Search Results for
"Teaching"

England’s mainstream upper secondary curriculum is driven by academic, exam-based GCSEs and A levels, with applied learning qualifications an alternative for ‘less-academic’ 16–18-year-olds. This paper elides two studies of the impact of the BTEC National Diploma on employment and career trajectories, one from the perspective of 16–22-year-olds, another of mature adults. Study 1 explored medium-term impact as students progressed from school to university or work-based learning. Study 2 explored longer-term impact through a life history project spanning 1986–2022 across 10 different industries. Synthesis of the data identified three factors underpinning BTEC’s success: a genuine second chance; teaching and assessment that enabled understanding and promoted learning; strong education/employer links providing real-world experience. Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Model provides a theoretical lens, illustrating how knowledge, skills and competences develop best when the educational environment meets the needs of each learner: one-size-fits-all does not work. This paper concludes that all three factors should be mainstream, but significant challenges include our highly politicised policy environment, enduring belief that only exams offer rigorous assessment and lack of an employer engagement system that could support real-world learning. Extra-curricular activities and project qualifications provide applied opportunities for some, but long-term political consensus may be needed for all learners to flourish. © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

The education sector is faced with many challenges in a world that is developing at a very rapid pace, such as the increasing burden of administrative tasks on educators. This study looks into the potential solution of Robotic Process Automation to these challenges and its impacts on higher education. We analyze the existing literature on RPA adoption by higher education using a systematic review and draw attention to the current state of applications and potential benefits. Our findings show that RPA would significantly enhance administrative operations, reduce errors, and free educators for teaching and student engagement. RPA could be a significant opportunity to establish efficiency and effectiveness in the learning environment, although not free from challenges, such as the cost of initial investment and job displacement. The paper concludes with recommendations for institutions to successfully integrate RPA while ensuring a balanced approach is taken to maximize benefits and mitigate associated risks. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025.

The article substantiates the important role of developing skills in constructing mathematical models of systems and processes, as well as the use of innovative computational methods that are effective in modern scientific research. Using simple examples, the authors introduce readers to the methodology of teaching the topics “New Information Operators” and “Innovative Methods of Numerical Integration”, in particular in the courses “Mathematical, Physical and Information Foundations of Industry Knowledge” and “Innovative Methods of Digitalisation of the Professional Field”. The above-mentioned educational components are studied at the Ukrainian Engineering and Pedagogical Academy in the speciality ‘‘Vocational Education (By specialisation)”. The value of these innovations lies in the fact that students get acquainted with new information operators in practice. New information operators are built depending on the type of experimental data. Currently, modern engineers use digital images, tomograms, integrals along given lines, values of functions on lines or planes, etc. as data on the technical process. Modern advances in mathematical modelling allow us to build new algorithms taking into account different types of experimental data. The article presents an algorithm for recovering a function of two variables on four or three lines, as well as on a system of mutually perpendicular lines in the computer algebra system MathCad. In addition, a cubature formula for the approximate calculation of the double integral is presented, which is effective in terms of using the input information to achieve a given accuracy. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025.

New requirements of the increasingly digitalized world of work have an impact on modern engineering training. In view of these considerations, the aim of the present work is to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) for error detection into existing practical exercises for product development, taking sustainability aspects into account. The basis of the concept is the use of the smart factory to convey technical content in its real function, control, maintenance and repair, as well as 3D printing with the introduction of AI to detect defects in the manufacturing process (using cameras). This article examines the following research question: What methodologies to foster students’ digital competences are needed to enable it to form the basis of interdisciplinary team project activities of engineering students. At the centre of this investigation is the synergy between traditional teaching approaches and modern technologies to create an interactive and practice-oriented learning environment. The application scenario is the use of AI to design work process descriptions with the recognition of their limits: the optical quality inspection. The aim is to develop and test the teaching/learning modules with a focus on Industry 4.0 and AI-supported generative manufacturing with sustainability-oriented quality assurance. COMET-based competence measurement is offered as an additional instrument for recording the competence of teachers. The expectation of the concept advertised here is to test the implementation of the measure in the modules for the teaching degree program in industrial-technical subjects (GTF) and to gather experience for implementation on a larger scale. The preliminary studies to date promise a successful approach to the research question of designing digital skills development. Further work, in particular trialing interdisciplinary group work and the integration of real-time learning settings, is required to improve the results to date. The integration of further AI-based learning tools can also be realized in future work. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025.

