AI and language in healthcare: The role of doctor identity and linguistic alignment in perceptions of doctor quality

This study aims to analyze the learning problems experienced by Grade VIII students at UPTD SMPN 16 Kupang based on students’ experiences and teachers’ perspectives. The study employed a descriptive qualitative approach, using interviews with 16 informants consisting of one homeroom teacher, three subject teachers, and 12 Grade VIII students. The data were analyzed thematically by grouping responses into recurring patterns relevant to the research focus. The findings derived from the available informant accounts revealed several issues, namely students’ limited openness in communicating their difficulties, inconsistent classroom participation, procrastination in completing assignments, and family responsibilities that reduce the time and energy available for learning. Some students reported being distracted by recreational activities, while others experienced fatigue after helping their parents at home. These findings indicate that learning problems need to be understood by considering academic factors, study habits, communication, and family context. Guidance and counseling services can support the identification of students’ needs and the development of effective learning strategies and time management skills.

Islamic civilization is one of the major civilizations that has significantly contributed to the development of science and education worldwide. During its golden age, it established educational institutions, fostered scholarly traditions, and produced influential scholars whose ideas continue to shape modern knowledge in the digital era. This article examines the relevance of Islamic civilizational values to the development of modern education through qualitative library research using thematic content analysis. The findings show that Islamic education was distinguished by four interrelated values, namely a strong culture of literacy, the integration of religious and general knowledge, an emphasis on moral formation (akhlak), and openness to knowledge from other civilizations, which together enabled scholars to advance science while upholding ethical and social responsibility. These values are highly relevant to addressing contemporary educational challenges, including declining critical literacy, uncritical dependence on digital technology and artificial intelligence, and the ongoing crisis of learners’ character. These values can inform the development of a modern educational system that integrates critical thinking, digital literacy, character education, and lifelong learning while maintaining moral and social responsibility.

Effective leadership is important to the functioning and development of private higher education institutions. This study analyzed leadership experiences and perceptions at Africa Renewal University (AfRU), focusing on the qualities and practices perceived to contribute to effective leadership. A mixed-method case study design was used, combining structured questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with students, teaching staff, non-teaching staff, management and senior leaders. The study obtained responses from 133 participants out of a target population of 200, representing a 66.5% response rate. Transformational leadership was the most frequently identified leadership style across all respondent groups, reported by 86.96% of students, 77.5% of teaching staff, 66.67% of non-teaching staff, and 70% of management and senior leaders. Among the leadership qualities examined, integrity and ethics received the highest number of responses, followed by effective communication, problem-solving and decision-making. Empathy and emotional intelligence and visionary thinking were also identified, although their emphasis varied across respondent groups. The findings indicate that perceived leadership effectiveness at AfRU was associated with a combination of ethical conduct, effective communication and practical leadership capabilities within a predominantly transformational leadership context. The study highlights the importance of developing leaders who can combine ethical character with effective communication, decision-making and problem-solving in private higher education.

Counselling researchers have spent decades arguing about why counselling works. One philosophical camp locates the active ingredient in specific techniques tied to specific disorders. The other locates it in factors common to all bona fide therapies, chiefly the relationship between counsellor and client. This article develops a process-based perspective on the debate, examining how relational and technical elements are used within an unfolding therapeutic interaction. Drawing on the equivalence findings, the contemporary alliance literature, the unresolved question of causal mediation, the routine outcome monitoring evidence, and Australian decolonising scholarship, I propose a culturally situated responsive calibration model. The model reframes the therapist’s continuous, feedback-informed adjustment of relational and technical elements, made within the client’s cultural frame of wellbeing, as a proposed proximal mechanism of change. Calibration is not a new observation about good practice. Building on established responsiveness theory, the proposed contribution is to organise testable episodes of clinical judgement around feedback, action, and the client’s definition of wellbeing. Four testable propositions are advanced, including tests of whether calibration adds explanatory value beyond established process and treatment measures. Implications for practice, training, and measurement are outlined. The model is offered as a conceptual framework awaiting empirical testing, not as an established finding.

This article sought to adapt and validate an instrument for the perception of management policies and practices aimed at higher education professors, since the available instruments were designed for organisations in general and do not address the particularities of academic work. The instrument was based on two scales already validated for Brazilian organisations, with the addition of items on research incentives, publication support and the teaching career. Content and criterion validity derived from the published origin of the items, complemented by prior definition of the constructs, peer review and pre-testing. A total of 386 professors from Brazilian public and private institutions took part, answering on an interval scale based on adverbs of quantity and frequency. Internal consistency reached a Cronbach's alpha of 0.956. Exploratory factor analysis, used for the statistical validation of the constructs defined a priori, retained six factors explaining 67.3% of the accumulated variance, with a sampling adequacy of 0.948. The expected dimensions were reproduced, and the added items formed a factor of their own. It is concluded that the adapted instrument is suitable for measuring teachers' perception of institutional management.