Abstract Educational tracking shapes students’ learning opportunities, yet isolating its effects from prior selection remains a key challenge in large-scale assessment research. This study examines both the size and the mechanisms of academic-track advantages by integrating longitudinal population-level administrative data from INVALSI with school- and student-level indicators from PISA 2018 in Italy. Focusing on lyceums versus technical schools, we exploit rich pre-tracking information on achievement, socio-demographic background, and early attitudes, and apply entropy balancing to adjust for selection into tracks. Results show that achievement gaps at Grade 10 are large across domains, but substantially reduced once differences in prior competencies and backgrounds are accounted for. Nonetheless, a meaningful academic-track advantage persists after balancing. Decomposition analyses indicate that this residual gap is largely explained by differences in school environments, particularly classroom academic and SES composition alongside school climate, while instructional practices and organizational policies or school resources contribute little on average. The findings support a dual interpretation of tracking effects, combining cumulative selection and exposure to differentiated learning contexts, and highlight the value of linking administrative panels with international assessment data to study both outcomes and mechanisms of educational stratification.
Classroom participation in beginner Arabic courses is often interpreted through the number of students who answer questions aloud. This conceptual and practice-oriented paper argues that such a measure obscures differences between willingness to communicate, linguistic capacity, and the opportunity to participate. Drawing on research in Arabic learning, willingness to communicate, classroom discourse, interaction, and corrective feedback, it develops a barrier–indicator–response matrix for teacher decision-making. Six barriers are paired with provisional observable indicators, proportionate instructional responses, and limits on the evidence supporting each response. Three hypothetical Arabic classroom applications illustrate how the matrix can guide preparation, participation opportunities, and feedback without turning visible participation into a proxy for learning. The matrix is a heuristic rather than a validated diagnostic or intervention instrument. Future observational and intervention studies are needed to test its utility in beginner Arabic settings.
Research on fitrah-based education is mostly conceptual or situated in early childhood and primary schools; its implementation in junior high schools bound by the national curriculum remains underexplored. This qualitative case study describes the forms of implementation, strategies for developing students' academic and spiritual potential, supporting and inhibiting factors, and implications for students at SMP Ar-Rauf Tangerang. Data came from interviews with seven informants, observation, and documents, analyzed with the Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña model. Four forms of implementation emerged: an integrated curriculum, learning centered on students' uniqueness, narrative assessment (Rapor Fitrah), and a nurturing school culture. Potential was developed through talent mapping, personalized Qur'an memorization, nature-based entrepreneurship, and differentiated instruction. Educator vision, parental involvement, and the environment supported implementation; tension with the national curriculum, teacher workload, and varied parental understanding inhibited it. The study proposes the Formal School Fitrah Ecosystem model.
This study examined teachers’ readiness and perceived effectiveness in implementing Makabansa and Araling Panlipunan under the revised K to 10 (MATATAG) Framework across 33 public schools in the Schools Division of Parañaque City during School Year 2025–2026. Specifically, it sought to determine whether teacher readiness significantly predicted perceived effectiveness and to identify which readiness domains most strongly influenced outcomes. Employing a quantitative-correlational design, the study utilized stratified random sampling to ensure proportional representation across grade levels and supervisory contexts. The study involved 271 public school respondents, composed of 227 teachers handling learners in Key Stages 1–3 and 44 immediate coordinators, namely head teachers and master teachers. Data were collected through validated researcher-made survey instruments measuring readiness and perceived effectiveness and were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation, and regression techniques. Findings revealed that both teachers and coordinators demonstrated very high levels of readiness and effectiveness. Correlation analysis confirmed a significant positive relationship between readiness and effectiveness, while regression analysis demonstrated that readiness significantly predicted effectiveness. Teacher readiness explained 22.4% of the variance in perceived effectiveness (R² = .224, β = .473, p < .001), while coordinator readiness explained 53.9% (R² = .539, β = .734, p < .001). As a practical output, the study developed a Teacher Readiness Toolkit for Makabansa and Araling Panlipunan.