This study proposes the Critical Incident Technique as an empirical tool to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching entrepreneurship competencies within entrepreneurship courses by using the Comprehensive Entrepreneurship Competence Model as a theoretical framework. The study focuses on the perceptions and experiences of 15 teachers who introduced in parallel, during two semesters in 2022, the same teaching approach in 39 entrepreneurship courses offered in 5 universities in Estonia, Finland, Italy, Poland, and Portugal. The teachers were asked to describe in detail specific incidents encountered during their teaching experience, without any cognitive filter represented by pre-established items, categories, and elements of evaluation of the teaching process. Then, the incidents were sorted into categories based on similarities in the content and classified as relating to positive and negative outcomes. Our findings contribute to the design of new educational programmes aiming at fostering students’ entrepreneurship competencies, showing peculiarities that need to be considered. Moreover, the study emphasizes the importance of using a range of evaluation approaches when testing a new method and suggests that exploring the teaching process, in addition to learning outcomes, can provide useful insights to inform the design of the teaching. © 2024 Society for Research into Higher Education.

The combination of knowledge and skill sets from robotics and Artificial Intelligence has proven as a powerful catalyst for students’ learning experiences, when applying available resources and knowledge acquired through vocational training. Within the Department of IT at an Austrian vocational high school, our students actively engage in projects that combine robotics and AI. Our diploma theses extend beyond mere classroom theory, allowing interested students to apply their knowledge in authentic, real-world scenarios in the form of thesis projects which span different engineering and IT disciplines. Our goal is to emphasize hands-on experiences and encourage our students to design, construct and program robots, even with the addition of AI technology, such as image recognition and classification trained for specific tasks. Through this practical immersion, our students gain a deeper understanding of robotics and AI, disciplines that are at the forefront of today’s technological innovation. We worked with two groups of students on interdisciplinary projects bridging the gap between robotics and AI and based on our students’ feedback found an increase in motivation to learn not only about the fields themselves, but also about related fields, from mathematical theory to better understand the intricate workings of AI algorithms to electronics and working with microcontrollers. Personal interviews with involved students have also pointed toward an increased motivation through the intense cooperation between the team members as well as the teachers responsible for supporting the project teams through their thesis projects. Projects connecting robotics and AI empower students to become adaptable, creative problem-solvers which is a crucial foundation for success in the twenty-first century. By fostering collaboration and critical thinking, while enhancing students’ technical skills and equipping them with the adaptability and creativity they require, this educational approach prepares students to thrive in a rapidly changing world where both disciplines play pivotal roles. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025.

Professional development for the further education sector (FE) in England, whether commissioned by the Education and Training Foundation (ETF), or the Department for Education (DfE), is typically formal learning. There are usually measurable outcomes, and practitioners are asked to identify changes to their practice. The focus on outcomes means informal learning is rarely directly funded. This paper analyses a professional development programme funded by the DfE and cut short. This programme was based on a network model that is neither fully formal nor informal. We argue the model sits in a ‘grey zone’ between formal and informal professional development, and that the specific benefits of this kind of ‘grey zone’ model should be considered for future commissioned professional development. We find that informal learning in the semi-structured setting created by the Network had the potential to empower and recognise frontline teaching staff, by providing opportunities to present good practices and learn from other Network members. The Network structure enabled responsiveness to practitioners’ needs, by being flexible and adapting to circumstances. However, these adaptations made the Network vulnerable to challenge, and this, alongside concerns about the quality of presentations, and a lack of centralised control, ultimately contributed to its downfall. In conclusion, whilst there are undoubtedly risks from a funder perspective of operating in the ‘grey zone’ these should be balanced against the potential significant benefits to participants of a network approach to professional development. © 2025 Association for Research in Post-Compulsory Education.

