Education & Pedagogy

A child's early years (0-8 y) are the critical development years, as this is when the foundation for learning is laid. A strong learning foundation yields better school performance and increases the likelihood of attaining higher education, resulting in major social and economic gains for society. The early childhood care and education of nearly 80 million Indian children, below the age of six, is covered by Integrated Child Development Services through 1.37 million Anganwadi centers (AWCs). Sixty percent of these children are from rural areas. Preschool education, immunization, health check-ups, referrals, dietary supplements, growth monitoring, and education on health and nutrition are provided at the AWCs. Forty-two percent of these rural children receive pre-school education at the AWCs, and the majority are from disadvantaged families. In this study for evaluating the status of early childhood education programs at rural AWCs, quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 71 AWCs across 25 villages in Haryana, to assess their physical setup, availability of learning resources, and administration and Anganwadi workers' knowledge, attitudes, and skills regarding early childhood education. The findings suggest that most of the AWCs do not have proper infrastructure, are not adequately safe, and compromise on health and hygiene. Further, learning resources are scarce and the Anganwadi workers are not trained well enough to impart knowledge and skills to children in a sustained manner. Many of them do not understand the importance of partnering with parents for children's holistic development. Although this study is limited to 71 AWCs in Mewat, the literature review indicates that these issues and challenges are common to rural villages, which is a serious concern for equity in preschool education. Thus, there is a need for several prompt reforms in early childhood education programs in rural areas of India to bring equity into preschool education. [For the full proceedings, see ED654100.]

This handbook synthesizes accumulated research evidence about the main areas of language teacher education. It systematically applies research synthesis to the field, providing coherent, systematic insights into various aspects of language teacher education. Each chapter compares research conducted between 2010-2020 within a specialized area of teacher education. The chapters discuss the theoretical and research underpinnings of each area, describing the purposes, methods, and findings of the research, including the impacts of teacher education on teacher professional development and teaching effectiveness. The twenty-six chapters in this handbook address three main areas of teacher education: Teacher Variables, Teacher Professional Development, and Teacher Instructional Beliefs and Practices. Section One on teacher variables includes ten chapters focused on teacher reflective practice, identity, cognition, self-efficacy beliefs, emotion, motivation, demotivation and burnout, agency, autonomy, and nativeness/nonnativeness. Second Two includes five chapters on teacher professional development, namely good language teachers, preservice teacher mentoring, practicum in language teacher education, online language teacher education, and language teacher action research. Section Three consists of eleven chapters on teacher instructional beliefs and practices, which systematically review research on teacher beliefs and practices about English as an international language, teacher intercultural knowledge and beliefs, teacher curricular knowledge, TPACK of in-service teachers in language education, CLIL language teacher education, EMI language teacher education, heritage language teacher education, translanguaging in language teacher education, language teacher classroom discourse and interaction, language assessment literacy for teachers, and scaffolding and language teachers. This handbook is an invaluable resource for teacher educators, student/preservice teachers, inservice teachers, graduate students of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) and Applied Linguistics, and teacher education researchers.

This conceptual article aims to enrich critical emancipatory perspectives on global citizenship education by drawing upon the meta-competence "creation of context" introduced by German social philosopher and adult educator Oskar Negt (1934-2024). Negt is well-known in Germany (though not so much elsewhere) for his landmark work on critical theory (in the context of the so-called "Frankfurt School"), social sciences and (adult) education. The authors of this article discuss his seminal perspective with reference to two other theoretical approaches that are also widely discussed in Germany but have yet to enter the debate in education and social sciences elsewhere. First, they address the critical theory on education and liberation proposed by Heinz-Joachim Heydorn in his paper on the contradiction between education ("Bildung") and domination. Second, they elaborate on the social diagnosis of the imperial mode of living proposed by Ulrich Brand and Markus Wissen, which features in contemporary discourse on the emancipatory power and potential of education in Germany. Both help to underline why "creation of context" might serve as a leitmotif for a critical emancipatory approach to global citizenship education.

The 2024-2025 reporting period marks a significant year of progress and transformation for Native education in Washington State. The Office of Native Education (ONE) provides assistance to school districts in meeting the educational needs of American Indian and Alaskan Native (AI/AN) students. ONE serves as a liaison between OSPI and school districts, tribal governments, State-Tribal Education Compact schools (STECs), tribal schools, Native communities, parents/guardians of Native children, and other groups and individuals. RCW 28A.300.105 places the Office of Native Education into statute. This report documents key accomplishments, challenges, and recommendations as required under RCW 28A.300.105. Major accomplishments during this period include the inaugural Tribal Education Leaders Summit (TELS), significant expansion of tribal consultation training reaching over 1,100 education leaders, development of the Native Literacy Framework, continuation of the Fentanyl/Opioid Prevention Pilot program, and strengthened implementation of the John McCoy (lulilaš) Since Time Immemorial curriculum across the state.

