling in project-based learning, with a focus on a first-year engineering (FYE) course. To address this objective, we propose a teaching approach that integrates pedagogical tasks into the Brightspace LMS, grounded in a story-based approach. A case study was conducted to evaluate the LMS's effectiveness in supporting both teaching and learning processes. Specifically, this study examines how the teaching model integrated with LMS scaffolds student engagement, promotes collaboration and deepens understanding of key engineering concepts. The findings indicate that LMSs, when strategically aligned with pedagogy, can transform classroom dynamics by fostering interactive, student-centered learning environments that reflect real-world engineering practices. This research underscores the value of maximizing LMS functionalities beyond basic content delivery, bridging gaps identified in prior studies regarding the limited use of LMS features in engineering education. © 2025 IEEE.

Introducing students to real-world contexts through clinical placements can provide rich learning experiences. In health professional education, these placements primarily focus on the supervised development of clinical skills within discipline-specific contexts. However, numerous implicit contexts influence the learning event, which may not be explicitly addressed in the placement’s curriculum or teaching structure but are nonetheless pedagogically significant. This study examines the distinctive contexts of a student-led, interdisciplinary Aboriginal allied health service placement in rural South Australia, highlighting the contexts’ unique experiential characteristics. We used a bricolage of phenomenological engagement and abductive thinking to investigate students’ experiences within and across these learning contexts. students’ accounts revealed that their experiences at the intersections of these contexts held pedagogical significance. This finding prompts critical questions about the design and delivery of educational placements to maximise the inherent learning potential of contexts. We discuss the role of context in clinical placements and explore how context and context complexity can be effectively configured to support student learning across various clinical placement settings and models. We propose that developing context awareness and perspective, and attending to context convergence, can enhance meaningful learning in complex environments. © The Author(s) 2025.

Despite the growing prominence of STEM disciplines in contemporary society, relevant studies indicate a concerning trend: a decline in students’ interest and engagement in these fields. This research included 1,045 students from four grammar schools in Serbia. The study utilizes a quantitative research design: data were collected through an online questionnaire. Key variables: endofterm marks in STEM subjects, gender, parental education, family size, and place of residence were analyzed following the answers of respondents. students were divided into two groups, STEM (435) and Non-STEM (610). The results indicated that the students enrolled in STEM-focused programs demonstrated significantly higher academic performance in STEM subjects during primary education compared to their peers in Non-STEM tracks. Additionally, the study identifies potential relations between students’ interest in STEM and factors such as gender, parental education, and place of residence, with no significant effect found for the number of siblings. Specific sample and custom-designed questionnaire, highlight the need for future research with a broader and more diverse sample, incorporating additional socio-demographic factors and qualitative methods for a deeper understanding of students’ engagement with STEM fields. © 2025, Scientia Socialis Ltd. All rights reserved.

Technical and vocational education and training is an important branch of education, pursued by increasing numbers of young people, and information in this regard is crucial. This research aims to determine student entry profiles based on their initial expectations and skills. A total of 183 newly admitted students of technical degrees at a public university responded to two scales used to measure academic expectations and readiness. This non-experimental, cross-sectional, descriptive research employs cluster analysis to identify four groups with high levels of academic expectations and readiness, but the findings show that effective communication and emotion modulation skills are weaker, as are student participation expectations. © (2024), (Universidad Autonoma de Baja California). All Rights Reserved.

This study explores the attractiveness of tourism polytechnics and their impact on students’ career decisions. The background of this study is the increasing interest of students in choosing the field of tourism despite the challenges in this sector. The method used was a quantitative approach with a sample of 902 respondents who were first-semester students at six public tourism polytechnic colleges in Indonesia. The instrument used was a questionnaire that measured college attractiveness, learning motivation, and career decisions. Data analysis used descriptive techniques and Structural Equation Model (SEM). The results show that college attractiveness positively affects learning motivation and career decisions. This research provides an essential contribution to college management in increasing the attractiveness of tourism polytechnics and assisting students in making better career decisions. © 2025 ICHRIE.

Purpose: Traditional single-assessment models in service-learning courses do not facilitate comprehensive assessments of learning outcomes. Effective assessments should incorporate perspectives from multiple stakeholders. The present study developed a service-learning course assessment model that incorporates assessments from multiple stakeholders, compared assessments between stake-holder types, and explored the effects of evaluator–student relationship. Participants and Methods: The study recruited 126 students from a service-learning course at China Medical University in 2024. Six different groups of stakeholders, namely peers, teaching assistants, service institutions, primary instructors, group instructors, and final report evaluators, evaluated student performance and learning outcomes. Experts ensured that assessment criteria were relevant and comprehensive. Confirmatory factor and principal component analyses were performed to assess the construct validity. The study used descriptive statistics and performed interrater reliability and correlation analyses. Results: The six groups of evaluators were mostly consistent in their assessments, which clustered into two distinct factors: individual performance (Factor 1) and team/service performance (Factor 2). Factor 1 comprised evaluations from peers, teaching assistants, primary instructors, and group instructors, emphasizing individual students’ attendance, participation, and contribution throughout the course. Factor 2 comprised evaluations from service institutions and final report evaluators, focusing on group-level service outcomes and teamwork effectiveness. These two factors explained a cumulative variance of 77.94%. The study identified 15 correlation coefficients: 8 were significantly positive—indicating agreement within or across factors; 2 were significantly negative—highlighting potential divergences in perspective; and 5 were nonsignificant. The relationship between evaluator and student significantly affected assessment outcomes. For instance, peer assessments were the most variable due to subjective influences such as interpersonal dynamics and collaboration history, whereas group instructor assessments showed the least variability, possibly due to a more outcome-focused evaluation approach. Conclusion: Assessments by different types of evaluators are relatively consistent, and the evaluator–student relationship influences assessment outcomes. © 2025 Liao et al.

