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The inconclusive category in forensics reporting is the appropriate response in many cases, but it poses challenges in estimating an “error rate”. We discuss the use of a class of information‐theoretic measures related to cross entropy as an alternative set of metrics that allows for performance evaluation of results presented using multi‐category reporting scales. This paper shows how this class of performance metrics, and in particular the log likelihood ratio cost, which is already in use with likelihood ratio forensic reporting methods and in machine learning communities, can be readily adapted for use with the widely used multiple category conclusions scales. Bayesian credible intervals on these metrics can be estimated using numerical methods. The application of these metrics to published test results is shown. It is demonstrated, using these test results, that reducing the number of categories used in a proficiency test from five or six to three increases the cross entropy, indicating that the higher number of categories was justified, as it they increased the level of agreement with ground truth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The global issue of first-year student retention is a significant concern, generally associated with poor academic performance resulting from insufficient social and intellectual integration. Freshman Learning Communities (FLC) have arisen as a promising approach to tackle these difficulties. This study aims to assess the influence of FLC on the scholastic achievement of first-year undergraduate students. Methods: The study utilizes quantitative research to determine if involvement in FLC has a favorable impact on academic performance by comparing the performance of students participating in FLC to those who are not part of the program. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses, including t -tests and ANCOVA, were employed to identify significant differences between the two groups. Results: Significant differences were identified, with findings indicating that students participating in the FLC exhibit superior academic performance, reflected in higher grade point averages (GPA). No significant difference was observed in registered and earned credit hours between FLC participants and non-participants. Discussion: The results suggest that FLC participation is associated with improved academic performance, supporting FLC as a potential strategy to enhance scholastic achievement among first-year students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key challenge for integrating new transnational regulations into a semi-periphery country is creating institutional capacities for effective dissemination and monitoring of the standards and for upgrading a broad base of firms to implement and benefit from them. Instilled by NAFTA, Mexico embraced transnational food value chains, yet the results were rather mixed, as the vast majority of producers cannot implement new standards and participate. New rules and practices are not adopted on a tabula rasa but layered on prior socio-political institutions that are raw materials for new collaboration and blockage. We argue that improvements in both regulatory institutions and firm capabilities are driven by the creation of public–private learning communities, which in turn are shaped by prior institutional legacies at the public–private divide. The ability of producers to undertake organizational experiments with one another and key public actors is greatly constrained by the legacies of corporatism. Refashioned producer associations could initiate with certain local public institutions regulatory and technological upgrading for a limited number of firms, which became gatekeepers for certification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how non‐Indigenous teachers understand challenges and barriers to academic progress and success for Indigenous students in Taiwan. Drawing on data from a study with 17 teachers of Han Taiwanese and Hakka background who had worked closely with Indigenous students from elementary to high school across Taiwan, we utilise Expectancy‐Value Theory to explore teacher participants' views of the barriers and challenges to educational success for their Indigenous students. Previous research suggests a deficit view among majority background teachers, depicting them as biased against Indigenous peoples and lacking relevant knowledge that would allow them to teach Indigenous students and about Indigenous cultures and histories. In contrast with this previous research, the teachers we interviewed exhibited a good and nuanced understanding of the obstacles and challenges of Indigenous students, families and communities which prevent their success. The teachers in our study indicated that they lack agency and are limited by structural forces in effecting meaningful change. Far from holding deficit views, the teachers interviewed pointed to the importance of working together with Indigenous families and communities to support the learning of Indigenous students. In our conclusion we point to ways of capitalising on the non‐deficit positive views captured here to effect long‐term sustainable change to support teachers to, in turn, support the learning of Indigenous students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper documents the design, implementation, and evaluation of an online learning community (OLC), within the Republic of Ireland, which set out to support student teachers in a hybrid space during their school placement experience. Guided by qualitative research, data collection methods included interviews and analysis of students' forum postings. Key findings illustrated that the OLC provided a valuable learning context for student teachers. The presence of cooperating teachers, as online tutors, as well as a higher education institute tutor was recognised as critically important for facilitating the OLC. A significant conclusion to this study is that hybrid spaces, that are aligned with the practicum, can provide opportunities for dialogic reflection and enquiry within a community of learners. With the increased attention of adopting online pedagogical approaches, stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper offers two research-based design principles to facilitate OLCs that support student teachers on school placement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Case-based diagnostic reasoning conferences, like morning reports, allow undergraduate medical trainees to practice diagnostic reasoning alongside senior clinicians. However, trainees have reported discomfort doing so. Peer-assisted learning offers an alternative approach. We describe the design, implementation, and evaluation of a virtual, student-only diagnostic reasoning conference that leverages peer-assisted learning. Student virtual morning report's (VMR) design was informed by social and cognitive congruence and experience-based learning. We evaluated participant experiences using a survey focused on participant perceptions of Student VMR's value, their methods for participation, and their preferences for Student VMR compared with VMR with more senior clinicians. 110 participants (28.9%) completed the survey. 