Each year, the State Board of Education (SBE) is tasked with certifying that each publicly funded school district and local education agency (LEA) is in compliance with the Program of Basic Education (Revised Code of Washington 28A.150.220). The certification process occurs through an annual Minimum Basic Education Requirement Collection survey completed by school district staff in advance of the school year under consideration. The survey is both a method for determining compliance and an educational tool (some districts/LEAs first hear about new statutory requirements through the survey). This report highlights key findings from that survey, showing that the Board either fully certified or conditionally certified 325 publicly-funded districts and LEAs as being in compliance with basic education instructional requirements for the 2025-26 school year. In addition, most districts and LEAs reported that they are offering other curricular requirements in statute, are in the process of implementing those requirements, or are exempt from the requirements. The survey results provide a system-wide view of how state requirements are implemented. In addition, survey data will help inform the Board's work, such as the FutureReady initiative to update high school graduation requirements.

Background: There is a lack of research on diabetes education for healthy college students. Purpose: To examine the effect of three different forms of diabetes education materials on college students' information comprehension under focused and fragmented reading scenarios. Methods: A total of 300 college students divided into six groups were enrolled in this study with a response rate of 91.45%, with each group representing different reading scenarios with different forms of education materials (text, icon, and illustration). A questionnaire survey was conducted to assess the understanding (information perception and memory retention) of participants. Results: There was similar influence of different forms of education materials on college students' perception and memory retention in the context of focused reading. In contrast, under the fragmented reading scenario, materials with illustrations were the most effective. Discussion: The form of education materials is crucial for information comprehension of college students in the scenario of fragmented reading rather than focused reading. Translation to Health Education Practice: It is necessary to design visually appealing health education materials to promote diabetes education among college students.

Addressing affective-sexual education in teacher training is a crucial component in guaranteeing students' comprehensive learning. However, it has had little or no presence in the syllabuses of the undergraduate degree programmes in Early Childhood and Primary Education. This study analyses the presence and characteristics of this content in 1673 teaching guides for the 2024/2025 academic year associated with the Infant and Primary Education degrees at Spanish public universities. It is based on a documentary analysis complemented with a quantitative approach. The information was managed using an ad hoc instrument. The artificial intelligence tool Notebook LM was used as a search engine, as well as a manual search. Descriptive, comparative and correlational procedures were used to process the information. The results show a low presence of affective-sexual education content. Nonetheless, this study provides empirical evidence on an underdeveloped dimension and underlines the need to institutionalise sex education in teacher training, highlighting the role of quality agencies in this process.

This article posits that world-class education is international education, as defined by UNESCO, and presents International Baccalaureate (IB) programmes as examples of this phenomenon. It begins with the IB's 1960s origins in international schools, which educated the children of globally mobile parents who worked principally in the UN and its agencies, and in embassies and multinational companies. Its origin led to its perception as elitist, but it has since been democratised in public (state) schools in quite a number of countries, notably in North America; starting in 2012, the IB offers the IB Career-related Certificate (IBCC) programme for students following vocational courses. Then follows an overview of the four education programmes of the IB, in order of creation: Diploma Programme (1970), Middle Years Programme (1994), Primary Years Programme (1997), and the IB Career-related Certificate (2012). Attributes of a world-class education are suggested: the concept of interdependence between nations, the shaping of attitudes, the relevance of curriculum content and teaching methods, and the importance of including an international perspective. The article concludes with a list of competencies for a world-class education based on the IB Learner Profile.

This paper aims to introduce a critical reflection on the field of music education in higher education, using the Bologna Declaration and the European context as a backdrop. However, the author would like to clarify that she does not intend to develop a thorough comparative analysis of music education in European countries. In fact, this is being done elsewhere in the form of large research projects or as the result of specially commissioned committees investigating the development of music within the context of the Bologna Treaty. In this paper, the author first revisits the Bologna Declaration and its most significant promises, and she outlines how these may impact music education in higher education institutions. Second, she addresses challenges for music education, particularly as they relate to cultural diversity. Third, she discusses the need to bring back as a main focus those actors who matter a great deal: (music) teachers. Finally, her conclusions briefly outline how music education may contribute to the development of a new educational culture in the European space. (Contains 11 notes.)

