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Incorporating immersive technologies in education has become increasingly popular due to their ability to facilitate active learning and engage students in the acquisition of concepts and skills. One form of immersive technology includes educational games that incorporate movement interaction, allowing children to engage with in-game elements by either immersing their own image within the game environment or by controlling an avatar using their hand and body gestures. Nonetheless, successfully incorporating these technologies into classrooms with sizable student populations presents a challenge, necessitating the implementation of a well-considered design approach. This paper introduces a systematic learning design approach facilitating the integration of a movement-based learning platform as a core curriculum tool in multimodal learning stations within authentic Kindergarten classroom settings. The design approach was evaluated in a case study involving three kindergarten teachers and 49 students conducted over a full school year. Progress data were gathered utilizing a combination of quantitative and qualitative evaluation tools. Analysis of the data suggests that integrating multimodal learning activities led to improvements in overall academic performance, particularly in critical mathematical skills compared to pre-test scores. Teachers expressed a positive attitude towards the integration of movement-based games using the learning design approach, finding it to be beneficial and effective for student learning. The study emphasizes the importance of purposeful design in creating immersive learning experiences and underscores the significance of utilizing multiple representations to enhance student motivation and engagement. The proposed systematic learning design approach has the potential to be applied to a broad range of grade levels, academic subjects and educational contexts to facilitate the integration of immersive technologies.

Although MAT pedagogy-only programs provide opportunities for career changers and college graduates with an expedited pathway into a teaching career while working and attending graduate school, there are concerns regarding whether these teachers possess strong subject matter knowledge. The purpose of this study is to examine MAT pedagogy-only middle and secondary social studies teachers' confidence levels in their content knowledge of general and specialized content-area topics in social studies. Our major findings show that their confidence levels are based upon their academic studies, experiential knowledge, and grade levels that they teach. Based on these findings, we recommend that education preparation providers offer content-area supports in the form of professional development and content-area tutoring to support MAT pedagogy-only students' content knowledge for middle and secondary social studies instruction.

The Philippine educational system and its core curriculum is oriented toward the formation of the modern, autonomous, rational subject, particularly one that will fit into the contemporary global market and production system. Through this system, Filipinos are deepening the colonization of their rationalities and subjectivities by imposing a system that shapes a subject who exists to serve the global market by being a fit worker, consumer, entrepreneur, and producer of knowledge. However useful this educational system may be, it does not consider the 'Filipino' subjectivity's need for formation as a "loob" who is a "kapwa." The Filipino subjectivity which is grounded on the experience of a "loob" filled with "liwanag" opening to the world, needs an education in its own capacity for knowing and realizing its well-being. The conception of the subject in relation to the world calls for a different kind of education, particularly in the development of indigenous skills in humanistic research. This paper will argue that as a Filipino student is subjected to the imposition of the dominant Western educational system, they should also equally be given an education in their own rationality rooted in their own native subjectivity. A people must have the opportunity to be trained in their own rationality rooted in their own subjectivity in order to evaluate its value for human flourishing.

Agricultural systems are complex and can be used as examples to teach science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) concepts. However, inclusion of agriculture in core STEM courses is often limited. Three professional development sessions for K-12 teachers were offered in 2021-2022 (hybrid or remote sessions) and repeated in 2022-2023 (in-person sessions) to highlight ways that agricultural plant production systems could be incorporated into core courses like biology, environmental science, chemistry, and math. Teacher participants asked how knowledge level and confidence were influencing their inclusion of agriculture into STEM courses before and after the sessions, and gains in knowledge on content-based questions were also evaluated. Response rates in Year 1 ranged from 8.0% to 38.5%, and usable response rates in Year 2 ranged from 47% to 68%. The availability of lessons or activities and teacher content knowledge both increased teacher likelihood to incorporate in three sessions. However, the additional time needed to incorporate new lessons was identified as affecting the likelihood to incorporate materials after the Year 1 ecology session. Teacher confidence to incorporate agricultural lessons or activities into their courses increased in four of the sessions, though teachers became more aware that limited resources are available to help increase adoption. Awareness of how agriculture can be used to meet learning standards also improved teacher confidence in four sessions. Average score on knowledge-based questions increased in all six sessions, but was only significant for two sessions. These sessions were successful at increasing teacher knowledge and confidence to incorporate agriculture into STEM courses.

