Search Results for
"learning"

Background/purpose. The increasing integration of digital technology in education underscores the need for instructional models that support personalized, skill-based, and problem-solving-focused learning. While traditional pedagogies often fail to address these needs comprehensively, this study proposes that the Mastery Adaptive Problem-Solving (MAPS) Model offers an innovative solution for enhancing digital technology skills (DTS) and academic achievement (AA) among Thai community college students. Materials/methods. The MAPS Model incorporates mastery learning, micro-learning, adaptive learning, and problem-based learning (PBL) into a six-step framework. Expert validation of the model was conducted using the Connoisseurship method via focus group discussions. A quasi-experimental design was employed to evaluate the model's implementation with 19 second-year Thai community college students. Student DTS and AA were measured using validated tools with reliability indices exceeding 0.80. Retention of skills and knowledge was assessed 14 days post-instruction. Results. Experts rated the MAPS Model highly for utility, feasibility, appropriateness, and accuracy. After implementation, students' DTS significantly exceeded the set threshold (70%), with statistical significance at the .01 level. Additionally, students demonstrated significantly higher AA post-instruction than pre-instruction levels, at the .01 significance level. Retention analysis revealed no significant decline in DTS or AA 14 days after program completion. Conclusion. The MAPS Model effectively integrates innovative pedagogical strategies to enhance DTS and AA in community college settings. Its structured, adaptable framework addresses diverse learner needs, ensuring immediate and sustained educational benefits. © The Author(s), 2025.

Background/purpose. Despite the contributions of existing literature, there is a clear deficiency in studies that systematically address the development of pedagogical acmeology skills as a core component of teacher training programs. This study aims to address this gap by examining pedagogical acmeology as a holistic approach to improving essential skills in future educators, aiming to understand how teacher training can be improved to meet contemporary educational demands. Materials/methods. This study employed a validated psychometric survey instrument designed to measure acmeological competencies—self-regulation, resilience, self-efficacy, and collaborative skills—among pre-service teachers. Data were collected from 174 participants using a Google Form during the autumn semester of the 2024–2025 academic year. The survey development involved an iterative process with expert review and pilot testing. Confirmatory Factor Analysis was used for validation. Descriptive and inferential statistical methods, including Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests, were used to analyze demographic group differences and factor relationships. Results. Female pre-service teachers scored significantly higher than males in Self-Regulation and Reflective Practices and Self-Efficacy in Pedagogical Skills, while no gender differences were observed for Goal Orientation and Resilience or Collaborative Skills and Peer learning. There were no significant correlations between age and the survey factors, and no significant differences were found across academic disciplines. The survey instrument demonstrated high reliability, with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.89 and validity, with all factors showing significant loadings in the Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Conclusion. The findings highlight the importance of embedding acmeological skills in teacher education curricula to enhance professional excellence and adaptability in future educators. Gender differences observed in certain competencies suggest the need for targeted strategies to support male pre-service teachers. © The Author(s), 2025.

This study investigates the transformative impact of blended learning on teachers’ pedagogical skills in the Sultanate of Oman, a region traditionally reliant on conventional teaching methodologies. Amidst the rapidly evolving global educational landscape, integrating traditional classroom instruction with digital learning resources presents a promising avenue for enhancing teacher effectiveness and student-centered learning. The research analyzes quantitative data from surveys administered to 664 teachers and 146 supervisors, complemented by qualitative. The findings reveal significant positive effects of blended learning on teaching skills, including increased pedagogical flexibility, enhanced engagement strategies, and improved digital literacy among educators. Nonetheless, the transition highlights challenges such as infrastructure limitations, the digital divide, and the necessity for comprehensive professional development programs. The study concludes with policy and practice recommendations advocating for systemic support in teacher training, technology infrastructure, and curriculum development to fully exploit the potential of blended learning in Oman's educational reform. This paper contributes to the broader discourse on educational innovation and teacher professional development in emerging economies, particularly in the COVID-19 pandemic's acceleration of digital education models. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025.