This study aimed to analyze the mediating role of parent–school interaction disturbance in the relationship between parental job burnout and children’s academic burnout among workers in the petrochemical industries of Ardabil. A descriptive correlational design using structural equation modeling was employed with a sample of 218 working parents. Standardized instruments were used to assess parental job burnout, parent–school interaction, and children’s academic burnout. The results showed that parental job burnout had a positive and significant effect on parent–school interaction disturbance and children’s academic burnout. Parent–school interaction disturbance also had a positive and significant effect on children’s academic burnout. In addition, the indirect effect of parental job burnout on children’s academic burnout through parent–school interaction disturbance was statistically significant, confirming partial mediation. The findings indicate that the consequences of parental job burnout may extend beyond the occupational domain and affect children’s educational experiences. The study highlights the importance of reducing parental occupational stress and strengthening the relationship between families and schools as relevant strategies for preventing children’s academic burnout.
This article examines the process of developing the diagnostic and consultative competence of speech and language therapists. The issue is particularly relevant at the present stage of special education development in Ukraine, where competency-based approaches have become central to the professional preparation of future specialists. The study establishes that diagnostic and consultative competence begins to develop during pre-service professional training at higher education institutions and continues to evolve throughout a specialist's professional career. Furthermore, each type of professional activity is accompanied by corresponding emotional responses, which are considered important indicators of successful professional development. The study employed the following research methods: theoretical analysis and synthesis, a sociological survey (questionnaire), and mathematical methods for data processing. The concepts of phase, period, and stage are theoretically distinguished. Four stages in the development of a specialist's diagnostic and consultative competence are identified. Stage I marks the initial development of this competence during professional training. Stage II involves the foundational development of diagnostic and consultative competence in novice practitioners. Stage III is characterized by the formation of an individual professional style of diagnostic and consultative practice. Stage IV represents mastery in both speech and language therapy practice and diagnostic and consultative competence. The article describes the principal characteristics of professional activity and the corresponding changes in specialists' emotional responses throughout each period of every developmental stage. A sociological survey of speech and language therapists with varying lengths of professional experience was conducted to clarify the duration of the developmental periods for diagnostic and consultative competence, as well as the characteristics of their professional activities and the associated emotional states. Physicians with different levels of professional experience also participated in the survey, as diagnostic and consultative competence is similarly essential in medical practice. A pilot study based on interviews with 18 respondents demonstrated that the development of diagnostic and consultative competence follows a sequence of stages throughout the professional careers of speech and language therapists. Each stage encompasses different forms of both cognitive and professional speech therapy activities. The study also describes changes in specialists' emotional responses—from unpleasant emotions to positive feelings of enthusiasm, satisfaction, and psychological comfort—that accompany different types of professional activity at each stage of the development of diagnostic and consultative competence.
Context and relevance. The study investigates the contributions of Lev Vygotsky's cultural-historical theory to Brazilian special/inclusive education, particularly regarding the constitution of the subject with autism in school contexts. The theoretical framework is grounded in the concepts of drama, freedom and singularity, understanding the schooling process as a privileged pathway of human (trans)formation. Objective. To analyse how pedagogical knowledge impacts the constitution of the child with autism, based on the notion of constitutive singularity. Hypothesis. The schooling process anchored in critical-emancipatory pedagogical knowledge operates as a promoter of the subject's humanisation, in opposition to traditional clinical approaches that reduce the subject to diagnosis and to ableist perspectives that position them in a state of devaluation. Methods and materials. The research, adopting a cultural-historical approach, was configured as intervention-research with an eight-year-old student with autism, enrolled in the second year of primary education. Video recordings, audio recordings, photographs, field diaries and interviews with the teacher, the child and his mother were utilised. Data were analysed through the microgenetic approach. Results. The analysis of two paradigmatic episodes of story retelling through illustration and physical education class evidences that the child, upon inserting personal elements into school tasks, manifests his will and singularises himself, expressing the drama of the social personality as a struggle for existence. Conclusions. Understanding singularity as a dialectical, historical, cultural and dramatic process allows us to overcome pathologising views and to recognise that disability is not a destiny, but a condition that, in relations with others and with culture, can be transformed into potentiality.