90 participants (81.2%) reported that Student VMR was educational. Compared to VMR, participants reported being more likely to participate in Student VMR by turning on their video (50.0%), presenting a case (43.6%), verbally participating (44.5%), or participating in the chat (70.0%). Strengths included a safe learning environment to practice DR and the opportunity to engage with an international learning community. When asked whether they preferred Student VMR or non-Student VMR, most respondents (64.5%, 71/110) identified that they did not have a preference between the two. A student-focused DR conference may offer a valuable complement to, but not a replacement of, apprenticeship-based DR case conferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the multifaceted roles and competences of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) educators and their engagement in Communities of Practice (CoPs). Through an online survey of Greek educators who have implemented STEAM educational projects, employing both closed and open‐ended questions, this research uncovers the complexities of the STEAM educators' role and illustrates how engagement in CoPs can be critical for their professional development and pedagogical practices. The findings highlight the benefits of collaboration, experience exchange and the adoption of best practices within these communities, emphasising CoPs' transformative potential in enhancing STEAM education. By focusing on the educators' perceptions and the contributions of CoPs to teaching, learning and professional growth, this study offers insight that may benefit other European countries without a formal STEAM curriculum, advocating for the integration of art in STEM fields and the importance of CoPs in advancing educational practices towards a more equitable, inclusive and vibrant society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digitation in education, where online platforms play a central role, has changed teaching and learning scenarios. In addition, it has brought an unprecedented array of public and private actors into the educational arena who provide schools with technological solutions for redesigning learning environments and practices. Though the arena is dominated by EdTech companies, non‐profit initiatives are not entirely absent. After a brief introduction to the main issues relating to the spread of educational platforms, this article will present a rare case of a non‐commercial educational platform developed, implemented and managed in complete autonomy by a community of university students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teacher preparation programmes through cultural immersion field experiences in Schools as Learning Communities have the potential to increase the intercultural sensitivity of future teachers to provide an effective response to the needs of Roma children. This research evaluated the impact of an intercultural training programme for prospective teachers that included instruction on the situation of the Roma community in the educational system and the transformative potential of the Schools as Learning Communities project, as well as a cultural immersion field experience in a school as a learning community in a vulnerable context. An experimental research design was used that involved collecting pre and post intervention data on a total sample of 321 undergraduate students who were assigned to either a control or experimental group. Results showed that the community-based immersion experience increased the intercultural sensitivity of prospective teachers. Specifically, the intervention, which took place in Spain, had an effect on the dimensions of Respect for Cultural Differences and Interaction Confidence between the control and experimental groups, with greater initial intercultural sensitivity shown by women in the dimensions Respect for Cultural Differences, Interaction Enjoyment and Interaction Engagement. The role of schools as learning communities in contextualised training through direct interaction with culturally diverse individuals is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2020, Euphrates Institute piloted the Peace Practice Alliance (PPA), a virtual six-month program that brings together an international cohort of peacebuilders to learn peace leadership theories and develop related skills and practices. The program framework is based on integral peace leadership, which focuses on four interrelated areas of Innerwork, Knowledge, Community, and Environment. As part of an emergent field, limited research has documented the application of integral peace leadership in peacebuilder training and development programs. This paper, therefore, examines the pilot PPA program to understand the ways in which an online, global peace leadership training program can support the development of community peace leaders. Findings from interviews with 14 of the program's first cohort of 18 peace leaders revealed that the PPA supported their development through the content of the curriculum, the creation of a strong learning community, and the dual focus on theory and practice. This paper concludes with suggestions for further improvement, including additional spaces for participant interaction and experiential learning and the creation of further training and development opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using quantitative and qualitative findings from a study conducted at a large Greek university, the article observes the COVID-19 pandemic pedagogies through students' perspectives and lived experiences and examines emergent online learning as both an opportunity and a danger. The study reveals students' divergent views of emergency online learning. These views include both concerns about the further digitalization of higher education eroding the physical space of the embodied learning community on-campus and hopes for a more inclusive and digitalized university based on blended education. Blended systems appeal to students from divergent social backgrounds for a variety of reasons. There are several advantaged students who claim that the further digitalization of higher education will benefit primarily from the integration of academic requirements with digital capabilities. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds support blended learning systems including online learning, which may help overcome economic hardship in a country experiencing protracted crises. While the study points out that advanced technology needs to be encouraged and integrated into higher education learning practices, it challenges the sociotechnical imaginary of a post-coronial university based on platformization and learnification processes, which decentralize educational practices and bring them into students' homes, away from campus-based educational practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Learning communities is a collaborative framework that can assist the adoption of the educational innovation of digital technologies, through reflective discourse and student-centred pedagogy. Purpose: Framed within this framework, the study aimed to examine: a) the nature of elementary preservice teachers' interactions, collaboration, and discussion during the learning community meetings concerning the design of science experiments with the use of digital technologies, and, b) the ways (if any) did the collaborative learning communities framework support preservice elementary teachers in developing digital technology-integrated science experiments. Sample: The participants of the study were 12 preservice elementary teachers. Design and Methods: The study took place during a university training course and data were collected over a period of six months. As part of this course, the participants engaged in the following: lectures and practicals about the use of digital technologies in science education and a series of collaborative tasks in which the participants, as a learning community, had to design science curriculum materials with the use of digital technologies. The data analysis included: a) mixed methods analysis of the learning community discussions regarding the content and nature of the discussion and b) network analysis of the design influences regarding the developed teaching material. Results: The findings showed that the participants made extensive use of participatory and on-task discussions in the learning community and benefited greatly from the collaborative framework, especially through