Assistive technology (AT) is a critical in providing students with visual impairments (VI) access to classroom information. However, little is known about how the fluid and diverse experiences across core-content classrooms that impact the nature of AT use among students with VI. We conducted three classroom observations of 10 secondary-age (i.e., 6th through 12th grade) students with VI in core-content classrooms (i.e., math, English, social studies, or science). Wide variations in AT use suggest that AT needs are individualized. Additionally, writing tasks, reading tasks, and independent instructional groupings were associated with the highest rates of AT usage. However, students receive little support for using their AT in classrooms. We offer implications and recommendations for research and practice aimed at increasing AT use in core-content classrooms.

Culturally and historically sensitive material and highly diverse student bodies challenge educators in the higher education classroom. Transformative and empowering pedagogies address how different types of learners may experience sensitive material. Critical pedagogies of care create supportive educational environments, compassionate teaching practices, and empower students through diversified content. Pedagogies of discomfort, a subset of pedagogies of care, push educators and students to leave their comfort zones, recognize the non-neutrality of educational processes, and confront the discomfort of challenging knowledge. When applied correctly, these pedagogies promote critical thinking and transformative action, and counter the neoliberal and white supremacist values that often exist within the classroom. Using around 1900 survey responses and 40 in-depth interviews with students and faculty, this research studies the question: to what extent are critical pedagogies of care enacted and experienced at a global liberal arts college in the Arabian Gulf?

Scholars have become increasingly interested in identifying a more effective set of core teaching practices for developing teacher education and professional development programs. Although they have conducted many investigations within this realm over the past two decades, these efforts have focused mainly upon science, language arts, math, and music. The existing body of academic literature contains only a few studies that examine the social studies context, and this deficiency ignores the field of geography. The current study addressed this gap in the literature by exploring the core practices of geographic inquiry. A Delphi method was used to identify the core practices for teaching geographic inquiry. The findings were derived from a three-round Delphi panel survey involving 27 experts in the geography education field, helping to build consensus around a set of core secondary school geography teaching practices. The results revealed that experts considered eight practices to be core for facilitating geographic inquiry: (1) use geographic questions; (2) explain geographic concepts, principles, and processes; (3) select and adapt geographic sources; (4) use geographic/spatial representation and geospatial technology tools; (5) develop geographic reasoning; (6) evaluate sources and employ geographic evidence; (7) construct geographic explanations and predictions; and (8) develop informed-geographic action. These eight core practices for facilitating geographic inquiry do not function separately; rather, they operate simultaneously and in an interconnected manner in which more than one practice works to facilitate inquiry.

The current research utilized a modern word cloud tool to assess the effectiveness of course objectives and outcomes of a community-engaged learning and core curriculum course at a private Catholic University. The foundational course revolves around social justice using the setting of sport and physical activity. Beginning with a final reflection of the course and inserting data into word cloud tool, results indicate that this assessment technique offered insight into future enhancements of college course assessment by breaking down and focusing on specific words or phrases that may or may not be meeting the needs of the instructor and students.

Purpose: The research aimed to critically analyse the changes that have occurred in the core curricula of general education in Poland following the Russo--Ukrainian war from the perspective of the securitisation process. Methodology: The research involved analysing 366 texts spanning various genres. These texts were produced by both securitising actors and recipients of the change. The research employed content analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis, following the approaches of Ruth Wodak and Martin Reisigl. Findings: The research revealed that the securitising actors advocating for changes in the core curricula have been identified as a threat directly linked to the war in Ukraine. However, the discourse surrounding these changes also exhibited several features that indicate a hidden political dimension. Further, the analysis emphasised the use of 'ministryplaining' towards the audience involved in education, who formulate critical remarks.

This research aims to compare the social studies curricula of Thailand and New York State, USA, analyze their similarities and differences, and propose guidelines for improving the Thai social studies curriculum. The study employed a qualitative research methodology, using documentary analysis of the Thai Basic Education Core Curriculum B.E. 2551 (Revised B.E. 2560) in the social studies, religion, and culture learning area, and the New York State K-12 Social Studies Framework. The findings revealed that the social studies curricula of Thailand and New York State differ in many aspects, including their fundamental philosophies, goals for student development, curriculum structures, learning content, and instructional approaches. The Thai curriculum emphasizes cultivating morally good citizens with a love for the nation, while the New York curriculum focuses on developing knowledgeable, skilled citizens who actively participate in a democratic society. In today's rapidly changing world, the development of Thailand's social studies curriculum should foster 21st-century skills, digital citizenship, and a sense of global citizenship among learners while maintaining Thai identity and values. Policy-level recommendations include creating a new vision, designing a flexible curriculum, developing online platforms, and integrating artificial intelligence. At the practical level, suggestions include creating community learning innovations, using the city as a classroom, developing a competency-based curriculum, and building learning communities with local partners.