Introduction: In children's football, attentional concentration is fundamental, as it allows for the selection of relevant stimuli and an effective response to the changing situations of the game. Objective: To evaluate the effects of a training program based on the Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) model on attentional concentration in football players aged 9 to 11 from the Santa Elena Cantonal Sports League. Method: A pre-experimental single-group design study was conducted, with pre-test and post-test measurements on 30 child football players. The d2 and Toulouse-Piéron tests, an observation guide, and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test were used. Results: The overall score of the d2 increased from 117 ± 16.3 to 139 ± 16.9, while the Toulouse-Piéron score increased from 152.40 ± 25.15 to 175.90 ± 25.86. The processed response times in the d2 increased from 366 ± 28.7 to 401 ± 31.7, and the number of errors in the Toulouse-Piéron decreased from 10.17 ± 3.40 to 7.07 ± 3.86. The differences between pre and post-test were statistically significant (p < 0.001). The expert evaluation showed a high level of agreement (W = 0.89; p < 0.001). Discussion: The results indicate that TGfU promotes attentional concentration through game situations that integrate perception, decision-making, and motor execution. Conclusion: The program generated improvements in the evaluated indicators and constitutes a structured pedagogical alternative for cognitive-motor training in formative football.
The present study aimed to analyze parental grief and coping in response to children’s school failure within high-demand parenting. A qualitative, descriptive approach with a narrative design was used. Case-type sampling was used to select mothers and fathers characterized by exercising parenting centered on high demands and expectations. Information was obtained through interviews and analyzed using Thematic Analysis, allowing the identification of six themes: parental involvement in schoolwork, maternal centrality in parenting and education, idealization of filial success, maternal vicarious success, intolerance of the loss of excellence, and resistance to grief over filial failure. It was concluded that some mothers perceive their children’s performance as their own success or failure and that high expectations were associated with anger, frustration, sadness, and disappointment in response to unexpected results, as well as with difficulties in accepting grief over the loss of the idealized image of the son.
This article examines difficulties in pronouncing French vowels among Moroccan primary school learners, analyzing how the articulatory and phonological features of Darija affect vowel production in French as a foreign language. The study adopts a comparative phonological approach to identify structural differences between the two vowel systems and explain the origins of the observed interference. Sixty fourth-grade learners in Moroccan public primary education participated in an action research study combining a diagnostic pretest of pronunciation errors with a posttest assessing the effectiveness of a phonetic correction intervention. The findings reveal that pronunciation errors reflect systemic difficulties attributable to differences between the vowel systems of Darija (a three-vowel system) and French (a sixteen-vowel system). The instructional intervention, combining articulatory, verbotonal, and comparative approaches, led to a significant reduction in errors, particularly for rounded and nasal vowels. The study offers practical pedagogical recommendations for integrating systematic corrective phonetics into French instruction at the primary school level.
This research explores the critical intersection of consistency, standards and complexity in academic assessment integrity using focus groups consisting of academic staff and undergraduate nursing students. While academic quality standards are mandated by accreditation bodies to ensure accountability and skill acquisition, the marking process remains a complex, intuitive task heavily reliant on a marker's experience and practicality. Significant challenges arise when marking becomes overly criteria-driven at the expense of core assessment goals, leading to variability in judging relevant student ideas or specific technical skills such as referencing. Such variability undermines the reliability and objectivity essential for assessment fairness. To mitigate these risks, pre-marking meetings are identified as essential for establishing shared requirements and expectations among staff. Strategic timing of these supports, ideally pre-semester, provides the necessary framework for quality assurance and enables markers to make meaningful and accurate judgements regarding a student’s true knowledge and performance. Keywords: student/ marking/ assessment/ quality/consistency/ tertiary education
Students in vocational practical courses start with uneven skills, so an instructional model has to cope with that gap without losing sight of individual accountability. This quasi-experimental pretest–posttest study compared Team Assisted Individualization (TAI) with conventional instruction in a Fabric Embellishment Techniques course of a Diploma III Fashion Design program. Two intact parallel classes of 13 students each (N = 26) took part in the second semester of academic year 2024–2025, and a lottery decided which class received TAI. Practical performance was scored on a 0–100 scale before and after instruction. The TAI class rose from 72.38 to 88.85 and the conventional class from 70.77 to 81.31, mean gains of 16.46 and 10.54 points. The classes did not differ significantly at pretest (p = .231), although the TAI class started 1.62 points higher. At posttest the difference was 7.54 points, t(24) = 4.42, p < .001, and the difference in gains was 5.92 points, t(24) = 6.48, p < .001. Because each condition was delivered to a single intact class, these student-level tests cannot separate the teaching model from class-specific influences, and the results are best treated as preliminary evidence.
