Search Results for
"deep learning"

There is a well recognised desire to encourage enterprise and entrepreneurial thinking in university students, however core or mandatory provision has the potential to dilute the enthusiasm or engagement in enterprise. This paper reflects on the choice to offer optional (elective) enterprise modules to STEM students at Undergraduate (level 6) and Masters level (level 7). In STEM programmes, enterprise or entrepreneurship subjects are often elective options alongside their core academic studies, with much variability in delivery methods and source materials used throughout undergraduate and postgraduate education. This means appealing to a self-selecting cohort with either interest in an alternative direction to ‘pure-science’, or individuals with an aim of creating an impact. With high levels of interaction between educators, industry case studies and learners, a dynamic learning environment is created, with positive outcomes for satisfaction and employability. A qualitative longitudinal study and ethnographic consideration of the individuals who have chosen to engage in enterprise-based elements indicates that initial exposure to curriculum-based enterprise can deepen their understanding of ideation, commercial bioscience, and innovation, leading to discipline-based recognition of value. Although a limited proportion of students go on to be entrepreneurs in the form of company founders, they often cite their enterprise education experience as impactful and frequently allude to skills or experience as intrinsic to their intrapreneurial activities and roles with the organisations they end up working with. © The Author(s) 2024.

Germany’s dual Vocational Education and Training (VET) system has been criticized for insufficient cooperation among vocational schools, companies, and inter-company training centers, limiting its potential to effectively relate theory with practice. Despite the issue’s ongoing relevance, recent research on learning Location Cooperation (LLC) remains scarce. This study addresses the existing research gap by examining contemporary LLC dynamics through the lens of key stakeholders. A total of 20 semi-structured interviews were conducted across interconnected learning locations, with each of the five targeted occupations represented by an apprentice, vocational teacher, trainer, and inter-company trainer. The study design enabled participants, connected through the apprentices’ learning journeys, to discuss LLC phenomena from their unique viewpoints, facilitating an in-depth exploration of cooperation strategies, relationships, conditions for success or failure, and desired improvements. Findings reveal both similarities and differences in perceptions, highlight diverse barriers, and provide actionable recommendations to strengthen LLC. These insights are crucial for refining Germany’s VET system and offer valuable lessons for international contexts, where integrating theory and practice is essential for developing a skilled and adaptable workforce. Overall, the study underscores the importance of fostering deeper cooperation among learning locations to ensure the effectiveness and sustainability of (vocational) education globally. © 2025 by the authors.

This study develops and tests a questioning model aimed at enhancing interactive engagement in financial mathematics instruction within a single NC(V) Level 2 classroom. Grounded in formative assessment principles, the model incorporates structured and open-ended questions to foster procedural and conceptual understanding. The intervention used real-world financial scenarios like budgeting and loan repayments to make abstract concepts more relatable. Data were collected through classroom observations and a preparatory examination to evaluate student engagement and understanding. The findings indicate that consistent questioning fosters active participation, while higher-order questions promote critical thinking and real-world application. While performance improvements were noted, the primary focus was on engagement quality rather than academic outcomes. This study offers insights into how questioning strategies can enhance interactive learning in vocational education. Future research should expand the model to other subjects, gather student feedback, and integrate advanced digital tools for deeper interactivity. © 2025, City University of New York. All rights reserved.

Research in environmental education points out the need for an improvement in pre-service teacher education training in this area. This proposal follows PBL methodology and focuses on the development of an environmental education project whose final product is the organization of a science fair for elementary school students. The 5-week project addresses the topic of urban biodiversity decline and uses the butterfly garden as an initiative to mitigate it. Four months after the program ended, a survey was administered to the 86 participating pre-service teachers. A mixed-methods approach was used, collecting quantitative data on perceptions of urban biodiversity decline, the One Health concept, and environmental education, along with qualitative keyword responses to open-ended questions about the butterfly garden’s impact and the project’s value for self-learning and professional development. Participants reported positive perceptions regarding butterfly gardens after participating in our environmental program, recognizing them as both a valuable educational resource and an effective initiative to mitigate urban biodiversity decline. Respondents showed a strong pro-environmental attitude, taking seriously their role in transmitting environmental values. Using a butterfly garden for teaching purposes offers insight into environmental literacy, connection with nature, and improvements in well-being and is a powerful platform for deep and meaningful pedagogical learning. © 2025 by the authors.