Educational data mining is widely deployed to extract valuable information and patterns from academic data. This research explores new features that can help predict the future performance of undergraduate students and identify at-risk students early on. It answers some crucial and intuitive questions that are not addressed by previous studies. Most of the existing research is conducted on data from 2-3 years in an absolute grading scheme. We examined the effects of historical academic data of 15 years on predictive modelling. Additionally, we explore the performance of undergraduate students in a relative grading scheme and examine the effects of grades in core courses and initial semesters on future performances. As a pilot study, we analyzed the academic performance of Computer Science university students. Many exciting discoveries were made; the duration and size of the historical data play a significant role in predicting future performance, mainly due to changes in curriculum, faculty, society, and evolving trends. Furthermore, predicting grades in advanced courses based on initial pre-requisite courses is challenging in a relative grading scheme, as students' performance depends not only on their efforts but also on their peers. In short, educational data mining can come to the rescue by uncovering valuable insights from academic data to predict future performances and identify the critical areas that need significant improvement.

Critical thinking, creativity, communication, teamwork, emotional intelligence, problem-solving, empathy, resilience, ambition, grit, and innovation (Heckman & Kautz, 2012). These skills, often referred to as 'soft' skills, are considered a requirement for employment and advancement for the 21st-century graduate (Carnevale & Smith, 2013). Within a Western Canadian School of Business, in an environment highly regarded for technical skill achievement in diploma and degree graduates, faculty set out to investigate the absence or inclusion of human skills in curriculum outcomes as an initial phase of investigation. There is an institutional presumption that human skill development is innately a part of the programs. The intention is that human skills (LeBusque, 2020) or power skills (PMI, 2022) naturally occur during course delivery, creating a commonality across foundational courses to reinforce the skill sets identified, developed, and refined as students complete their credentials. However, industry reports (Lapointe & Turner, 2020; RBC, 2019) and the authors' own institutional data collected from new graduates and employers indicated room for improvement in these skills. To gain a better understanding, the authors undertook an examination via document analysis of all common core courses that form the program foundation. Through the lens of dynamic skill theory (Mascolo, 2020), this evaluation involved 24 common courses, comprised of 1,442 course objectives, resulting in a range of 134 Bloom's Taxonomy verbs. In this paper, the authors begin the exploratory first phase of a broader comprehensive study with a focus on course foundations for learner development. Through this analysis, the authors present a draft framework to better understand and strengthen the learning foundations, to proceed with considerations for realignment and strategic scaffolding of both technical and human skills from entry through graduation.

Engineering is fundamentally about design, yet many undergraduate programs offer limited opportunities for students to learn to design. This design case reports on a grant-funded effort to revolutionize how chemical engineering is taught. Prior to this effort, our chemical engineering program was like many, offering core courses primarily taught through lectures and problem sets. While some faculty referenced examples, students had few opportunities to construct and apply what they were learning. Spearheaded by a team that included the department chair, a learning scientist, a teaching-intensive faculty member, and faculty heavily engaged with the undergraduate program, we developed and implemented design challenges in core chemical engineering courses. We began by co-designing with students and faculty, initially focusing on the first two chemical engineering courses students take. We then developed templates and strategies that supported other faculty-student teams to expand the approach into more courses. Across seven years of data collection and iterative refinements, we developed a framework that offers guidance as we continue to support new faculty in threading design challenges through core content-focused courses. We share insights from our process that supported us in navigating through challenging questions and concerns.

Spanish educational curriculum adopts a mathematical process-based approach, which encompasses problem solving, reasoning and proof, communication, connections and representation. A fundamental role in the integration of these processes in mathematics teaching is played by teachers' professional practice of designing tasks. According to this, our aim is to analyze the ways in which pre-service early childhood teachers understand the mathematical processes in the professional practice of designing early algebra tasks and to identify how they intend to promote these processes through the tasks. Content analysis techniques were used to examine the designed tasks. To illustrate the data analysis and results, six tasks are presented. As a result, pre-service early childhood teachers associate problem solving with challenges and questions. They understand problems as unfamiliar situations but ignore the relationships between students and tasks. Moreover, they do not encourage exploration of phases of problem solving and tend to use strategies more suitable for routine tasks. Communication is identified in all the tasks designed, encouraging interaction and discussion. However, only one task explicitly promotes mathematical language. For reasoning and proof, pre-service teachers begin to use questions to elicit explanations and justifications, but do not encourage verification strategies and various modes of reasoning. The process of connections is only present in one task, reflecting the fragmented nature of mathematics teaching. We conclude that the professional practice of designing mathematical tasks is a powerful in teacher education. However, training programs should place greater emphasis on the meaningful use of mathematical processes.