International mobility in Vocational Education and Training (VET) entered a new and transformative phase in 2014 when the Erasmus Programme began encompassing this field of education, which had only applied to staff and students in higher education courses until then. Among other institutions offering VET in Portugal, vocational schools could engage in international mobility of students, teachers and other educational agents through the Programme, renamed ‘Erasmus+’. After over a decade of implementing this practice, it is relevant to know its effects on students, teachers and schools, particularly those corresponding to the Programme's priorities: inclusion and diversity, digital transformation, fighting climate change, and civic and democratic participation. In line with this objective, a study was conducted using semi-structured interviews with nine teachers, three school leaders, and three mobility coordinators in three Portuguese vocational schools. The findings point to the prevalence of positive effects of international mobility as experienced by students, teachers, and schools, reflecting aspects of personal, professional, and institutional enhancement aligned with the aforementioned priorities. © 2025 Curriculo sem Fronteiras. All rights reserved.

Generative AI tools present new opportunities for enhancing critical thinking (CT) in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing instruction. This study investigates how the structured integration of these technologies could support the development of CT skills, particularly in vocational education contexts. An eight-week multiple-case action research design was conducted across three vocational colleges, involving 92 students engaged in iterative writing and revision cycles guided by the GenAI-CT framework. This pedagogical model draws on Bloom’s taxonomy, Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development, and cognitive apprenticeship theory to scaffold learners through increasingly complex reasoning tasks. Data were collected from student essays, AI interaction logs, reflective journals, and classroom observations. Mixed-methods analysis revealed statistically significant gains across all CT dimensions (p<.001). Thematic findings indicated notable increases in analytical depth, metacognitive reflection, and evaluative judgment. Variations across cases underscored the influence of disciplinary focus and instructional mediation styles. These results demonstrate that generative AI, when embedded in intentional pedagogical structures, can foster cognitive engagement rather than superficial automation. The GenAI-CT framework offers a replicable model for integrating AI in applied language and communication instruction, supporting educators in cultivating critical thinking through technology-enhanced learning environments. © 2025 by the authors; licensee Learning Gate.

Blended learning requires different proficiencies from learners and there is limited evidence on blended learning for undergraduate students specifically in practice-based courses. Within the personalised learning frame in virtual academic environments, journal writing and mindfulness interventions are gaining prominence. This study examines the impact of mindfulness sessions on learner motivation, self-regulation, and metacognition of undergraduate students from select practice-based courses (social work, nursing, engineering, architecture, fine arts) in select South Asian cities, compared to journal writing, both delivered online. Mindfulness sessions were more impactful and participants’ gender, year of study, family configuration, apprenticeship engagements, and program compliance were significant predictors. Female students, in advanced or final years of their studies, belonging to single-parent families, not doing apprenticeship alongside study, showing prudent compliance with mindfulness sessions and completing higher number of corresponding homework sessions, gained most. Mindfulness sessions could be incorporated in undergraduate practice-based courses, and their blended learning curricula in particular, to improve learner motivation, self-regulation, and metacognition. Emphasis would need to be laid on intervention compliance and some modifications would be needed for male students, students in their early years of undergraduate study, cohabiting with both parents and siblings, and doing apprenticeship alongside study. © 2025

Although the role of empathy in reducing campus bullying has been receiving increasing attention, empirical research on the development of empathy and its delayed effects among college students is lacking. To examine the immediate and delayed effects of group activities on increases in empathy among college students, this study randomly assigned 90 first-year students from a Chinese university into control, intervention, and delayed intervention groups. The groups with interventions participated in multiple sessions of counselling activities, and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index-C scale was used as a pre-test, post-test, and re-test measure to assess empathy levels in each group. Additionally, interview transcripts were employed to verify the effectiveness of the study. The results showed that group activities were significantly effective in enhancing the level of empathy among college students. Furthermore, the effect of group activities in enhancing empathy levels among college students tended to diminish over time but was maintained at a relatively high level for a certain period. This finding reveals that the development of empathy requires ongoing attention and support. Future studies could further explore the effects of different types of interventions on empathy levels, and the durability and stability of delayed intervention effects can be investigated in long-term follow-up studies. These findings will contribute to the development of more effective strategies for preventing and intervening in campus bullying, thereby providing theoretical and practical support for more harmonious campus environments. © © 2025 Xu, Gong, Ye and Fu.