ABSTRACT: The researcher studied ungrading practices in an introductory course on emergent language and literacy in the early years for undergraduate students interested in pursuing careers as classroom teachers at an urban public college in the northeast United States. Based on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), the researcher applied self-efficacy and reflective teaching theories to address how a course designed with ungrading practices impacted students’ self-efficacy and the researcher as a reflective teacher. The researcher used mixed methods to analyze data. Findings show that students’ participation presented a calibration of dynamic interaction between personal, behavioral, and environmental factors. Findings also show how integral it was to build a supportive learning community to develop students’ self-efficacy. Ungrading practices created conditions for a humanizing pedagogy. The researcher applied an ethics of care that diminished power over students and instead emphasized power with students. This shift in power enabled dialogic discourse that informed responsive teaching and reflective practice. Rather than best practices, a course designed with ungrading practices is deeply contextual and requires an inquiry stance.

ABSTRACT: Physics education often faces challenges in communicating abstract concepts effectively and maintaining student interest. This study explored the integration of immersive virtual reality (IVR) with game-based learning to improve educational impact and student
engagement. The designed IVR game included the principles of inquiry-based, constructivist, and situated learning. It included four levels that mimicked real-world physics situations, each focusing on a particular physics concept and featuring interactive puzzles. This setup enabled students to progress throughout the game while improving their understanding of abstract concepts. The addition of characters such as guides and opponents enriched the storyline and elevated the immersive experience. The experimental results of 19 participants from four different majors demonstrated positive gaming experiences and an improved understanding of the physics concepts. Most of the participants rated the physics education game highly for its positive impact and participation, showing a significant interest in learning through the IVR platform. In general, 95% of the participants gave the game high ratings for its educational value and overall learning experience. The study highlighted the promise of game-based IVR learning in the advancement of physics education and highlighted ways to increase student motivation and participation.

ABSTRACT: Reading instruction in primary schools has been at the center of attention for decades. Teachers are expected to be qualified and capable literacy teachers in order to produce proficient readers who are able to identify letters, understand the relationship between letters and sounds, decode the words on the page with automaticity, and fluently read the text while simultaneously comprehending. In order for students to be successful, proficient, and confident readers, teachers must understand the science of teaching beginning reading. The Science of Reading (SoR) is a collection of objective and reliable evidence about how humans learn to read, and ultimately, includes evidence-based instructional approaches that provide learning opportunities for all readers. The purpose of this research was to explore primary grade US teachers’ perceptions, attitudes, and knowledge regarding early literacy skills incorporating the SoR. The researchers employed a QUAN descriptive design and analyzed the data using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. A sample of 126 kindergarten through second grade teachers’ teaching self-efficacy and early literacy knowledge were analyzed with descriptive statistics and revealed that the majority of participants believed in their ability to teach reading effectively, yet possessed low early literacy knowledge (M = 60%) but had average self-efficacy beliefs. Of significance, respondents may believe they can teach reading effectively yet do not have the knowledge to do so.

ABSTRACT: Artificial intelligence (AI) has advanced rapidly in recent years and has become widely integrated across various fields, including education. This paper seeks to provide a comprehensive examination of the current state of AI in education by exploring its potential to revolutionize learning experiences through personalized approaches and data-driven multifaceted tools, while also highlighting important challenges that require consideration to ensure its responsible development and implementation. AI shows great promise to personalize instruction for each student based on assessments of their individual strengths, weaknesses, interests, and learning preferences. However, several challenges still necessitate careful examination of AI’s implications on education. Issues like algorithmic bias, the digital divide between socioeconomic groups, and concerns around reduced critical thinking skills all require addressing. If not developed and applied judiciously with these challenges in mind, AI risks exacerbating rather than alleviating existing inequities and hindering the cultivation of higher-order cognitive abilities. Through a comprehensive review of the relevant literature regarding AI’s current and potential roles in education, this paper identifies several key considerations around learning outcomes, challenges, and implications. Findings from interpretative structural modeling analysis also reveal the importance of balancing AI capabilities with safeguarding against potential downsides like those mentioned above. It is imperative that AI integration in education is approached responsibly with an understanding of both its promise and risks to learning to ensure its successful and equitable implementation for all students.