So-called survey courses have been a persistent but contested genre in world languages, especially in regard to "the canon," an unstable concept that has historically determined the textual choices of such surveys. This article presents a case study for redesigning the survey course genre in line with theory to diversify, decolonize, and decanonize the curriculum. It discusses a number of steps concerning the theoretical background, textual improvements, approaches to assignments, classroom atmosphere, and general pedagogy. It reflects on questions of positionality, institutional support, and workload. Focusing on music and short texts, the survey course described here questions the common practices and core values of German studies, music history, and musicology, and takes a critical stance toward privilege and power. In this context, the course counters tokenization, juxtaposes non-canonical and canonical works, and focuses on inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility work, as well as universal instructional design principles and social justice education. Thus, the survey becomes a new genre--one that still offers students the breadth of cultural production but relies on a particular set of prerequisites determined by factors such as the space, time, and accessibility of a course, as well as the identity markers of instructor and students.

National-level educational administrators constantly face the question of how to ensure that the basic education system successfully meets complex local, national, international, and global challenges, and what is the best way to initiate and drive systemic changes in education amid such complexity and to create value for society. Studies have shown that participative approaches to reform leadership are beneficial; however, in practice, participative incentives are randomly used in national reform contexts. In this article, we present a Finnish case of national participative leadership regarding the Finnish Core Curriculum Reform of 2014 (hereafter FCCR2014). We interviewed key leaders in the FCCR2014 process (n = 23) and analyzed the data from social, personal, interpersonal, and organizational viewpoints with this question in mind: How did administrators responsible for leading the reform develop and lead the participative FCCR2014 process? Sub questions were: (1) What were their goals in developing and leading the reform, and (2) how did they succeed in developing and leading the reform in line with their goals--what was effective and what was not? The results show how participative leadership in a national curriculum reform calls for top leaders to include stakeholders, build and support strong and open collaboration processes, take the risk of losing some of their control, reject strict dichotomizations between strategy formulation and implementation, and consider change leadership a responsible act of giving stakeholders a fair chance to participate in the decision-making that affects their lives. Key aspects to participative leadership included building participation, not quasi-participation; building coherence in complexity--together; and fitting change to the education system with responsible leadership.

Purpose: This research is an interview-based study that captures the academics' perspectives toward the planning and design of an interdisciplinary General Education Curriculum for undergraduate students in the Chinese context, using the Common Core Curriculum at the University of Hong Kong as a case study. Design/Approach/Methods: A total of 28 academics with various levels of academic ranking, disciplinary context, proven teaching excellence, and research productivities were individually invited for and consented to a semi-structured and face-to-face interview. Findings: This article suggests four fundamental and interrelated dimensions for consideration when structuring an interdisciplinary General Education Curriculum, namely, how to design, what is worth learning, how to learn and teach, and how to know students have learned. It is suggested that the ideal curriculum should remain coherent and coordinated, broad and balanced, as well as open and flexible, ensuring the capture of knowledge, skills, and attitudes, with the facilitation of active, authentic, and contextualized pedagogies and assessments. Originality/Value: This article has the potential of providing insight for policymakers and educators around the world to better structure an interdisciplinary General Education Curriculum by creating an overall springboard for future discussion. They can also integrate these evidence-based elements and strategies into their everyday practices.

This paper reports on curriculum analysis of climate change expectations in Canada's provincial curricula. The research is focused on curriculum policy in Canadian provinces; however, it pertains to an international audience as Article 12 of the Paris Agreement, the international treaty on climate mitigation, adaptation and finance, calls for signatories to "enhance climate change education," and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) have called for environmental education to be a core curriculum component by 2025, which will require all countries to evaluate and improve their curricula globally. Curriculum policy within Canada has not yet been aligned with these policy calls, and our analysis showed fractured and uneven inclusion of climate change. Data findings present explicit climate change education curriculum expectations for each province according to grade, subject, and mandatory versus elective courses. The review shows uneven inclusion of climate change topics, themes, and units within grade 7-12 curricula, with most expectations occurring in elective senior secondary courses. A second level of analysis with a ranking tool indicates shallow inclusion. The paper concludes with recommendations for addressing gaps.

