Search Results (7,943)

Background: Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) accumulate in tissues with age and are associated with the risk of chronic diseases. However, evidence regarding lifestyle factors related to AGE accumulation in healthy adolescents is limited. The aim of this study was to explore dietary and lifestyle factors that may attenuate tissue AGE accumulation, using skin autofluorescence (SAF) as a noninvasive proxy marker, in healthy Japanese early adolescent girls. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 315 first-year junior high school girls aged 12–13 years from a private school in Japan. SAF was measured on the volar forearm using an AGE Reader MU. Dietary intake was assessed using a validated brief diet history questionnaire (BDHQ-15y). Lifestyle factors, including weekday sleep duration, were assessed using a self-administered questionnaire. Health-related variables (including weight-loss dieting) were also collected. Associations between SAF and each factor were analyzed using generalized linear models and nonparametric tests, with multivariable adjustment for potential confounders. Results: The mean SAF was 1.06 ± 0.13 arbitrary units. No significant associations were observed between SAF and health-related characteristics, nutrient intakes, or major food-group intakes. Longer weekday sleep duration was significantly associated with lower SAF (p for trend = 0.019) and remained significant after multivariable adjustment (p for trend = 0.018). A similar association was observed for better perceived restorative sleep (p for trend = 0.033; adjusted p for trend = 0.048). Conclusions: In healthy early adolescent girls, longer weekday sleep duration and better perceived restorative sleep were associated with lower SAF, whereas dietary intake was not. Given the largely irreversible age-related accumulation of AGEs, promoting healthy sleep during adolescence may help attenuate AGE accumulation early in life and reduce long-term AGE-related disease risk. Prospective studies with more detailed dietary assessments are needed to clarify dietary influences and confirm temporality. Full article

Background: Grounded in Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and the Dualistic Model (DM) of Passion, this study examined the motivational mechanisms underlying psychological well-being among Tunisian physical education teachers. The objectives were twofold: to examine validity evidence of the Arabic version of the Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale (BPNSFS) and to test an integrative structural model linking harmonious passion, need satisfaction and frustration, well-being, vitality, happiness, and perceived stress. Methods: A representative sample of physical education teachers (1238) completed standardized instruments to assess passion, basic psychological needs, and well-being. To conduct exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, the group was randomly divided into two independent subgroups. Reliability and validity were assessed using additional psychometric indicators, and a structural equation model was used to test the hypothesized relationships. Results: The results support the multidimensional structure and psychometric validity of the scale in the Tunisian context. Harmonious passion appears to be a positive factor in the satisfaction of psychological needs and a negative factor in cases of frustration. The satisfaction of these needs is closely linked to a high level of well-being, whereas their dissatisfaction is associated with adverse consequences. Well-being is also associated with increased vitality, greater happiness, and reduced stress, reflecting adaptive psychological functioning. Conclusions: Harmonious passion and basic psychological need satisfaction emerge as central resources for sustaining teacher well-being, vitality, and resilience against stress in educational contexts. Full article

This study developed and validated a curriculum-aligned instrument to assess preservice primary teachers’ geometric reasoning skills. Addressing the limited availability of domain-specific tools in teacher education research, the study examined preservice teachers’ conceptual strengths and weaknesses across key geometry domains relevant to primary mathematics teaching. A two-phase quantitative research design was employed. In Study 1, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Item Response Theory (IRT) were used to evaluate the psychometric properties of the instrument with a sample of 221 preservice teachers, providing evidence of construct validity and internal consistency. Geometric reasoning was conceptualised as a four-factor structure comprising Conceptualisation of Geometric Properties (GP), Geometric Transformation Reasoning (GT), Reasoning with Representations of Three-Dimensional Objects (RE), and Measurement Reasoning (MS). In Study 2, the validated Geometric Reasoning Test (GRT) was administered to a larger sample of 406 preservice primary teachers from three education colleges in Myanmar. Descriptive statistics and group comparisons were conducted using Welch’s t-tests and Welch’s ANOVA to examine differences by gender, year level, and institution. The findings indicate that preservice primary teachers’ geometric reasoning remains underdeveloped across training stages, highlighting the need for greater emphasis on geometry and spatial reasoning in teacher education. Full article

