Search Results for
"education"

This study examines how the basic science curriculum in various classes in Ebonyi State, Nigeria, corresponds with the specification of the core curriculum. The study utilized a quantitative research approach and document analysis as part of a descriptive research design. A non-proportional stratified sample of 30 schools (15 public and 15 private) was selected from among the 583 secondary schools (343 private and 240 public). The data for the study were collected from the Ebonyi State Secondary education Board’s Basic Science curriculum and the Federal Ministry of education’s core curriculum. The degree of correspondence of the curriculum between JSS1, JSS2, and JSS3 was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results show that the second term of JSS1 achieved a 100% level of correspondence, while the first and third terms revealed mixed levels, indicating a significant difference in curriculum correspondence. Also, there was a significant difference between JSS2’s three terms, and in JSS3, there is a high level of correspondence between the taught syllabus and the core curriculum. Based on the findings, it is therefore recommended that educational stakeholders look into the correspondence of the curriculum to improve its effectiveness in secondary schools in Nigeria for a better learning outcome. © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Background: Academic stress can negatively influence academic performance, particularly in health science programs with high demands. Objective: To analyze the association between perceived academic stress and academic performance in first-year kinesiology students, considering gender differences and stress dimensions (stressors, reactions, and coping strategies). Methods: This cross-sectional study included 82 students assessed using the SISCO-IIA inventory. Academic performance was measured via final course grades. Descriptive analyses, chi-square tests, t-tests, and binary logistic regression models were applied. Results: Students with high levels of academic stressors were significantly more likely to underperform (OR = 4.62, 95% CI [1.24, 17.22], p = 0.023). Female students reported higher emotional and behavioral responses to stress but were less likely to underperform (OR = 0.30, 95% CI [0.11, 0.79], p = 0.014). Age was not significantly associated with performance (p = 0.433). Conclusion: Academic stress negatively influences academic outcomes among first-year students. Gender differences in stress response patterns may affect vulnerability and coping effectiveness. These findings highlight the need for early screening, targeted interventions, and support systems to mitigate academic stress and promote student success. © © 2025 Granada-Granada, Valencia-Narbona, Lizana and González-Rojas.

This chapter provides an overview of scholarship on the political economy of skill formation. Skill formation includes, but goes beyond, the acquisition of human capital in the formal education system by taking into account the formation of skills in a workplace context. Therefore, the interplay between the education and training system, labor market institutions and industrial relations is in focus, as they jointly affect the political economy of skill formation. The chapter starts with the classical perspective of human capital theory and its basic distinction between general and specific skills. In the next step, I discuss how institutionalist approaches from the 1980s and 1990s have enriched the picture by pointing to the impact of labor market institutions and industrial relations as factors influencing decisions about skill formation. Subsequently, I lay out how the topic of skill formation gained significant prominence in the context of the Varieties of Capitalism debate, starting in the early 2000s. The final section of the chapter reviews more recent contributions, discussing the implications of the transition toward the knowledge economy, the complex association between skill formation, inequality and social policies as well as the expansion of scholarship on the political economy of skill formation to world regions beyond the OECD world. © The Editor and Contributors Severally 2025.

This study examines the essential employment opportunities, competencies, and skills in digital business, addressing the growing necessity for alignment between education and industry requirements in emerging nations. This study collected 1,128 job postings from two major online platforms (https://indeed.com and https://loker.id). We used the data-preprocessing method to collect the primary information from the platforms. Our findings indicate 20 essential competencies and skills, including strategic management, digital sales, data-driven initiatives, and relationship development, as the primary competencies. The novelty of this study lies in the methodology used to collect and analyse the data using semantic content analysis and topic modelling, which could provide systematic empirical evidence of competencies and skills that are required for digital-based companies and industries using Python statistical tools. These findings offer significant insights for educators, especially in digital business study programs, to develop a curriculum that aligns with digital business stakeholders’ and industries’ needs. © The Author(s) 2025

Previous research has demonstrated that project-based learning (PjBL) and flipped classroom models can enhance student engagement and academic outcomes, but their combined use in creative writing instruction remains underexplored. This study investigates the effectiveness of a flipped PjBL model in improving creative writing skills in higher education. The research seeks to answer: (1) Does the flipped PjBL model significantly affect creative writing learning outcomes? (2) What is the relationship between student perception, motivation, and learning outcomes? It is hypothesized that the flipped PjBL model positively influences learning outcomes and that student perception and motivation are positively associated with those outcomes. A quantitative quasi-experimental design was used, involving 62 university students aged 19–21, divided into an experimental group (n = 33) and a control group (n = 29) through purposive sampling. Questionnaires measured student perception and motivation. The results indicate that the flipped PjBL model contributed to improved creative writing outcomes and revealed positive relationships among the measured variables. © 2025 Lira Hayu Afdetis Mana et al.; published by UIKTEN. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 License.

