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This quasi-experimental study aimed to investigate the effect of polite corrective feedback (CF) on Iranian EFL learners' immediate and delayed grammatical accuracy. The participants included a convenient sample of 60 intermediate male/female EFL learners (four 15-member groups) selected from a private language institute in Tabriz. After the researcher ensured the homogeneity of the participants, a researcher-made multiple-choice pre-test on present and past English tenses was administered. Later, the first and second experimental groups were treated with +Polite Explicit Feedback (in the form of elicitations) and +Polite Implicit CF (in the form of recasts), respectively while the control groups were provided with -Polite Feedback of the same forms. Following the assessment of the learners' oral grammatical accuracy immediately after the treatment (uptake), a multiple-choice post-test was administered two weeks after the immediate post-test to assess their delayed recall. The independent samples t-test and ANCOVA conducted on the pre-test, immediate learning scores, and delayed post-test scores indicated that, although polite CF in both groups had a significant effect on learners' grammatical accuracy, +Polite Explicit Feedback had a more significant effect on participants' performance than -Polite Explicit Feedback and +Polite Implicit Feedback. The results underscore the significance of integrating politeness element into CF discourse, bearing implications for educational planners, materials developers, and EFL instructors.

Students who are educated by schools in rural areas experienced challenges around the world even before the COVID-19 pandemic, such as lack of resources and inadequate infrastructure (Çiftçi & Cin, 2018; Dube, 2020). The COVID-19 pandemic drew attention to the inequities of the conditions facing students in rural areas (EDC, 2020). These unique challenges were evident for those serving low-incidence disability populations, such as those children with visual impairment. There are unique challenges in providing support to students and their families with visual impairments in rural areas of the country. Those challenges included need for additional supports in technology, internet infrastructure, funding, and full access to accessible materials. Concerns over the health and well-being of teachers and students with visual impairments were also expressed as concerns but was not unique for teachers of students with visual impairments in rural areas.

The student check-up (SCU) is a brief school-based motivational interviewing intervention developed to promote academic-related behavioral changes and to increase accessibility to mental health services. Despite published randomized controlled trials demonstrating SCU's effectiveness in promoting student self-efficacy in academic efforts, the SCU's impact on student grade outcome has been inconsistent across studies. This study examines whether student participants' written statements that represent change talk and sustain talk predict differences in post-treatment grade outcomes and whether these effects are moderated by students' pre-treatment academic achievement. In addition, we examine whether change and sustain statements mediate the relationship between study sites and grade outcomes. A two-level linear regression controlling for pre-treatment grades indicated that as the frequency of change statements increases, students' post-treatment grades in English Language Arts decrease (B = -0.62, p = 0.03), suggesting that "the more" is not always "the merrier" when it comes to evoking change statements related to academic goals that require multiple behavioral changes for attainment.

The current study examined whether children with and without ADHD differed in text processing when contradictory information was present. Forty-seven children between 10 and 14 years old performed a self-paced reading task. Half the passages contained contradictory information. Additionally, language and cognitive skills were assessed to examine the relationships between text processing and individual differences in these abilities (working memory, oral sentence recognition, verbal and non-verbal intelligence, word reading fluency and decoding ability). Results indicate that the non-ADHD group modulated their reading behaviour based on the presence of inconsistent information, whereas the ADHD group did so in response to the consistent information. However, this task effect in the ADHD group was primarily observed with children who scored low on background measures (e.g., verbal intelligence, working memory). Additionally, the children with ADHD recalled fewer units of information than their non-ADHD peers. Correlations demonstrated that the pattern of relationships between the text comprehension measures (i.e., true-false test and text recall) and the background measures differed between the two groups, such that measures were more closely associated with each other in the ADHD group. Results are discussed in terms of educational implications to support children with ADHD who experience reading comprehension difficulties.

School transfers may be particularly challenging for students with special educational needs (SEN), and may negatively impact academic and social outcomes for these students. In countries with multiple placement options for students with SEN, although transfers between different types of placements are plausible, studies on this phenomenon are rare. The current study investigates individual placement trajectories over 11 years of compulsory education, using administrative data from a Swiss canton (i.e. federal state) about students with intensive SEN support. We employed sequence analysis to describe individual characteristics of placement trajectories (type of placements attended, number and timing of transfers), and to identify typical placement trajectories. Findings indicate that students with SEN experience frequent placement transfers, however, high variability between individual placement trajectories exists. Four clusters representing typical placement trajectories emerged. The clusters differed in the placements predominately attended by students, the number of transfers experienced, as well as in the distribution of students' age, gender and first language. These differences may reflect variations between clusters in the type and severity of students' SEN. Our study results underscore the importance of understanding the dynamics of placement trajectories for students with SEN, contributing valuable insights into the complexities of their educational journeys.