Student retention, graduation, and employment are major outcomes in higher education. They reflect the effectiveness of the institution in shaping the future workforce. Thus, this study examined undergraduate retention, graduation, and employment in 2020-2024. The Divisions of Academic Affairs, Registration, and Planning provided secondary data on 9 issues: admission plans, enrolment reporting, course registration, leave of absence, academic results, loss of student status, retention, graduation, and employment status. The study found that most students who lost status were from large northeastern institutions and were reported for portfolio round enrolment. They had low entrance academic performance. Most students in this cohort had GPAXs between 0.00 and 0.99 in 2024, with the lowest being 1.19. The Faculty of Environment and Resource Studies lost the most students. Mahasarakham Business School had the most, mostly first-year students. Many retained students came from big northeastern schools and reported for enrolment in the Portfolio round, followed by the Quota round. The mean entrance GPAX was 3.27, and the mean current GPAX was 2.34. The Faculty of Nursing had the greatest retention rates in the second and third years. Pharmacy and veterinary sciences had the highest retention rates in the fifth year and above. Most students who graduated within the curriculum's timeframe came from major northeastern schools and reported for portfolio round enrolment. Most students graduated on schedule, usually in the second semester. Large-school graduates worked largely in the northeast. The Faculty of Environment and Resource Studies had the greatest employment rate, whereas Mahasarakham Business School had the most employed graduates. Overall, 94.92% of graduates found work within a year. At 100.00%, the Faculty of Medicine achieved the greatest employment rate in its field.
In the training of accounting professionals, the integration of ideological and political education and employment education is an important way to implement the fundamental task of moral education and enhance students' professional competence. However, there are still some outstanding problems in the process of integration, such as the separation of objectives, the disconnection of content and the lack of coordination between subjects, which restrict the training effect of the comprehensive quality of accounting talents. From the four dimensions of system design, concept cognition, resource allocation and operation mechanism, the causes of the problems are analyzed. Finally, the countermeasures and suggestions corresponding to each cause are put forward : improving the integration system and evaluation system, reshaping the concept of collaborative education, optimizing the allocation of teachers and platform resources, and improving the normal linkage operation mechanism. The purpose of this study is to provide an operable practical reference for the accounting profession to construct an educational model of deep integration of ideological and political education and employment education.
This study aimed to develop an Islamic Theology and Ethics learning module for Islamic Junior High Schools (Madrasah Tsanawiyah, MTs) based on tazkiyatun nafs (purification of the soul) for prospective Islamic Religious Education (IRE) teachers using the ADDIE development model. The research employed a research and development approach comprising five stages: analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. The participants were 22 prospective IRE teachers enrolled in the Islamic Religious Education Materials for MTs course at STAI Al-Hamidiyah Bangkalan during the 2025/2026 academic year. Data were collected through expert validation forms, student response questionnaires, student reflections, observations, and documentation. Quantitative data were analyzed descriptively using percentages, while qualitative data were analyzed through data condensation, data display, and conclusion drawing. The validation results indicated that the module achieved feasibility scores of 91.00% from the subject matter expert and 89.00% from the instructional media expert, yielding an overall average of 90.00%, categorized as highly feasible. Student responses reached 83.18% (366 out of 440), indicating very positive responses. The practical examples received the highest score (86.36%), while the clarity and systematic presentation of the material received the lowest score (80.00%). Student reflections highlighted muhasabah (self-reflection), emotional regulation, moral awareness, and teacher role modeling as meaningful learning experiences. The module offers a contextual learning resource that integrates spiritual purification into Islamic Theology and Ethics education. However, the findings are limited to module feasibility and participants' perceptions and do not establish improvements in pedagogical competence or learning effectiveness. Future research should examine the module's effectiveness using larger samples and structured learning outcome assessments.
