Search Results for
"Higher education"

Amid the deepening integration of the digital economy into youth employment systems, the psychological mechanisms shaping university students’ entrepreneurial intentions remain insufficiently explored. This research seeks to elucidate the mediating and moderating functions of entrepreneurial alertness and motivation within the relationships linking entrepreneurial passion, curiosity, digital competence, and entrepreneurial intention, thereby extending the theoretical framework of digital entrepreneurial behavior. Based on 381 valid survey responses collected from universities and vocational colleges spanning five major regions in China, partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was applied for empirical validation. Findings reveal that digital competence exerts a significant positive effect on entrepreneurial intention (β = 0.238, p < 0.001), whereas entrepreneurial passion demonstrates no significant impact (β = 0.072, p = 0.226), and entrepreneurial curiosity displays a negative association (β = −0.116, p = 0.016). Mediation analysis indicates that entrepreneurial alertness serves as a significant mediator in the pathways through which digital competence (β = 0.117, p < 0.001) and entrepreneurial curiosity (β = 0.032, p = 0.042) influence intention, but not for entrepreneurial passion (β = −0.004, p = 0.467). Moderation tests show that entrepreneurial motivation strengthens the effects of digital competence (γ = 0.110, p = 0.001) and curiosity (γ = 0.068, p = 0.042) on intention, yet it does not significantly moderate the passion pathway (γ = 0.041, p = 0.174). This study clarifies the pivotal mechanistic roles of alertness and motivation within the digital economic context, enriches theoretical understanding of entrepreneurial intention formation among students, and offers theoretical grounding for entrepreneurship education in higher education. © The Author(s) 2025.

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) has significantly transformed various educational domains, including engineering education. Despite AI’s growing prevalence, limited research has explored the determinants influencing engineering students' acceptance of AI. This study investigates the factors shaping AI acceptance among engineering students in Indonesia. Using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with the Partial Least Squares (PLS) approach, data were collected from 158 engineering students across multiple universities. The research model incorporates six constructs: Perceived Usefulness (PU), Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU), Social Influence (SI), Facilitating Conditions (FC), Self-Efficacy (SE), and Perceived Risks (PR), each operationalized through seven measurement indicators. The results indicate that PU, PEOU, SI, and SE have significant positive effects on AI acceptance, while PR exerts a significant negative influence. Conversely, FC does not demonstrate a significant impact. These findings offer theoretical and practical implications for fostering AI adoption in engineering education, including strategies for educators, policymakers, and developers of AI-based tools to enhance user acceptance. This study extends the literature on technology acceptance in educational settings, providing actionable insights for improving the integration of AI in higher education. © 2025, The Online Learning Consortium. All rights reserved.

This pilot practitioner inquiry examines the use of AI-generated podcasts within a higher education research module. The study investigated two questions: (1) How do students experience, perceive, and make use of AI-generated podcasts as part of their learning? (2) What opportunities, challenges, and pedagogical considerations emerge for the educator when designing and integrating AI-generated podcasts into teaching practice? Google’s NotebookLM was used to create short recordings that summarised lecture topics, addressed student queries, and offered assignment guidance. Data were gathered from both the educator’s reflective journal and a student focus group. Findings suggest that students valued the novelty, accessibility, and supportive tone of the podcasts. They described the recordings as helpful in revisiting key ideas, clarifying uncertainties, and managing study along with other responsibilities. The educator found the podcasts practical to produce and noted that they contributed to more focused classroom discussions. At the same time, both students and the educator identified limitations, including the constraints of an audio-only format, the need for transparency when using AI, and the additional time required. As a pilot study, the findings provide indicative insights rather than generalisable conclusions. The work points to the potential of AI-generated podcasts as a supplementary resource that may reinforce understanding and support independent study, while also highlighting considerations around inclusivity, educator workload, and responsible AI use in higher education. © 2025 by the author.

This empirical study quantifies discrepancies in expectations between Chinese accounting VET interns and industry supervisors in work-based apprenticeships, aiming to bridge VET curricula with labor market demands to foster competence development and school-to-work transitions. Employing quantitative surveys (n=121) and non-parametric tests (Mann-Whitney U; Cronbach’s α >0.7 for reliability), this VET-focused study uncovers perceptual gaps among stakeholders in Chinese accounting apprenticeships, highlighting misalignments between academic preparation and industry demands that undermine VET effectiveness in higher education. There is a statistically significant difference between interns and supervisors (U = 1321.50, p = 0.02). The data shows that the two groups have very different ideas about the value of internships and the skills they want to improve. Interns typically prioritize personal development and skill enhancement, while supervisors concentrate on organizational efficiency and technical proficiency. These findings emphasize the necessity for enhanced communication and alignment between educational institutions and industry practitioners to ensure that internships fulfill both academic and professional objectives in interdisciplinary settings. This study advances empirical VET research by offering comparative evidence from China, with implications for designing work-based learning programs and aligning stakeholder expectations to enhance global VET outcomes, particularly in collectivist contexts. © 2025, Expert Projects. All rights reserved.