The paper features the most probable visions of development of the general education school obtained from the research project "Futuristic Scenarios of the Lithuanian General Education School." The study used the Delphi method to develop futuristic scenarios and extrapolate the most probable trajectories of school development. Sixty-one experts in education including academics, school administrators, teachers and students completed an online Delphi survey designed by the project partners. Based on the findings, four futuristic scenarios are proposed: (1) "The School of Eco Care;" (2) "The School of Exclusion;" (3) "The School for the Market;" and (4) "The School of Individual Meanings." These findings capture the (un)realistic and (un)preferable tendencies in our rapidly changing world, the implications and possible benefits of the scenarios.

In this article we report on an exploration of leadership and context for the improvement of quality education in South African socioeconomic-deprived school contexts viewed through Hellinger's contextual theory, open systems theory, Bronfenbrenner's ecology of human development, and Bourdieu's theory of field, habitus and power. A post positivistic approach allowed for a quantitative research design which employed an interpretivist lens to use the theory and the context to interpret the numbers. A self-designed questionnaire was used for the data collection. We analysed the data by means of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) analysis program and evaluated using a Likert scale. In the study reported on here, the mean scores -- sorted from the highest, which means the most important factor, to the lowest -- are presented. The findings reveal that low teacher professionalism and non-compliance to the regulations, contextual factors outside the schools (teenage pregnancy, vandalism), learners' circumstantial challenges, high accountability by the department without considering schools' contextual factors, and a lack of parental involvement in the teaching-learning process were among the biggest challenges for principals to influence quality education.

Educator leaders play a vital role in fostering educators' and students' mental health and wellbeing. Through qualitative research, this paper provides insights from eight education leaders working in State Schools in Malta on their perceptions of, and experiences in, the promotion and support of mental health and wellbeing among educators and students. The objective of the study is to examine how mental health and wellbeing are being promoted, addressed, and supported in schools. Eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with education leaders followed by a reflexive thematic analysis. Four themes emerged from the data, namely school philosophy, ethos, and leadership; mental health and wellbeing in schools; loss and grief; and COVID-19 and its impact on mental health and wellbeing in schools The findings suggest the need for more proactive and supportive considerations of mental health and wellbeing in schools in Malta, along with the implementation and evaluation of mental health and wellbeing whole-school projects in schools.

This article explores the diverse challenges encountered by the school education system in Kashmir, a region marked by armed conflict and the unparalleled disruptions induced by the COVID-19 pandemic. The author examines how these dual lockdowns, one political and the other viral, have profoundly impacted school education in Kashmir. A region known for violent instability, Kashmir has seen generations of students grapple with the closure of schools, intermittent curfews and a pervasive sense of insecurity. COVID-19 added a new layer of complexity to an already fragile educational landscape. Lockdowns, social distancing measures and the transition to online learning exacerbated the challenges already faced by Kashmiri students and educators. Employing descriptive qualitative research methods, the study presented here investigated the magnitude of disruption in school education, delving into the psychological impact on students, the adaptability of educators, and the accessibility of online learning tools within the dual lockdown scenario. The study adopted a multifaceted approach to assess the varied effects of both armed conflict and COVID-19 on education, encompassing dimensions such as security concerns, academic stress, teaching methodologies and students' overall well-being. The findings underline the necessity for policy discourse to address the unique challenges faced by stakeholders amid the double lockdown caused by armed conflict and COVID-19.

