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Purpose: Vocational teachers' professional work builds on both vocational and teaching competence, requiring vocational teachers to balance multiple identities in their professional practice. As a professional group coming to education from different vocational disciplines, vocational teachers also have various educational backgrounds, teaching experience, or competence profiles. Nevertheless, teacher training programmes treat them as a homogeneous group. This study aims to identify competence profiles among vocational teachers in Sweden and analyse background factors associated with these competence profiles. Methods: Data was collected via an online survey, asking vocational teachers to respond to questions on how important they considered different competences to be for vocational teaching and rate to what extent they had achieved different competences. The sample included 280 vocational teachers from various disciplines. The survey data was analysed using k-means clustering. Results: Two main competence profiles emerged in the analyses. Profile 1 had mainly male vocational teachers with extended occupational experience and limited teaching experience. These teachers reported lower achieved competence in all areas compared to teachers in Profile 2. Profile 2 included mostly female vocational teachers with longer teaching experience and more limited occupational experience. A higher percentage of these teachers had teacher training, and they reported higher achieved competence in all areas. Several background factors were associated with these two competence profiles, but no relations of cause and effect were proved. Conclusion: The competence profiles rather highlight the differences and different learning needs among groups of vocational teachers, leading to the conclusion that vocational teachers in Profile 1 might need further or a different type of support in their professional development. © 2025, European Research Network Vocational Education and Training. All rights reserved.

While collaborative learning activities are designed to foster inter-thinking and co-creation of knowledge, studies have suggested that these outcomes are not guaranteed simply because learners work together in groups. This study investigated the relationship between cognitive interaction during collaborative engagement and exploratory talk by analysing classroom dialogue and dialogic practices among 12 international Master of Arts in Education (MA Education) students participating in a collaborative problem-solving process. Data were collected from three different groups, totalling 10.5 h of collaborative problem-solving engagement. Two independent coders analysed these data using the Cambridge Dialogic Analysis Scheme toolkit. The analysis revealed variations in exploratory talk across the three groups. Exploratory talk was most likely to occur when ‘invitation’ codes were present. Notably, not all groups engaged in exploratory talk led to meaningful collaborative engagement, despite all groups successfully completing the assigned task by the end of collaborative problem-solving. This highlights a critical observation: task completion does not necessarily equate to deep, collaborative knowledge creation. © 2025 British Educational Research Association.

Careers guidance has long been positioned as a tool to improve young people's transition from education to employment. In addition, schools and colleges in England have a statutory requirement to provide careers guidance to their students. Yet limited research has investigated how careers guidance is provided in special schools for autistic pupils. We investigated this topic by eliciting the views and experiences of special school staff responsible for careers guidance in their setting. We used a participatory, mixed-method approach, which included an online survey and semi-structured interviews. Staff responsible for careers guidance from 103 special schools from across England completed the online survey, in which they self-reported on the careers guidance activities taking place within their schools. Twenty of these participants then took part in detailed semi-structured interviews about their experience of providing careers guidance to their autistic young people. Our online survey results showed that special schools are using a broad range of careers guidance activities with their autistic students, including embedding learning about careers within the curriculum, work experience and 1:1 careers advice. The results also highlight that special school staff value the Gatsby Benchmarks as a framework for providing careers guidance. Our interview results built on those of the survey to demonstrate that while special school staff take a hugely personalised approach to providing careers guidance to their autistic young people, they also report barriers in relation to some key aspects. Most notably, they highlighted how external factors often limited how accessible work experience was for their autistic young people. We discuss the implications of these findings for both policy and practice, including providing suggestions for how improvements could be made in the future. © 2025 The Author(s). British Educational Research Journal published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Educational Research Association.

Background: Video games are highly popular among young people worldwide and have been shown to help develop skills that are crucial for career planning, such as problem-solving, strategic thinking, and collaboration. These skills align with the future skills framework, which highlights essential life and career skills, learning and innovation skills, and ICT skills that can be fostered through gaming. Methods: This cross-sectional study investigates the role of video games in fostering future skills relevant to career planning among Swiss secondary students (N = 265). We conducted quantitative content analysis within the future skills framework, paired with structural equation modeling (SEM), to determine whether students could identify skills acquired through gaming, which reflective abilities are needed, and how these might apply to career planning. Results: Male students were more likely to report engaging in video gaming (b = .27, p < .001). Video gaming positively influenced both the number (b = 1.31, p < .001) and variety (b = .78, p < .001) of skills identified by students that could be coded within the future skills framework. SEM analysis demonstrated that criticality had a positive effect on the frequency of identified skills coded as future skills (b = .42, p < .05), whereas self-reflection negatively impacted this frequency (b = −.33, p < .05). Additionally, the frequency of future skills identified significantly influenced the perceived learning transfer to career planning (b = .12, p < .001). Conclusion: The study underscores the importance of video games as informal learning environments that cultivate future skills essential for career planning. Integrating gaming experiences into career planning can support the development of adaptable, innovative, and forward-thinking skills. Encouraging an open, critical mindset enhances the transferability of gaming skills to real-life career contexts. © The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

This study investigates the predictive relationship between academic resilience and cognitive flexibility among students in biology lessons enhanced by design thinking. Using an embedded quasi-experimental design, we compared the effects of design thinking-enhanced lessons with conventional engage, explore, explain, elaborate, evaluate (5E)-based instruction on students' cognitive flexibility and academic resilience. The sample consisted of 97 students divided into experimental and control groups. Pre-test scores were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Levene's tests, confirming initial comparability. The normality of data was verified with the Shapiro-Wilk test. Regression analysis revealed that academic resilience significantly predicts cognitive flexibility, with resilience accounting for approximately 33.7% of the variance in cognitive flexibility. These findings underscore the importance of fostering academic resilience to enhance cognitive flexibility, mainly through innovative teaching methods like design thinking. The implications of this study suggest that integrating design thinking into biology education can effectively develop cognitive and emotional skills, better preparing students for complex problem-solving and adaptive learning. The study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence on the role of academic resilience in predicting cognitive flexibility. It offers practical recommendations for educators to incorporate resilience-building activities into their curricula. Further research is recommended to explore additional predictors of cognitive flexibility and their educational implications. © 2025, Intelektual Pustaka Media Utama. All rights reserved.