This paper examines the significant role played by teachers in fostering the holistic development of students, extending beyond academic achievement to encompass their intellectual, emotional, social, ethical, physical and creative growth. Teachers play a significant role in shaping students’ knowledge, skills, attitudes, values and competencies through effective pedagogical practices, learner-centered approaches and inclusive classroom environments. Their ability to recognize diverse learning needs, encourage critical thinking, nurture creativity and promote social-emotional well-being is essential for facilitating meaningful and comprehensive student development. Furthermore, continuous professional development and adherence to ethical and professional standards enable teachers to respond effectively to the evolving educational needs of learners. However, holistic student development cannot be achieved through teacher’s efforts alone. Educational institutions and school leadership also play a crucial role in establishing supportive, equitable, and inclusive learning environments. The paper highlights the importance of shared leadership, collaborative planning and professional learning communities (PLCs) in strengthening cooperation between teachers and school administration. Such collaborative practices can facilitate the integration of academic learning with life skills, value education, experiential learning and the development of essential twenty-first century competencies; the paper also examines challenges that may hinder holistic student development, including limited resources, time constraints, hierarchical administrative structure and inadequate opportunities for professional collaboration. It argues that fostering trust, effective communication, psychological safety and collective responsibility is essential for overcoming these barriers. The paper concludes that holistic student development requires a collaborative and learner-centered educational ecosystem in which teachers; school leaders and other stakeholders work together to nurture well-rounded, responsible, resilient and lifelong learners.
Background Assessing dance performance in physical education teacher education (PETE) requires judges to integrate technical and aesthetic qualities. Analytic rubrics make relevant dimensions explicit, whereas Adaptive Comparative Judgment (ACJ) elicits holistic pairwise decisions and produces a relative performance scale. This study compared the outcomes and student perceptions associated with the two approaches. Methods Seventeen pre-service teachers assessed 46 video-recorded student dance performances using an analytic rubric and ACJ. An expert reference was derived from five PETE lecturers who had assessed the performances live using the rubric and subsequently evaluated the video recordings through ACJ. Analyses examined rubric reliability and ACJ precision, convergence between method-derived rankings, student–expert rank alignment, cross-condition rubric score differences, and students’ perceptions of ease of use, usefulness, transparency, and fairness. Results Rubric- and ACJ-derived rankings were strongly associated within the student panel (Spearman's ρ = .863) and the expert reference panel ( ρ = .879). Aggregated student rankings also aligned closely with the expert-reference rankings under rubric scoring ( ρ = .890) and ACJ ( ρ = .888), with no clear difference in alignment between the methods. Aggregated student rubric scores showed high reliability, ICC(2,17) = .955, while ACJ scale separation reliability was .780 for students and .836 for experts. Student video-based rubric scores were, on average, 0.77 points higher than the archived live expert consensus scores. Students perceived ACJ as easier to use but the analytic rubric as more transparent. Perceived usefulness did not differ clearly, while fairness ratings descriptively favored the rubric. Conclusion Analytic rubric scoring and ACJ produced strongly convergent aggregate rankings, and the aggregated student panel differentiated relative performance quality in ways closely aligned with the expert reference under both approaches. However, the methods differed in score interpretation and perceived transparency. The results support considering ACJ as a complementary approach for digitally supported assessment and moderation rather than as a direct replacement for criterion-based summative assessment.