As a breakthrough to open up a new track of education development and shape new advantages, the digital transformation of education promotes the reform of higher education teaching towards being mixed and normalized. Based on the theoretical value and practical demands of high-quality classrooms in the new era, this study builds the blended learning environment with the help of generative artificial intelligence platforms, relying on the public course”Modern Educational Technology” for teacher training students. It integrates curriculum ideology and politics, designs and implements project-based learning activities, aiming to improve students’ abilities of information-based instructional design and information-based instructional resources development and promote deep learning. The research shows that project-based learning in blended learning environment can improve college students’ ability to apply what they have learned to develop project works flexibly, and the level of deep learning has also been improved, especially in learning strategy and learning outcome. At the same time, this study also puts forward relevant practical measures to provide a reference for improving the learning efficiency of college students. © 2024 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).

The exploration of signature pedagogies in selected arts and design disciplines has identified distinctive traits and concepts that are important to professional education in each field. This chapter discusses nine salient themes that characterise these pedagogies: the artist's voice, style and identity; interpersonal interaction and collaboration; reflection and reflexivity; technology-enhanced teaching and learning; linking, connecting and relating through synthesis and coherence; creativity; truthfulness, authenticity and trust; creative collaboration with other artists and designers; and the interplay between surface structure and deep structure. Based on these themes and the chapter topics, nine pedagogical issues are proposed for future exploration and development in the signature pedagogy framework. These are pedagogies of pioneers in the profession, generative apprenticeship, reflexivity, transition, artistic tradition and heritage, truth, evocative ambiguity, creative uncertainty and designerly formation. Collectively, these pedagogical issues inform three defining characteristics of signature pedagogies: first, what experts in the field do; second, how knowledge within the discipline is analysed, critiqued, accepted or refuted; and third, what constitutes the threshold concepts that shape the discipline. © The Author(s) 2025. All rights reserved.

With the promotion of STEM education and active practice, experiential learning has become a crucial instructional design strategy. Experiential learning emphasizes a student-centered learning model, encouraging students to explore unknown fields through individual and team collaborative efforts. Through practical activities, it promotes active exploration and deep understanding, thereby stimulating students’ creativity and independent thinking abilities. However, there are still some challenges confronting the learners. However, due to the limitations of short-term memory and the ability to organize key information, students often struggle to recall all past dialogues during reflection and observation processes. This hinders effective discussions and communication, impacting the application of collaborative strategies. To address this challenge in STEM collaborative discussions, this study explores the application of generative AI technology in STEM education. By integrating experiential learning with collaborative strategies, the goal is to enhance students’ learning outcomes and reflective thinking. This research introduces a GPT-based large language model tool, the GPT-Assisted Summarization Aid (GASA), which is applied in collaborative learning activities within the framework of experiential learning. GASA supports learners in their reflective observation and conceptualization processes by providing feedback and assistance tailored to different phases of the experiential learning curriculum. The experimental results indicate significant differences in learning outcomes and reflective thinking between the experimental group using GASA and the control group. Furthermore, students in the experimental group were more effective in sharing information, establishing a common understanding, and solving problems during the collaborative learning process. This study provides empirical evidence for teaching strategies in STEM education and reveals the potential of generative AI technology in educational technology. Future research should explore larger sample sizes and long-term learning impacts to further validate the broad applicability of GASA in different educational contexts. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2024.