peer interactions and negotiations. Conclusions: Findings speak to the importance of collaborative and dialogical environments, such as learning communities in designing technology-enhanced science teaching material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Unsupervised machine learning describes a collection of powerful techniques that seek to identify hidden patterns in unlabeled data. These techniques can be broadly categorized into dimension reduction, which transforms and combines the original set of measurements to simplify data, and cluster analysis, which seeks to group subjects based on some measure of similarity. Unsupervised machine learning can be used to explore alternative subtyping of disorders of gut‐brain interaction (DGBI) compared to the existing gastrointestinal symptom‐based definitions of Rome IV. Purpose: This present review aims to familiarize the reader with fundamental concepts of unsupervised machine learning using accessible definitions and provide a critical summary of their application to the evaluation of DGBI subtyping. By considering the overlap between Rome IV clinical definitions and identified clusters, along with clinical and physiological insights, this paper speculates on the possible implications for DGBI. Also considered are algorithmic developments in the unsupervised machine learning community that may help leverage increasingly available omics data to explore biologically informed definitions. Unsupervised machine learning challenges the modern subtyping of DGBI and, with the necessary clinical validation, has the potential to enhance future iterations of the Rome criteria to identify more homogeneous, diagnosable, and treatable patient populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When the COVID-19 pandemic began, many educational platforms were customized to replace the traditional classroom. Similarly, Google Meet is widely recognized as a leading virtual platform; nevertheless, for those without access to online learning, Google Meet appears to be a support platform for distance learning. Furthermore, the use of Google Meet to create an online learning community has not been extensively studied in Vietnam. This study aims to examine how students perceive Google Meet as an online learning community. A semi-structured interview and a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire were used to combine quantitative and qualitative methods. The study involved 294 students from a private school in Vietnam who were familiar with Google Meet. The results showed that in terms of teaching presence (TP), social presence (SP), and cognitive presence (CP), most university students were positive about using Google Meet to create an online learning community. To help English language learners create a dynamic online learning community, challenges and solutions were also listed for fostering an online learning community when using Google Meet for distance education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) has gained significant attention, especially in AI-powered autonomous and adaptive systems (AASs). However, a discernible disconnect exists among research efforts across different communities. The machine learning community often overlooks "explaining to whom," while the human-computer interaction community has examined various stakeholders with diverse explanation needs without addressing which XAI methods meet these requirements. Currently, no clear guidance exists on which XAI methods suit which specific stakeholders and their distinct needs. This hinders the achievement of the goal of XAI: providing human users with understandable interpretations. To bridge this gap, this article presents a comprehensive XAI roadmap. Based on an extensive literature review, the roadmap summarizes different stakeholders, their explanation needs at different stages of the AI system lifecycle, the questions they may pose, and existing XAI methods. Then, by utilizing stakeholders' inquiries as a conduit, the roadmap connects their needs to prevailing XAI methods, providing a guideline to assist researchers and practitioners to determine more easily which XAI methodologies can meet the specific needs of stakeholders in AASs. Finally, the roadmap discusses the limitations of existing XAI methods and outlines directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While translanguaging pedagogy has been largely studied in bilingual classrooms, there is a paucity of research examining practices in multilingual secondary contexts. To fill this lacuna, this study adapts Translanguaging Allocation Policy (TAP) framework to explore translanguaging practices in a U.S. urban high school with a substantial of multilingual learners (MLs). It utilizes the Continua of Biliteracy model to critically examine the societal and ideological linguistic boundaries that perpetuate exclusion as well as the power dynamics shaped by social-historical factors. Three translanguaging practices were designed and implemented: translanguaging documentation, translanguaging rings, and translanguaging transformation. Findings reveal that: (1) MLs' holistic use of linguistic resources continuously challenges the ideologically constructed linguistic borders; (2) MLs' funds of knowledge triangulate with other classroom linguistic and semiotic resources maximises the accessibility of content knowledge; (3) the creation of classroom translanguaging transformation spaces potentially challenge the linguistic hegemony by breaking down linguistic borders and ultimately foster learning communities within multilingual secondary schools. This study seeks to contribute to the growing body of research on translanguaging practices and provide practical insights for educators in multilingual settings, advocating for pedagogical strategies that recognize and value the linguistic diversity of students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Arctic Ocean (AO), net community production (NCP $NCP$) has displayed spatially heterogeneous responses to sea ice reduction and associated environmental changes. Using a random forest machine learning model trained with >42,000 in situ measurements and concurrent, collocated environmental predictors, we reconstructed 19 years of 8‐day, 6‐km NCP $NCP$ maps. During 2015–2021, the integrated NCP $NCP$ between late‐May and early‐September (NCPint ${}_{\mathit{int}}NCP$) over the western AO was 10.95±3.30TgC $10.95\pm 3.30\,\text{Tg}\,\mathrm{C}$ per year, with interannual variations positively tracking open water area. While the relationship between NCPint ${}_{\mathit{int}}NCP$ and open water area was quasi‐linear at high latitudes, strong nonlinearity was detected on the inflow shelf. The nonlinearity highlights that the NCPint ${}_{\mathit{int}}NCP$ increase resulted from area gain could be compounded by sea‐ice loss induced ecosystem adjustments. Additional retrospective analysis for 2003–2014 suggests a potential long‐term increase of export production and efficiency in the western AO with sea ice loss. Plain Language Summary: Net community production (NCP $NCP$) refers to the portion of phytoplankton production that remains unused by consumers and can be exported to the deeper part of the ocean. In the western Arctic Ocean (AO), NCP $NCP$ patterns are uneven due to complex interactions between the physical environment and the ecosystem. In this study, we developed a machine learning model of NCP $NCP$ in the western AO. The model used publicly available underway measurements and the associated environmental variables to create long‐term, high‐resolution maps of NCP $NCP$. For the period of 2015–2021, we found that the integrated NCP $NCP$ between late‐May and early‐September (NCPint ${}_{\mathit{int}}NCP$) was 10.95±3.30TgC $10.95\pm 3.30\,\text{Tg}\,\mathrm{C}$ per year in the western AO. NCPint ${}_{\mathit{int}}NCP$ varied from year to year