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With an ever increasing amount of research data available, it becomes constantly more important to possess data literacy skills to benefit from this valuable resource. An integrative course was developed to teach students the fundamentals of data literacy through an engaging genome sequencing project. Each cohort of students performed planning of the experiment, DNA extraction, nanopore sequencing, genome sequence assembly, prediction of genes in the assembled sequence, and assignment of functional annotation terms to predicted genes. Students learned how to communicate science through writing a protocol in the form of a scientific paper, providing comments during a peer-review process, and presenting their findings as part of an international symposium. Many students enjoyed the opportunity to own a project and to work towards a meaningful objective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The teaching of medicine is in a state of flux. New technologies enable students to learn faster and more efficiently than ever before. Especially the possibilities that augmented reality brings with it can be applied very well in this field. The possibility to project additional information directly into the user's field of vision allows him to perceive additional knowledge without being distracted from the actual work. In this paper, a possibility of training Mamma Palpation is presented, which teaches students the course of action and the detection of possible tumors through virtual points. Through guideline-based interviews, added value for teaching could be highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in education, delineating their potential to transform pedagogical practices alongside the challenges they present. Generative AI models like ChatGPT, had a disruptive impact on teaching and learning, due to their ability to create text, images, and sound, revolutionizing educational content creation and modification. However, nowadays the educational community is polarized, with some embracing AI for its accessibility and efficiency thus advocating it as an indispensable tool, while others cautioning against risks to academic integrity and intellectual development. This document is designed to raise awareness about AI tools and provide some examples of how they can be used to improve education and learning. From an educator’s perspective, AI is an asset for curriculum development, course material preparation, instructional design and student assessment, while reducing bias and workload. For students, AI tools offer personalized learning experiences, timely feedback, and support in various academic activities. The Turkish Biochemical Society (TBS) Academy recommends educators to embrace and utilize AI tools to enhance educational processes, and engage in peer learning for better adaptation while maintaining a critical perspective on their utility and limitations. The transfer of AI knowledge and methods to the teaching experiences should complement and not replace the educator’s creativity and critical thinking. The paper advocates for an informed embrace of AI, AI fluency among educators and students, ethical application of AI in academic settings, and continuous engagement with the evolving AI technologies, ensuring that AI tools are used to augment critical thinking and contribute positively to education and society.

Studies using co-design methods require the meaningful involvement of stakeholders in creating new knowledge and harnessing, mobilising, and transferring existing knowledge to support comprehensive and long-term solutions. In the health sector, co-design methodology is seen as a way of supporting and engaging local communities in critical decision-making about their health. However, little is known about which specific co-design methods have been adopted, used, and implemented within health education contexts. To address this gap, this paper presents a literature review of co-design methods used to design and implement health education interventions. This rapid evidence assessment (REA) was carried out by identifying 53 papers categorised into four themes: methods, stages, stakeholders, and outcomes. We examined specific co-design methods used in health education stages to support the involvement of stakeholders, second, we reviewed the outcomes of the application of these methods. Based on the review findings, the paper reflects two areas: first, the review shows that there are a wide number of co-design methods being used to support stakeholder collaboration to design health care services as products and processes. Second, there is no clear way co-design methods are evaluated for their outcomes. This review of literature contributes an evidence base to support the future development and use of co-design in health contexts by organising relevant literature into coherent themes in ways that can inform future research.

This paper focuses on two main objectives. The first, to describe and characterise instrumental approach involving artefact and instrument differentiation, instrumental genesis and orchestration along with the instrument-mediated activity model. The second, to present and discuss one of five cube cross-section lessons designed and carried out in our mixed methods research project. Altogether, a paper workbook, dynamic applets and 3D prints form a five-set toolkit, each corresponding to one of the five designed lessons. The main research idea was to explore how digital and physical manipulatives could be integrated into solid geometry lessons to support the development of students’ visualisation. In this paper, Lesson 2 will be described in detail, which, like the others, has been particularly influenced by the instrumental approach. Its individual attributes will be depicted according to the personally adapted activity model.

