Search Results for
"Teaching"

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of contemporary perspectives, policies, and practices relating to reported vocational education and training (VET) teacher recruitment and retention challenges, with a particular focus on England and Australia. Design/methodology/approach: This position piece discusses the topic from a transnational perspective by reviewing the relevant literature and examining the impact of policies and practices in England and Australia. Findings: The paper finds that there is a paucity of empirical research relating to VET teacher shortages, but that globally, experience in the sector suggests there are challenges in recruiting and retaining the qualified VET teaching workforce required to address current and future training needs. It recommends that further research is undertaken with an international approach to better understand the problem from the perspective of VET teachers, leaders, and education institutions, and to identify potential solutions. Research limitations/implications: The paper does not report on empirical research but suggests that further studies are required to better understand the problem and identify potential solutions based on the respective socioeconomic, demographic, and policy contexts. Originality/value: While there are studies examining VET and VET teaching from the perspectives of quality, reputation, and esteem, few examine the issue and impact of VET teacher shortages, or the challenges of VET teacher recruitment and retention in the contemporary and comparable contexts of Australia and England. © 2024, Emerald Publishing Limited.

This study examined the effect of entrepreneurial personality traits on entrepreneurial mentoring and entrepreneurial potential among vocational students in Malaysia. Vocational colleges offer technical and vocational education, emphasizing the teaching of entrepreneurial competencies through entrepreneurial education and training to prepare modern employees and innovative future entrepreneurs for the nation. The study used a stratified random sampling and collected 270 responses. The findings of the analysis, using structural equation modeling, indicated that entrepreneurial personality traits such as alertness, locus of control, innovativeness, and need for achievements significantly affect entrepreneurial potential. The finding also confirmed that entrepreneurial mentoring significantly affects the entrepreneurial potential of TVET students. Entrepreneurial mentoring proved to be an essential link that mediates the relationship between entrepreneurial personality traits and entrepreneurial potential. The interaction between mentors and students has been proven to be an effective tool in cultivating entrepreneurial potential. This study first provides insights into how teachers’ entrepreneurial mentoring affects students’ interest, especially in entrepreneurship. Vocational students are equipped with solid technical skills, and their strengths in exploring entrepreneurship align with the latest trends in service businesses. The government, vocational colleges, and industries should collaborate to enhance entrepreneurial alertness, innovativeness, and the need for achievements and locus control to facilitate students’ interest in entrepreneurship. Training and coaching should also be provided to teachers to enhance their skills as entrepreneurial mentors. This model offers vocational colleges opportunities to produce more high-quality and skillful entrepreneurs for a sustainable society and economy. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2025.

This study investigates undergraduate microwave engineering students' conceptions of electromagnetic (EM) wave propagation using a phenomenographic approach. An in-depth semi-structured interview was used to examine a cohort of 15 students’ experience of EM wave propagation in the context of microwave engineering. Result of the study revealed five qualitative distinct categories of students' conceptions. These categories evolved from a basic understanding of EM wave as oscillations of electric and magnetic fields to a comprehensive interpretation of wave propagation as radiation and energy transfer. Students' cognitive processes of awareness, discernment, and simultaneity were evident within the descriptive categories. Besides, four dimensions of variation highlighted how students' understanding evolved from basic awareness to discerning complex relationships between concepts. The findings also offer practical implications for designing effective instructional strategies as well as theoretical support for the application of phenomenography in exploring students' learning experiences. Finally, teaching implication for microwave engineering education was presented. © 2025 SEFI.

This study focuses on the practical teaching mode of vocational education under the background of Internet Plus. The traditional model has some problems, such as lack of resources, single method, weak teachers and one-sided evaluation. The internet has brought many positive effects on practical teaching, such as expanding resources, providing enterprise cases, virtual experiments and online courses. In view of the traditional disadvantages and new demands, this paper puts forward innovative strategies such as building a multifunctional teaching platform, using diverse teaching methods, strengthening the construction of teachers and improving the evaluation system. Then through empirical analysis, the new teaching mode significantly improves students' practical, collaborative and innovative abilities, and the employment counterpart rate and salary are improved, which strongly proves its reform value and provides reference for the development of practical teaching in vocational education. © 2025 IGI Global. All rights reserved.

