International journal of educational research open最新文献

International Women's Day highlights both women's achievements and ongoing efforts toward global gender equality. Gender disparities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) affect a country's innovation and ability to tackle global challenges. Therefore, recent national education policies have looked for ways to promote gender equality, particularly in the STEM subjects. One problem is that teaching materials often lack female representation and recognition of female achievements and contributions to STEM subjects, affecting how female students perceive science. The study examines how female students aged 15 to 18 are impacted by gender disparity in their physics teaching materials and what importance they place on female role models. It encompasses 20 group interviews with female students (n = 80) in Switzerland, which were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Results show that, aside from Marie Curie, female scientists are largely unknown to female students, contributing to the perception of physics as a male domain. Female role models are crucial for fostering interest, motivation, and self-esteem in STEM subjects. However, internalized gender stereotypes and fears of negative reactions from male peers counter the demand for greater visibility of female scientists. Despite these challenges, most female students advocate for more female role models in STEM to inspire future generations of female students to pursue a STEM career and foster positive social change.

Background

Pre pandemic stress among teachers was high. Teacher stress and burnout intensified in the early stages of the pandemic with potentially critical consequences for teacher wellbeing, staff retention and ultimately educational quality and student attainment. The enduring impact of this early pandemic stress has not been established.

Aim

To establish levels of teacher stress and burnout in later pandemic phases with return to full in person teaching.

Methods

This follow-up study examines occupational stress levels during later stages of Covid-19 amongst a national sample of 442 teachers in Ireland using a 72 item Study Specific Questionnaire, incorporating the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory, as the main outcome measure.

Results

Burnout (BO) scores across all domains; work, personal and student-related increased from 2020/21 to 2022/23, with 17 % meeting criteria for High/Severe levels of BO. Almost half of the sample, 43 %, reported High/Severe levels of personal BO and 33 % High/Severe work-related BO. Variables associated with higher stress levels included not feeling valued in the job, an intention to change job, low work ability compared to lifetime best, and presenteeism. A decrease in job satisfaction since Covid-19 onset was reported for 70 % (n = 309 participants).

Conclusion

The increasing levels of stress evident as the pandemic continued together with the reported lack of organisational stress training or stress reduction activities is of particular concern. The further depletion of job satisfaction rising to 70 % for participants paints a bleak picture of professional wellbeing, and heightens the risks of escalating teacher burnout and poorer educational quality.

The present study examines item- and person-level factors that influence test-taking disengagement. Computer-based measurement of complex problem-solving was used to eliminate the effect of factual knowledge on test performance among first-year university students in a low-stakes context. Due to the hierarchical structure of the data, multilevel modeling was used to identify item- and person-level factors that influence test-taking disengagement. Results suggested that item position and item difficulty have a significant effect on test-taking disengagement. Items presented later in test administration as well as more difficult items had a higher probability of disengaged responses. Mother's education had no significant effect on the rate of disengaged responses, while a higher proportion of disengaged responses was recorded among women. The percentage of disengaged responses was also greater among those with lower entrance scores, lower working memory capacity and lower self-reported effort (SRE). To sum up, the results suggest a relationship between the level of academic ability and test-taking disengagement, which determines how disengaged responses are treated.

The study aimed to develop a framework for evaluating school resilience, focusing on leaders' perceptions. This framework examined two critical aspects: firstly, how pre-pandemic school development activities influenced schools' response during the COVID-19 remote learning period, and secondly, how experiences gained during the pandemic could shape future practices.

Two research questions guided the study: (1) What predictive factors contribute to leaders’ ability to manage daily leadership during distance learning? (2) What factors do leaders identify as enabling schools to enhance their learning capacity for the future?

The survey was conducted among Estonian school leaders at the end of the first pandemic wave in June 2020. Two multiple linear regression models were employed to explore the variance in coping with leadership challenges during the remote learning period and the potential impact on future teaching practices.

The results show that leaders effectively managed the challenges of the remote learning period, drawing on their pre-pandemic experience with joint discussions and distance teaching practices, established routines working with data and collaboration with parents. Moreover, the perception of the distance learning period as a learning opportunity for the future stemmed from their previous experiences in distance teaching, data-driven decision-making, and joint discussions with colleagues.

The developed resilience framework serves as both a research and self-evaluation tool to assess schools' capacity to navigate uncertainty. Additionally, it can be integrated into leadership training or school development programs to bolster schools' resilience and cultivate context-sensitive leadership skills.

Over the past two decades, there has been a considerable increase of internationalization initiatives in higher education, including the implementation of international service-learning (ISL) programmes, where students travel abroad to engage in community service as a learning experience. This mixed-method study aimed to explore the potential impact of ISL on university students' perspectives regarding ethnic diversity in society. The results of a cross-sectional survey indicated that students with ISL experience exhibited lower social dominance orientation (SDO) scores, reflecting a reduced preference for group-based hierarchy and a greater support for ethnic equality. Subsequent semi-structured interviews revealed that participants developed a heightened appreciation for ethnic diversity, with four key factors contributing to transformative learning within the ISL context. Given that most participants had their last ISL trip approximately two years or more before the data collection period due to the pandemic, the significant results demonstrated the sustainability of the ISL impact. The study highlighted the potential of intercultural relationships formed during ISL trips in facilitating and sustaining transformative shifts toward the appreciation of ethnic diversity. The study's focus on Hong Kong as the context provided valuable insights from the Asian perspective, complementing existing literature. To further enhance the development of best practices in ISL, the study concludes with a list of recommendations based on the findings.