With the increasing usage of digital technologies, online collaborative learning is becoming popular in institutions. However, comprehensive factors (e.g. technological factors, collaboration factors and psychological factors) affecting the effectiveness of online collaborative learning are understudied. Thus, both the online collaboration learning theory and technology acceptance model were employed to propose a conceptual framework to explain the effectiveness of online collaborative learning on student learning outcomes. A cross-sectional survey was conducted using a reliable online platform in China. We have collected 368 valid responses from Sojump (http://www.sojump.com) using judgmental sampling method. Participants from China who had used online collaborative tools for learning in the past three months were invited to complete an online survey, and data were analyzed by using Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling. The results revealed that technological factors (i.e. perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use) predict positive attitudes towards using technology. In addition, collaborative factors (i.e. collaboration with peers and teacher-student interactions) enable students to be emotionally engaged. When psychological factors (i.e. emotional engagement and attitudes) are in place, better student learning outcomes can be achieved. The theoretical contribution of this study includes extending the theoretical framework of technology acceptance model to examine factors affecting student learning outcomes by integrating online collaborative learning theory. The study also offers practical implications to institutes for promoting online collaborative learning to achieve greater academic success by ensuring technology support, fostering teacher-student interactions, encouraging peer collaborations and emotional engagement, as well as developing a positive attitude towards students.

Early school leaving (ESL) is considered one of the most serious problems in the functioning of European education systems. In particular, Spain has traditionally exhibited one of the largest ESL rates in Europe. This study aimed to shed light on the role of the month of birth as a factor conditioning the probability of ESL. Using high-quality census data and a regression discontinuity design, we documented that Spanish males from lower social strata born before the school-entry cut-off are substantially more likely to be observed as early school leavers than their counterparts born after that date. We do not find such effect among females or males from other social strata. Overall, educational policy should target more seriously the inequalities associated with the month of birth as they do not vanish before affecting relevant decisions such as leaving education early, at least for males from lower social strata.

Writing attitude, strategy use, and confidence surveys help educators understand how students perceive writing and cope with writing challenges in schools. The dimensions (i.e., constructs reflected by survey items) of these surveys have been studied in general students in the U.S., and we investigated how these surveys would reflect the dimensions in Grade 4 students taught in a largely Hispanic setting. We conducted factor analyses and measurement invariant analyses to examine the dimensions in each survey and dimension consistencies between male and female and Hispanic and Non-Hispanic students. We found that attitude and strategy use are both unidimensional, and confidence can be divided into confidences in convention, ideation, and self-regulation. Strict measurement invariance evidence suggested same dimensions between male and female and Hispanic and Non-Hispanic students. Therefore, researchers can interpret results from each survey similarly across male and female and Hispanic and Non-Hispanic students.

In this research, we examine learning within doubly authentic learning designs, which combine the sociocultural perspective that classrooms should be congruent with professional practices, along with a humanistic perspective that suggests students' identities should be aligned with what they inquire about in class. Our work is situated in a long-term design based research effort where we have come to theorize and develop a set of specific practices around Humanistic Knowledge Building Communities (HKBCs). Based on interviews, classroom observations, learning artifacts, as well as in-class reflective diaries, we examined different ways that students negotiated their own interests and identities within a learning domain in doubly authentic HKBCs. The analysis of our data, instantiated across multiple case studies, resulted in an interest-identity-domain configuration framework that we call ENDURE. This research contributes new knowledge about the ways in which students' inquiry interests within knowledge building communities can be supported and sustained through designed activities that foster interconnections between different aspects of their lives and what they study in school.

Sex differences in academic behaviours have long been a concern for adolescent developmental researches. Evidences concerning sex differences in academic seeking help (AHS) behaviours are inconsistent. This paper aims to use meta-analysis to determine whether there is sex difference in AHS behaviours. After extensive retrieval and rigorous inclusion criteria, a total of 47 qualifying studies in the last two decades are identified (covering 27,149 students from grade school through to college). Several findings are standing out. Firstly, the effect size of sex differences in AHS behaviours is - 0.107 (p=0.048), indicating that school girls are more active and more adaptive in AHS behaviours than school boys. When further dividing AHS behaviours into different forms, the statistically significant sex differences are mainly embodied in instrumental HS, and no statistically significant sex differences are observed in executive HS. Secondly, the sex gap is narrowing with the increase of grade levels, but an abnormal rebound is observed in high school stage. Thirdly, there are statistically significant sex differences in instrumental HS for Asian students and executive HS for North American students. Last but not least, the sex gap reported in papers published in Chinese is smaller than that in English. These findings help to reveal the basic mechanism of sex differences in AHS behaviours and provide a basis for the development of effective AHS strategies.

