Education & Pedagogy

The education system has been radically transformed by technological impetuses owed to the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4.0). Most recently, developing nations expedited smart education implementation to combat the negative effects COVID-19 has on education; thus, presenting managerial issues. A review of the literature on smart education shows that past studies focused primarily on the smart learning environment, substantially ignoring the importance of leadership and human resources capacity in the management of smart education. This study addresses the deficiency observed in the literature as it relates to the key factors that enable success in the management of smart education. The study applied a quantitative approach that derived data from a structured survey of probability simple random sampled Grenadian employees belonging to tertiary education. The Hayes multiple moderated mediation, Model 23, supported by SPSS-PROCESS Macro software was used to examine the study's model. Results showed that human resources capacity has a conditional indirect effect on smart education through the mediating variable of leadership capacity. Additionally, the moderating variables of additional investment in the '?' path and student demographics in the '?' path both displayed significant moderating effects. The findings of the study have provided several valuable insights into the theoretical and practical implications of the influence of leadership and human resources capacity in the implementation of smart education. Therefore, it is recommended, that the soft variables assessed in this paper need to be harnessed accordingly to achieve smart education.

This paper continues the authors' analysis of the policy pursued by the government of the Ukrainian State in the area of public education in 1918. The primary focus in the work's second part is on the government's policy on preschool, primary, and secondary education. The key sources employed in the work are materials from the period's periodical press, memoirs by contemporaries of the events, and published statutory enactments of the government of the Ukrainian State regulating policy on primary and secondary education. It is in the year 1918 that the primary, secondary, and higher education systems in the Ukrainian State were formalized legally. The government was deeply aware of the decisive role of the public education system in the development and strengthening of Ukrainian statehood. The authors drew the conclusion that primary and secondary schools in the region enjoyed a high level of autonomy in terms of organization of the educational process at the time. The exception was that government policy actively facilitated the Ukrainization of the educational process -- by way of introduction of instruction in the Ukrainian language and disciplines related to Ukrainian studies. This was a positive influence amid the formation of a young Ukrainian state. Despite a challenging military/political and economic situation, the government did manage to provide most of the region's educational facilities with all appropriate course materials. The government worked closely with local authorities and the public, which had a positive effect on the development of the systems of primary, secondary, and preschool education locally. [For Part 1, see EJ1284289.]

Values education is a subject matter that draws attention in history education in every period. As history is about people's past lives, it naturally presents the heritage values of the society. In addition, the confrontation of the students with the historians' process of history making also contributes to both seeing these values and developing other values through some collaborative processes. There exists a special relationship between history and values education and both strengthen one another over the heritage values. The main purpose of the study is to learn history teachers' views about value education within the context of history courses. History teachers were asked to evaluate history courses, curriculum, and textbooks in terms of values education, and their opinions about classroom practices and effective values education were received. In this respect, qualitative research approach and case study design in accordance with its nature was adopted in the study. In 2020, 16 history teachers were interviewed via a semi-structured interview form, and the data obtained were analysed via content analysis and presented. As a result, it was observed that history teachers considered history courses as an ideal field in terms of values education. Despite this, they did not find the curriculum and textbook sufficient and they carried out values education with their own efforts, mostly through classroom practices. Teachers emphasized that there would be opportunities for effective values education in a history lesson where student-centred activities were carried out, history was not abused and its social aspect was emphasized more.

Background: Teacher instructional competency, the set of essential knowledge and skills needed to guide teaching practice, is critical to the successful implementation of school health education. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the Health Education Teacher Instructional Competency (HETIC) framework, a new conceptualization describing teacher characteristics, essential knowledge, and essential skills, which can influence instructional practice and improve student learning outcomes in health education. Methods: Data from 17 publicly available guidance documents, professional standards, published reports, and empirical studies relevant to the fields of public education, school health education, and sexual health education were abstracted and analyzed using qualitative thematic content analysis. Results: The framework describes 3 domains: personal characteristics, essential knowledge, and essential skills, which are believed to contribute to teachers' instructional competencies in delivering health education. The knowledge domain asserts 5 key categories, while the essential skills domain includes 3 categories (learning environments, content and delivery, and collaboration and learning) and contains 11 unique skills. Collectively, these domains are influenced by the learner, school/community, and policy-level factors that shape health education curriculum and instruction. Conclusions: The HETIC framework presents a conceptual roadmap to guide quality health education preparation, job-embedded training, and delivery. Improving teachers' instructional competencies strengthens learning and prosocial environments that are inclusive, responsive, and affirming of students' health and learning needs. Teacher who demonstrate instructional competency can help students to achieve desired education and health outcomes, specifically acquiring the knowledge and skills needed to adapt, practice, and maintain healthy behaviors throughout their lifetime.