In Europe, agroecology has become the center of many debates that animate political and professional arenas, particularly regarding the definition and scope of the concept itself. This paper attempts to understand the ways that the term agroecology is conceptualized by different participantsparticipants and how these concepts circulate so as to explore the interests at stake in the institutionalization of agroecology within the research and education institutions of Europe. We address the core research question of: what dynamics emerge in the networks of European stakeholders of agroecology? By combining different approaches of institutionalization based on network and discourse analysis, we study the dynamics of research, education and training organizations. We identify 10 different concepts of agroecology, distributed among 103 organizations. The significant difference that has been observed between the agroecological concepts in research and those in education/training emphasizes the gap between these two disciplines. The latter support a more political, transdisciplinary and holistic view of agroecology when compared to the former. Moreover, collaboration among European agroecology stakeholders is limited in both research and education/training. We also found that in most cases, collaboration between scholars does not guarantee a shared notion of agroecology, and conversely, sharing the same notion of agroecology does not assure collaboration. This led us to question the feasibility of institutionalizing agroecology and the missing link between a shared vision and the collective mobilization of stakeholders around a strong agroecology programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing interest in approaches based on latent-variable models for detecting fraudulent behavior on educational tests. Wollack and Schoenig (2018) noted the presence of five types of statistical/psychometric approaches to detect the three broad types of test fraud that occur in educational tests. This paper includes a brief review of the five types of statistical/psychometric approaches mentioned by Wollack and Schoenig (2018). This paper then includes a more detailed review of the recent approaches for detecting test fraud using both item scores and response times—all of these approaches are based on latent-variable models. A real data example demonstrates the use of two of the approaches.

This paper deals with the didactic objectives and content from the latest curricula of the different types of schools (schools, colleges, universities) in the D-A-CH regions. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the didactic goals of current and future curricula for primary, secondary, and high school, which are feasible with a single board computer. For this purpose, the curricula are analysed according to digital terms and methods of information technology with a qualitative deductive meta-analysis and assigned to different categories. The results are presented in different diagrams for evaluation, from which the results can be interpreted. The results include a list of digital didactic goals, structured according to school type, competencies, and feasibility, which can be implemented with a single-board computer. All in all, it was found that an inexpensive single-board computer is quite sufficient for the acquisition and implementation of the digital goals and skills to be taught in the curricula. Furthermore, it was found out how the changes in the curricula have established themselves in the different regions with a time lag and which competencies are taught at the individual school levels. The paper concludes with a recommendation for further studies.

Researchers have several options available to analyze data from interventions when participants have not been randomly allocated into conditions. Among these are the gain score, ANCOVA, and propensity matching procedures. Each of these attempts to account for pre-treatment differences among the conditions, but they do so differently. These procedures are reviewed and methods for estimating them in R are shown. The choice of which of these procedures to use can be difficult. Different situations are shown where they perform differently. The primary conclusion of this paper is that models should be hypothesized for how the data may arise, data simulated for these models, and the properties of statistical procedures evaluated. A goal of this paper is to show these procedures without extensive mathematics in order to allow a broad read-ership to use these methods in their situations.

As tools for AI-enhanced human learning, recommender systems support learners in finding materials and sequencing learning paths. The paper explores how these recommenders improve the learning experience from a perspective of instructional design. It analyzes mechanisms underlying current recommender systems, and it derives concrete examples of how they operate: Recommenders are either expert-, criteria-, behavior-, or profile-based or rely on social comparisons. To verify this classification of five different mechanisms, we analyze a set of current publications on recommenders and find all the identified mechanisms with profile-based approaches as the most common. Social recommenders, though highly attractive in other sectors, reveal some drawbacks in the context of learning. In comparison, expert-based recommendations are easy to implement and often stand out as simple but effective ways for suggesting learning materials and learning paths to learners. They can be combined with other approaches based on social comparisons and individual profiles. The paper points out challenges in studying recommenders for learning and provides suggestions for future research.

This paper considers how creativity and creative activities can be encouraged in regular mathematical classes by combining different teaching approaches and academic disciplines. We combined origami and paper folding with fractals and their mathematical properties as well as with coding in Scratch in order to facilitate learning mathematics and computer science. We conducted a case study experiment in a Serbian school with 15 high school students and applied different strategies for learning profound mathematical and coding concepts such as fractals dimension and recursion. The goal of the study was to employ creative activities and examine students’ activities during this process in regular classrooms and during extracurricular activities. We used Scratch as a programming language, since it is simple enough for students and it focuses on the concept rather than on the content. Real-life situation of folding Dragon curve was used to highlight points that could cause difficulties in the coding process. Classroom observations and interviews revealed that different approaches guided students through their learning processes and gradually made the introduced concepts meaningful and applicable. With the introduction of this approach, students acquired understanding of the concept of coding recursion trough paper folding and applied it in the higher-level programming. In addition, our teaching approach made students enthusiastic, motivated and engaged with the learning of usually difficult subjects.