A study conducted from September to October 2022 with 1,900 medical students from a university in Guangzhou, China, explored the factors influencing self-efficacy in online learning. The study utilized the Online Learning Self-Efficacy Questionnaire, the Depression-Anxiety-Stress Scale (DASS-21), and a self-administered questionnaire assessing sociodemographic characteristics and self-evaluation of learning effectiveness. Statistical analyses using SPSS 25.0 and AMOS 25.0, including univariate and multi-factor analyses, were performed to examine the data. The results indicated that the average online learning self-efficacy score among the students was (56.83±7.97). Structural equation modeling revealed that male students (p < 0.005), those with higher per capita monthly household income (p < 0.001), and students who assessed their online learning effectiveness positively (p < 0.001) exhibited significantly higher self-efficacy. In contrast, students experiencing higher levels of depression (p < 0.001), anxiety (p < 0.001), and stress (p < 0.001) had significantly lower self-efficacy for online learning. The study concluded that gender, per capita family income, self-assessment of learning effectiveness, and mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, and stress are key factors influencing medical students’ self-efficacy in online learning. Based on these findings, it is recommended that university teachers focus on improving online teaching management, provide additional support for financially disadvantaged students, and balance online and offline learning. Encouraging collaboration, fostering motivation, and introducing strategies like flipped classrooms and increased online interaction are crucial for enhancing students’ self-efficacy and improving academic outcomes. Addressing students’ negative emotions through these methods can maximize online learning effectiveness for medical students. © 2025 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Students in higher or adult education often face a wide array of challenges as they learn skills for transitioning to the workforce. They and their educators may encounter critical topics including emotional intelligence, student-educator relationships, and feedback mechanisms as well as employability skills. As a result, it is crucial for educators to foster and for students to learn teamwork skills, social-emotional skills, and strategies for teaching and learning to increase engagement. Thus, innovative approaches are needed to address the evolving needs of students, educators, and institutions that support students as well as the faculty. Transformative Practices in Tertiary Education: Bridging Theory and Practice empowers these diverse stakeholders with the knowledge and tools needed to transform higher education, making it more inclusive, effective, and responsive to the needs of today’s learners. It discusses methods for shaping educational policies and initiatives at various levels. Covering topics such as change navigation, global learning, and internships, this book is an excellent resource for educators, educational administrators, educational leaders, educational planners, policymakers, professional development facilitators, professionals, researchers, scholars, academicians, and more. © 2025 by IGI Global Scientific Publishing. All rights reserved.

The assessment of competencies in the training of future physical education teachers is crucial to ensuring their preparedness and the quality of their professional performance. Various methods are available to measure these competencies, which are essential for understanding the development of specific skills in the educational field and their impact on teaching practice. This study aimed to analyze the types of instruments used to assess competencies during the training process of future physical education teachers. A systematic review of published articles was conducted, covering all available years up to the search date (August 2024) in the WoS, Scopus, SportDiscus, and ERIC databases. The review followed the PRISMA statement. Out of a total of 820 studies, 33 relevant documents were identified and classified into four categories: a) Questionnaires/Surveys; b) Rubrics; c) Observation Scales; and d) Knowledge Tests. The review highlights that although questionnaires and rubrics are commonly used, they are insufficient for evaluating competencies in physical education teacher training. This underscores the need for more dynamic tools, such as simulations, case studies, or performance-based assessments. Furthermore, combining questionnaires with methods that capture performance in real contexts enhances evaluation accuracy and provides a more comprehensive understanding of teacher development. © 2025, Campus EDUCA SPORTIS S.L.. All rights reserved.

Contribution: Results and conclusions on the use of a hybrid Project-Based Learning (PBL) approach to teaching programming in a higher education computing department. Background: PBL is a pedagogical approach that facilitates “learning by doing” and can create compelling educational experiences that enhance a student’s intrinsic motivation. Engagement can increase because students design their own unique projects, which have personal meaning and importance. PBL facilitates working with industrial clients to solve problems, which can create powerful extrinsic motivation. However, PBL can fail when students lack the experience and confidence to work as independent learners. Research Questions: 1) Can a hybrid PBL approach mitigate these problems by using a range of additional initiatives? These include, a wide range of on-demand learning resources, student mentoring, students collaborating with teachers to grade their own work, regular feedback milestones and scaffolding of learning via streaming. In this case streaming means offering students pathways through projects that require more or less independent research and project management. Methodology: A mixed methods study of a new hybrid approach to teaching programming. Findings: This article summarizes the author’s experience of implementing hybrid PBL within a university computing department, associated with improved student attainment and describes best practice, the advantages and the pitfalls. © 1963-2012 IEEE.

Skill is ubiquitous in the English Further Education (FE) sector’s policy discourse and discursive practices, yet it is used in different ways to mean different things within the sector. Within the context of a deregulated FE Initial Teacher Education (ITE) system, the discourse is underpinned by a set of standards and guidance expected of providers, many of whom are, or work alongside, a Higher Education Institution (HEI). This research sought to determine the role that those working in this system have in recontextualising skills policy discourse. Building on interdisciplinary perspectives of skill and using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this research explored the skills discourse of 10 Teacher Educators (TEds) working within the English FE ITE sector. The discursive practices of TEds were found to be bound up with generic higher education notions of ‘graduate skills’ and ‘graduate employability’. This complements a narrow and weak discursive frame which underpins the ITE curriculum, linked to atomised standards, whereby generic teaching practices are centred to the exclusion of strongly classified theoretical and subject specialist knowledge, contributing to a narrower skills discourse and marginalisation of subject specialisms. This work has implications for policy makers and those involved in curriculum development in FE ITE. © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

This study addresses the problem of knowledge practices in Chinese vocational higher education institutions (HEIs) by using Bernstein's notion of a ‘pedagogic device’. China's distinctive context is characterised by a hybrid mix of discipline-based and competence-based curricula, providing a unique opportunity to explore the tensions inherent in a ‘relational’ approach. One specific concern is epistemic and social relations behind curriculum choices. A qualitative study of 29 experienced teachers revealed that government curriculum policies have led to the emergence of two types of vocationally oriented HEIs with differentiated knowledge foundations, of which teachers’ perceptions are influenced by the structure of occupational practice and the profiles of specific learners. The findings revealed that teaching through ‘powerful knowledge’ in vocational higher education goes beyond merely emphasising systematic knowledge. Instead, it necessitates acknowledging the role of power in defining what knowledge should/should not be taught and who is permitted access to it. © 2025 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.