Background/Objectives: School violence represents a significant concern for educational communities worldwide, affecting student well-being and academic development. While prior research has documented prevalence rates and risk factors, limited studies have examined social–cognitive factors associated with antisocial behavior specifically within vocational education contexts using integrated analytical approaches. This exploratory cross-sectional study examined social–cognitive factors—specifically self-reported attitudes about aggression norms, prosocial attitudes, and school climate perceptions—associated with violence-supportive attitudes among Greek vocational students. Methods: A cross-sectional design employed validated self-report instruments and traditional statistical methods. The sample comprised 76 vocational high school students (38.2% male; ages 14–18; response rate 75.2%) from one school in Patras, Greece. Validated instruments assessed attitudes toward interpersonal peer violence (α = 0.87), peer aggression norms across four subscales (α = 0.83–0.90), and school climate dimensions (α = 0.70–0.75). Analyses included descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations with bootstrapped confidence intervals, MANOVA for multivariate group comparisons, independent samples t-tests, propensity score matching for urban–rural comparisons, polynomial regression for developmental patterns, and path analysis for theoretical model testing. Results: Strong associations emerged between perceived school-level and individual-level aggression norms (r = 0.80, p < 0.001, 95% CI [0.71, 0.87]), representing one of the strongest relationships documented in school violence research. Violence-supportive attitudes demonstrated inverse associations with prosocial alternative norms (r = −0.37, p < 0.001, 95% CI [−0.55, −0.16]). Significant gender differences emerged for teacher–student relationships (d = −0.78, p = 0.002), with females reporting substantially more positive perceptions. Propensity-matched urban students demonstrated higher aggression norm endorsement compared to rural students across multiple indicators (d = 0.61–0.78, all p < 0.020). Polynomial regression revealed curvilinear developmental patterns with optimal teacher relationship quality during mid-adolescence (ages 15–16). Path analysis supported a sequential association model wherein school-level norms related to individual attitudes through prosocial alternative beliefs (indirect effect β = −0.22, p = 0.002, 95% CI [−0.34, −0.11]). Conclusions: This preliminary investigation identified social–cognitive factors—particularly normative beliefs about aggression at both individual and environmental levels—as strongly associated with violence-supportive attitudes in Greek vocational education. The exceptionally strong alignment between school-level and individual-level aggression norms (r = 0.80) suggests that environmental normative contexts may play a more substantial role in attitude formation than previously recognized in this educational setting. Gender and urban–rural differences indicate meaningful heterogeneity requiring differentiated approaches. Future research should employ longitudinal designs with multi-informant assessment and larger multi-site samples to establish temporal precedence, reduce method variance, and test causal hypotheses regarding relationships between normative beliefs and behavioral outcomes. © 2025 by the authors.

Purpose of the study: This study aims to assess the analytical thinking skills of second-year pre-service teachers in the Concepts of Science course using a Moodle-based online assessment, emphasizing higher-order cognitive skills in Bloom’s taxonomy. Methodology: A descriptive quantitative design was employed involving 58 students from the Primary School Teacher education (PGSD) program. Data were collected through a Moodle-based online test consisting of 20 items measuring analytical thinking at the analyzing level (C4), focusing on differentiating, organizing, and attributing in fundamental science topics. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze students’ performance levels. Main Findings: The findings show that approximately 62% of students achieved a moderate level of analytical thinking. Students performed better in identifying relationships between variables and interpreting experimental results, while difficulties were observed in organizing and evaluating scientific information. This indicates that Moodle-based assessments are effective in measuring analytical thinking but require instructional reinforcement to strengthen higher-order cognitive processes.. Novelty/Originality of this study: This study provides empirical evidence on the effectiveness of Moodle-based assessments in evaluating analytical thinking skills aligned with Bloom’s taxonomy in science teacher education. It highlights the potential of digital assessment platforms to support valid, efficient, and scalable measurement of pre-service teachers’ analytical competencies. © 2025, Cahaya Ilmu Cendekia Publisher. All rights reserved.