Introduction/Objectives: Intersectoral collaboration between education and mental health services is central to the care of autistic children and adolescents. However, recent literature indicates that evidence remains limited regarding how these collaborative arrangements are implemented in routine public services, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This study aimed to assess the intersectoral collaboration between Brazilian educational and mental health services for autistic children and adolescents and to examine the frequency and type of intersectoral contact. Methods: An exploratory cross-sectional study was conducted in the municipal public education system of Niterói, a city in the Southeast region of Brazil. Participants included parents of 123 autistic children and adolescents, 49 teachers from mainstream education and specialized educational services (SES), and 24 health professionals. Data were collected using structured questionnaires with multi-informant reports. The instruments were specifically developed for the study and submitted to expert content-validation procedures. Analyses included descriptive statistics and, in a subsample of 51 matched cases with paired responses from teachers and health professionals, Cohen’s kappa to assess agreement between reports. Results: Low levels of intersectoral collaboration were observed, characterized by infrequent contact, limited information exchange, and slight agreement between reports from teachers and health professionals (κ = 0.25; p = 0.01). Teachers were more likely to know where care was provided than to know which specialists were involved, while more than half of health professionals did not know which school the child attended. Conclusions: In the investigated municipal network, care appeared fragmented, highlighting difficulties in translating intersectoral recommendations from public policies into routine collaborative practices. Full article

This study examines the multicultural school as a micro-organizational unit, focusing on the interplay of power relations, organizational culture, and everyday pedagogical practices. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with educators at the 16th General Lyceum of Thessaloniki, the analysis situates school life within broader institutional and normative frameworks. Grounded in Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4), specifically Target 4.7 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the findings show that while educators actively promote intercultural coexistence and democratic participation, their initiatives are constrained by centralized governance and curricular rigidity. Nonetheless, teachers’ personal agency and informal leadership play a crucial role in fostering inclusion, care, and global citizenship values at the micro-organizational level. The study contributes theoretically by reframing the multicultural school through an organizational sociology lens, emphasizing the micro-politics of discretion, institutional logics, and cultural reproduction within school settings. Practically, it highlights the need for structural policy reforms that move beyond reliance on individual teacher initiative and institutionalize inclusive, care-oriented, and sustainability-driven practices within centralized educational systems. Full article

Cooperation is an important influencing factor for individual morality and harmonious social development. Currently, most scholars select adult samples and adopt laboratory research methods. They have found that compared with asynchronous behavior, interpersonal synchronization (including both intentional and incidental synchronization) is significantly associated with higher levels of cooperative behavior. Does this conclusion apply to Chinese children? Childhood is a critical period for the development of cooperative abilities. Therefore, more effective educational approaches for fostering cooperation should be explored and adopted to promote children’s cooperative behaviors. This study randomly selected 193 students aged 8–11 (95 boys and 98 girls, M = 9.74, SD = 1.16) from 5 primary schools in a city. Based on a 2 (intentional synchronization, incidental synchronization) × 3 (measurement occasion) mixed design, a field experiment was conducted to explore the effects of different types of interpersonal synchronization on children’s cooperative behavior. However, the results showed that neither asynchronous behavior nor incidental synchronization significantly improved children’s cooperative behavior. However, the level of cooperative behavior under intentional synchronization conditions was significantly higher than that under incidental synchronization conditions. This characteristic may be related to China’s long-standing collectivistic education, which can help educators reflect on and optimize their cooperation education practices. This finding deserves attention from cooperation researchers. Full article

Hungarian teachers’ reform priorities remain insufficiently mapped, despite their central role in shaping feasible, evidence-based educational change. In a cross-sectional study with 1254 kindergarten, primary, and secondary teachers across Hungary (May 2025), we elicited and analyzed open-ended written responses in which participants identified their top three required reforms. Responses were segmented and coded into 18 mutually exclusive categories via a validated codebook, and prevalence was calculated using respondent-normalized weights. We then examined demographic, well-being, and personality correlates of reform priorities using χ² tests, Mann–Whitney tests, and multivariable logistic models with Benjamini–Hochberg false discovery correction. Teachers most frequently prioritized competency development and pedagogical reform, followed by curriculum flexibility and system governance. Reform priorities were not random: female teachers were substantially more likely to prioritize inclusion and SEN support, while male teachers more often prioritized governance and depoliticization; older age predicted governance priorities. Lower educational system satisfaction robustly predicted prioritizing curriculum reform, autonomy, and governance restructuring, and anxiety and depression were positively related to curriculum concerns. Conscientiousness predicted prioritizing salary and material recognition. The results indicate that teachers’ reform demands function as systematic, psychologically grounded signals that can guide more targeted, teacher-centerd educational policy in Hungary. Full article