The Learning Outcomes revolution has swept the globe. Heralded as the means to raise vocational education and training standards, and establish equivalence with academic qualifications, the outcomes assessment model has been at the vanguard of VET reform. These bold claims derive from the particular characteristics of outcomes design: atomised performance statements, the aggregate credit system, and exhaustive sampling. The architects of the Outcomes movement claim that these characteristics provide the transparency, flexibility and learner motivation that classical assessment design apparently lacks. Yet the Outcomes template has attracted a great deal of criticism, particularly from academic quarters. Critics find that outcome-based assessment fails to account for holistic curricular knowledge, and is therefore not fit for purpose. This article provides evidence that supports these findings. Investigating how outcomes qualifications operate in their environment, this study finds that the outcomes model interacts with accountability pressures to produce deleterious effects. Drawn from data derived from a literacy embedding study, the paper uses the concept of subject procedural knowledge to explore how teachers of outcome-based qualifications interpret their subject knowledge. It is argued that the model produces a compositional fallacy, and a tail-wags-dog culture whereby assessment consumes curricula and pedagogy, thus undermining educational quality. © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

The educational system in modern society is required to provide a fast reaction to real-life challenges. Also, the growing role of IT skills in labour market requires to provide changes in educational systems related to enhancing the role of IT. This study aims to provide the development of a system that considers real-life requirements of labour market and defines competencies it requires (including IT skills) and provides the possibility to take them into account during the development of the educational programs. In the paper, the system that provides a correspondence between the demand on competencies provided by employers and delivering that request to Methodists that developing educational programs is described. The main actors in the proposed systems are Employers, Job Seekers, and Ministry specialists (Methodists). The proposed concept may be implemented using simple basic tools such as MS Excel and as well by specialized tools such as CIT Polyhedron and Python. A graph-based system using CIT Polyhedron has been developed. In this case, each entity is represented in form of nodes. Proper links have been provided between entities (nodes). Characteristics and descriptions of each specific entity were added in form of semantic and numeric nodes’ metadata. An example of CIT Polyhedron’s specific tools (rank) usage is described. The integration of graph neural networks and knowledge graphs demonstrates potential for dynamic curriculum adaptation, with recent implementations achieving up to 94% accuracy in aligning educational outcomes with workforce requirements. This approach addresses the projected 22% growth in STEM occupations while tackling persistent underrepresentation challenges in STEM fields. © 2025 Copyright for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

The purpose of this research is to analyze how the integration of digital tools such as Tinkercad and Zoom in particular impacts student learning in a virtual environment. This research uses a quantitative methodology, with a 12-question survey to collect data before and after the 3D design course in engineering, with a representative sample that allows optimizing the generalization of experiences. Statistical tests, both descriptive and inferential, were carried out to determine the relationship between the use of these platforms and academic results. The results show a notable improvement in student learning: this increases the understanding of complex concepts by 75% and increases active participation in virtual sessions by 40%. These results suggest that the combination of Tinkercad and Zoom not only tends to improve interaction, as well as student intervention in general, but also helps the content to be better received by them. The conclusions highlight the need to update the educational curriculum, having become common in higher education to increase the effectiveness of teaching-learning processes. © 2025 Latin American and Caribbean Consortium of Engineering Institutions. All rights reserved.

The study analyzed the development of transversal competencies in university students from various professional programs at a Peruvian university, with an emphasis on the differences according to the academic program. Using a non-experimental comparative descriptive design, the Graduate Transversal Competencies Assessment Questionnaire (CECTGRA) was applied to a sample of 242 students distributed across six programs: Accounting, Nursing, Hospitality and Tourism, Engineering, International Business, and Psychology. The results highlight that systemic competencies are the most valued by students in terms of importance, followed by interpersonal and instrumental competencies, evidencing the relevance of critical thinking and problem-solving in professional performance. However, the Kruskal-Wallis test revealed significant differences in instrumental competencies according to the professional career (p < 0.05), with Nursing and International Business showing better results in this dimension. On the other hand, no significant differences were found in interpersonal and systemic competencies between careers, highlighting their universal importance in professional training. These findings underscore the need to adjust university curricula to strengthen instrumental competencies in specific disciplines and ensure comprehensive training that prepares students for the demands of the globalized and competitive job market. © 2025 Latin American and Caribbean Consortium of Engineering Institutions. All rights reserved.

This paper examines the role of vocational education and training (VET) in innovation by comparing the participation of VET-qualified employees with that of university graduates such as scientists and engineers. Using individual-level data from the German manufacturing sector, we distinguish between initial VET qualifications (acquired through dual apprenticeships) and higher VET qualifications (e.g. master craftsmen or technicians). The results show that university graduates dominate formal research and development (R&D) activities. However, VET-qualified employees–particularly those with higher VET qualifications–strongly participate in both the invention and implementation phases. Initial VET graduates are especially active in implementation, notably in introducing new machinery, equipment, and technologies. Higher VET graduates play a crucial bridging role between R&D and the shop floor, facilitating knowledge transfer across qualification groups. Participation patterns also vary by firm size, with larger firms displaying clearer task allocation and specialisation. Overall, the findings demonstrate that innovation in manufacturing relies on the complementary strengths of vocational and academic qualifications, which are rooted in their respective knowledge types and firm-level modes of learning and innovation. © 2025 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.