and was higher when the open water area was larger. Notably, on the inflow shelf, NCPint ${}_{\mathit{int}}NCP$ increased at a faster rate than a linear relationship would suggest, due to both area expansion and ecosystem adjustments induced by sea ice loss. Our findings indicate that with long‐term sea ice loss, the western AO is likely to export more phytoplankton production to deeper ocean waters. Key Points: A multiyear, gap‐free net community production (NCP $NCP$) product was constructed using a machine learning model for the western Arctic OceanSeasonally and regionally integrated NCP $NCP$ responded to sea ice loss quasi‐linearly at high latitudes but nonlinearly on the inflow shelfCompared with the 2010s, carbon export production has increased in recent years, accompanying sea ice loss in the western Arctic Ocean [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Revitalizing primary health care requires that the health workforce, especially doctors, must appreciate the significance of the socio-cultural environment in health. To achieve this objective, training of medical students must emphasize greater understanding of the community and its role in health through community engagement using community-engaged learning. However, research on this learning method applied in a purely community engagement context is lacking. A medical school in Ghana adapted its fourth-year junior clerkship curriculum in Community Health to include a community-engagement programme. This study reports students' perceptions of the said programme as a way of evaluating it and helping to improve upon its implementation. Methods: A cross-sectional survey using a Google form-based questionnaire with open- and closed-ended questions was conducted from May 2022 to December 2023 among 303 current and past medical students of the University of Health and Allied Sciences, Ghana who had experienced the said programme. Based on the first three levels of the Kirkpatrick's four-level model of training evaluation, data was collected on participants' socio-demographics, their assessment of the programme content and delivery, subsequent attitudinal changes and their application to practice. Descriptive statistics were performed on quantitative data and thematic content analysis done for responses to the open-ended questions. Results: More than half of participants were males (188/303). The mean (SD) participant age was 23.9 years (2.4). Over 90% indicated the programme was valuable to their training (277/297) and were satisfied with the facilitators (283/297) despite some anxieties expressed at the start of their clerkship. Participants noted that they acquired other skills including teamwork and leadership aside the reinforced academic content. At least 99% of participants noted they could conduct the processes of community entry and engagement with or without assistance. Conclusion: Although there is room for improvement, the students' community engagement programme may have some utility in the training of medical students to enable them better appreciate community interactions that influence health. Further research incorporating objective assessments of learning and behaviour change is needed to comprehensively assess the programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language exposure is an important determiner of language outcomes in bilingual children. Family language strategies (FLS, e.g., one‐parent‐one‐language) were contrasted with parents’ individual language use to predict language exposure in 4–31‐month‐old children (50% female) living in Montreal, Quebec. Two‐hundred twenty one children (primarily European (48%) and mixed ethnicity (29%)) were learning two community languages (French and English) and 60 (primarily mixed ethnicity (39%) and European (16%)) were learning one community and one heritage language. Parents' individual language use better predicted exposure than FLS (explaining ~50% vs. ~6% of variance). Mothers' language use was twice as influential on children's exposure as fathers', likely due to gendered caregiving roles. In a subset of families followed longitudinally, ~25% showed changes in FLS and individual language use over time. Caregivers, especially mothers, individually shape bilingual children's language exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Objectives Methods Results and Conclusions Takeaways Social media provides new opportunities for teachers to learn, communicate and develop professional relationships. It has been proved to be a valid and helpful resource for teachers' professional learning purposes.While previous studies pursued questions like how participants feel, how to support interaction and why participants remain committed, we asked a more fundamental question: what is the structure of a massive informal online professional learning network and what dynamics can we expect regarding participants' commitment?This work presents an empirical study of massive informal online professional networks to investigate the dynamics of learning communities and participants' commitment over time. We employed social network analysis and data mining techniques on a longitudinal data set of more than 400,000 tweets published with the hashtag “#edchat.”We found that around 30% of participants remained committed to the informal learning community over time. Meanwhile, as more and more people committed to the online learning community, participants tended to form smaller communities where the internal connection was stronger.In informal online learning environments, participants can form stable connections. The 30% threshold can be used to measure massive informal online learning networks in terms of commitment or persistence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community engagement initiatives, which include ideas of social change and collaboration, seek to value and use students' knowledge in real-world situations. However, a lack of connection between academic learning and the community environment may result in disengagement on the part of students. The article argues that, by including the philosophy and practice of moderate communitarianism in CEI, it is possible to balance individual rights with community obligations, in this way bridging the existing divide between the two. Based on Kwame Gyekye's thoughts, this article presents a conceptual framework that highlights the importance of humanity in the African sense (Ubuntu), interdependence, communalism, and respect and dignity concerning CEI. I argue that these four aspects have the potential to provide a harmonious relationship between individual autonomy and society's requirements and, in so doing, to improve educational outcomes and, in turn, the advancement of social equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As efforts to use learning through play (LtP) expand globally, it is important to explore how children's perspectives impact the efficacy and experience of this pedagogical approach. LtP has been conceptualized as a spectrum from free play to guided play to teacher‐directed play. This spectrum describes different ways in which play happens—with varying levels of adult support—and acknowledges that children's agency is characterized by choice and the ability to direct, participate in, and/or initiate play. Previous research has primarily focused on adult perceptions of LtP for preschool children in high‐resource contexts. We present the perspectives on LtP of children (3–12 years) in Bangladesh, Colombia and Uganda. We photographed learning activities in community centres and schools that incorporated play‐based practices. In group discussions, we used these photographs to elicit children's perspectives on the difference between play and learning in the classroom, the factors that influence their construction of play and learning, and the role that teachers play in these