In 2017, a new core curriculum was implemented in Norwegian primary and secondary education, replacing the core curriculum from 1997. While the concept of "danning" is present in both curricula, its meaning and use seem to change. The concept of "danning" has a played a significant role in Norwegian society and educational history. Danning has been linked to the establishment of Norwegian democracy, in which education plays an important role. Since the 19th century, the meaning of the concept has been subject to change, corresponding to historical changes, yet the word itself continues to be part of the Norwegian educational rhetoric and national curriculum. This means that conversations about "danning" may not be fruitful because the participants attach different meanings to the same concept. Thus, a study of how "danning" has been used and how it is used today is warranted. Through an analysis of two Norwegian curricula, from 1997 and 2017, we find changes in the perception of "danning" and in its role as an educational concept in Norwegian education. We argue that "danning" goes from being understood as a result-oriented, social and democratic concept in 1997 to being seen as an individualistic process in pursuit of certain personal characteristics, without its former social component, in 2017. This indicates a fragmentation of "danning."

As in any professional field, aspiring video game artists, designers, and developers must acquire the necessary skills and knowledge for a successful career. Higher education institutions offer varying video game Bachelor's degree programs to meet the diverse needs of the industry. Our objective in this study was to explore these curricula to gain insight into and understanding of the contemporary video game higher education landscape. We explored 113 Bachelor's degree curricula in Europe that had publicly available information in English about their courses. We classified the courses within each curriculum using ten devised classifiers based on the IGDA Curriculum Framework 2008 but modified them to suit our interests. The content of the classified curricula was then used to create curriculum profiles -- data vectors that characterize a curriculum based on its contents. These profiles allowed for hierarchical clustering and principal component analysis (PCA) to identify and investigate the three common types of video game curricula: video game art, interdisciplinary video game design, and video game technology/programming. Our results indicate that art and programming curricula are highly specialized, with clear distinctions in yielding Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees. Curricula focused on interdisciplinary video game design do not have such clear distinctions in the degree titles and content specialization. They are more varied in their profiles and tend to bridge the gap between art and programming curricula, reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of game design as a profession. Compared to results from previous studies, we found that contemporary curricula place a greater emphasis on graduation projects, internships, and soft skills. Our findings provide an overview of the current state of higher education in video games, which may prove helpful for those working with or interested in these curricula.

Finnish education has received worldwide attention due to the country's performances in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Research investigating Finland's positive outcomes in the assessment has highlighted not only the strength of teachers, but also the rigour of Finnish teacher education. Finnish student teachers must undertake research-based teacher education culminating in a master's degree. The study of educational science, underpinned by empirical research, creates teacher-researchers. A Nordic/Continental view of educational governance allows for input control in terms of a national core curriculum in Finland, without surveillance of outcomes. The structure of the Finnish education system, characterised by decentralisation and the national core curriculum, entrusts teachers to make their own pedagogical decisions. This leads to autonomous and agentic teachers in terms of decision-making on the classroom, school, and professional levels, both individually and collectively. Finnish education, underpinned by social democratic values, views education as an agent of social change. Therefore, teachers enact social transformation through the agency enabled by research-informed teacher education. Finland's political consensus regarding education and societal trust in teachers further reinforces teacher autonomy and agency. This article argues that the rigorous research focus of Finnish teacher education cultivates autonomous and agentic teachers.

To understand retention, evaluation of guided pathways implementation is an important tool. In an effort to help students succeed, colleges often give students a specified set of core courses and a specific or even prescribed pathway to complete their general education requirements. Retention efforts are always a topic with administrators at community colleges across the United States. The Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) incorporated GP into retention efforts in the fall of 2015. Over the past 4 years, CCBC has incorporated more activities focusing on increasing knowledge about GP. The pathways are Arts; Business, Law and Education; General Studies; Humanities and Social Sciences; Science and Health Careers; and Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Vincent Tinto's framework is often presumed to be inappropriate to the study of student persistence at community colleges because social integration is considered unlikely to occur for students at these institutions. Community college students are thought to not have the time to participate in activities like attending concerts, joining clubs, or exploring art galleries that would facilitate social integration. This study examines student and faculty perceptions of GP at CCBC and whether they help with retention of the students for sequential semesters. I interviewed students who were enrolled in English 101 for the first time starting in the fall of 2015 through 2018. I also interviewed full-time faculty who taught English 101 on the same campus.

Mechanisms supporting global learning and global citizenship continue to be incorporated as curricular and co-curricular components of undergraduate education in the United States. Global learning promotes critical thinking and problem-solving and intercultural competency -- skills that studies find are highly prized among employers. However, few studies have investigated faculty and student perceptions of global learning where it has been implemented in core educational curricula. In this article, the authors present findings from a qualitative study of a general education global learning curricular requirement at a liberal arts university in the southeastern US. Utilizing student focus groups and faculty interviews, the authors conclude that, while attitudes of global learning are high and it is deemed an important part of education by both students and faculty, the institutional barriers and challenges to teaching and learning in this area are difficult to overcome.