This paper discusses leveraging design thinking techniques for involving children in serious game design in Japanese elementary schools. Our action research project approach accomplished two different goals: (1) to inculcate design thinking in pupils, and (2) to sensitize children on bullying victimization. Our approach uses a range of participatory design methods to distil design ideas from children and to support their design thinking aiming to boost children’s creative confidence and develop social and emotional skills. Key findings from our project are: (1) children made valuable design contributions including realistic bullying scenarios, language content, user interface design, storyline progression, character profiles, coping strategies etc., and (2) participatory design and design thinking stimulated ethical reasoning, reflection and empathy in children on bullying victimization. Our approach is unique in the current design thinking landscape, because it moves from designing “thing” (object) to designing “think” (bullying sensitization). Future research should focus on highlighting ways how participatory design and design thinking enrich and complement each other. The significance of our paper stems from the simple standpoint that those participating in a design should gain from participating in the design process. Takeaways for practitioners are: (1) building relationships with stakeholders, especially children, (2) empathy and user research techniques, (2) translating field data into usable insights, (3) idea-generation and rapid concept development, (4) product co-prototyping, (5) user engagement and co-creation, (6) multiple perspectives on effective communication.

This paper explores the educator experience and sense-making of design thinking pedagogy in the higher education context. Design thinking has become a pedagogical phenomenon in higher education due to its widespread relevance across many disciplines. Some studies discuss design thinking as a pedagogy in the educational context; however, there is a lack of empirical research to understand the educator perspective on design thinking pedagogy. Three design thinking educators who have had more than fifteen years of teaching experience were interviewed to explore their experiences. The data from these individual in-depth, semi-structured interviews were analysed employing Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). One super-ordinate theme; capability building for everyone, and four subordinate themes; developing a participatory approach towards world issues; developing an open, explorative attitude; developing creative ability; and developing an ethical mindset were identified. From these findings, the paper argues that design thinking educators have the basis for a pedagogical rationale that transcends disciplinary boundaries and provides common ground for collaboration and on-going development of design thinking pedagogy as an emerging field in education.

This paper addresses the issue of how to enhance student participation in university governance. This issue is approached by taking into account the growing pressures of the European Commission’s modernization agenda on the educational policies of the European Higher Education Area, and by focusing on the way these pressures affect students’ conceptions of themselves and of the mission of higher education. The thesis presented in this paper is that design thinking and the humanities share a common epistemological core that enables them, if applied in educational settings, to play a major role in fostering students’ trust in their governance skills and in their ability to influence educational policies through a creative mindset and a deeper comprehension of the stakes in present-day higher education. An experimental workshop combining design thinking with the humanities and with the constructivist approach of student-centered learning was held within a course in a humanities bachelor program on the basis of a heuristic framework developed through an interdisciplinary research process. This process was conducted according to the principles of design and hermeneutics. The outcomes of the workshop in terms of the participants’ enhanced self-confidence and decisional skills validate the thesis of this study.

