Volume 11 Issue 1 (February 2025)
Exploring Pre-Service Teachers' Perceptions of Sustainability in Visual Arts Education
contemporary art cultural heritage foreign students interdisciplinary approach sustainable development visual arts classes...
The concept of sustainability in visual arts education is a relatively new way of looking at content. Therefore, it is important that the contents of sustainability are systematically integrated into the educational process at all levels of education. In this research, special attention was paid to the specifics of understanding the complexity of the term “sustainability" of pre-service teachers who come from a different educational background and who will also carry out visual arts activities with different aged students in their future work. A free association method with online interviews and artwork analysis was used in this study, with 5 female pre-service teachers from four different European countries. The study revealed that pre-service teachers recognize examples of good practice in architecture, the cultural landscape, and various other visual arts messages - they know what good sustainable practice in the environment and the arts is and what is not. However, they show less understanding of the specifics of materials as carriers of material cultural heritage or of the artworks themselves, as well as of contemporary artistic practices that emphasize themes related to sustainable issues or development. It can be concluded that further interdisciplinary approaches should be used in reaching sustainability goals in visual arts education and wider.
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The Puzzle of Regression to the Mean
bayesian regression causal inferences pretest–posttest designs regression to the mean...
Although regression to the mean is pervasive in data analysis, educational researchers often misconstrue it as evidence of genuine change and mistakenly attribute random changes to treatment effects. A statistical phenomenon where extreme values naturally move closer to the average after repeated treatment, regression to the mean is especially susceptible to misinterpretations in educational studies with pretest-posttest or longitudinal designs. In such studies, observed changes are frequently assumed to be the effects of treatment, even in cases where the changes are statistical artifacts. Using a hypothetical case and two real-world studies, this paper investigates the technical challenges that regression to the mean poses and introduces a hybrid Bayesian model that mitigates its effects more effectively than conventional approaches, such as multiple baseline adjustments and formulaic corrections. In particular, the hybrid Bayesian model relies on multiple baseline measurements to minimize distortions associated with regression to the mean during the pretest phase and leverages prior knowledge—such as standard deviations and population means—to refine post-test data adjustments. It follows that the model provides educational researchers with an innovative tool for accurately evaluating interventions and enhancing the effectiveness of various research-driven educational policies and practices.
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A Meta-Systematic Review of the Conceptual, Methodological, and Reporting Quality of Systematic Reviews of Research on Educational Leadership and Management in Africa
africa educational leadership and management meta-systematic review quality criteria systematic review...
Formal publications in the area of educational leadership and management (EDLM) can be traced back more than a century. The 1950s saw the emergence of reviews of these EDLM works. Unfortunately, these reviews were limited because they were not systematic. Sometime after the establishment of the Campbell Collaboration as the standard for systematic reviews in the social sciences in 2000, scholars began conducting systematic reviews of the EDLM literature, including the African EDLM literature. However, little is known about the quality of this latter corpus of systematic reviews. Therefore, in this article, a systematic review of systematic reviews — a meta-systematic review — was conducted on the African EDLM literature. This meta-systematic review revealed 42 systematic reviews. The quality of these reviews was assessed using Hallinger’s analytical rubric for conducting systematic reviews, which led to the identification of strengths and weaknesses of these reviews, as well as a set of exemplary reviews. These findings offer actionable insights for policymakers and practitioners by highlighting the need for targeted training and resources to improve systematic reviews' conceptual, methodological, and reporting quality, thereby enhancing their utility for evidence-based decision-making and educational policy development.
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Simplification and Empirical Verification of Learning Styles Index for Indonesian Students
engineering learning style index short form verification indonesia...
This article investigates the adoption, simplification, and usage recommendations of the Indonesian Index of Learning Style Short Form (ILS-SF). The aim is to refine the initial Indonesian ILS, compare the suitability between engineering/non-engineering and high school/university, and assess their learning styles. The participants were 678 students (413 females), with an average age of 19.4±1.92 years. The methods used in this study were adopting the existing Indonesian version of ILS, simplifying–reducing the number of items, empirical verification (validity and reliability), and Indonesia data assessment. The results show that the original ILS could be simplified without sacrificing the quality of the model. On the contrary, validity and reliability measures have increased. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) supports a reduction from 44 to 15 items. It confirms the validity with favorable indices such as CFI (0.972), TLI (0.966), RMSEA (0.021), SRMR (0.049), and GFI (0.999)—Active-Reflective Cronbach's alpha at 0.507, Sensing-Intuitive at 0.590, and Visual-Verbal at 0.553. Indonesian ILS-SF is faster, simpler, more suitable for engineering than non-engineering, and more ideal for undergraduate than high school students. The analysis revealed that sensory (40.2%), active (18%), and visual (10.2%) preferences dominate among Indonesian students. This study highlights assessment tools tailored to diverse educational contexts.