COVID-19 lockdown has caused disruption to education of all levels with far-reaching implications and unveiled the shortfalls of the current education model. Cycles of tightening and relaxation of COVID-19 lockdown confer uncertainty to the continuity of education. This article aims to comprehensively present the impacts of COVID-19 on primary, secondary and tertiary education and propose sound educational practices in the COVID-19 era. Papers related to educational impacts and implications of COVID-19 were selected for this review through a PRISMA model. The review shows that a shift of learning remotely or online has affected educators and learners, especially in relation to learning loss among learners, limitations in instructions, assessment and experiential learning in virtual environment, technology-related constraints, connectivity, learning resources and materials, besides psychosocial well-being. These impacts are exacerbated by inequalities in the distribution of resources as well as inequities attributed to socioeconomic status, gender, ethnicity, learning ability and physical conditions. The recommendations for future educational practices comprise adaptability of curricula to embed independent and online learning options, concurrence of diverse learning modalities for seamless learning transitions and flexibility, flexible staffing and learning model, enhanced support, technological and curricular innovation with simplification and standardization, as well as interactive, responsive and authentic virtual environment. This review contributes significantly to enhance preparedness of education to crisis while ensuring continuity and quality of education in the era of COVID-19 uncertainty.

The COVID-19 global outbreak is a growing concern for continuing medical education. The COVID-19 pandemic has led many medical education programs to be carried out online in the world. This research aims to examine the mediating effect of attitudes towards distance education in explaining the relationship between e-learning styles and academic achievements of students in medical education conducted online. The research was carried out on 148 students studying in a six-year medical program at a university. In the research, students completed the e-learning styles scale, attitude scale towards distance education, and online questionnaire include some demographic information via Moodle-based Learning Management System (LMS). In addition, end of year grade point averages of the students was also used within the scope of the research. In the research, the direct effect of e-learning styles on the grade point average and an indirect effect on attitude towards distance education were tested with the mediation model. It was determined that gender is not a significant variable on e-learning styles and attitudes towards distance education. It was observed that students with higher daily internet usage times had higher attitudes towards distance education. In the research, it was observed that the attitude towards distance education has a mediating effect on the relationship between e-learning style and academic success. It is important to consider e-learning styles and attitudes towards distance education to increase academic success in online medical courses and provide better learning outcomes.

This paper argues that the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic created a space to reconceptualise education and rethink priorities. Although no one will deny the devastating impact of the pandemic, humans have been able to continue with various projects, including the global education project, largely made possible through unprecedented technology advancement, as well as the uptake of technologies that advanced pre-COVID-19. In many ways, the clear distinction between human and technological (being non-human) practices has blurred to a point where the mere nature of human projects such as the global education project has become post-human. While different schools of thought on the nature of "post-human" exist, we use it to refer to what we are becoming together, a comprehension and awareness of the connectedness between humans and their natural and technological environment and the ethical concerns that come with it. COVID-19 provides an opportunity to reconsider the connectedness, complexities and dynamics of the world, and what we (humans, nature, Earth, technology) are becoming. Based on a literature survey and critical refection on the state of the global education expansion project at the time of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we suggest the following changes to the ways quantity, quality and equality in education are conceptualised. The employment of technology should be added in the conceptualisation of input quality. Flexibility, support and connectedness should be built into the process quality equation. Most importantly, ecology should also be added as a product of education, and not merely a contextual influence in education.