The author started her training in adventure education around 1986 when Mike Laurence introduced the concept to Brock University. At the time, she was employed by Niagara College working in its Futures Program. To her the theory behind adventure-based programs seemed a coalescence of her yen for sociology, psychology, existential philosophy and physical and health education. Over the next two years, she was able to facilitate a number of youth groups in adventure education and always enjoyed it. She left Niagara College to pursue a teaching career with the Lincoln County Board of Education. By September 1989, she was posted to South Lincoln High School in Smithville, Ontario. Here she met a physical education colleague, Andrew Yap, who loved to listen to her ideas surrounding the potential of adventure programming. In this article, the author discusses a specialty course called Adventure Based Education that they developed at South Lincoln. The adventure based curriculum in general, and the climbing wall in particular, offer their students the opportunity to explore such concepts as physical and emotional safety, self-esteem, trust building, goal setting, positive risk taking, community building, problem solving and decision making.

Purpose: This study evaluated student access to physical education in 26 U.S. states, examining weekly minutes, class sizes, and policy implementation practices. Methods: The U.S. Physical Education and Physical Activity Policy questionnaire was distributed to 40,970 physical education teachers across 26 states. Data were collected on weekly minutes, days/week, class sizes, and policy-related practices. Responses were analyzed to assess physical education access and its correlation with class sizes. Results: Findings revealed that student physical education access is below recommendations, with significant between-state variability. Average weekly minutes were 92.8 in elementary, 151.8 in middle school, 185.9 in high school, and 157.8 for students with disabilities. Positive correlations between minutes/week and class sizes suggest that some schools increase class sizes to maintain instructional time. Conclusion: To address declining physical education access, future efforts should focus on engaging educators and policymakers through advocacy, professional development, and best practices in state policies.

Although tianxia (all under heaven) and the global common good represent two ideal paths to transform higher education from different civilizations, they both value humanism, benefit the public, and respect the coexistence of differences. Cultivating public-spirited talents is the critical overlap between tianxia and the global common good in the field of higher education. Considering the similarities between tianxia and the global common good, the contributions of higher education to tianxia are consistent with those to the global common good. Tianxia can provide the basis for the existence of the global common good, and the global common good clarifies the goal of contributions of higher education to tianxia. Based on the discussion above, this study proposed that "tian ren heiyi," "tianxia weigong," and "tianxia datong" are three dimensions that higher education contributes to tianxia and proposed an evaluation system to measure the contribution of higher education to tianxia. This study argued that UNESCO is better suited to empower this evaluation system compared with other international organizations. The evaluation system may aid in moving tianxia and the global common good from normative concepts closer to working systems.

In this article we respond to the perceived crisis in humanities education in South Africa which posits firstly that large numbers of students are leaving this field and that secondly, the value of a humanities education has declined. To do this we track the enrolments and graduation rates in humanities at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels between 1999-2007. We disaggregate the data using the racial quantifiers identified in the HEMIS data base. We show that the small overall numeric decline of students in humanities education does not constitute a crisis in itself. Instead, it is disturbing that humanities education does not parallel the patterns of growth evident in higher education as a whole, particularly for historically disadvantaged groups. We use Waghid's ideas on the civic role and responsible citizenship roles of higher education to comment on the numeric trends we observe with respect to humanities education and argue that the second perceived crisis, namely that of the declining value of humanities education deserves national attention. (Contains 1 note and 12 figures.)

In this article, I intend briefly to present some views of how cultural expressions can be used as a basis of artistic education of an indigenous people in a particular area. In the past 30 years, indigenous peoples have demanded that their cultural expressions (and knowledge) be included in higher education; to achieve this, they have applied diverse strategies. This integration is, however, a complex process, as universities or institutions of higher education often have to follow national programmes and regulations concerning higher education. Nevertheless, many indigenous peoples have attempted, in their regions, to create art programmes for higher education, often as part of another art programme, or as an independent programme. The case that I use in the presentation is based on my work at "Sami allaskuvla"/the Sami University College in Guovdageaidnu (Kautokeino) in the Sami area of Norway. The main question here is: How and under what conditions is it possible to launch higher art education that has "duodji" as its foundation? A key question is what the significance of the overall discourse and praxis that has emerged and developed in indigenous societies is when it is transferred to higher education.

Numerous reports and studies have touted the benefits of school health education for over five decades and extensive public health data support an association between education levels and health outcomes. This paper recounts the "tacit" approval given to school health education historically by reviewing reports issued by various governmental and nongovernmental organizations from the 1960s to the present. Whereas these reports and studies demonstrate an influence on the status of modern school health education programs, many of the barriers to effective school-based programs described 50 or more years ago continue to be challenges for school health education advocates. Additional elements that may further impact the delivery and of quality of school health education negatively in the next decade include legislation that places pressure on schools to improve students' performance on subject areas that do not include health; a declining tax base for funding education programs in general; the deterioration or complete disappearance of school health education professional preparations programs; and evolving technology that alter the ways in which students learn.