Family involvement has been identified as a mechanism that explains the differences in academic performance and well-being between students from different socioeconomic backgrounds. The implications of family involvement in students' non-academic outcomes have often been overshadowed by a focus on the academic domain. This study focuses on one type of non-academic attributes which is currently most critical to navigate in school and beyond: social-emotional development. In addition to that, the potential mediating role of school engagement in the association between family involvement and students' social-emotional development remains to be explored. This study aimed to investigate whether family involvement was associated with students' school engagement and social-emotional development and to clarify the underlying mechanism in the relationship. The sample consisted of 170 students from 8 to 17 years old and their parents who live in economically vulnerable situations and experience social exclusion. The analyses were performed using Jamovi statistical software and a GLM Mediation Model module. To address the research objectives, a series of mediation analysis were performed to fit the hypothesized relations among the study variables. The mediational analysis suggested that home-based family involvement could not predict students' social-emotional development, and that the effect of home-based family involvement on students' social-emotional development was fully mediated by school engagement, a variable not included in previous research. The results suggest that families who are actively engaged in their child's education at home positively influence students' level of participation in school, which, in turn, promotes the development of students' social-emotional competences.

Task understanding is theorized as a critical aspect of effective learning, but its role in self-regulated learning and overall academic performance has been understudied. Research to date indicates that students with adequate task understanding perform well. However, these studies have not demonstrated what practices are needed for developing task understanding, nor do they explain the mechanism by which task understanding influences academic performance. We propose that the positive impact of task understanding practices in academic performance can be explained through students' experiences of academic challenges. This cross-sectional mediation study investigated whether a collection of academic challenges (i.e., metacognitive, cognitive, motivational, goal and time management, social and emotional, and initiating and sustaining engagement) mediate the relationship between task understanding practices and academic performance. Findings indicate that task understanding practices positively predict semester GPA, and cognitive and metacognitive challenges significantly mediated the relationship between task understanding practices and semester GPA. Our results suggest that task understanding directly contributes to academic performance; and that students who engage in task understanding practices are less likely to experience certain types of challenges and thereby are more likely to perform well academically.

Workforce variables routinely place top-of-mind for corporate decision makers in choosing where to locate. This article presents an experiential exercise in which students simulate human resource consultants in a site selection exercise. Suitable for face-to-face or online classes, students work individually, pitching their chosen state to other students. Ideal for a human resource management class, the exercise offers a unique approach to engage students in self-directed learning as they weigh the merits of myriad human resource variables. Students develop their analytical reasoning and persuasive communication skills while being introduced to the field of human resource management.

This literature review delves into the applications and implications of ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence-driven chatbot, in educational settings. As technology continues to permeate the field of education, ongoing debates persist regarding the potential impact on learners' critical thinking skills and the evolving role of educators. Instead of resisting such technologies, this review contends that discussions should focus on strategies to optimise their use within education. By conducting a comprehensive content analysis, this study homes in on the utilisation of ChatGPT, harnessing its natural language processing technology, within the realm of foreign language acquisition. The findings of this review indicate that ChatGPT can significantly enhance foreign language writing skills and conversational capabilities, offering tailored language support. Through personalised feedback and guidance, ChatGPT has the potential to facilitate more effective knowledge acquisition and create practical and interactive learning experiences, particularly in applied sciences. It is important to note, however, that ongoing debates surrounding accuracy, currency, and reliability should be considered. Thus, the study emphasises the cautious and responsible use of ChatGPT within educational contexts. To summarise, when used responsibly, AI chatbots such as ChatGPT can enrich language learning processes and provide practical and active learning experiences, ultimately fostering more effective knowledge acquisition. Therefore, this review underscores the significance of bolstering the tech-literacy of both educators and students, integrating novel technological skills into educational curricula, and investing in comprehensive training on technology usage for students. By embracing these approaches, educational institutions can harness the full potential of AI chatbots to enhance the learning journey.