activities. Conceptualizations across the three research sites and ages were similar: Children associated learning with play if the activity was fun and social; distinctions between play and learning were defined by content, modality, materials and location; and teachers were seen as involved in play under limited conditions. We discuss the implications of our findings for the implementation of LtP in majority‐world contexts. By moving teachers from a primarily teacher‐directed approach to more guided‐play approaches, we are not only asking teachers to give up some control but are also asking children to think about adults in fundamentally different ways. This research highlights that we may need to couple professional development for teachers with approaches that support children to change their perceptions of agency and choice in the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We discuss two proof evaluation activities meant to promote the acquisition of learning behaviors of professional mathematics within an introductory undergraduate proof-writing course. These learning behaviors include the ability to read and discuss mathematics critically, reach a consensus on correctness and clarity as a group, and verbalize what qualities "good" proofs possess. The first of these two activities involves peer review and the second focuses on evaluating the quality of internet resources. All of the activities involve groupwork and reflective discussion questions to develop students' experience with these practices of professional mathematics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At its core, differentiation stems from the recognition that individual learners arrive in classrooms, each day, with a wide range of knowledge, lived experiences, abilities, ways of thinking, curiosities, and dispositions. Differentiation challenges us to think deeply about and make continual connections between who we teach, what we teach, how we teach, and a classroom culture of learning that supports this work. It is a philosophy of teaching and learning shaped by mindset and guided by five core practices that cohesively function to make learning work for the full range of students in our care. These practices include building a positive science learning community, designing rigorous and relevant science curriculum, teaching up by creating respectful and meaningful tasks, assessing and providing feedback persistently for growth, and utilizing flexible teaching and learning approaches that are responsive to individual and collective patterns in student (a) readiness, (b) interests, and (c) preferences in learning science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research advances notions about how interactive learning environments that intentionally shape learners' identities can empower students and give them agency. Our work draws on research on teacher noticing, extends it to the community level, and orients it towards identity. We provide an instrumental case study approach that examines community-identity noticing within a long term design-based research project around humanistic learning communities. We use interaction analysis methods to provide a rich, micro-analysis of community-identity noticing. Our findings show four types of community-identity noticing practices that include eliciting, elaborating, or adding to an identity narrative [PEN]; endorsing a narrative; nuanced re-authoring of a narrative (near re-authoring) [NEAR]; or suggesting an alternative narrative (far re-authoring) [FAR]. Our framework provides a way to elucidate how the authoring of learners' identities is a joint accomplishment of the community. We discuss how these noticing practices each have a unique role, but ultimately work in tandem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International pre-service teachers (PSTs) can struggle to engage with Professional Experience (PE) communities in an Australian Early Childhood Education context. This qualitative case study examines three first-year Chinese international PSTs' PE in different early childhood settings in Australia. Framed by Bourdieu's analytical concepts, this paper explores Chinese PSTs' culturally shaped understanding of PE and mentoring expectations, showing how this dimension of their habitus is differentiated and differentiating. We argue that with a supportive learning community, the rich cultural and linguistic repertoire of international PSTs can add to capital and funds of knowledge of Australian Early Childhood Education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A mosaic approach to leading practices leverages collaboration and makes it possible to renew the social fabric of a school. In this article, the authors use the notion of a 'mosaic of leading practices' to unsettle top-down, hierarchical, positional conceptions of leadership that focus on participants. The latter invites questions about participants' responsibilities for leadership; the former invites questions about what leaders do (their practices) in and for an organisation. We report on research conducted with Aotearoa New Zealand school leaders that explored perceptions of leading practices that support or constrain communities of learning. Drawing on interviews with leaders and teachers who were working to build Communities of Learning |Kāhui Ako (CoL) in their schools and across school communities, the article re-imagines sites of collaboration by viewing them through the lens of practices, not just participants. A theoretical framework is proposed to illustrate mosaics of leading. Patterns of leadership and the concepts of connective enactment and collective accomplishment highlight different degrees of educator collaboration. The article re-imagines sites of collaboration as a means to foster a grassroots approach to culture and community building, rather than as a means for the delivery of school improvement alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the impact of a situated learning class framework on student learning and sense of belonging in a first-year introductory computer programming course offered at an urban commuter campus. The framework provided students opportunities to engage in hands-on activities embedded in authentic contexts facilitated or led by students from computer science clubs and a service-learning program. Our results suggest that 1) participation in peer interactions within the classroom helped students build learning communities and networks beyond the classroom and strengthened their development of a professional identity; 2) through redesigning curriculum and pedagogy to accommodate students’ needs and learning styles, college and university faculty may cultivate a collaborative culture and a sense of belonging at various levels: classroom, department, and campus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The taxonomic identification of organisms from images is an active research area within the machine learning community. Current algorithms are very effective for object recognition and discrimination, but they require extensive training datasets to generate reliable assignments. This study releases 5.6 million images with representatives from 10 arthropod classes and 26 insect orders. All images were taken using a Keyence VHX-7000 Digital Microscope system with an automatic stage to permit high-resolution (4K) microphotography. Providing phenotypic data for 324,000 species derived from 48 countries, this release represents, by far, the largest dataset of standardized arthropod images. As such, this dataset is well suited for testing the efficacy of machine learning algorithms for identifying specimens into higher taxonomic categories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent advances in machine learning research have produced powerful neural graph embedding methods, which learn useful, low-dimensional vector representations