Search Results (883)

The rapid proliferation of Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (ChatGPT) marks a pivotal moment in artificial intelligence, eliciting responses from academic shock to industrial awe. As these technologies advance from passive tools toward proactive, agentic systems, their transformative potential and inherent risks are magnified globally. This paper presents a comprehensive, critical review of ChatGPT’s impact across five key domains: natural language understanding (NLU), content generation, knowledge discovery, education, and engineering. While ChatGPT demonstrates profound capabilities, significant challenges remain in factual accuracy, bias, and the inherent opacity of its reasoning—a core issue termed the “Black Box Conundrum”. To analyze these evolving dynamics and the implications of this shift toward autonomous agency, this review introduces a series of conceptual frameworks, each specifically designed to illuminate the complex interactions and trade-offs within these domains: the “Specialization vs. Generalization” tension in NLU; the “Quality–Scalability–Ethics Trilemma” in content creation; the “Pedagogical Adaptation Imperative” in education; and the emergence of “Human–LLM Cognitive Symbiosis” in engineering. The analysis reveals an urgent need for proactive adaptation across sectors. Educational paradigms must shift to cultivate higher-order cognitive skills, while professional practices (including practices within education sector) must evolve to treat AI as a cognitive partner, leveraging techniques like Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and sophisticated prompt engineering. Ultimately, this paper argues for an overarching “Ethical–Technical Co-evolution Imperative”, charting a forward-looking research agenda that intertwines technological innovation with vigorous ethical and methodological standards to ensure responsible AI development and integration. Ultimately, the analysis reveals that the challenges of factual accuracy, bias, and opacity are interconnected and acutely magnified by the emergence of agentic systems, demanding a unified, proactive approach to adaptation across all sectors. Full article

This paper addresses the urgent need to redefine education strategies for the Net Generation in the context of rapid technological and societal changes. First, the educational challenge is placed within a broader philosophical and cultural framework, focusing on the fluid and evolving nature of knowledge and human experience. Building on the paradigm shift from Web 2.0 to Web 4.0 and the emergence of Education 5.0, this paper investigates the pedagogical implications of these developments. Through conceptual analysis supported by contemporary educational theory, this paper proposes a model of education that integrates personalized learning, real-time feedback, and collaborative, interdisciplinary environments. A special focus is placed on the role of educators as mentors, rather than mere transmitters of information, and on the ethical, social, and emotional dimensions of digital learning. This article highlights the importance of adjusting educational practices to real-life contexts and future challenges of young learners while ensuring that the humanistic essence of education is not lost. Full article

Sustainable development in modern conditions is impossible without the support of processes by competent specialists with the necessary skills in technology and other areas of economic activity. Studying the methods and principles of implementing SDGs in higher education is crucial. The study was based on a multi-aspect sociological survey to determine the form of implementing SDGs in educational programs, as well as on the analysis of the possibilities of introducing educational modules in the environmental direction into the practice of existing educational programs as integrated modules. It was found that, on average, the allocation of the subject “Sustainable Development” as a separate course received 5.41 out of 10 possible points, which indicates the need to change the paradigm for implementing SDGs in higher education not as a separate discipline but as components of educational courses. While the integration of SDGs into curricula promotes value changes and highlights the importance of best practice examples, expert opinions differ on the need to establish “Sustainable Development” as a separate sub-discipline in the social sciences, despite the active implementation of SDGs by universities and the proven effectiveness of educational modules on reducing CO₂ emissions. When forming such components or modules, special attention should be paid to the practical focus, which is especially important when determining the potential positive impact of the results of using educational modules both in the primary and continuing education systems. Full article

Educator well-being is fundamental to the success of educational systems and is linked to improved student outcomes, teacher retention, and school success. Educator well-being is a multidimensional construct that reflects flourishing and encompasses professional fulfillment, a strong sense of purpose, resilience, and a balance between relationships, individual needs, and workplace conditions. The well-being of educators is deeply rooted in the quality of their relationships. While research documents the effect of various relationships on educator well-being, the effect of family partnership on educator well-being is not well documented. The purpose of this qualitative study, which included interviews with 22 special education teachers in the US, is to explore how family partnerships affect special educator well-being. We found that trust, communication, and advocacy were aspects of relationships with their students’ families that affected special education teacher well-being through impacting their perceived professional effectiveness and emotional fulfillment. Implications are discussed. Full article