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A Proposed Framework For E-portfolio Use to Enhance Teaching and Learning: Process E-portfolio
e-portfolio formative assessment open distance e-learning...
The process e-portfolio is a type of e-portfolio that helps students construct knowledge and familiarise themselves with their learning process through self-and peer assessment. Lecturers and students experienced difficulties when using the e-portfolio because Mahara 2019 was not updated. This qualitative research study proposes how lecturers should design e-portfolios for learning through formative assessment activities. Interpretivism was the researcher's standpoint, aiming to interpret how the study participants used e-portfolios for teaching and learning through formative assessment activities. This exploratory case study used semi-structured interviews and an e-portfolio checklist for data collection. It explored the use of the e-portfolio for formative assessment through the experiences of ten purposefully sampled lecturers. The findings suggest that an e-portfolio facilitates teaching and learning in open distance e-learning because it enables online delivery of the content and administering of assessments that afford students' learning of the module content through completing formative assessment activities. The e-portfolio facilitates co-teaching and co-learning because students become knowledge creators and active users instead of passive learners. This study recommends the use of process e-portfolios to facilitate assessment and learning in open-distance e-learning institutions.
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University Faculty Research Competence: A Systematic Literature Review of Core Components, Distinctions, and Measures
faculty higher education measures research competence systematic review...
Recent studies identified that faculty research productivity increased when they felt competent in conducting research. Faculty level of research competency varies due to academic training, context, country, discipline, and experiences; however, what is faculty research competency? The core competencies of faculty research are unclear; thus, the current study systematically reviewed the literature. Researchers used Boolean searches of four popular databases to identify 553 articles for first-level screening. These yielded 46 peer-reviewed journal articles for full-text analysis, six of which focused on faculty populations (40 on non-faculty). Six core components of faculty research proficiency were identified: finding and reviewing literature, planning a study, collecting and analyzing data, writing research, disseminating research findings, and managing research projects. Compared to non-faculty populations, faculty are uniquely more engaged in research project management. Researchers also identified 18 sub-competencies that will help to measure faculty research competency more reliably in the future. Finally, as the identified studies relied on self-reported measurements that may carry self-representation bias, an aspirational implication is to develop a competency-based diagnostic test for measuring faculty research competence.
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Multidimensional Analysis of Conceptual Understanding of Integer Addition and Subtraction
assessment conceptual understanding integers secondary school spur approach...
The objective of this study is to analyze secondary school students' conceptual understanding of integer addition and subtraction. To achieve this, a test based on the multidimensional assessment approach Skills, Properties, Uses, and Representations (SPUR) was administered to 34 secondary school students selected through convenience sampling at a secondary school in Puebla, Mexico. The study employs a qualitative research methodology at a descriptive depth level. The analysis of student responses utilized basic descriptive statistics and the qualitative content analysis technique. Significant differences were found in the accuracy levels across the SPUR dimensions: skills (51.8%), properties (41.9%), uses (60.8%), and representations (20.6%). Students with a solid conceptual understanding of integer addition and subtraction demonstrated high accuracy levels in at least three dimensions. The main difficulties identified were the use of the negative sign and challenges in adding two negative integers. The SPUR approach is a viable alternative for multidimensionally analyzing and assessing conceptual understanding of integer addition and subtraction.
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A Scoping Review of Artificial Intelligence Integration into Accounting
accounting education artificial intelligence ai integration pedagogical innovation scoping review...
This scoping review comprehensively explores how artificial intelligence (AI) is being incorporated into accounting education, examining the evolving educational setting and its potentially transformative impact on the development of future accounting professionals. Following the Arksey and O'Malley (2005) methodology and PRISMA-ScR guidelines (Tricco et al., 2018), this review synthesizes systematically a diverse set of academic literature to determine major trends, new opportunities, and long-standing challenges of integrating AI into accounting pedagogical practices. Key findings demonstrate AI's transformative potential in enhancing student engagement, fostering deeper learning, aligning educational curricula with contemporary industry demands, and improving teaching efficiency through innovative tools and techniques. However, substantial challenges persist, including faculty preparedness, the complexity of curriculum redesign, resistance to change, and critical ethical considerations surrounding the use of AI in education. These findings emphasize the multifaceted nature of integrating AI into accounting pedagogy. The review emphasizes the need for cooperation between academia, industry practitioners, and policymakers to develop adaptive, forward-thinking pedagogical strategies and establish robust ethical frameworks. These efforts are essential to improve learners with the skills and competencies required to thrive in a dynamic, technology-driven professional environment.
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