This article presents a pragmatic study that explored academics’ experiences of using digital learning environments to teach agricultural sciences at a South African historically disadvantaged university. The study aimed to investigate challenges faced in integrating technology and proposes a contextually responsive approach to digital platform adoption in rural university settings. A mixed methods approach was adopted, involving reflective activities, one-on-one semi-structured interviews, focus-group discussion, and document analysis. Triangulation enhanced credibility through classroom observations and quantitative data collection. Two main themes emerged: pedagogical effectiveness, highlighting efforts to align digital tools with academic standards, and institutional culture, highlighting cultural norms, social relationships, and contextual realities on academics’ experiences. Using UTAUT2 model, findings revealed that while academics recognised the potential benefits of using prescribed digital platforms, they often customise their teaching with casual/informal platforms to reflect their personal identities and meet the needs of agricultural science modules. The study introduces a Contextually Adaptive Tech-Enhanced Pedagogy model, designed to improve the personalisation and quality within digital learning environments at historically disadvantaged higher education institutions. This study contributes to the growing discussion on contextually adaptive digital teaching practices, offering insights for inclusive and transformative teaching experiences in agricultural sciences. © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

The growing complexity of care and healthcare workforce shortages in the Netherlands necessitates exploring interprofessional collaboration (IPC). However, the predominant single-professional education may result in a professional identity (PI) among healthcare students, which may not support successful IPC. Internships in student-run interprofessional learning wards (SR-IPLW) could foster interprofessional identity (IPI) development. There is a need for a better understanding of the intricacies involved in learning to work collaboratively, particularly when undergraduates are still shaping their professional identities. Our aim, therefore, was to identify facilitators and barriers for interprofessional education (IPE), IPC, and identity development among 21 healthcare students during a 20-week clinical placement on a SR-IPLW in rehabilitation medicine. An action-based prospective study using grounded theory analysis of nine focus groups across three semesters identified 17 theoretical codes. These codes are elaborated in a conceptual model highlighting facilitators and barriers for IPC and identity development, emphasizing the importance of fostering feelings of relatedness, competence, and autonomy. There are indications that professional and interprofessional identities changed during the internship. Implications for preceptors are delineated, showing the importance of personal relationships and elements of a positive learning climate. © 2025 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

This chapter seeks to overview the evolving developmental purposes for which workplace experiences are being engaged and to discuss contributions of learning through everyday work activities and how these experiences are augmented by the structuring (i.e. workplace curriculum) and activities intentionally aimed to promote effective learning (i.e. practice pedagogies). This discussion draws on accounts of long-standing and emerging pedagogic practices, including the use of simulations and diverse ways in which experienced practitioners can support learning in an era of digitalization, including through digital mediums. A range of such pedagogic practices are enacted as part of everyday work activities that can enrich and augment that active learning. There are also workplace activities and interactions whose qualities have the potential to be inherently effective learning experiences. These are referred to as pedagogically rich activities that have particular qualities. © ISTE Ltd 2024.

Studies on the education-work transition have traditionally focused on the ways in which young people mobilize their capital and adapt to the conditions offered by distinct workplaces. However, it is also important to consider the impact of work and working life on the transformation of the subjectivities and social relations of new generations in the places where they begin their professional experience. This article analyzes this issue based on professional internships in secondary technical education in Chile. Institutional intermediation mechanisms and the agents that participate in their implementation play a significant role in the education-work transition, but, paradoxically, there is little research on these actors, on the processes and on almost everything related to their achievements and weaknesses. This topic is explored through a qualitative approach in a sample of technical-professional educational establishments in Santiago, Chile. Based on semi-structured interviews with teachers and graduates, the main mechanisms of management of the professional internships are described. It is concluded that, although the conditions of implementation are open to criticism, there is a high valuation of these internships as an induction into the world of work, especially because of the social learning that such experiences entail. © 2025 FLACSO Ecuador. All rights reserved.