This paper explores the intersection of pedagogical research in communication and research on public diplomacy and engages with the notion of "knowledge diplomacy." It revises the concept of the "collaborative" central to both public diplomacy and higher education pedagogy. With both fields emphasizing the importance of "co-creation," the paper theorizes and operationalizes this concept, and argues that co-creation (as a process and a framework) is one solution to the challenge of dominance argued by the scholarship of "knowledge diplomacy." Empirically, the article engages with two cases of "grassroots knowledge diplomacy" initiated by a tertiary communication program in collaboration with diplomats.

Higher education is challenged by workforce needs to transform its outcomes from "knowledge-based" to "competency-based" outcomes. High-impact educational practices, commonly referred to as HIPs, provide, among other benefits, efficacious development of workforce-ready specific competencies. Strategic implementation of HIPs has yet to be diffused at Saudi universities. The Northern Border University (NBU) has identified a set of core competencies graduate workforce-ready graduates. To effectively realize the intended outcomes of its core competencies, NBU selected a set of HIPs to increase student success. This paper discusses NBU's processes and implementation strategies in selecting core competencies and HIPs with ultimate aim of translating both to the local higher education culture and norms in order to effectively achieve desired outcomes.

In the Finnish National Core Curriculum for Compulsory Education (2014), the conception of language is based on the communal and functional linguistics model of language. From the perspectives of teaching and learning, this requires that learning contexts and pedagogies enable learning in such learning environments, roles, and processes where the pupil can think and act authentically, according to his or her age (National Core Curriculum 2014). Thus, in this article we examine the integration of subject teaching with topic teaching in the frameworks of sociocultural learning, functional linguistics, and authentic learning, in the contextual-pedagogical learning landscape, where the individuality of learners as well as timely learning support (scaffolding) in the zone of proximal development (Vygotsky 1978) enable the learning of content as part of interdisciplinary learning. The subject Finnish language and literature is defined as a interdisciplinary, practical, theoretical, and cultural subject (National Core Curriculum 2014) that requires cooperation with other subjects. This article will present a interdisciplinary approach to learning, where the thematic context created for learning gives meaning to the subject related content that must be learned, and where the ability to acquire the core content of the subject becomes a prerequisite for the processing of the theme or topic presented through the thematic context.

In 2023, researchers from the Batchelor Institute worked with staff, students and families from the Nawarddeken Academy in West Arnhem Land, which offers bicultural, community-driven education. Together, they engaged in a series of yarning circles as interviews with staff, students and families. The focus of the study was on retention, attendance and impacts from major events such as COVID-19. Nawarddeken Academy has a long history of fighting for educational rights for their children to learn on country, through an Aboriginal-led, controlled and managed model. This fight has spanned 20 years and today Bininj (Aboriginal) people are proud to provide education to their children on their land through Learning on Country programs that embed both-ways Bininj and Balanda (Aboriginal and non-Indigenous) knowledge/s into the school's core curriculum. This article tells the story of Nawarddeken Academy and the case study research that was conducted with the school.

It has been suggested that the outcomes of curriculum reform depend on the implementation strategy and coherence making between the reform and school practice. This study examined how teachers perceived a national core curriculum reform implementation in terms of change management and knowledge sharing, and how these contributed to the perceived curriculum coherence and to school-level impact of the reform process over time. Survey data (N = 2447) were collected from teachers during the recent core curriculum reform in Finnish basic education. The longitudinal data were collected at three time points during the first three years of curriculum implementation. A cross-lagged path model was utilized to explore longitudinal relations between the variables. The results showed that knowledge sharing practices and perceived curriculum coherence had reciprocal effects over the first year. Moreover, both predicted the extent to which the reform process was considered to promote school impact in terms of meaningful development and teacher commitment, which facilitated higher levels of curriculum coherence and knowledge sharing later on. Change management did not seem to predict the other constructs -- yet, knowledge sharing facilitated evaluations of successful change management. The results provide new insights on supporting meaningful school development in large-scale curriculum reform.