ABSTRACT: Gamified learning experiences use game mechanics and structures in curriculum and learning activities to engage students with content and scaffold toward intended learning outcomes. Using the domains of Bloom’s taxonomy of learning in the cognitive domain to explore the possible relationship between games and learning for application to university learning, links can be made between thinking skills and game types. This paper describes the development of the gamification alignment table and the gamification alignment model, how these were used to design a gamified learning experience (GLE) for the intended student learning outcomes at the first-year undergraduate level, and how they could be used at master’s level with different available in-game choices. The gamification alignment table allows learning designers to identify how the pedagogical lexicon matches to existing features of games and therefore can be easily transformed into GLEs. In the gamification alignment model, the six levels of knowledge in the cognitive domain, with pedagogical verbs used by educators and learning designers in planning and designing GLEs, are paired with game types involving different sorts of learning activities. The concept explored in the example GLE in this paper was the accounting and finance threshold concept of the time value of money. This research provides a further link between Bloom’s levels and the Australian Qualifications Framework levels and the comparable European Qualifications Framework levels. This novel mapping provides rationale for the linking of game design and learning outcomes and will be of interest to educational designers, as well as academics, with a learning focus.

ABSTRACT: Rwanda, a landlocked country in East Africa, has undergone a remarkable transformation in the decades following the 1994 genocide against Tutsi. The investment made in the technology and education system is a means of fostering the development of human capital. Thus, recognizing the role of education in the achievement of human capital development, the country has undertaken significant education reforms and policy initiatives in recent years to improve the quality and accessibility of education across the country. Therefore, this study aimed at examining the extent to which educational policies and reforms contributed to human capital development. Conducted in 30 districts, the study employed a cross-sectional survey research design under an explanatory quantitative research approach to collect data from 310 teacher respondents. The data collected were analyzed using bivariate correlation and regression analyses. The findings revealed a positive and significant relationship (p < 0.05) between current educational policies and reforms on the development of human capital in Rwanda. Additionally, the linear regression model indicated that the implementation of the competence-based curriculum (CBC) (β = 0.207, p < 0.5), designed content in the CBC (β = 0.364, p < 0.05), the infrastructure and resources (β = 0.151, p < 0.05), and the provided teaching and learning materials (β = 0.113, p < 0.05) contributed significantly to human capital development in Rwanda. They contributed 35.6% (adjusted R2 = 0.356, p < 0.05) of the variance. Recommendations include regular teacher training programs on innovative teaching approaches, information and communication technology integration in teaching and learning, inclusive education, and gender-responsive pedagogy, as well as planning activities that involve student engagement directly, such as diverse competitions in their respective subjects and field visits.

ABSTRACT: In the post-COVID era, there is an urgent need for institutions and educators to apply enhanced detection approaches for the early identification of subtle warning signs of students’ emotional and behavioral concerns that may impede their learning. This need is considerably greater in those systems where school-based support provision for students in need is still at a rudimentary level of development, such as in the Greek system. Recently, there has been a shift in school-based support provision, from a focus on assessment of existing problems to a focus on prevention and early identification of subtle warning signs of students’ emotional and behavioral concerns, which may impede their learning. However, such a shift certainly poses significant challenges for general, special educators and other professionals. In this paper, we examine some of the main obstacles that are likely to impede the early detection of learning, social, and emotional challenges mong students in Greek primary schools. These barriers appear to be linked to the prevailing paradigm underlying school-based support, the practices used in educational institutions to identify students at risk of learning and psychosocial problems, and the role that teachers and school-related professionals play in identifying and addressing students’ needs and difficulties.

ABSTRACT: Concern continues to grow over the changing nature of work that initially formed a “new normal” within higher education institutions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. This situation is now being further impacted by subsequent economic and political
challenges in the sector, which in turn shifts the workplace towards an even “newer normal”. The purpose of this article is to (1) methodically and logically review the extant literature and research linking the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic to the organizational culture of higher education institutions in the United Kingdom (UK), and (2) based on a bibliometric analysis, to offer a road map for further empirical research in the future. Researchers have found that changing workplace norms, such as remote and hybrid working and other forms of flexibility in approaches to learning and the availability of delivery modes, have become increasingly common, which has changed the nature of working practices and underpinning aspects of organizational culture. Therefore, it now appears opportune to update existing knowledge on organizational culture theory within the UK higher education context to support policy development and enhance workplace practices in the post-COVID-19 period. From a theoretical perspective, this article contributes to organizational culture literature by assimilating a dataset of nascent studies generated through keyword search on Clarivate Analytics Web of Science that have examined the impact of COVID-19 on organizational culture in UK higher education institutions. This emergent dataset was analyzed using VOS Viewer, with the results of subsequent quantitative bibliometric analysis identifying the main existing research fronts as well as potential research directions for the empirical development of organizational culture. Based on this bibliometric analysis, the main suggested future research agendas that need to be addressed linked to organizational culture in the UK higher education sector in the post-COVID period are as follows: (a) to further examine changing cultural norms and expectations; (b) hybrid approaches to working; (c) academic identity; and (d) organizational culture and the changing psychological contract. Such research is important as the UK higher education sector now progresses towards an even “newer normal”.