The development of education shows the importance of integrating science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in schools and preparing teachers who are ready to implement STEM in the classroom. This study aims to describe prospective teachers' perceptions of STEM competencies through the collaborative reflective teaching practice (CRTP) model in micro teaching courses. The method used was qualitative using interview assessment and questionnaire of STEM perception. This study used an experimental design conducted with 3 activities (initial test, teaching practice, and final test). The initial test and final test used a STEM perception questionnaire. Teaching practice in the form of applying the CRTP model which consists of 4 stages, namely plan, simulation, implementation, and reflection. The results of the study describe that STEM competencies develop well with the CRTP model. The questionnaire results showed that 96.2% of respondents strongly agreed that the CRTP model had proven valid for developing STEM competencies of prospective biology teachers. This research contributes to educators who prioritize meaningful learning experiences for prospective biology teachers. The authors suggest that effective STEM competencies should incorporate five main components: i) reflection, ii) collaboration, iii) integration of interdependent STEM disciplines, iv) skills related to STEM disciplines, and v) integrative STEM teaching and learning. © 2025, Intelektual Pustaka Media Utama. All rights reserved.

Numerous meta-analysis studies have been undertaken on the topic of culturally embedded learning. Insufficient study has been undertaken on culturally integrated learning as a means to enhance reading abilities. The objective of this study is to assess and evaluate the impact of learning enriched by local culture on reading proficiency. This research was conducted using meta-analysis. The document search conducted using Google Scholar yielded 14 document papers published between 2019 and 2023. The research design included a contrast group with random effects model, incorporating a corrected effect size. The investigation employed Jeffreys’s Amazing Statistics Program (JASP) software to compute means aggregate errors, generate forest plots, and assess publication bias. The research reported a statistically significant difference (SE=2.091) between the groups that used local knowledge and standard methods in the learning process. The findings also indicated that incorporating local culture has a significant and favorable impact (with a p value of less than 0.05, namely 0.001) on reading proficiency. This demonstrates that incorporating local culture into the learning process is successful in enhancing students' reading proficiency. Therefore, this study recommends that teachers incorporate local culture as a subject in their teaching to enhance students' reading proficiency. © 2025, Intelektual Pustaka Media Utama. All rights reserved.

This study aims to determine the predominant motivation among users of the vocational training for employment (VTE) system and to discern whether there are differences according to socio-demographic traits such as gender, age, and employment status. Motivation is a factor that has to be taken into account during any teaching-learning process. The students' interest in the practice and contents will be key for their educational development and the attainment of achievements for their incorporation into the labor market. We carried out a quantitative study based on the survey technique. The sample is obtained through a deliberate sampling, obtaining a total of 390 participants (38.2% of men and 61.8%) involved in training processes at the time of the study or recently completed. The results reveal that the rates of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are high, especially the former. This indicates that users participate in training guided by the personal satisfaction they perceive, as well as by the feeling of usefulness of what they learn for its transfer to everyday life. © 2025, Intelektual Pustaka Media Utama. All rights reserved.

Employers often perceive accounting graduates as lacking motivation and soft skills. The research proposes that game-based learning (GBL) will enhance students' motivation, teamwork, critical thinking, communication skills, and promote learning. Research instruments include academic motivation scale (AMS) utilized to measure motivation, skills assessment scale (SAS) for soft skills, and a test instrument for perceived learning. GBL kit and instruments were validated by experts in accounting. All the research instruments are fit for use with Cronbach Alpha values above 0.9. Using a quasi-experimental design, before the experimental phase, both experimental and control groups did a pre-test for perceived learning. Upon completion of the experimental phase, they did a post-test and answered the AMS and SAS instruments. Regression analyses show that GBL contributed positively and significantly toward the experimental group’s intrinsic and extrinsic motivations and teamwork, critical thinking, and communication skills development. An independent t-test on post-tests shows that the experimental group outperforms the control group. Hence, this study concludes that GBL strategy can create a value-added experience that reinforces learning and enhances competencies. Thus, GBL should be an option in accounting teaching as the benefits achieved are from multiple learning dimensions. © 2025, Intelektual Pustaka Media Utama. All rights reserved.

We investigate how work-based versus school-based learning impacts students’ cognitive (numeracy, literacy) and non-cognitive outcomes (student motivation, engagement, academic self-concept, well-being) in vocational secondary education. To this end, we exploit longitudinal test score and survey data on a cohort of Belgian pupils. We rely on school-field-of-study fixed effects, (non-)cognitive test scores in the preceding grades, and detailed background characteristics to remove the bias resulting from self-selection into educational programmes. Within the technical track aimed at preparing students both for the labour market and further education, we find the effects of substituting school-based for work-based learning on both cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes to be negative. Within the purely vocational track, by contrast, effects seem to be more mixed and to depend on the outcome and amount of workplace learning. These results are consistent with cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes being crucial mechanisms underlying the effects of work-based programmes on educational and labour market career outcomes. © 2025