In the present study, we present a cross-country comparison of the status and condition of sustainable development (SD) in the Nordic physical education (PE) curricula. The aim of the study was to increase knowledge of how SD perspectives are represented and conceptualised in the Nordic PE curricula. An expert-driven research approach was used where representatives from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden provided country overviews and completed surveys to elaborate on the status, pre-conditions, prospect/future, and research initiatives in relation to SD in PE. The study shows that SD perspectives seldom are explicitly mentioned in the Nordic PE curricula, and that little is known regarding how PE teachers understand SD in relation to PE goals and content in their countries. Suggestions on specific SD goals to focus on in Nordic PE, as well as suggestions on future research are provided and discussed in the paper.

Purpose: One key aspect of European curriculum reforms is to empower students with the skills needed to engage actively in the pluralistic and multicultural global society of the 21st century. This study aims to examine the extent of multicultural education within the national core curricula of three European countries: Hungary, Finland and Ireland, focusing on its role in fostering social acceptance through education. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative research applying discourse analysis was conducted to identify key multiculturalism concepts within the curricula. The analysis concentrated on understanding how multiculturalism is portrayed through various perspectives, emphasizing situational meanings and frameworks. Furthermore, a comparative analysis of the findings was carried out. Findings: The research found that all three curricula contain the concept of multicultural education, although the extent of emphasis varies. The Hungarian National Core Curriculum (NCC) primarily emphasizes national values and sporadically addresses multicultural issues, often from a local perspective. In contrast, the Irish NCC is tolerance-oriented, stressing not only the understanding of different cultures but also the importance of accepting them. The Finnish NCC reflects a global perspective and emphasizes respect for different cultures and minority groups, with a pluralistic approach. Originality/value: This study enhances our understanding of the discourse of multiculturalism within the curricula of three European countries, emphasizing both their similarities and differences. Additionally, it underscores the crucial role that curricula can play in effectively implementing multicultural education.

Educators and researchers have been fighting the reading wars for the last century, with battles see-sawing literacy instruction in American schools from phonics to whole language and, most recently, back to phonics again. Over the last decade, 32 states and the District of Columbia have adopted new "science of reading" laws that require schools to use curricula and instructional techniques that are deemed "evidence-based." Such reading programs include direct instruction in phonics and reading comprehension skills, such as finding the main idea of a paragraph, and efforts to accelerate learning tend to double down on more of the same skill-building practice. The authors conduct the first-ever experimental study of this topic, based on randomized kindergarten-enrollment lotteries in nine Colorado charter schools that use an interdisciplinary knowledge-based curriculum called Core Knowledge.

An Introductory Information System (IIS) course is an opportunity for Information System (IS) programs to clarify business students' understandings of IS disciplines and help them prepare for careers requiring IS skills. The course is also essential to attract students into the IS major and mitigate declines in IS enrollment. This paper provides a roadmap and description of implementing an IIS course as part of the business core curriculum at a public university in the Midwestern United States. The roadmap is rooted in both generalizable and institution-specific contexts and includes the identification of key stakeholders, institutional challenges, and nine course design principles. The core principles are outlined and recognized as the foundation of the success of the course. Following course implementation, we present the evaluation of the success of our roadmap and reflect on lessons learned in the process.

This paper presents data derived from a larger study related to the expectations and experiences of international students from the People's Republic of China with regard to studying in Australian secondary schools. The study involved 116 international students, and data were collected in two phases using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. Findings suggest that English language experiences are a key concern and students do not always develop English language skills as expected during their period of study in Australia. To reduce dissonance between expectations and experiences of English language learning in Australia, it is recommended that substantial, ongoing English language support is embedded within the core curriculum for international students in Australian secondary schools.

Evidence-based core instruction partnered with evidence-based supplemental interventions are vital for students' literacy learning, particularly for students who need additional support (Petscher et al., 2020). Identifying instructional materials that reflect the translation of effective practices is challenging, (Solari et al., 2020) and made trickier by an abundance of commercialized and packaged literacy curricula, all claiming to be research- or evidence-based. The tasks of finding, selecting, and implementing literacy interventions that are high-quality, evidence-based, and designed to meet the needs of students is not for the faint of heart, especially because school leaders often have difficulty distinguishing programs based on research evidence from those benefiting from good marketing (Schwartz, 2019). Thus, the purpose of this article is to provide school personnel responsible for implementing literacy interventions (i.e., classroom teachers, literacy specialists, special educators) and/or selecting literacy intervention programs (i.e., administrators, instructional coaches) with a step-by-step process informed by our study which surveyed North Carolina first grade teachers' literacy assessment and instruction practices in schools receiving Title I funding before and during the COVID pandemic.