The vulnerability of many Pacific communities is impacted by rising sea levels and exposure to extreme weather patterns. This qualitative research study was conducted with focus groups of Māori and Pacific youth in Aotearoa New Zealand. I am a Pacific researcher, and I examine research and report on findings from Pacific youth focus groups. Employing a Talanoa methodology, a key question posed was how educators in Aotearoa New Zealand supported the wellbeing of Pacific youth in the face of increasing climate extremes within their schools and communities. Engaging a Pacific values framework, this discussion emphasizes the critical role of teachers and education in eliminating concerns, working collectively, listening respectfully, and collaborating with Pacific youth in confronting the complexity of issues surrounding climate change, thereby creating a shift from a position of despair and helplessness to a place of hope and optimism. Findings from the study reveal that, in the education sector, climate change is not well addressed, teachers could do more to acknowledge and address climate crises faced in the Pacific region in the curriculum, and little attention is paid to the wellbeing of Pacific youth facing climate change in the Pacific. An implication is that teachers need to support Pacific youth and understand that education about climatic variance affects Pacific learners’ wellbeing. Full article

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become increasingly embedded in technology-enhanced learning environments, where peer assessment now serves both instructional and analytic purposes. Beyond allocating feedback and grades, it also produces data that is later interpreted through learning analytics systems. In practice, visible indicators such as students’ fairness perceptions and the degree of agreement among peer raters are often treated as signs that the assessment process is functioning effectively. However, these indicators do not necessarily correspond to grading validity. Students may regard a peer assessment process as fair even when peer-generated ratings remain weakly aligned with expert judgement. This study, therefore, examines whether the socio-technical configurations associated with high perceived fairness in a digitally mediated peer assessment environment also correspond to criterion-referenced grading validity. Data were collected from 215 undergraduate students enrolled in an Artificial Intelligence Foundations course over two consecutive semesters at a university in Taiwan, with instructor ratings serving as an external expert reference within the course context, rather than as a universal ground truth. Because anonymity conditions and semester were fully confounded in the study design, differences linked to anonymity should not be interpreted as isolated causal effects. A two-stage fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) was used. In the first stage, three equifinal configurations associated with high perceived fairness were identified. In the second stage, these configurations were examined against four grading objectivity outcomes: peer–instructor alignment, peer convergence, familiarity bias, and leniency bias. The findings show that fairness perception and grading validity are only partially aligned. Configurations anchored in explicit criterion transparency consistently supported both experiential legitimacy and evaluative accuracy. By contrast, one configuration was associated with high peer convergence while remaining weakly aligned with instructor standards, a pattern described here as false objectivity; this context-dependent configurational finding warrants further investigation across other settings. The study contributes to research on digitally enhanced assessment and learning analytics by showing that fairness perception, peer convergence, and grading validity should be treated as analytically distinct dimensions of assessment quality. Full article

This study examined a maker-based approach to sustainable digital education in physical education (PE) through a laser-shooting program implemented over a three-year period (2022–2024). While prior studies have largely focused on short-term maker-based PE interventions, less is known about how such practices are refined, stabilized, and diffused across school contexts over time. Using a qualitative case study design, data were collected from lesson plans, instructional artifacts, implementation records, field notes, and semi-structured interviews with five PE teachers, and analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. The findings suggest that, according to teachers’ accounts and classroom documentation, the program was perceived to reduce barriers to participation, diversify student roles, and improve instructional feasibility in indoor PE settings. Over time, the program evolved into a stable and adaptable instructional approach aligned with sustainable digital education, integrating physical computing into embodied learning environments. Diffusion occurred through teacher agency within informal professional networks and institutional training contexts. These findings highlight the potential of maker-based PE as a sustainable digital education approach that may support context-responsive participation, instructional adaptability, and professionally scalable innovation in school PE, with possible relevance for inclusive physical education contexts. Full article