of network data. These neural methods for graph embedding excel in graph machine learning tasks and are now widely adopted. However, how and why these methods work—particularly how network structure gets encoded in the embedding—remain largely unexplained. Here, we show that node2vec—shallow, linear neural network—encodes communities into separable clusters better than random partitioning down to the information-theoretic detectability limit for the stochastic block models. We show that this is due to the equivalence between the embedding learned by node2vec and the spectral embedding via the eigenvectors of the symmetric normalized Laplacian matrix. Numerical simulations demonstrate that node2vec is capable of learning communities on sparse graphs generated by the stochastic blockmodel, as well as on sparse degree-heterogeneous networks. Our results highlight the features of graph neural networks that enable them to separate communities in the embedding space. Approaches based on neural graph embeddings have shown their effectiveness for complex networks analysis, including link prediction and node classification. The authors uncover strengths and limits of neural embeddings with respect to the task of detecting communities in networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In teacher professional development (PD), grouping teachers with varying levels of experience can be a productive and empowering way to stimulate the exchange and co‐generation of content and pedagogical knowledge. However, less experienced teachers can face socio‐emotional risks when engaging in collaborative science content reasoning tasks with more experienced colleagues, and these risks may impact the collaborative experience of both parties and the learning environment in teacher PD. This exploratory case study examines the process of productively navigating socio‐emotional risks and interpersonal tensions encountered by a veteran and pre‐service physics teacher during one episode of discussing physics content. We use a single term, comfort‐building, to encapsulate discursive moves that result in increased feelings of comfort and safety by the participants. Comfort‐building includes moves that serve to mitigate social risk, ease tension, and avoid discomfort, as well as those geared toward finding common ground and co‐navigating challenges. These moves can carve out conversational space for teachers to more confidently face risks associated with being accountable to the physics content knowledge and engage in discipline‐based conversations more deeply. The presented case was followed by video‐stimulated individual interviews to determine how consciously the teachers connected their participation to explicit risk and comfort. This case study highlights an affective dimension for consideration in the continued study and facilitation of science teacher PD, especially programs that bring together teachers with a variety of backgrounds and skill sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most cost-effective ways to engage students in real-world STEM is by turning to local issues of emerging relevance through current events. In this middle school lesson, local current STEM events are used to encourage students to explore the real-world context of NGSS MS-ESS3 Earth and Human Activity. Rooted in a 5E model, this lesson on local current STEM issues takes learners on a STEM journey in their own backyard by applying a real-world context of NGSS as well as connects to the ELA Common Core. A three-step approach to lesson dissemination is presented to include: (1) identifying a local environmental issue, (2) engaging students in research focus groups surrounding the issue, and (3) making connections by encouraging students to present findings to local legislators and policymakers. Through asking questions and defining local problems, students are directly applying NGSS Science and Engineering Principles (MS-ESS-5, MS-ESS-3) in their community of learning. I like to call this the shift from Not in My Backyard (NIMBY) to In My Backyard (IMBY). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the activism of student protesters in a rural Rust Belt community's Black Lives Matter protest, challenging prevailing stereotypes about civic engagement, literacies, and youth involvement in rural settings. Utilizing critical ethnography and nexus analysis to examine disruptions of discourses in place and interview student participants about their activism, findings showcase how students strategically practiced multiliteracies to upturn power dynamics and assume leadership roles within a socio‐spatial landscape. Examining youth protest literacies can inform education partners of the ways students already engage in civic discourse and how understanding their co‐construction of space can inform practices across learning communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Methods Results Conclusions The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is undergoing an unprecedented electronic health record (EHR) transition, switching from its homegrown EHR to a commercial system. The transition affects nearly every clinical employee but is particularly disruptive to health professions trainees (HPTs)—an often‐overlooked population in EHR transitions. To better understand and address trainee challenges with the EHR transition, we formed a multistakeholder learning community. In this study, we describe the findings of this learning community and the practices and policies developed in response.In the qualitative study designed and executed by our learning community, we conducted 51 interviews with HPTs, program leaders, and preceptors before and multiple times after an EHR transition site's go‐live (February 16, 2022 to April 7, 2023). We merged interview transcripts with 125 survey free‐text responses from a survey conducted with preceptors 2 months post‐go‐live and conducted thematic analysis to identify key themes. To complement qualitative findings, we also include a quantitative survey finding, and, where applicable, we note policy and practice responses spurred by our learning community.Interviews yielded six key themes: (1) High satisfaction with HPT programs, despite negative impacts of the EHR transition; (2) early delays, then substantial improvements, in HPTs' EHR access; (3) persistent challenges with HPTs' EHR training and support, mitigated by local and national efforts; (4) the challenge of learning to use a rapidly evolving EHR during clinical training; (5) reduced visit volume as a continuing barrier to education; and (6) an impression that HPTs' relative lack of exposure to the prior EHR facilitated their proficiency with the new EHR.Findings highlighted challenges for HPT programs related to the EHR transition, which spurred important changes including the creation of a national VA council to represent the needs of HPTs in the EHR transition, and improvements to HPTs' EHR training and access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to reveal the general trend by examining the publications made between 2007 and 2023 related to eTwinning under various themes. Meta-synthesis method, a qualitative research design, was employed in this study. It is aimed to reveal the big picture for eTwining. eTwining is a newer education platform. A few study is seen and no review article is published in the literature. The results are presented as frequency and percentages. The review revealed that the highest number of studies was carried out in 2021, and qualitative research was the most preferred method. In addition, the studies were primarily performed with teachers and students, and the most used data collection tool was the interview. Teacher opinions and language education were the most common subjects in publications. Based on these results, it was suggested to employ quantitative and mixed methods and