This study investigated the development of soft skills through task-based language learning (TBLL) in higher education in the Malaysian context. With the growing emphasis on graduate employability and 21st century competencies, it has become increasingly important to integrate soft skills into language instruction. Employing a mixed-methods approach, this study combined quantitative and qualitative data to ensure methodological triangulation and deeper understanding. Data collection involved a survey of 102 language lecturers, distributed via an online platform (Google Forms), followed by a focus group discussion with 4 experienced language educators. The survey aimed to identify key soft skills emphasized in current language instruction, while the focus group provided richer insights into their classroom implementation and pedagogical strategies. The survey results revealed communication, collaboration, and problem-solving as the most essential soft skills, which subsequently guided the qualitative phase of the study. Thematic analysis of the qualitative data was conducted using Miles and Huberman’s framework (1994). Findings underscore the effectiveness of TBLL in promoting these soft skills, particularly when tasks are authentic, learner-centred, and aligned with real-world contexts. However, the study also identified challenges, including limited teacher training, curriculum constraints, and lack of institutional support. The study concludes with practical recommendations for integrating soft skills into language curricula more systematically. These include professional development for educators, curriculum redesign, and institutional commitment to holistic education. Overall, this study contributes to ongoing discussions on enhancing language education through TBLL while supporting the development of soft skills crucial for students’ academic and professional success in the Malaysian higher education landscape. ©Authors.

In the era of big data, data visualization technology as a bridge between communication data and decision-making, its teaching system highlights the characteristics of both technical depth and humanistic care. Through the BOPPPS (Bridge-in, Objective, Pre-assessment, Participatory learning, Post-assessment, Summary) nested PAD (Presentation, Assimilation, Discussion) teaching mode, this paper deeply integrates moral education in the data visualization course, not only teaches students the skills of data flow construction and chart making, but also focuses on cultivating their sense of responsibility, teamwork ability and big data logical thinking ability. At the same time, classroom design emphasizes a deep understanding of data ethics and social responsibility, and guides students to see the essence through phenomena, so as to establish correct values and morality. This paper aims to show how to effectively integrate moral education into professional teaching and promote the dual improvement of students' skills and morality through classroom teaching design cases. © 2025 The Authors.

Purpose: Framing communities of practice (CoPs) as contexts for learning and identity formation, this study examines the varied group experiences of psychoanalytic trainees. This study aims to understand what, where and how these professionals learn across their landscapes of practice. Design/methodology/approach: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 psychologists enrolled in the final years of a psychotherapy graduate program, based in Rome, Italy, between September and December 2020. Findings: The study shows how professionals’ landscapes of practice emerge from a variety of group experiences – such as family, sports and friendships – which contribute to the development of professional stances, competencies and repertoires. Findings illustrate that workplace learning and individual knowledgeability are not limited to institutional or formal learning environments but instead occur dynamically across various CoPs. Workplace settings frequently act as repositories for these diverse learning experiences, emphasizing the significant role of life events in shaping professional identity and expertise. Research limitations/implications: This study has several limitations. First, it is based solely on interviews with respondents from one educational organization and a single community of practice. To broaden and deepen the understanding of both organizational and learning dynamics, future research could explore different contexts and adopt a mixed-method approach in other countries. Practical implications: The results offer practical insights into how organizations, educational settings and workplaces can benefit from valuing learning that emerges from students’ and novices’ diverse landscapes of practice. These range from “narrative opportunities” – i.e. opportunities to narrate and integrate one’s previous learning experiences into the workplace – to “reflexivity workshops” on workplace learning, which are educational experiences that allow individuals to reflect on their approach to learning (where they have acquired specific knowledge, what gaps exist in their learning) to gain a deeper understanding of its professional application. Originality/value: Contributions come from professionals who, owing to their expertise, are particularly focused on reflecting on group learning. These insights illustrate how even the most unconventional learning experiences, often not traditionally seen as instructive, possess transformative potential as valuable learning opportunities for workplace applications. © 2025, Emerald Publishing Limited.