Search Results for
"education"

The assessment of competencies in the training of future physical education teachers is crucial to ensuring their preparedness and the quality of their professional performance. Various methods are available to measure these competencies, which are essential for understanding the development of specific skills in the educational field and their impact on teaching practice. This study aimed to analyze the types of instruments used to assess competencies during the training process of future physical education teachers. A systematic review of published articles was conducted, covering all available years up to the search date (August 2024) in the WoS, Scopus, SportDiscus, and ERIC databases. The review followed the PRISMA statement. Out of a total of 820 studies, 33 relevant documents were identified and classified into four categories: a) Questionnaires/Surveys; b) Rubrics; c) Observation Scales; and d) Knowledge Tests. The review highlights that although questionnaires and rubrics are commonly used, they are insufficient for evaluating competencies in physical education teacher training. This underscores the need for more dynamic tools, such as simulations, case studies, or performance-based assessments. Furthermore, combining questionnaires with methods that capture performance in real contexts enhances evaluation accuracy and provides a more comprehensive understanding of teacher development. © 2025, Campus EDUCA SPORTIS S.L.. All rights reserved.

Contribution: Results and conclusions on the use of a hybrid Project-Based Learning (PBL) approach to teaching programming in a higher education computing department. Background: PBL is a pedagogical approach that facilitates “learning by doing” and can create compelling educational experiences that enhance a student’s intrinsic motivation. Engagement can increase because students design their own unique projects, which have personal meaning and importance. PBL facilitates working with industrial clients to solve problems, which can create powerful extrinsic motivation. However, PBL can fail when students lack the experience and confidence to work as independent learners. Research Questions: 1) Can a hybrid PBL approach mitigate these problems by using a range of additional initiatives? These include, a wide range of on-demand learning resources, student mentoring, students collaborating with teachers to grade their own work, regular feedback milestones and scaffolding of learning via streaming. In this case streaming means offering students pathways through projects that require more or less independent research and project management. Methodology: A mixed methods study of a new hybrid approach to teaching programming. Findings: This article summarizes the author’s experience of implementing hybrid PBL within a university computing department, associated with improved student attainment and describes best practice, the advantages and the pitfalls. © 1963-2012 IEEE.

Skill is ubiquitous in the English Further education (FE) sector’s policy discourse and discursive practices, yet it is used in different ways to mean different things within the sector. Within the context of a deregulated FE Initial Teacher education (ITE) system, the discourse is underpinned by a set of standards and guidance expected of providers, many of whom are, or work alongside, a Higher education Institution (HEI). This research sought to determine the role that those working in this system have in recontextualising skills policy discourse. Building on interdisciplinary perspectives of skill and using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this research explored the skills discourse of 10 Teacher Educators (TEds) working within the English FE ITE sector. The discursive practices of TEds were found to be bound up with generic higher education notions of ‘graduate skills’ and ‘graduate employability’. This complements a narrow and weak discursive frame which underpins the ITE curriculum, linked to atomised standards, whereby generic teaching practices are centred to the exclusion of strongly classified theoretical and subject specialist knowledge, contributing to a narrower skills discourse and marginalisation of subject specialisms. This work has implications for policy makers and those involved in curriculum development in FE ITE. © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Introduction: Rural Canadians have poorer health indices than their urban counterparts and struggle with worse access to care due to an undersupply of physicians. Research has identified personal factors, such as being raised in a rural environment, and traits, such as lower harm avoidance, among those drawn to rural practice. As well, the impact of aspects of medical training, such as rural rotations, have been recognized in creating rural practice intentions, but the role of specific clinical competencies here has yet to be determined. Emergency medicine is often one of the most challenging components of rural practice and thought by some to have its competencies poorly developed in family practice training. We hypothesized a model for rural practice affinity in which a strong sense of general self-efficacy would be independently mediated by the development of emergency medicine competence and rural practice self-efficacy, leading to stronger intentions to embark on a rural practice career. Methods: This model was tested using the data from a survey of all family medicine residents nearing graduation from 14 of the 17 Canadian medical schools. Demographics and data on factors known to influence a rural career choice were collected and accounted for when determining the strength of the hypothesized relationships. Both existing and specifically designed survey tools were used to assess model components. A partial correlation matrix between the variables of interest (general self-efficacy, emergency medicine competency, rural practice self-efficacy, and rural practice intentions) – controlling for the effects of relationships, financial aspects, personal aspects, and social desirability – was created and subjected to a structural equation model. Results: Our initial rural practice affinity model resulted in a poor fit of the model to the data. However, the addition of a pathway from emergency medicine competence to rural practice selfefficacy improved the model to one showing significant paths as hypothesized as well as excellent measures of fit. Discussion: The importance of general self-efficacy is recognized and is itself mediated by the more specific rural practice self efficacy to rural practice intentions, consistent with the literature. Emergency medicine competency has a central role in both mediating general self-efficacy to rural practice intentions, while also being mediated itself by rural practice self-efficacy to rural practice intentions. This provides new understanding in the development of rural practice self-efficacy. The link of emergency medicine competency to both rural practice self-efficacy and rural practice intentions suggests that this is a curricular area that deserves greater focus and consideration of how to ensure that residents are meeting emergency medicine requirements and receiving robust training in this area. This is especially important as there have been significant concerns from various groups on the efficacy of emergency medicine training in family medicine residency. Conclusion: These findings will help inform residency program curriculum and pedagogies, underlining the critical role of emergency medicine competence to support rural physician identity formation and to improve physician recruitment to rural Canada. © This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