In the near future we may be able to manipulate human embryos through genetic intervention. Jürgen Habermas has argued against the development of technologies which could make such intervention possible. His argument has received widespread criticism among bioethicists. These critics argue that Habermas's argument relies on implausible assumptions about human nature. Moreover, they challenge Habermas's claim that genetic intervention adds something new to intergenerational relationships pointing out that parents have already strong control over their children through education. In this paper a new approach to Habermas's theory is suggested which makes clear that he has a strong point against genetic intervention. A more charitable reading of Habermas with respect to his assumptions concerning human nature is presented. Moreover, Habermas's assumption concerning the power of genetic controlling is evaluated. By means of a close comparison of genetic and educational control it is shown that Habermas's argument relies on much weaker assumptions than generally understood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Soziologie is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: The European Resuscitation Council guidelines recommend First Aid education at all levels of schooling. Schools should prepare students for the challenges of the contemporary world, including First Aid assistance in cases of casualties and crisis response, to ensure their own safety as well as that of victims and witnesses. The present study aims to evaluate First Aid classes for secondary schools students and the correlation with acquired knowledge regarding conduct under conditions of an imminent threat to health or life. Methods: The study included 500 people: secondary school students of second forms, second and third classes of technical colleges and university students of various faculties in the Lublin province. This paper uses a diagnostic survey and employs a specially developed questionnaire. Questions in the survey were constructed on the basis of the European Resuscitation Council Guidelines of 2010. Results: More than half its respondents (55.8%) assessed First Aid lessons as quite interesting. Statistical analysis showed that people who have assessed classes as having better quality were statistically more likely to know that everyone has the obligation to provide First Aid (p = 0.00001) and more likely to have given such assistance (p <0.00001). The study indicates that respondents assessing conducted classes in First Aid as interesting more often gave correct answers to questions about First Aid (p <0.05). Conclusion: After analyzing the results of the study, it was shown that most students are satisfied with the First Aid classes at their school. Furthermore, the classes used phantoms and had a practical nature. Among students assessing First Aid classes as 'well and very well' led, a greater level of knowledge regarding the recognition of cardiac arrest and performing resuscitation was ascertained. This suggests that such young people turn more often to rescue operations, taking into account both their own safety and that of the victim. It is desirable to continue further investigation into diversification of teaching methods, to increase both the number of hours devoted to teaching First Aid and to involve medical professionals in teaching these lessons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper shows an empirical analysis of regional returns to education in Germany. Therefore the returns to education are estimated for Germany as a whole and for the eastern and western part seperately. Additionally the analysis examines the returns for each federal state. For the estimations it is necessary to identify an efficient method and the best estimable model. It can be shown that the Three-Stage-Least-Squares-method yields the best results. For Germany the regression shows an average return for an additional year of education of about 10 %. By comparing the eastern and western part, it can be shown that in the east german states - the New Länder - employees get a much higher return. A further separation of states verifies the heterogeneities of the regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Soziologie is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Soziologie is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Digital skills, particularly programming, have become a vital prerequisite for succeeding in today's work life. Developing those skills is, however, a challenging task, as it requires perseverance, effort, and practice. To teach coding, individualized tutoring adapted to the novice programmers' state of knowledge has evolved as the most promising learning strategy. However, offering sufficient learning support while practicing coding tasks is a challenge due to resource constraints. Following a three-cycle design science research approach, we developed a chatbot-based digital tutor that can support novice programmers using individualized, automated conversations based on adaptive learning paths and in-depth code analyses. In this article, we present the final version of the digital tutor software and report the findings of introducing it in a field setting over two entire lecture periods. We show that digital tutors can effectively provide individualized guidance in moments of need and offer high learning satisfaction in a long-term learning setting. This article expands the state of research by presenting insights into how students interact with a digital tutor over an entire lecture period. This also provides insights on how to design digital tutors for developing skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advanced sensors/electrodes and signal processing techniques provide powerful tools to analyze surface electromyographic signals (sEMG) and their features, to decompose sEMG into the constituent motor unit action potential trains, and to identify synergies, neural muscle drive, and EEG–sEMG coherence. However, despite thousands of articles, dozens of textbooks, tutorials, consensus papers, and European and International efforts, the translation of this knowledge into clinical activities and assessment procedures has been very slow, likely because of lack of clinical studies and competent operators in the field. Understanding and using sEMG-based hardware and software tools requires a level of knowledge of signal processing and interpretation concepts that is multidisciplinary and is not provided by most academic curricula in physiotherapy, movement sciences, neurophysiology, rehabilitation, sport, and occupational medicine. The chasm existing between the available knowledge and its clinical applications in this field is discussed as well as the need for new clinical figures. The need for updating the training of physiotherapists, neurophysiology technicians, and clinical technologists is discussed as well as the required competences of trainers and trainees. Indications and examples are suggested and provide a basis for addressing the problem. Two teaching examples are provided in the Supplementary Material.

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Soziologie is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Educational Robotics (ER) has gained prominence in the literature on Computational Thinking (CT) because of its modularity, a feature that potentially facilitates the development of abstract thinking through complex robotic parts. The field of robotics encompasses the characteristics of technology, intelligence, embodiment, and interaction, and these characteristics can serve as means of instruction for CT. Essential 21st Century Skills include decomposition, pattern recognition, abstraction, and the use of algorithms; which are fundamental to effective problem-solving skills. Although CT is believed to be the key to developing 21st Century Skills, its role in doing so is significantly underexplored. This paper investigates the influence of CT ability on students’ efficacy in imbibing 21st Century Skills. The study implemented a qualitative case study design, in which students of an Indonesian vocationaleducation school were engaged in ER activities. CT skills and the associated 21st Century Skills were evaluated through several phases of observation and interviews. The findings reveal that CT paves the way for the development of 21st Century Skills. Analysing the development of CT can be a major way in which individuals are empowered to take full advantage of the developments brought about by rapid changes in technology.