The increased adoption of three-dimensional (3D) digital prototyping software programs makes it necessary to train novice designers to use these programs efficiently. However, existing studies spanning from engineering to design education indicate that students feel incompetent in understanding 3D digital prototypes and navigating the software, so there is a need to find effective training methods. In the current study, training modules were developed to teach participants fit correction skills through an iterative problem-based learning (PBL) approach. A review of the literature was performed to develop the fit correction tasks and guide the module development process. Expert feedback was used to fine-tune the tasks and module interface. The current study explored the effects of PBL-based virtual reality (VR) training on learning how to correct two-dimensional (2D) apparel patterns to improve consequent 3D garment fit. Results indicated that the training module significantly improved spatial visualization and fit correction skills. Participants with higher apparel spatial visualization skills saw a higher improvement in fit correction skills because of the training. At lower spatial visualization skill levels, women saw a higher increase in apparel spatial visualization skills after the training than men but the difference between the learning outcomes across genders reduced when participants had higher spatial skills before training. These findings were supported by the results of qualitative data obtained through interviews. The participants found the PBL approach, immediate feedback, and aid in visualization through garment simulations beneficial for understanding the concepts. At the same time, they indicated that the training module could be used as a supplement to the traditional classroom but cannot replace the physical garment fitting practice. The findings of the study verified that PBL using virtual garment simulations can have a positive impact on learning outcomes and help identify the stage of education at which learners can be exposed to PBL. © 2025 Galada, Baytar. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Introduction: The electronic exam is one of the foremost imperative instruments for evaluating students’ execution. Accordingly, this study aimed to identify the advantages and challenges of electronic exams based on Iranian and international studies. Methods: The present qualitative study used meta-synthesis in the first phase. Thus, keywords such as electronic exams, online exams, electronic assessment, and online assessment in Iranian and international databases for 2005-2021 were searched. In the second phase, using the Shannon entropy technique, the advantages and challenges of electronic exams were weighted. Results: Challenges of e-exams were classified into seven sub-categories (poor technical knowledge, security challenges, complexity and challenges in designing examination, complexity and challenges during examination, complexity and challenges after examination, lack of infrastructure, socio-cultural challenges). The advantages of e-exams were also classified into five sub-categories, including improvement of teaching and learning process, effectiveness of student performance assessment, advantages in designing exams, advantages during examinations, and advantages after examinations. In Shannon’s entropy findings, challenges (complexity and challenges after examination and poor infrastructure) and advantages (advantage after exams implementation) had the largest weight. Conclusion: Considering the importance of electronic exams, especially with the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, the inevitable movement of university systems, increasing concerns about student performance assessment, and improving educational performance in the current situation, decision-makers are expected to emphasize the advantages of this kind of exam and address its challenges to help improve the student assessment mechanisms. © Journal of Advances in Medical Education & Professionalism.

Clinical workplace learning is often suboptimal due to the dynamics of the clinical learning environment and several challenges encountered in clinical practice. At LUMC, clinical teachers introduced a novel blended learning program that included both the introduction of a Clinical Teaching Unit (CTU) and Small Private Online Course (SPOC). This study aimed to analyze the educational content and design of our educational interventions, by categorizing and comparing the dimensions of the learning program before and after the interventions. The novel blended learning program was integrated into a clerkship internal medicine, aiming to optimize clerks’ clinical workplace learning. Therefore, a traditional inpatient ward was transformed into a CTU, featuring the introduction of learning activities that promoted multidisciplinary and interprofessional learning. It included an integrated SPOC, aiming to improve clinical reasoning skills, feedback and collaboration of the clerks. The authors analyzed the clerkships’ content and design, by categorizing the social-epistemological dimensions of the teaching modes offered before (traditional clerkship) and after (including CTU and SPOC) the intervention. These dimensions consisted of individual versus group (collaborative), and objectivist versus constructive learning categories. The CTU model added eleven group activities to the clinical workplace, of which nine were characterized as constructivist-group activities. It also led to more active learning of the clerks, compared to the traditional clerkship. Analysis of the SPOC revealed 344 teaching modes in total, which included 113 objectivist–individual, 205 constructive–individual and 23 constructive–group activities. Compared to a traditional clerkship, the CTU with SPOC led to more constructivist and collaborative learning and a more diverse educational program. This study illustrates a methodology to address active and collaborative learning activities in an educational program, and offers tools to evaluate and redesign one’s teaching program. The methods and models described can be applied to clinical environments in other areas of medicine. © 2025 Hamoen et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.