This study investigates the impact of project-based learning (PBL) on the perception of professional competence in Early Childhood Education (ECE) among pre-service teachers in Spain. A total of 586 students from four Spanish universities participated in a pre-post test design using the ECPP-FIM scale to measure the impact of the PBL approach on the perception of professional psychomotor intervention skills of ECE. The PBL approach involved close collaboration with preschools, providing students with hands-on experience designing and implementing movement-based activities in natural contexts. Descriptive and inferential statistics, including ANOVA, were used to analyse the data. Results indicate substantial improvements in the perception of professional competence across all five areas of the ECPP-FIM scale. Moreover, students from vocational education backgrounds showed consistently higher pre-and post-test scores than those from other academic pathways. Findings support the effectiveness of PBL in bridging the theory-practice divide and emphasize the importance of integrating real-world experiences in teacher training. To conclude, this study highlights the key characteristics that an ordinary university subject should incorporate to enhance the perception of professional competence. © 2025 Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. All rights reserved.

Introduction: A project-based didactic strategy is a pedagogical approach that organizes the teaching-learning process around practical, collaborative activities, and focuses on solving real problems or achieving specific objectives. However, the effects it could have on various dimensions of learning in master’s students of Physical Activity and Health are not clear. Objective: To develop a project-based didactic strategy to improve research competencies in master’s students of Physical Activity and Health. Methods: 60 students from the Master's Degree in Physical Education and Sports and the Master's Degree in Nutrition and Dietetics (Specialization in Clinical Nutrition) are used as a sample in terms of their research competencies (cognitive, procedural, attitudinal), going through several phases of intervention. Results: The cognitive level increased from 17.5 % to 57.5 %, with a qualitative rating of Good. In procedural competencies, the percentage rose from 22.5 % to 52.5 %, and in attitudinal competencies the number of students with a good level increased from 17.5 % to 62.5 %, while students with low levels experienced a considerable reduction in each dimension. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate the beneficial effects of the intervention on the development of university students. The application of the project-based didactic strategy could be an effective and required tactic to improve the quality of education in postgraduate programs, while contributing, in a significant way, to the training of students to face the challenges of their future professions. © 2025, Editorial Ciencias Medicas. All rights reserved.

Vocational education aims to prepare students to enter the workforce. This study aims to develop guidelines for the development of soft skills among vocational students in courses related to the medical and comprehensive healthcare industry by qualitative research methods. Data were collected by interviewing eighteen key informants from six companies consisting of six executives, six human resources officers, and six workers to examine the essential soft skills of vocational graduates in courses related to the medical and comprehensive healthcare industry matched with professional standards and industry requirements, and interviewing thirty-one key informants from four vocational institutes consisting of three administrators, eight teachers, and twenty students to study the current state of students’ soft skills development. The results of both were synthesized as the soft skills development guideline among vocational students in courses related to medical and comprehensive healthcare industry. Findings showed that key essential soft skills among vocational students in courses related to medical and comprehensive healthcare industry are social skills (communication and teamwork), thinking skills (creativity, analytical thinking, and problem-solving), and emotional skills (stress management, anger management, and self-control), which are the foundation of other soft skills. Vocational institutes should encourage the value of soft skills for teachers and students through official meetings, activities, and events, incorporating soft skills into classroom activity through participatory learning, organizing relationship-building activities between students, developing professional teachers with proficiency in teaching soft skills, and assessing students’ soft skills by assessing their portfolio and designating soft skills as part of the student’s learning achievement. © 2025 Kasetsart University.