This study employs the social empowerment theory to explore the collective impact of gender, instructional leadership, and socio-cultural dynamics in improving student outcomes within public schools in the Arab world. It provides insights into the barriers and affordances that school leaders encounter considering the local demands for effective and exceptional school leadership. An inductive-qualitative research methodology was utilized, followed by applying thematic analysis to data obtained from Emirati senior female school leaders, in one of the northern emirates in the United Arab Emirates. Results indicate that Emirati female school leaders have effectively embraced and implemented a distributed instructional leadership style, thereby transforming their schools’ climate into learning organizations. This approach cultivates a learning-focused environment, ultimately contributing to positive student outcomes. The emphasis on data-informed decision making and the promotion of students’ social and emotional wellbeing were found to be significant leadership practices that elevates students’ academic achievement. Key implications and recommendations emanate at the practical and theoretical level. The reported findings that combine female school leaders, distributed instructional leadership, learning-oriented organizational school climate, and student achievement, that considers the socio-cultural context within the purview of a single framework are new. Hence, this study is the first to explore these relations within the context of the Arab world.

Background

Supporting self-management in healthcare practice is essential to improve chronic patients’ daily life experiences. Primary care professionals play an indispensable role in this. Nevertheless, supporting self-management in practice comes with many challenges. The aim of this study is to identify determinants of professionals’ supportive behaviour and develop an intervention that facilitates self-management support in primary care practice, using these determinants as building blocks.

Methods

To develop the intervention, the Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW) was used which involves eight steps in three stages: (1) Understanding the behaviour using the COM-B model, (2) Identifying intervention options, and (3) Identifying content and implementation options. The theoretical underpinnings for stage 1 included data from interviews, focus groups and brainstorm sessions, incorporated beforehand in a self-management support model. Subsequently, literature analysis, empirical research and expertise from the research group guided stages 2 and 3.

Results

We found that changes in “psychological capability”, “physical opportunity”, “reflective motivation” and “automatic motivation” are required to optimize professionals’ behaviour towards self-management support. The two key intervention functions identified were “enablement” and “education”. Therefore, a blended learning trajectory that incorporated these interventional building blocks was developed, integrating specific behaviour change techniques (BCTs) including: (1) Information about social and environmental consequences, (2) Information about health consequences, and (3) Social support (practical). The learning design was finalized by applying the Absorb-Do-Connect learning framework developed by Horton.

Conclusions

Application of the BCW framework shaped a self-management support intervention to educate and enable healthcare professionals. Future research will pilot and refine the intervention.

For several years, the European Commission has been investing in transnational mobility projects, namely Erasmus+, for the continuing professional development of teaching and non-teaching staff of schools for the sole purpose of improving the quality of education, as well as to establish networks of communications where teachers and schools can share their best practices and experiences. Although necessarily nestled in a proactive and positive school culture, these projects also have an impact on teachers professionally, but also on a personal level. This article therefore aims at studying how these international teacher professional development experiences change teachers’ biographies and their narrative expressions and possibly transform how they identify themselves personally, as European citizens, and professionally as European teachers. Empirical data collected through a multiple case study in Portugal appears to confirm that a considerable shift in professional and personal identity occurs through the participation of Erasmus+ KA1 projects for teacher professional development.

Stereotypical behaviour in higher education has been linked with inequality with relevant negative output. This project's aim is to replicate the design of a previous study by expanding further into exploring the gender stereotypes’ relationships for two traditionally gendered polarised areas of study: Engineering and Nursing/Midwifery and assessing participants’ earlier experiences in their secondary education. Survey participants were Engineering and Nursing/Midwifery students (N = 161) of a university in Ireland. Results came positive for stereotypical biases in favour to men in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), and specifically for Mathematics. Stereotypes emerged stronger among the female participants. While comparing the two genders within each of the two study areas, significant differences emerge among the female Nursing/Midwifery and female Engineering participants. Female Engineering participants appear with stronger preference, attitude and importance towards STEM than their Nursing/Midwifery counterparts. Nevertheless, Mathematics is an indicator subject for success in higher education and the need to strengthen critical thinking, evidenced based practice and quality of quantitative research in female dominated areas such as Nursing/Midwifery has been recognised. In addition to identified stereotypes, differences in respondents’ views/elements of their interaction with STEM were associated with the type of secondary school they attended. Further research is recommended on traits that could contribute to the formation of gender biased stereotypes in single and mixed gender education systems with an aim to reverse them.

Case-based learning has become increasingly adopted as a pedagogical approach in health professions education. The successful implementation of case-based learning programmes can be impacted by factors including resources, organisational attitudes and cultural dynamics. This protocol outlines a methodology for a realist review which aims to elucidate the mechanisms and contexts that influence the implementation of a case-based learning programme in health professions education. This study aims to understand the underlying causal mechanisms and contextual factors which can lead to the success or failure of case-based learning programmes. This review will involve a systematic literature review on case-based learning in health professions education, under a realist synthesis framework. A realist synthesis was chosen as the approach as it is suited to the review of such complex interventions, such as the implementation and delivery of a case-based learning programme. Through an iterative literature search and analysis, relevant literature will be explored in order to develop an understanding of the contextual elements and mechanisms which may affect the success of a case-based learning programme. This review will employ thematic analysis to synthesize findings across studies, iteratively refining a programme theory explaining how case-based learning programmes work, for whom, and in what contexts. This realist review protocol provides a systematic and rigorous approach to examining the complexities of case-based learning and the outcomes produced by its underlying mechanisms and contexts. This review aims to offer valuable insights for educators, curriculum developers, and policymakers to optimize the implementation of case-based learning interventions in medical education.