Initiatives for outdoor education have gained popularity because of their capacity to boost teacher well-being, foster better mental health in instructors, and enrich the learning environment for students. We demonstrate the influence that outside education programs have on the achievement of students and how they create a vivid tapestry of hands-on experience that speeds up academic attainment through a thorough investigation of their educational achievement. Additionally, we investigate the important consequences for the mental wellness of students as well as the ways in which these programs support emotional health, self-worth, and stress reduction. This study contributes uniquely to the subject of education by highlighting the importance of educators especially and their critical role as facilitators of learning. The purpose of the research was to determine the relationship between students' well-being and academic performance and learning outdoors. The study looked into how instructors' well-being affected students' well-being and achievement in order to achieve this goal. The demographic group that is focused on consists of teachers, learners from intermediate school, supplementary, and college grades, as well as pertinent student data from various Chinese schools and institutions. With the use of Smart PLS, a modified "least square structural equation modeling" procedure was applied to the information collected from 250 participants. The study's findings are extremely pertinent to the field of education and offer a plethora of information to practitioners, decision-makers, and organizations. By understanding the major effect of outdoor education initiatives, we seek to provide the groundwork for innovative educational practices and policies that empower students, support instructors, and have long-lasting consequences. Further research is needed to identify more factors that improve academic achievement and wellness among students.

The study explored lived experiences of major stakeholders with regard to Inclusive Education (IE) practices in mainstream public basic schools using heuristic inquiry of descriptive phenomenological approach. The sampled participants were selected using purposive sampling technique. Six set of semi-structured interview guides were used to collect the data. The data were manually analysed reflexively using Braun and Clarke six-phase model of thematic analysis. The study revealed that there is some level of misconception about IE on the part of stakeholders. Also, these stakeholders have malfunctional experiences regarding their lived experiences of IE practices in schools. Nevertheless, when teachers are able to employ innovative, gender and culture responsive instructional strategies that take into consideration the sociocultural and Special Education Needs and Disabilities differentials of learners, they will be able to ensure inclusion of all learners. Regular organisation of in-service trainings to stakeholders, particularly those in the working and lower classes, regarding the conceptualisation and practices of IE based on our IE policies and laws will help in ensuring that we educate all learners in well-integrated school settings.

This study explores the integration of Peony Porcelain, a traditional Chinese art form renowned for its intricate craftsmanship and cultural significance, into educational applications to enhance cultural art literacy. The primary objective is to investigate the cultural art literacy of Peony Porcelain in educational applications. The research was conducted in Luoyang City, the center of Peony Porcelain production, using qualitative methods, including field surveys, interviews, and observations. A total of 39 informants participated in the study, comprising porcelain artisans, key informants, general informants, and casual informants, all of whom have firsthand experience with Peony Porcelain. Thematic analysis of the data revealed that Peony Porcelain enhances historical literacy by connecting individuals with Chinese cultural heritage while promoting visual and artistic literacy through its detailed designs and vibrant color symbolism. Furthermore, creative literacy was fostered through hands-on crafting and interdisciplinary projects that combined traditional art with contemporary approaches. Challenges identified in the study include limited awareness among educators and insufficient resources for incorporating traditional art forms into educational curricula. The study suggests the need for enhanced training and resources to support the effective integration of Peony Porcelain, ensuring that cultural heritage is preserved and passed on through modern educational frameworks.

This article describes a piloted approach to responsive lesson planning and lesson reflection that centers the motivation of both teachers and students in public school settings. Anchored in the African philosophical approach of Sankofa and Self-Determination Theory, the tools and practices described encourage strategic reflection while considering the basic psychological needs of both children and adults. Special Education teachers in Washington, DC employed a Lesson Internalization co-planning tool and found it aligned the paired teachers and filled gaps in the social-emotional and support needs for their students not captured by traditional lesson planning formats. General education teachers in the Bronx utilizing a responsive post-lesson reflection tool were able to adeptly pinpoint problem areas in delivered lessons, identify differences in causes of struggles between different sections of students, and even replace a traditional approach to behavior intervention for a student. Crucially, the practices were found to be fully internalizable and did not unduly add to the planning or reflection workload or time commitment for the teachers. The successes found in these pilots suggest the potential for a broader application of motivation-centered approaches in other aspects of school including conflict resolution, teacher evaluation, coaching, hiring practices, and professional development.

This literature review explores the effectiveness of self-regulated learning (SRL) practices in public school classrooms as a means of improving student engagement, motivation, and academic success. Data was gathered from a collection of peer-reviewed articles on varying topics as they relate to self-regulated learning and student engagement, specifically the concepts of student choice, intrinsic motivation, self-efficacy, and authentic learning. Overall findings indicate that classrooms focused on supporting students' self-regulated learning processes enhance students' levels of engagement.