In this paper, we present 3D printing examples that we developed and unitized for hybrid teaching during the global pandemic. We highlight the benefits of 3D printing in classrooms and opportunities for developing different knowledge and skills, starting from mathematical and technological knowledge to communication and collaboration skills. During our activities, we used GeoGebra for 3D printing preparations, it was also utilized for online students’ activities, while supporting theoretical background students gained in real classrooms. Since 3D printing technology in the classroom is at its beginnings, the presented observations are highlighting teaching new kinds of strategies supported by 3D printing.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of approaches to and insights for impact assessment on open educational resources (OER) in higher education and building on this to sketch a framework for university focussed OER impact assessment. The authors describe the literature on impact assessment in the OER context and the existing contributions to OER impact assessment in higher education. Findings of the analysis are that there are few contributions on the effects of OER in general or of specific OER initiatives. Four contributions are presented in more detail. From these examples and the literature analysis, derivations, and challenges for OER impact assessment are drawn, such as the large diversity in OER purposes and the invisibility of the re-usage of OER. The contribution sketches a framework model for describing OER-relevant results, outcomes, and impact, and more specifically demonstrates how this can be done for exemplary OER-related objectives. This contribution is thus of relevance to funding bodies and institutions working in the context of higher education that wish to systematically evaluate and monitor statements about the effectiveness of OER activities according to the UNESCO (2019) OER recommendation.

Computer Programming Learners usually fail to get approved in introductory courses because solving problems using computers is a complex task. The most important reason for that failure is concerned with motivation; motivation strongly impacts on the learning process. In this paper we discuss how techniques like program animation, and automatic evaluation can be combined to help the teacher in Computer Programming courses. In the article, PEP system will be introduced to explain how it supports teachers in classroom and how it engages students on study sessions outside the classroom. To support that work, students’ motivation was studied; to complement that study, a survey involving students attending the first year of Algorithms and Programming course of an Engineering degree was done. It is also presented a tool to analyse surveys, using association rules.

In this paper we provide a description of the project DrIVE-MATH, highlighting the main goals, intellectual outputs, outcomes, the involved partners, and activities and reports from the three-years’ project. At the end we discuss the impact of the new proposed Education models at various levels, from students, to HEIs, to stakeholders.

The School of Engineering of the Polytechnic of Porto (ISEP) has embraced the DrIVE-MATH project, since September 2017. Active-learning (AL) techniques were implemented in several Math courses, namely Linear Algebra and Analytic Geometry, Probability and Statistics, Statistical Models, Computational Mathematics, and Differential and Integral Calculus I. In this paper, we will share the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the implementation of the active-learning (AL) environment in these courses. We will detail the courses’ plans, emphasizing the syllabus, pedagogical methodologies, assessment methods, students’ perceptions, and other related issues. Several questionnaires were posed to the students enrolled in these Math courses during the last three academic years. The statistical analysis of the gathered data provided valuable indications of students’ perceptions on the effectiveness of several AL methods, on the development of their own essential (soft+hard) skills. These skills will be a valuable resource to their future professional and personal lives. The 5th Industrial Revolution is just around the corner.

The article contains the results of a research within the STIMEY (Science, Technology, Innovation, Mathematics, Engineering for the Young) project funded by the European Union’s Horizon-2020 research and innovation program (2016-2021). In the project, a hybrid learning environment (LE) was developed for both on-site and online learning suitable for the learning conditions in the COVID-19 era and beyond. The purpose of the research segment presented in this paper was to develop an instrument for assessment of the learner’s progress in creativity as one of the key targets of STIMEY. COVID-19 has shown that creativity is also needed to allow education systems the flexibility for unexpected changes and circumstantial challenges. The article presents a definition of Science and Technology Oriented Creativity (STOC) based on the existing theories in the field, a short outline of the STOC measurement method developed, procedures, evaluation algorithms and an overview of the experimental STOC testing results. The relevance of the method developed to its purpose and suggested tentative positive influences of the STIMEY LE on learners’ creativity are discussed. Argumentations of strengths, limitations, applications of STOC testing outside the STIMEY project and the key directions of further improvements of the method developed are provided.

The teaching and assessment of soft skills such as ethical behaviour remains a challenge to dental schools. This paper aims to attempt to help the description and retrospective evaluation of a history of dentistry and medical ethics course in the dentistry curriculum of Cyprus Health and Social Sciences University.

In this paper, we present several different approaches to formula for the sum of integer powers of two in accordance with different representations of this sum or different algebraic methods for its computation. Our long-term experience shows the effectiveness of discussion on this theme for enhancing interest and creative thinking of the students about solutions of various problems, not only in mathematics but also in others fields of knowledge.