This study investigates how students of English Language and Literature Studies and those of Translation at the University of Maribor, Slovenia, perceive and engage with digital tools in academic and language learning contexts. Although students report high levels of confidence in their digital skills and express positive attitudes towards educational technologies, the survey results reveal a significant gap between perceived competence and actual usage. The study identifies the underutilization of institutional tools, limited awareness of resources available, and a reliance on general-purpose search engines rather than academic platforms. These findings highlight the need for improved digital literacy training, structured onboarding, and integration of digital tools into discipline-specific curricula. By focusing on a student population specializing in linguistics and translation in a Central and Eastern European context, this research contributes a localized perspective to broader discussions on digital transformation in higher education. The study offers applicable recommendations for enhancing institutional strategies and supporting students in becoming competent and critical users of educational technology. Full article

This article explores how working conditions and professional well-being intersect in day-care settings, shaping early childhood educators’ professional identities, especially at the start of their careers. Based on a qualitative and interpretative study involving a focus group with seven educators and thirty interviews across Portugal, the findings reveal a profession marked by overload, time pressure, institutional silence, and the invisibility of emotional labour. Yet, educators also demonstrate resistance, mutual support networks, and pedagogical reinvention. Wellbeing is conceptualised as an ecological and political issue, influenced by institutional structures, the absence of public policies, and cultural narratives that continue to devalue the profession. Special focus is given to novice educators, whose entry into the field is characterised by vulnerability, lack of guidance, and identity tensions, pointing to the urgent need for better initial training and institutional support. This article presents a critical analysis of professionalism in early childhood education and care, with implications for teacher education, including mentoring, supervision, and public policy development. It frames the work of early childhood educators in day-care as both an ethical commitment and a form of resistance. Ultimately, it amplifies educators’ voices as knowledge producers and agents of change, contributing to the pedagogy of dignity and the recognition of a profession often rendered invisible. Full article

Physical activity (PA) integration in special education has gained recognition as a neuroeducational intervention supporting emotional and social development in students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), yet teacher perceptions remain underexplored. This cross-sectional study examined how Israeli special education teachers perceive physical activity’s benefits and how teaching experience and educational setting influence these perceptions. A structured questionnaire was administered to 45 female special education teachers from northern Israel. The instrument assessed perceptions of physical activity’s emotional benefits, social outcomes, and implementation practices using Likert-type scales. Teachers strongly endorsed PA as a means to foster emotional resilience and coping, with most preferring group-based activities. Mixed activities were the most preferred approach, followed by movement games. Experienced teachers reported significantly stronger perceptions of emotional benefits compared to less experienced colleagues. Secondary teachers demonstrated higher extracurricular promotion and perceived greater social benefits than elementary teachers. Despite positive attitudes, implementation barriers, including infrastructure limitations and training gaps, were evident. These findings highlight physical activity’s potential as a neuroeducational tool for fostering regulation and inclusion while revealing the need for differentiated professional development, infrastructure investment, and policy integration. Full article

Despite increasing attention to inclusive education, the spatial and environmental requirements of individuals with Down syndrome remain insufficiently addressed within architectural research. This study investigates how educational environments can be redesigned to betteraccommodate the developmental, sensory, and behavioral needs of this user group, utilizing the interdisciplinary lens of building biology that emphasizes occupant health, well-being, and environmental quality. Employing a case study methodology, this study focuses on Gülseren Özdemir Special Education Practice School in Turkey. Fieldwork was conducted through structured qualitative spatial analysis based on principles derived from building biology and universal design. While the facility meets several baseline accessibility criteria, qualitative observations indicate areas for improvement, particularly in lighting quality, acoustic conditions, tactile stimuli, and spatial adaptability. These findings demonstrate the potential of building biology to serve as a comprehensive, health-centered design approach for inclusive educational settings. This study concludes by proposing spatial strategies applicable to both new construction and retrofit projects, offering a knowledge base that may inform future architectural practices aimed at fostering inclusive and supportive learning environments. Full article