This study addresses the problem of knowledge practices in Chinese vocational higher education institutions (HEIs) by using Bernstein's notion of a ‘pedagogic device’. China's distinctive context is characterised by a hybrid mix of discipline-based and competence-based curricula, providing a unique opportunity to explore the tensions inherent in a ‘relational’ approach. One specific concern is epistemic and social relations behind curriculum choices. A qualitative study of 29 experienced teachers revealed that government curriculum policies have led to the emergence of two types of vocationally oriented HEIs with differentiated knowledge foundations, of which teachers’ perceptions are influenced by the structure of occupational practice and the profiles of specific learners. The findings revealed that teaching through ‘powerful knowledge’ in vocational higher education goes beyond merely emphasising systematic knowledge. Instead, it necessitates acknowledging the role of power in defining what knowledge should/should not be taught and who is permitted access to it. © 2025 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Rocky school‐to‐work transition processes, characterized by spells of unemployment and education–job mismatch, can have long‐lasting scarring effects on young people and often lead to a loss of income and occupational status. However, the mechanisms that either foster or prevent unemployment scarring are underinvestigated. Our article thus asks whether vocational education and training (VET) diploma holders’ unemployment duration and the probability of status loss at labour market re‐entry are affected by the interplay between occupation‐specific labour demand and young workers’ skill sets acquired in VET. Our theoretical approach combines job search, human capital, and signalling theory with arguments from structural segmentation approaches. Our analyses use complete national register data on VET diploma holders who became unemployed during their early careers. We combine national register data on unemployment spells with register data on education trajectories in Switzerland and occupation‐specific labour demand data. Results from event‐history analyses indicate that unemployment episodes are associated with lower employment chances and higher risk of status loss of VET diploma holders. These general patterns are attenuated by occupation‐specific labour demand and the skills taught in vocational training programmes. Re‐employment chances are higher and the risk of status loss lower when occupation‐specific labour demand is high and few of the accessible job opportunities offer lower status than the job before unemployment. Additionally, we find that workers who trained in occupations imparting large proportions of occupation‐specific skills have a higher re‐employment probability but also face a higher risk of status loss than those who trained in occupations imparting larger proportions of general skills. Our findings indicate a trade‐off between occupation‐specific skills and general skills. © 2025 by the author(s).