The lecture technique still dominates in biology education, and there are not enough hands-on, interactive, creative, and problem-solving learning activities to encourage students to apply their problem-solving skills. The purpose of this study is to examine how the problem-based learning (PBL) model and students' metacognition skills affect their ability to solve environmental pollution issues. A total of 60 X MIPA students from SMA Muhammadiyah 16 Jakarta comprised the total sample of the research, collected using the quasi-experimental approach. For the study, two groups were utilized: the experimental group (X MIPA 1) and the control group (X MIPA 2). A 2 x 2 factorial design with a pretest-posttest control group was employed for the investigation. The instruments used in the study were classified as tests or non-tests. The test instrument is an essay designed to collect data on problem-solving ability and metacognition ability, while the non-test instruments are student worksheets that refer to the PBL stage, and the observation sheet is designed for instructors and students. Data analysis using ANCOVA with a significance level of 0.000 < [alpha] = 0.05 indicates that H0 was rejected. The interaction between the PBL learning model and students' metacognition skills also has an impact on their capacity to address environmental pollution-related issues.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the education sector to transition from traditional classroom settings to online and blended learning formats. MOOCs have emerged as a potential alternative to traditional classroom instruction, providing students with access to high-quality education from leading universities. This case study examines the preferences and views of school students on the integration of MOOCs in the performance tasks of EFL courses. The study was conducted in Türkiye during the 2020-2021 school year, and a total of 110 K-12 students participated. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected. Statistical analysis was used to analyse the quantitative data, while descriptive and content analysis was used for the qualitative data. The study found that integrating MOOCs in K-12 EFL classes had a positive impact on students' motivation and engagement levels. Using MOOCs as performance tasks increased students' awareness of global issues and improved their research and analytical skills. Additionally, the results showed that MOOCs have the potential to enhance language learning outcomes in K-12 EFL courses. The findings of this study can guide researchers and practitioners in the theoretical and practical aspects of online and blended learning in K-12 education.

Enhancing students' problem solving skills is one of the primary educational challenges. For students to succeed, it is essential to determine the elements that best develop problem-solving abilities. Using SEM, a model that shows how self-efficacy, grit, utility value, help seeking behavior and executive control contribute to problem solving efficiency was developed. The path analysis, combined with students' explanation, provided strong support for the framework, and among the determinants, utility value and executive control, exerted a significant influence on problem solving proficiency. The implication of these findings is that enhancement of students' higher-order cognitive processes involved in planning, monitoring and regulating cognition and their perceptions of task usefulness should be the main goals of interventions designed to increase problem-solving abilities.

Waste, a byproduct of human activity, can cause environmental pollution if released without proper processing. It can accumulate in piles, disturbing natural beauty and emitting unpleasant odors. The aim of this research is to from the students to care about the environment by learning with the Bubble Wrap Recycling Project, Used Plastic and Patchwork. The method of this project is a structured experiment. Common waste includes bubble wrap, plastic, and rags from the convection industry. A student project in an environmental science course involved recycling these materials into sitting pillows. Three variants were tested: 10% bubble wrap, 10% plastic waste, 80% patchwork, 15% bubble wrap, 15% plastic waste, 70% rags, and 20% bubble wrap, 20% plastic waste, 60% rags. The pillow's comfort was measured using a Linkert scale of 1-5. The results showed that the pillow measures 40cm. Recycling is a way to promote environmental care and awareness. Cooperation from educational agents, such as supervisors, leaders, and lecturers, is needed to increase students' environmental awareness. This includes examples of good environmental actions in daily routines, such as disposing of waste and implementing 3R practices.

Designing effective literacy interventions is a primary topic of importance in educational law, research, and practice (IDEA, 2004; International Dyslexia Association, 2020). The purpose of this article is to examine inclusive approaches to literacy instruction and reading comprehension for students with autism that in turn supports instructional access within inclusive general education classrooms. This conceptual framework for this article is teaching for: a) inclusive mindset and pedagogy, rooted in social justice and with a presumption of competence for all learners and b) disability studies in education to welcome innate student variation and understand the structural elements that lead to marginalization in schooling. As applied to this article, these conceptual frameworks help in understanding how space can be made to widen the literacy instructional access for students with autism within inclusive general education. The connection between inclusive strategies and examples of practice connected to Universal Design for Learning principles are explored and connects these with effective and evidence-based practices for students with autism in the research. Expanding access to literacy experiences for students with autism ensures this research to practice praxis in inclusive general education classrooms.