include different sample groups in future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online students are becoming an increasingly big part of the student population in higher education. Interaction and collaboration is beneficial for academic performance and well-being, but can be challenging to facilitate in the online context. Through individual in-depth interviews, we have investigated online students' experiences of academic and social community, as well as the role study flexibility can play in their participation in such communities. The thematic analysis resulted in four themes. Theme 1, Expectations of being self-sufficient, shows that many participants made good use of the flexibility of the studies by being organised and independent. However, the expectation of independence became a potential barrier to participation. Theme 2, Collaboration if valuable and flexible, describes how most participants desired increased collaboration with their peers, given that it was flexible and of academic value. Theme 3, Study groups as important but fragile communities, illustrates study groups as the participants' primary learning communities, but finds that maintaining them over time could be challenging. Theme 4, Digital distance, depicts many participants' challenges with connecting digitally with others. We discuss these findings in the light of self-determination theory, showing how flexibility can become both a facilitator and a barrier for basic need satisfaction in online education, and that participation and collaboration seemed to be more closely connected to the need for competence than for relatedness. The main implication of the study is that online studies should strive to create a need-supportive environment that facilitates academic community while acknowledging many online students' necessity for flexibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid growth in digital technologies continues to accelerate, bringing not only new opportunities, but also new challenges and needs to the field of education. As educational technologists design research to improve the implementation of learning technologies, they must adapt their research approaches to social and cultural contexts. In Participatory Action Research (PAR), teachers, students, or other members of the educational community participate as co-researchers who collaborate with researchers to build understanding and solve problems that are relevant to the school or community. This article describes the purpose, background, characteristics, and potential applications of PAR methods. It employs a meta-synthesis approach to investigate five adult-youth PAR collaborations that implement educational technology to meet needs in diverse educational and community settings. The main questions asked are: How can PAR advance educational technology research? In educational technology research, how can adult and youth collaborations in PAR benefit learning and the community? Results show that PAR collaborations not only provide opportunities to gather and assess information, but can also increase dialogue that leads to meaningful understanding, insightful action, and positive change in the community and digital environments. Findings suggest that, in educational technology research that is focused on improving learning or addressing a community need, combining technology with adult/youth collaborative research relationships can increase insights and understanding while moving community members to actively address the issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Learning Health Systems (LHSs) have not directly informed evidence‐based policymaking. The Translation‐to‐Policy (T2P) Learning Cycle aligns scientists, end‐users, and policymakers to support a repeatable roadmap of innovation and quality improvement to optimize effective policies toward a common public health goal. We describe T2P learning cycle components and provide examples of their application. Methods: The T2P Learning Cycle is based on the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Research and Development and Quality Enhancement Research Initiative (QUERI), which supports research and quality improvement addressing national public health priorities to inform policy and ensure programs are evidence‐based and work for end‐users. Incorporating LHS infrastructure, the T2P Learning Cycle is responsive to the Foundations for Evidence‐based Policymaking Act, which requires U.S. government agencies to justify budgets using evidence. Results: The learning community (patients, providers, clinical/policy leaders, and investigators) drives the T2P Learning Cycle, working toward one or more specific, shared priority goals, and supports a repeatable cycle of evidence‐building and evaluation. Core T2P Learning Cycle functions observed in the examples from housing/economic security, precision oncology, and aging include governance and standard operating procedures to promote effective priority‐setting; complementary research and quality improvement initiatives, which inform ongoing data curation at the learning system level; and sustainment of continuous improvement and evidence‐based policymaking. Conclusions: The T2P Learning Cycle integrates research translation with evidence‐based policymaking, ensuring that scientific innovations address public health priorities and serve end‐users through a repeatable process of research and quality improvement that ensures policies are scientifically based, effective, and sustainable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With an increased emphasis being placed on the importance of postgraduate students publishing articles in international journals, many students may feel a need to organise learning communities with faculty members or their peers to support this aspirational activity. Most research in this area is related to doctoral students, but places relatively little focus on master ones. This study aims to conceptualise possible patterns for the formation of such learning communities through a comparative institutional analysis, based on a qualitative game theoretic discussion. We propose four basic learning community modes: individual (i.e. one-on-one consultancy by faculty staff reviewing individual student drafts); lecture (i.e. writing lectures led by a faculty staff member); peer collaboration (i.e. only students working together on their drafts); and, solo (i.e. individual students working on their own manuscripts without structured support). This is one of a small number of attempts to formalise and provide an analytical model of possible types of coordination between faculty members and master's course students regarding learning community activities. Our analysis indicates that the most efficient strategy for students reaching the point of successful submission is to have faculty members support them by facilitating groups of student authors and providing feedback on their drafts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper builds on decolonizing educational research discourse. Rich, generative, and diverse forms of knowledge production, includes that of the Caribbean. Specifically, the paper uses the Black Caribbean method of Liming, which is an indigenous methodology. The paper illustrates how educational research practices can be enriched by Black and Caribbean ways of thinking, being and knowing. This diversity would support a pivot from Western methods. The author employs reflections from her dissertation writing and research experience, while highlighting the dire need to incorporate and institutionalize methods from Black scholars, Black communities, and the Global South. Via this paper, I illustrate how Liming has allowed for greater discourse, and learning with the diverse communities served. Liming's contributions are beneficial in educational research as well its utility for other