Background: Entrepreneurial intention among university students is influenced by multiple psychological and social factors, including entrepreneurial motivation, religiosity, and perceived stress. Understanding these relationships is crucial for fostering entrepreneurship among young individuals, particularly in Vietnam, where cultural and economic conditions shape entrepreneurial aspirations. Objective: This study aims to examine the effects of entrepreneurial motivation, religiosity, and stress on entrepreneurial intention among Vietnamese university students. Methods: A sample of 120 religious university students participated in a self-report questionnaire, which included the following scales: the Duke University Religion Index, Entrepreneurial Motivation, Entrepreneurial Intention, Perceived Stress Scale, and demographic information. Descriptive statistics and independent sample t-tests were applied to analyze the data. The PLS-SEM model was developed to establish the predictive model between variables. Results: The findings supported the positive impact of entrepreneurial motivation (self-efficacy beliefs, tolerance for risk, and desirability towards self-employment) on entrepreneurial intention. Intrinsic religiosity had a positive effect on entrepreneurial motivation, which in turn positively influenced entrepreneurial intention. Additionally, religious activities had a positive influence on entrepreneurial motivation through intrinsic religiosity. Furthermore, low self-efficacy negatively influences entrepreneurial motivation, and perceived helplessness negatively moderates the positive relationship between intrinsic religiosity and entrepreneurial motivation. Finally, differences in gender, family business background, and entrepreneurial club membership also revealed significant variations in entrepreneurial motivation and intention. Conclusion: The findings underscore how intrinsic religiosity and psychological resources interact to shape entrepreneurial intention. Recognizing the motivational role of religiosity, self-efficacy beliefs, and even perceived helplessness can guide the design of more effective, holistic entrepreneurship education and support systems. These insights are particularly relevant for countries like Vietnam and other Asian societies, where spirituality and collectivist values strongly influence students' career motivations and perceptions of entrepreneurship. © The Author(s), 2025.

Spatial mobility is key to facilitating successful transitions into vocational education and training (VET), especially for youths from disadvantaged regions. In line with the agency‐structure framework, the decision to become mobile is conceptualized as an adaptive strategy that young people employ to achieve their goals when faced with persistent challenges or regional barriers. This study investigates how youths applying for VET adapt their willingness to be spatially mobile over time. It examines the influence of occupational status aspirations and the regional opportunity structure on this decision‐making process. Using data from the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), multilevel growth curve models are estimated to analyze adaptations in the mobility radius of VET applicants over up to three years (N = 1,017). To assess the regional opportunity structure, small‐scale administrative geospatial data on the availability of youths’ aspired occupations are used as an individualized indicator of regional mismatch. The results show that VET applicants’ willingness to be mobile increases over time. High‐status aspirations are consistently associated with a greater willingness to be mobile, largely independent of search duration or regional mismatch. Conversely, VET applicants with lower status aspirations exhibit notable adaptations, adjusting their mobility radius, particularly in response to increasing search duration or regional mismatch. These findings highlight the complex interplay between individual aspirations and the regional opportunity structure in shaping adaptations in the willingness to become mobile of unsuccessful VET applicants. © 2025 by the author(s), licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY).

This article focuses on the use of innovative and integrative approaches in the process of conducting practical training in mathematics in higher education institutions of a technical nature. Our goal is to introduce methods for implementing the principles of a synergistic approach in improving the methodology of teaching mathematics in technical higher education institutions. As a result, it is intended to increase the cognitive activity of students by strengthening the importance of mathematics in technology, develop independent thinking, systematic thinking and analytical approaches. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025.

This study explores how students with learning difficulties (LD) in Finnish vocational education and training (VET) perceive and experience feedback. While Finnish VET traditionally emphasizes inclusivity, recent policy developments after the 2018 reform have shifted the focus towards competency-based education, with less explicit emphasis on inclusion. This study examines how feedback practices affect students with LD in this evolving educational landscape. Using a qualitative approach, data were collected from 49 students across four VET institutions through focus group discussions and individual interviews. Content analysis identified three key themes: (i) the effectiveness of various feedback approaches, (ii) perceptions and emotional responses of students, and (iii) suggestions for improvement. The findings revealed that individual face-to-face feedback was the most effective and preferred method for providing students with personalized and action-able guidance. Peer feedback was valued in practical tasks for its immediacy, although it lacked the depth of teacher feedback. Although convenient, virtual feedback is often delayed and less interactive, reducing effectiveness. The study concludes that timely, specific, and personalized feedback is essential for supporting students with LD and recommends that VET educators prioritize one-on-one feedback and enhance the structure of virtual feedback. These findings contribute to understanding inclusive feedback practices and provide recommendations for improving feedback in VET settings. © 2022 Authors.