Once the COVID-19 crisis is over, will everything" return to normal" or will we instead witness an ongoing boom in online learning? A time of crisis is an opportunity for all education systems to look to the future; there is enormous potential for digital technology in mathematics education, regardless of the impact of COVID-19. In this paper, the researcher focuses on answering two research questions: (1) Is COVID-19 the gateway for digital learning in mathematics education? (2) What type of digital technology is being used in mathematics education during the COVID-19 pandemic? The study also provided a discussion on the implications that such digital technologies could have on research into the field of mathematics education and practice in addition to suggestions for future research directions on this topic. Interviews were chosen as techniques for the purpose of this research, which were undertaken with hundred and twenty mathematics teachers from different secondary schools in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The researcher found that 98% of participants believed that COVID-19 is the gateway for digital learning in mathematics education. In addition, 97% claimed that the use of online education by schools had expanded greatly following the coronavirus outbreak. This has resulted in various forms of software being used to facilitate communicate between teachers and students included mobile technologies, touchscreens and pen tablets, digital library and designing learning objects in mathematics education, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in mathematics, and computer algebra systems (CAS) such as Mathematical, Maple, MuPAD, MathCAD, Derive and Maxima.

The objective of this study is to investigate the role of agile teams in the service delivery of Saudi higher education amid the COVID-19 crisis. The qualitative design of this study allows for an open-ended data collection instrument defined by a semi-structured interview process and thematic data analysis. The study employs a purposive strategy to sampling whereby direct engagements are administered between the author and individual participants. The study therefore analyzes data inductively and reports results where codes are defined, patterns are identified, and themes are generated. The first theme is that the future of Saudi higher education is learner-focused. The second theme is that the value of agile teams increases in the level of operational complexity of distance education. The third theme is that the COVID-19 crisis has left a permanent impact on the way higher education is delivered. The fourth theme is that the agility features of adaptability and responsiveness are highly desirable in Saudi higher education settings. The fifth and the last theme is the great potential for agile teams in the delivery of distance education to enhance learners' labor market competitiveness while augmenting their sense of responsible citizenship. The study implies that agile teams have great potential in the service delivery of Saudi higher education.

Tolerance education aims to promote the culture of peace and acceptance of others for well-being and diversity management. Therefore, it is important to create learning environments, content, and facilities for tolerance education in line with the universal values in education. However, little is known about how the literature investigated and summarized the findings related to tolerance education. Therefore, this study conducts a systematic review about this topic, where 75 reviewed studies were analyzed according to the Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) components. Findings highlighted that: (1) from the "subject" component, future research should involve more stakeholders, like parents and policymakers, when discussing tolerance education; (2) from the "object" component, tolerance education should not only focus on the physical environment, but also on the virtual environment; (3) from the "tools" component, limited digital tools and technology have been used to promote tolerance education; (4) from the "community" component, more investigation of tolerance education should be outside of school contexts; (5) from the "rules" component, more ICT training should be provided. The use of big data and learning analytics could be one of the potential methods to assess students in tolerance education; (6) from the labor "division" component, school family interaction role is very important to manage risks and diversities through tolerance education; and (7) from the "outcomes" component, tolerance education studies should go beyond simply investigating the awareness and attitudes of learners, and investigate, for instance, the behavioral changes of learners. Finally, recommendations were made under each CHAT component.

This study, it was aimed to examine the attitudes of university students receiving distance education towards distance education in terms of various demographic characteristics. The survey method, one of the quantitative research methods, was used in the study. 764 university students who were selected by the criterion sampling method and who received distance education in the COVID-19 pandemic participated in the study. In the collection of data, the Attitude Scale towards Distance Education was used and the data were collected online with the prepared form. Various statistical analyses were made on the collected data and the results were discussed within the framework of research questions. As a result of the analysis, it was concluded that university students' attitudes towards distance education were low. It has been observed that the scores of the scale of attitude towards distance education differ in terms of gender and grade level. It was also observed in the study that having a computer and internet connection at home and the level of participation in the virtual classrooms had a positive effect on the attitude towards distance education. In this period when distance education is not a choice but a necessity, it is recommended that the education to be provided should be planned well to achieve the expected quality and to increase the level of success. It is thought that these results obtained from the study will contribute to distance education institutions and planners.