This contribution explores the role of reflective practice and performative methodologies in the professional development of support teachers, framing reflectivity as a complex and articulated form of thinking that goes beyond intuitive reflection. Drawing on theories of transformative learning and practice-based research, the paper argues that performative approaches—grounded in embodied, emotional, and narrative experience—can effectively foster teachers’ critical awareness, professional identity construction, and capacity for inclusive educational action. The study presents a teacher training experience implemented within the Specialization Course for Support Teaching Activities at Link Campus University, involving a 20-h workshop attended by 200 lower secondary school teachers. Centered on performance art practices, the workshop aimed to promote reflective processes related to themes of exclusion and inclusion through bodily engagement, collective meaning-making, and non-verbal communication. Participants were actively involved in designing and performing activities, thus positioning themselves as protagonists of their own learning trajectories. Data collected through pre- and post-intervention questionnaires highlight participants’ positive perceptions of the experience and its transferability to school contexts. Findings suggest that performative methodologies support emotional sharing, enhance group cohesion, and contribute to the creation of a supportive classroom climate, while also strengthening teachers’ reflective and transformative capacities. The paper concludes by emphasizing the pedagogical value of performative practices as tools for fostering inclusive, reflective, and experience-based teacher education. Full article

School leadership practices may influence teachers’ motivation and professional engagement, which, in turn, may affect overall school performance. This study explores how secondary school teachers and deputy head teachers perceive head teachers’ leadership practices and how these practices are understood to influence teacher motivation and professional engagement. Drawing on a qualitative design, data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 12 teachers and six deputy head teachers from six government secondary schools in Kabwe District, Zambia. A qualitative approach enabled an in-depth exploration of leadership perceptions across participants from multiple school contexts. Data were analysed using thematic analysis to identify patterns in leadership practices described by participants. The findings indicate that participants frequently described leadership practices aligned with delegation, mentorship, and open communication, shaped by contextual and organisational factors. However, these practices were not consistently experienced across all school contexts. Participants also described the presence of democratic and autocratic leadership practices. Participants perceived participatory and supportive leadership practices as contributing to their motivation and professional engagement. However, participants from several schools reported that autocratic leadership practices continued to shape decision-making, largely due to contextual, institutional, and workload-related constraints. The study highlights the importance of understanding leadership as contextually negotiated and relationally enacted. It contributes to African educational leadership research by demonstrating how leadership practices are experienced and interpreted within specific school contexts and emphasising the value of examining leadership beyond a single theoretical model. The implications of these findings for school leadership practice, policy development, and international educational leadership research are discussed. Full article

While there has been a recent focus on reforming kindergarten curricula to emphasize a play-based learning (PBL) approach, a lingering dichotomy remains between play-based learning and pedagogical instruction aimed at academic preparation. Early music education is a critical component of the current policy emphasis on arts education and PBL, yet there is scarce research on play-based pedagogy in music education, particularly regarding children’s engagement and the applied instructional models. This study investigates how instructional practices affect children’s behavioral and emotional engagement in musical play. Data were collected at two Hong Kong kindergartens (K1–K3) using classroom observations and the Engagement Check II (ECII) tool. Thematic content analysis revealed three instructional approaches: teacher-directed routines with minimal aspects of play, guided play within structured musical contexts, and open-ended, child-initiated musical play. Analysis of the ECII data revealed high levels of behavioral engagement, with guided-play contexts yielding higher levels of behavioral and emotional engagement compared to highly teacher-directed instructional approaches. Differences in engagement levels during musical play were revealed to be correlated with age. This study highlights the need for culturally responsive music teacher training, supportive school culture, and aligned curriculum and policy implementation. Full article

Despite broad agreement on sensorimotor foundations of cognition, existing integrative models are not user-friendly to those who most need them—parents, caregivers, teachers, and clinical practitioners. This review addresses that gap by proposing Meaning-Events (M-Es) as sensorimotor–cognitive coordination units that structure meaning from infancy through adulthood. Drawing on joint attention research, embodied cognition, and dynamic skill theory, this integrative model demonstrates how sensorimotor processes—gaze coordination, affective timing/synchrony, bodily orientation, eye–hand coordination, and goal-directed action—organize cognitive structures of increasingly abstract meaning-making. Meaning-Events are shown as the smallest analyzable units that integrate sensorimotor experience with cognition, providing (1) developmental continuity for embodied action giving rise to coherent thought, purpose, and identity; (2) reciprocal perspectives informing impacts of dyadic behavioral interactions; and (3) an analytical and synthetic tool providing visible, measurable differentiation and integration of behaviors over time. Integration of Fischer’s dynamic skill theory with Erikson’s psychosocial theory illustrates applications in clinical and educational contexts. Rather than viewing sensorimotor experience as an early precursor superseded by symbolic cognition, the Meaning-Event model positions these sensorimotor–cognitive coordination units as constitutive of meaning at all developmental levels. Full article