Inclusive education continues to face significant challenges nowadays due to a lack of resources, specialized support, and teacher training. In the context of primary education in Europe, families of students with functional diversity express their concern about the lack of adequate responses to their needs. However, there are merely a few studies that delve into the reality of inclusion from the family perspective. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the perceptions of families of students with functional diversity in Extremadura (Spain), regarding the quality of the educational response offered by schools. For this purpose, the study sample consisted of 70 family members of students with functional diversity in this region. For data collection and analysis, a semi-structured interview was used, applying thematic analysis and chi-square statistical tests in order to explore significant differences in the perceptions gathered. The interviews were transcribed and the answers gathered were categorized. The results show that almost half of the families consider the information received about the disability and the progress of their relatives to be insufficient. Likewise, there is a low level of satisfaction with the support and resources provided by both associations and the public administration. Consequently, the need to strengthen effective communication between schools and families is highlighted as a fundamental pillar to advance toward true educational inclusion. Full article

In socio-economically disadvantaged communities, the challenges faced by children with special needs are often overshadowed by more visible issues such as poverty, family instability, and substance abuse. Children, especially those with special needs, are particularly vulnerable in these settings as they are disproportionately impacted by intersecting adversities, including neglect, exploitation, and limited access to education and healthcare. These adversities create a vicious cycle, where disability exacerbates financial hardship, and in turn, economic deprivation negatively impacts early childhood development, further entrenching disability. Conventional models, which require physical presence and focus primarily on diagnosis and treatment within clinical settings, often fail to address the broader social, environmental, and contextual complexities of disability. We propose an Information Technology-based Exit Pathway as an innovative, scalable solution to disrupt this cycle. Anchored in the five pillars of the Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR) matrix of Health, Education, Livelihood, Social, and Empowerment, the model envisions a multi-level digital platform that facilitates coordinated support across individual, familial, educational, community, regional, and national levels. By improving access to services, fostering inclusive networks, and enabling early intervention, the proposed approach aims to promote equity, social inclusion, and sustainable development for children with special needs in marginalized communities. Full article

This study analyzes how museums in Brașov County integrated digital technologies into their activities during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on online communication and audience interaction. This research is based on a mixed-methods approach, including content analysis, semi-structured interviews with museum representatives, and a questionnaire applied to the visiting public. The aim is to identify the digital strategies used, the challenges encountered, and visitors’ perceptions regarding the usefulness of these tools. The results indicate an accelerated but uneven adoption of digital technologies, influenced by available resources, internal competencies, and institutional support. Frequent online interaction is positively correlated with the perceived quality of digital content, and openness to virtual activities is higher among younger and more educated audiences. Identified limitations include the lack of specialized personnel, reduced budgets, and administrative difficulties. This study emphasizes the need for institutional reforms and investments in digitalization to ensure the sustainability of the digital transition, without losing the value of the physical museum experience. Full article

The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education has raised important questions about its role in supporting inclusive practices, particularly in special education. This qualitative-dominant study with quantitative support examines how special education teachers in inclusive primary classrooms in Greece use ChatGPT to design Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) for students with learning disabilities. Six teachers participated, with some employing ChatGPT and others relying on traditional methods. The quality of IEP goals was described using the Revised IEP/IFSP Goals and Objectives Rating Instrument (R-GORI), while in-depth teacher perspectives were explored through thematic analysis. Findings suggest that ChatGPT contributed to clearer goal-setting, generation of diverse instructional resources, and more structured lesson planning. However, teachers emphasized the need for critical oversight, adaptation to real-world classroom conditions, and safeguarding the relational and emotional aspects of teaching. Participants expressed cautious optimism, viewing ChatGPT as a valuable support tool when integrated thoughtfully and ethically. These context-specific, exploratory results offer preliminary guidance for educators, policymakers, and researchers seeking to integrate AI tools into special education. They highlight the importance of targeted professional development, ethical safeguards, and further large-scale research to evaluate the broader applicability of AI-assisted IEP planning. Full article