Literary discussions are widely utilized in education, yet their profound impact on students' comprehension requires in-depth exploration. This paper delves into the influence of literary discussions on student comprehension and examines how these discussions can enhance students' understanding and analytical skills. Through literature reviews and case analyses, this study investigates teaching strategies, student engagement levels, classroom ambiance, and other factors involved in literary discussions, revealing the potential mechanisms through which literary discussions influence student comprehension. The paper explores variations in the application of literary discussions across different types of literary works (novels, poetry, drama, etc.) and their relationship with students' creative thinking. Finally, the paper provides recommendations to assist educators in effectively utilizing literary discussions to enhance students' comprehension skills. Students must have the opportunity to discuss literature in ways that provoke deep thought and meaning from each work they encounter. Therefore, English Language Arts teachers and instructors must be creative in finding unique ways in which they encourage their students to experience and respond to literature. This paper discusses a variety of strategies to implement in virtual and in-person classrooms, such as Socratic seminar, Teacher-led as a facilitator, Teacher-led as a promoter of diverse perspectives, Using student-generated discussion questions whole class, Using student-generated discussion questions in small groups, Using Close-ended questions, Using Open-ended questions, Inquiry-based, Making real-world connections to the literature, Literature Circles. These literary discussion strategies can be used for both fiction and nonfiction literature.

The rapid development of artificial intelligence and large language models (LLMs) has led to significant advancements in applying machine learning techniques across diverse disciplines, including educational science research. This study investigates the potential of LLMs like ChatGPT for qualitative data analysis, focusing on open, axial, selective coding, theme or pattern identification, and inter-rater reliability. Our findings indicate promising capabilities of ChatGPT in open coding, demonstrating accurate categorization of qualitative data. However, axial coding posed challenges due to the model's limited understanding, which was partially addressed by refining prompts based on ChatGPT's interpretation. ChatGPT also showed competence in selective coding and theme or pattern identification, providing additional insights. For inter-rater reliability, ChatGPT's performance varied across datasets, with improvements observed when providing contextual information. It is important to note the limitations and variability of LLMs such as ChatGPT, which is in public beta and subject to potential limitations in usage and reliability. Our study demonstrates ChatGPT's potential for coding and inter-rater reliability. Improved results are achieved with refined prompts and utilising ChatGPT's own definitions. The adoption of LLMs for qualitative analysis requires further exploration, including addressing algorithmic bias and the potential for inaccurate responses. Validation techniques are crucial in mitigating these risks.

As a formative assessment procedure, self-assessment aims to converge learners' and teachers' views in assessment. Hence, reducing the perceptual mismatches between the learners' and the teachers' assessments would positively affect the learning process. For this aim, the present study investigated to what extent the learners' assessment of their writing before and after being provided with a list of rating criteria, agrees with that of their teachers. Therefore, a body of six EFL writing teachers and 27 EFL learners participated in this study. The learners were asked to rate their writing before and after receiving the rating criteria developed by the researchers. The teachers also rated the students' writings following the same criteria. The obtained results showed a significant difference between the students' scores on the first and second assessment occasions. The teachers' and the students' assessments on the second time also were found to significantly correlate. Moreover, the analysis of the students' comments showed that while they rated their writing on some limited aspects of writing in the first rating occasion, they assessed their essays using more components in the second assessment phase. Overall, the findings revealed that providing the learners with rating criteria would not only reduce the perceptual mismatches between the students' and the teachers' assessment but promote a more democratic classroom assessment. The findings of the study reduce the complexity of self-assessment practice by narrowing the perceptual gap between the students and the teachers.

This study investigates the application of the fuzzy logic method for scoring open-ended items, specifically comparing its effectiveness against traditional scoring methods. Utilizing the fuzzy TOPSIS method within the mathematics domain, this research established seven criteria for evaluating open-ended responses, developed in consultation with three experts. Due to constraints imposed by the pandemic, the study did not proceed with a real-world application; instead, it simulated data for 25 students to compare the rankings derived from traditional and fuzzy logic methods using the MS Excel program. The research produced three distinct rankings using the conventional method and analyzed the correlation between these rankings and those generated by the fuzzy TOPSIS method, employing the Spearman rank correlation coefficient. The findings reveal a significantly positive correlation between the rankings obtained through traditional methods and those acquired via the fuzzy logic approach, suggesting the latter's potential as an effective alternative for evaluating open-ended responses.