This study reports on a four-year project to embed academic literacy within one core course of a Bachelor of Education program. It involves an interdisciplinary collaboration between learning advisors, as literacy specialists, and lecturers, as subject specialists. It examines their roles and responsibilities and lecturers' perspectives when handing over the teaching of academic literacy to them. Data encompasses interviews with lecturers, meeting notes, and cohort statistics about assessment grades. Discourse analysis with theory from Systemic Functional Linguistics identifies the shifting contributions of the collaborators and how lecturers evaluate their experiences. Findings suggest that handover is smooth when it is done gradually and involves intensive prior collaboration. However, the contrasting views of the lecturers raise questions about what is optimal for students. Although limited, data indicates that reductions in resubmission rates and students achieving in the minimal passing range co-occur with the addition of mini videos about reading and writing critically.

This study employed qualitative methods to examine the expectations, challenges, learning loss, and development of professional skills among preservice teachers of Islamic education as they engaged in online field practice. Interviews were conducted with individual participants and focus groups, and reflection papers were collected from 46 preservice teachers of Islamic education assigned to an online teaching practicum. Participants had mixed feelings about their online field practice due to a lack of experience and doubts about their preparedness and ability with virtual field practice. Results revealed they experienced setbacks, including a deficiency in pedagogical expertise for virtual instruction and challenges in promoting class communication and involvement online without in-person learning environments. However, virtual teaching, creativity, and improved cognitive abilities were encouraged. It is recommended that educational establishments offer supplementary assistance to preservice teachers trained during the pandemic to augment their professional growth.

The current Finnish core curriculum requires all teachers in basic education to be linguistically responsive. However, studies on the linguistically responsive practices used by teachers are scarce. The frequency with which teachers (N = 820) use 21 linguistically responsive practices was investigated through data that were gathered via an online survey. Based on factor analysis, teachers' practices formed four categories: identifying language demands, linguistic scaffolding, explicit attention to language, and additional semiotic systems scaffolding. Teachers reported using the latter the most. Of teachers' background factors, teaching experience of 2-5 years was linked to more frequent use of students' interests to plan teaching compared to 0-2 or more than 10 years of experience. The results point out a need for more training in linguistically responsive teaching practices for in-service teachers, as experience is not linked to growth trajectories.

Undergraduate psychology education has also faced the fact that two-thirds of its graduates immediately apply for jobs in the private or public sector rather than pursuing master's studies (Norcross et al.,2016). In this context, faculty members of psychology departments deliberated at an American Psychological Association (APA) conference in2008 about the prospects of undergraduate education and recommended a core curriculum introductory psychology that encourages a better integration of students' knowledge and experience as well as allowing them to apply psychological knowledge in their own fields (Dunnetal., 2009). Sometime later, a working group of the APA Board of Educational Affairs (BEA) provided recommendations for strengthening the common core of introductory psychology. In this article, the authors propose a different kind of integration which gives special prominence to the structure of the subject matter: the mental-behavioral system.

This qualitative study explored 15 early career physical education (PE) teachers' professional identity construction from rural China. Identity was shown as a multifaceted, context-specific, and dynamic social-cultural phenomenon. From a socio-ecological standpoint, this research demonstrated that early career rural Chinese PE teachers' professional identity construction was shaped by the interplay between family backgrounds, Chinese Confucian cultural tradition, physicality, schooling experiences, workplace contexts, and the PE core competency curriculum policy. From the perspective of practice architecture, the professional identity construction encompassed their cultural-discursive arrangements (sayings), material-economic arrangements (doings), and social-political arrangements (relating). PE teachers' professional identity may be facilitated by school administrators and education policymakers' support.

The Saint Mary's University first-year student success program was developed by its strategic enrollment management (SEM) group to enhance support for first-year students. As an integrated program that implements student success modules into the first-year core curriculum, this initiative has proven to be effective in enhancing student engagement through the introduction of topics such as time management and effective study strategies (Tabvuma, et al. 2021). This article aims to raise awareness to both prospective social learning participants and higher education SEM-related leadership on the value that social learning approaches had in supporting the curriculum development and delivery of this unique campuswide first-year program initiative. As an ontological backdrop, the group utilized Wenger-Trayner and Wenger-Trayner's (2014) "Learning in a Landscape of Practice" framework as a reflective lens to offer unique perspectives on how members navigated three modes of identity (engagement, imagination, and alignment) throughout their shared practice, including strategies and challenges in such areas as student engagement, interdisciplinary meetings, and shared group activities. A discussion on achieving intended outcomes and challenges moving forward is offered as part of an evaluative self-analysis for this learning community and its implications on this first-year student success program initiative.