Serious games are an important tool for education and training that offers interactive and powerful experience. However, a significant challenge lays with adapting a game to meet the specific needs of each player in real-time. The present paper introduces a framework to guide the development of serious games using a phased approach. The framework introduces a level of standardization for the game elements, scenarios and data descriptions, mainly to support portability, interpretability and comprehension. This standardization is achieved through semantic annotation and it is utilized by digital twins to support self-adaptation. The proposed approach describes the game environment using ontologies and specific semantic structures, while it collects and semantically tags data during players’ interactions, including performance metrics, decision-making patterns and levels of engagement. This information is then used by a digital twin for automatically adjusting the game experience using a set of rules defined by a group of domain experts. The framework thus follows a hybrid approach, combing expert knowledge with automated adaptation actions being performed to ensure meaningful educational content delivery and flexible, real-time personalization. Real-time adaptation includes modifying the game’s level of difficulty, controlling the learning ability support and maintaining a suitable level of challenge for each player based on progress. The framework is demonstrated and evaluated using two real-word examples, the first targeting at supporting the education of children with syndromes that affect their learning abilities in close collaboration with speech therapists and the second being involved with training engineers in a poultry meat factory. Preliminary, small-scale experimentation indicated that this framework promotes personalized and dynamic user experience, with improved engagement through the adjustment of gaming elements in real-time to match each player’s unique profile, actions and achievements. Using a specially prepared questionnaire the framework was evaluated by domain experts that suggested high levels of usability and game adaptation. Comparison with similar approaches via a set of properties and features indicated the superiority of the proposed framework. Full article

The increasing demand for accessible and efficient machine learning solutions has led to the development of the Adaptive Learning Framework (ALF) for multi-class, single-label image classification. Unlike existing low-code tools, ALF integrates multiple transfer learning backbones with a guided, adaptive workflow that empowers non-technical users to create custom classification models without specialized expertise. It employs pre-trained models from TensorFlow Hub to significantly reduce computational costs and training times while maintaining high accuracy. The platform’s User Interface (UI), built using Streamlit, enables intuitive operations, such as dataset upload, class definition, and model training, without coding requirements. This research focuses on small-scale image datasets to demonstrate ALF’s accessibility and ease of use. Evaluation metrics highlight the superior performance of transfer learning approaches, with the InceptionV2 model architecture achieving the highest accuracy. By bridging the gap between complex deep learning methods and real-world usability, ALF addresses practical needs across fields like education and industry. Full article

Background/Objectives: Poor classroom acoustics and inadequate digital environments in educational settings can pose an additional barrier for students, especially those with special needs, such as students with hearing difficulties. These challenges can hinder communication, academic achievement, and social inclusion. Speech-to-text captioning systems offer a promising assistive tool to support education. This study aimed to evaluate the strengths and limitations of implementing such systems in schools through a structured strategic analysis. Methods: The analysis method consisted of two phases. A SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis was performed on data from a survey compiled by an interdisciplinary team. A subsequent TOWS analysis was used to develop strategic recommendations by cross-referencing internal and external factors. Results: The analysis highlighted key strengths, including improved communication, support for inclusive practices, and adaptability to diverse learning needs. Identified weaknesses included cognitive load, synchronization delays, and variability in student profiles. Opportunities included educational innovation, access to funding programs, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Threats included inadequate classroom technology, poor acoustics, and the risks of social stigma. The analysis yielded 17 recommendations to improve the usability and customization of the tool. Conclusions: Speech-to-text captioning systems have significant potential to promote accessibility and inclusion in education. This strategic analysis provides a structured, interdisciplinary approach to strategic planning and the successful implementation of assistive technology in schools. By combining multidisciplinary expertise with structured evaluation, it identified key design, training, and policy priorities. This approach offers a replicable model for user-centered planning and the development of assistive tools and can inform wider efforts to reduce communication barriers in inclusive education. Full article