Purpose of the study: This study aims to develop and empirically evaluate a technology-enhanced, coaching-based learning model to strengthen psychology students’ competencies in providing motivational support, addressing gaps in experiential training and improving graduates’ professional readiness. Methodology: The research employed a quasi-experimental design with one hundred twenty psychology students. The experimental group participated in a structured pedagogical intervention that integrated interactive coaching workshops, video-recorded role-playing simulations of client sessions, etc. Professional readiness was assessed using validated scales measuring professional self-identity, professional competence, client motivation support skills, and coaching self-efficacy. Statistical analysis included descriptive statistics, Student t-test, analysis of variance, correlation and regression analyses, and mediation analysis using Hayes' PROCESS macro. Main Findings: Participants in the experimental condition demonstrated statistically significant and substantial improvements in professional self-identity, coaching self-efficacy, and competence in providing motivational support compared to the control group. The effect sizes were large. Mediation analysis confirmed that enhanced professional competence fully mediated the positive effect of the training on motivational support skills. Novelty/Originality of this study: This research contributes to the fields of educational technology and instructional design by introducing an evidence-based, scalable pedagogical model. It positions coaching not as a supplementary activity but as a core instructional methodology, systematically supported by accessible digital tools to enhance reflective learning and feedback. The proposed model offers a practical framework for competency-oriented curriculum redesign in higher education, readily adaptable to hybrid and fully online learning environments, with applicability extending beyond psychology to other professions requiring motivational support skills. © 2025, Cahaya Ilmu Cendekia Publisher. All rights reserved.

The collaboration between higher education (HE) and education technology (EdTech) companies plays a vital role in developing digitallyembedded learning in the contemporary digital era. The partnership between HE and industry is widely recognized as a means to promote innovation. Moreover, it provides advantages to companies striving to fulfill client requirements. The HE-industry collaboration has garnered increasing attention in academic research. However, there is a lack of studies on the actors’ perspectives and on the required processes and other elements for conducting effective HE-EdTech collaboration in developing learning and teaching in HE. This study addresses this research gap by examining the interprofessional collaborative development process involved in the creation of video-supported collaborative learning. The qualitative research examines the factors of successful collaboration between HE and EdTech companies within the knowledge-building ecosystem framework, using ethnographic data. The findings indicate that the establishment of a knowledge-building ecosystem for the development of digitally-embedded learning in based on collaboration between key actors: teachers, teacher educators, EdTech companies, HE institutions, and students, the end-users and ultimate beneficiaries. The collaboration is manifested in open innovation, practice-based research, and research-based service development processes, and relies on goal setting, continuous dialogue, reflective assessment, commitment, and trust as key elements. © The Author(s) 2024. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

Research has consistently revealed that adolescents with a migration background are more likely to drop out from vocational education and training (VET) at the upper-secondary level than their native peers. While recent research has provided rich empirical evidence of mechanisms leading to dropouts from VET, little is known about such mechanisms for adolescents with a migration background. In our contribution, we assume that the difficulties that adolescents with a migration background face when entering the VET system are associated with a restricted range of occupational opportunities and, thereby, higher levels of career compromises in terms of the desired and attained VET occupation. Following previous findings on key dimensions of career compromise, we examine the relevance of compromises in the field of work and social status in explaining the higher propensity of adolescents with a migration background to drop out from their first VET position. Using logistic regressions and KHB decomposition analyses, our results underline that gaps in VET dropout rates between adolescents with and without a migration background can partially be ascribed to migration-specific compromises in the field of work between the aspired and attained VET occupation, while compromises in social status seem to be unimportant. © The Author(s) 2024.

This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of mind mapping in the standardized training and education of internal medicine resident physicians in nephrology. Sixty trainees undergoing rotations in the Nephrology Department at Chengdu University Affiliated Hospital between January 2021 and December 2023 were randomly assigned to control and observation groups, each comprising 30 trainees. The observation group received mind mapping teaching, while the control group received traditional teaching methods. The clinical thinking training of the two groups was then compared. The observation group outperformed the control group in all aspects of the Mini-CEX assessment, including medical interviews, humanistic care, clinical judgment, communication skills, overall performance, and total score, with statistical significance (P < 0.05). However, there were no statistically significant differences between the two groups in the areas of physical examination and organizational effectiveness (P > 0.05). Furthermore, the observation group achieved higher scores than the control group in the final theory exam, skill exam results, and satisfaction, with statistically significant differences (P < 0.05). Mind mapping not only aids in the consolidation of fundamental memorized knowledge but also enhances clinical thinking skills, thereby playing a pivotal role in assisting resident physicians in establishing a comprehensive knowledge base in nephrology and improving the effectiveness of their training. © The Author(s) 2025.