areas of research. Lastly, this paper processes the idea that Caribbean, African-centric, and Black, knowledge- making such as Liming are liberatory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The practical Domain Adaptation (DA) tasks, e.g., Partial DA (PDA), open-set DA, universal DA, and test-time adaptation, have gained increasing attention in the machine learning community. In this paper, we propose a novel approach, dubbed Adversarial Reweighting with α -Power Maximization (ARPM), for PDA where the source domain contains private classes absent in target domain. In ARPM, we propose a novel adversarial reweighting model that adversarially learns to reweight source domain data to identify source-private class samples by assigning smaller weights to them, for mitigating potential negative transfer. Based on the adversarial reweighting, we train the transferable recognition model on the reweighted source distribution to be able to classify common class data. To reduce the prediction uncertainty of the recognition model on the target domain for PDA, we present an α -power maximization mechanism in ARPM, which enriches the family of losses for reducing the prediction uncertainty for PDA. Extensive experimental results on five PDA benchmarks, e.g., Office-31, Office-Home, VisDA-2017, ImageNet-Caltech, and DomainNet, show that our method is superior to recent PDA methods. Ablation studies also confirm the effectiveness of components in our approach. To theoretically analyze our method, we deduce an upper bound of target domain expected error for PDA, which is approximately minimized in our approach. We further extend ARPM to open-set DA, universal DA, and test time adaptation, and verify the usefulness through experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the in-depth development of economic globalization and the increasingly close ties between countries in the world, how to train international talents has become an important topic. Cross-cultural learning is conducive to broadening the horizons of learners and cultivating international talents. An effective network support environment and the design of cross-cultural learning activities are the keys to the success of cross-cultural learning. As an emerging network software with rich functions, simple development and convenient use, the WeChat Mini Program (WMP) can serve as a network support platform for cross-cultural learning activities. This study developed a cross-cultural learning platform based on the WeChat mini program. Under the guidance of activity theory, this study builds a WMP-based design model of cross-cultural learning activities, including the components of learners, resources, cross-cultural learning community, WMP, rules, role division and activity process. Under the guidance of this model, we designed, implemented and evaluated WMP-based cross-cultural learning activities for Chinese students and international students at Lanzhou University. The research results show that the cross-cultural learning activities designed and implemented under the guidance of the model have a positive impact on learners’ knowledge, abilities and literacies. It is expected that this study will enrich the platform of cross-cultural learning and provide a reference for the design of cross-cultural activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amidst societal, demographic and educational changes, teachers are expected to engage in professional development and learning (PDL) throughout their careers. This study explores school teachers' mental models about their work in the framework of Senge's learning organisation, aiming to support their PDL during curriculum reform and organisational changes. The study's data comprise 41 semi-structured interviews with each teacher in one school community. These interviews were analysed using qualitative, data-driven yet theory-informed content analysis. In the first analysis phase, fragments of mental models concerning teachers' work and their school community were explored. These fragments included themes such as school rules, principal's role and working with colleagues. The findings show that the teachers' mental models regarding their work and school community can be characterised as contradictory and even opposite. In the second phase, these fragments were brought together to form a systemic, holistic picture of the school community, consisting of mental models on system management, teaching community, classroom, students and leadership. Finally, the teachers' mental models are discussed vis-à-vis their importance in individually and socially supporting teachers' PDL when the school community is undergoing diverse changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Picturebooks can be an effective resource to provide opportunities for classrooms to engage in community building conversations and activities. Community building mantras have been developed from several picturebooks that are used as a means of implementing the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) components of creating a caring community. The NAEYC components of creating a caring community of learners include: [1] each member of the community is valued by the others, [2] relationships are an important context through which children develop and learn, [3] each member of the community respects and is accountable to the others to behave in a way that is conducive to the learning and well-being of all, [4] practitioners design and maintain the physical environment to protect the health and safety of the learning community members, and [5] practitioners ensure members of the community feel psychologically safe [and] the overall social and emotional climate is positive. Each mantra has been developed from a picturebook and is formulated around a NAEYC component of creating a caring community of learners. The mantras explored are "stand tall", "we are a family", "mistakes are how we learn", "what if everybody did that", and "be a carrot." Book and author information, ideas for community building conversations, and related engaging activities are provided in relation to each mantra. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to synthesize and critically analyze 24 empirical studies that focused on Students of Color (SOC) in Integrated Reading and Writing (IRW) classrooms in U.S. community colleges. Our review, through the cultural and community practices framing, examined IRW studies and how SOC, curriculum/institutional reform, and wise pedagogical practices for culturally diverse learning communities were portrayed. Our cultural and community practices framework was informed by culturally sustaining pedagogy and community cultural wealth framework in literacy. Through narratively reviewing studies, we generated the following six themes using our framework of cultural and community practices in classroom settings: ways to culturally diversify reading and writing text, strengthening students' identity through curriculum, fostering community in the postsecondary classroom, supporting students' mother tongue in the classroom, the need for diverse faculty representation, and the need for asset-based narratives in developmental education. Implications for asset-focused research and practice are discussed in postsecondary literacy spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education doctoral programs have an essential role to play in this moment of American history, as we train, teach, guide, and prepare education professionals to learn, unlearn, and lead as antiracist education activists. EdD program faculty and administrators sit in critical roles and must examine our own antiracist beliefs, while also facilitating anti-racist learning for our doctoral learners, who, in turn, must create anti-racist learning communities where they teach and lead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]