Scholarship on international students shows that despite university policies designed to create a welcoming atmosphere, international students still face social challenges. This paper applies the capabilities approach to reveal mechanisms that facilitate or constrain the social inclusion of married international graduate students. For married international graduate students, the personal factors (their level of study and marital status) bring with structural factors (e.g., visa policies, healthcare policies, cultural and linguistic barriers), which in combination lead to social exclusion. With one university case study, including original survey and interview data, we unpack these intertwined processes and find that married graduate students' social relation and network patterns significantly differ from single graduate students and undergraduate students. They are less likely to attend campus events, interact with their colleagues, and interact with friends from other countries. As such, we challenge the conventional wisdom that access to higher education alone leads to social inclusion.

Bayesian Knowledge Tracing (BKT) is a popular interpretable computational model in the educational mining community that can infer a student's knowledge state and predict future performance based on practice history, enabling tutoring systems to adaptively select exercises to match the student's competency level. Existing BKT implementations do not scale to large datasets and are difficult to extend and improve in terms of prediction accuracy. On the other hand, uninterpretable neural network (NN) student models, such as Deep Knowledge Tracing, enjoy the speed and modeling flexibility of popular computational frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, Tensorflow, etc.), making them easy to develop and extend. To bridge this gap, we develop a collection of BKT recurrent neural network (RNN) cells that are much faster than brute-force implementations and are within an order of magnitude of a fast, fine-tuned but inflexible C++ implementation. We leverage our implementation's modeling flexibility to create two novel extensions of BKT that significantly boost its performance. The first merges item response theory (IRT) and BKT by modeling multidimensional problem difficulties and student abilities without fitting student-specific parameters, allowing the model to easily generalize to new students in a principled way. The second extension discovers the discrete assignment matrix of problems to knowledge components (KCs) via stochastic neural network techniques and supports further guidance via problem input features and an auxiliary loss objective. Both extensions are learned in an end-to-end fashion; that is, problem difficulties, student abilities, and assignments to knowledge components are jointly learned with BKT parameters. In synthetic experiments, the skill discovery model can partially recover the true generating problem-KC assignment matrix while achieving high accuracy, even in some cases where the true KCs are structured unfavorably (interleaving sequences). On a real dataset where problem content is available, the skill discovery model matches BKT with expert-provided skills, despite using fewer KCs. On seven out of eight real-world datasets, our novel extensions achieve prediction performance that is within 0.04 AUC-ROC points of state-of-the-art models. We conclude by showing visualizations of the parameters and inferences to demonstrate the interpretability of our BKT RNN models on a real-life dataset.

Recent advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) have brought society closer to the long-held dream of creating machines to help with both common and complex tasks and functions. From recommending movies to detecting disease in its earliest stages, AI has become an aspect of daily life many people accept without scrutiny. Despite its functionality and promise, AI has inherent security risks that users should understand and programmers must be trained to address. The ICE (integrity, confidentiality, and equity) cybersecurity labs developed by a team of cybersecurity researchers addresses these vulnerabilities to AI models through a series of hands-on, inquiry-based labs. Through experimenting with and manipulating data models, students can experience firsthand how adversarial samples and bias can degrade the integrity, confidentiality, and equity of deep learning neural networks, as well as implement security measures to mitigate these vulnerabilities. This article addresses the pedagogical approach underpinning the ICE labs, and discusses both sample activities and technological considerations for teachers who want to implement these labs with their students.

Over the last several decades, the opioid crisis has had an increasing impact on the educational environment of schools. The role that principals and superintendents have in leading schools that have been affected by opioids has been mostly overlooked in the research. The present study was conducted in Ohio, a state with areas that have some of the highest death rates due to opioid-related incidents in the nation. Purpose: This study collected data on the perspectives and perceptions of school leaders in Ohio to better understand how principals and superintendents frame their decisions regarding the opioid crisis. Design: We analyze data collected from a survey of 217 Ohio school leaders (n = 164 principals and n = 53 superintendents). The survey required principals and superintendents to rate their perception of the opioid crisis in their schools based on their socioeconomic status, school typology as rural or non-rural, and school location within or outside the Appalachian region. Results: Findings emphasize that opioids remain a factor negatively impacting schools of varying typologies, economic levels, and geographical locations.