The aim of this study is to compare Turkey and China in terms of admission to primary math teacher education programs, the content of primary math teacher training programs and appointment to teaching post. Within the scope of this aim, document analysis method was used in the study. As data sources the websites of Ministry of Education, OECD, National Center on Education and Economy and articles on primary Mathematics teacher education systems and teacher education systems in general were used. The documents were examined in terms of conditions of admission to teacher education programs, the content of curriculum and the appointment to teaching post in Turkey and China. While choosing the countries, 2018 PISA Math results of China and Turkey were considered. According to the findings of the study it was concluded that although Turkey and China have some similarities in terms of conditions of admission to teacher education programs, the content of curriculum and the appointment to teaching post, there are also big differences between two countries. Accordingly, some suggestions are proposed especially for the Turkish teacher education system. Some of the suggestions are increasing the hours of practicum, having an interview before they are accepted to education programs, having an interview and a written exam in every five years after they are appointed to a teaching post. [Note: The page range (p111-126) shown on the PDF is incorrect. The correct page range is p111-125. This article includes an extended summary in Turkish.]

Background/purpose: Higher education institutions worldwide rapidly switched to emergency remote teaching with a sustainable quality education approach in response to the global health threat caused by the COVID-19 virus. The sudden and largely unprepared transition to emergency remote teaching placed serious pressures on not only students, but also academics, the families of both, and also other stakeholders as well. This study aims to discuss the potential effects of emergency remote teaching due to COVID-19 on disadvantaged students in higher education. Materials/methods: This study is a review article, which presents a brief literature review on the potential impact of emergency remote teaching due to COVID-19 on disadvantaged students in higher education. Practical implications: This study may help to provide researchers and practitioners with a roadmap for potential future work on the impact of emergency remote teaching in response to the COVID-19 pandemic on disadvantaged groups. From this perspective, the potential effect of emergency remote teaching on disadvantaged students in higher education is examined and recommendations put forwards for solutions aimed at educational administrators and decision-makers. Conclusion: The emergency remote teaching put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic has led to the widening of the digital divide among higher education students. Therefore, integrating the digital and distance education approach into the higher education system correctly and effectively may both facilitate the achievement of instructional goals and also help to eliminate digital inequality in the higher education student population.

Globally, access to higher education has increased, but inequalities by socio-economic background remain. This article explores the relationship between early schooling opportunities (and learning) and progression into higher education in four low and middle-income countries. We analyse data from the Young Lives longitudinal study, following cohorts of young people from age 5 to 22 in four country settings: Ethiopia, Peru, Vietnam and India. We reveal wide variability in higher education participation between the four countries, with a common pattern of a very strong association between early learning and later higher education participation, even after allowing for a range of demographic characteristics. Whilst early learning is important in predicting later higher education participation, we also find that significant barriers to higher education participation remain for low socio-economic status groups, even if they initially show good levels of learning. We track the trajectories of children who have initial good levels of learning, and hence arguably the potential to progress to higher education, and assess the extent to which socio-economic background plays a mediating role in these trajectories. Pupils with initially good levels of learning at primary school age, but who are from poor backgrounds, fall back in terms of their relative attainment during secondary schooling years. This implies that socio-economic status continues to be a barrier to educational attainment throughout these children's lives. We discuss the implications of these findings for policy initiatives aimed at narrowing inequalities in higher education access in poorer countries.

In today's age of knowledge and technology, societies are changing fast, on both macro and micro levels. Hardly anyone could have predicted several years ago such an acceleration of change and its impact on society, and in particular, on higher education. In Europe as well as globally, higher education has been undergoing many changes for more than two decades. In many countries, the number of higher education institutions has increased, mass education has replaced more elite systems, universities have adopted different agenda, and research has become more competitive. In this new context, doctoral education has also needed to be redefined in order to better respond to societal and academic challenges. Doctoral education--a crucial segment of higher education and the main link between the European Higher Education Area and the European Research Area--has been receiving continuous attention for more than 15 years. This paper provides an overall view on changes in doctoral education in Europe, the background of this change process, and the context that led to these major changes. The main analysis will be presented from a European academic context perspective, but it will also reflect a global perspective. It will provide an analysis of all the milestones and consider the relevant policies and recommendations on the supranational level and their reflection on the national level. While taking the reader on a 15-year journey of the doctoral education system in Europe, a brief look to the future of doctoral education will be sketched as well.