Search Results for
"Teaching"

Higher engineering institutions strive towards educating globally competent students, and this article examines curricular approaches to global competence education. Based on qualitative interviews, it explores engineering educators' perspectives on student preparedness, their experiences with global competence integration, and their attributions of responsibility for such learning. In its findings, the article highlights educators' doubts about engineering graduates' preparedness for global workplaces. Moreover, it retraces a variety of educators' approaches to integrating global competence learning and highlights the challenges they face in this endeavour. The article further shows how engineering educators perceived global competence education as important and acknowledged their own role in supporting it, but attributed the main responsibility for ensuring students' competence development to institutional management. The article concludes with a discussion on the potential consequences of the educators' perceptions and examines possibilities for a strategic institutional approach to global competence education. © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Furniture production is a complex process, requiring manufacturers to possess the knowledge and skills needed for effective production and process management. In Taiwan, most schools are unable to provide hands-on training for students to acquire furniture production skills due to limited space and facilities. To address this issue, the present study employed a VR CAVE system for task allocation and furniture production simulation. The training was conducted in groups to strengthen students’ understanding of furniture production and process management. This study recruited 40 freshmen majoring in furniture design to participate in the training. They were divided into two groups: an experimental group (20 students receiving VR CAVE training) and a control group (20 students receiving traditional training). The training covered various aspects, including personnel, equipment, and production line operations aligned with the furniture production process. The effectiveness of this training was evaluated through a combination of tests and observations. The results revealed that students who underwent VR CAVE training and actively engaged in furniture production within a collaborative, task-oriented environment showed significant improvements in their knowledge of furniture production and process management. This innovative approach could effectively address the teaching challenges encountered by traditional furniture vocational schools. © 2025 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Science standards have played an increasingly central role in shaping the landscape of school science over the past several decades, as societies have endeavored to better educate scientifically literate citizens and prepare a technically capable workforce. Yet, evidence that standards have driven improvements in either the quality of instruction or student learning is scarce. We argue that the construction of science standards may unintentionally promote instruction that does not align with learning theory, and this may limit the potential impact of science standards on science teaching and learning. Using the lenses of constructivism, motivation, and situated cognition, we review and discuss the construction of science standards using the US Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) as an example. Based upon this review, we propose a path forward for reinventing science standards that organizes standards according to contemporary issues and contexts rather than disciplinary content ideas and prioritizes students' “informed agency” over “competence.” We argue that such an approach to constructing standards is more likely to promote instruction that aligns with learning theory and that more effectively supports instruction that reaches the societal and workforce goals espoused by current standards documents. © 2025 The Author(s). Journal of Research in Science teaching published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of National Association for Research in Science teaching.

This paper presents an analysis of two courses in the fields of Purchasing and Supply Management (PSM) and Supplier Relationship Management (SRM). The aim is to investigate how teaching content and methodologies can be adapted to align with evolving global trends in PSM, while also evaluating their effectiveness in developing the skills essential for professionals in this field. Drawing on a longitudinal tracking of six years, we examine the courses at three levels: course topics, teaching methods, and assessment methods. We link these three course components with the skills required in PSM. This model categorizes procurement skills into technical, interpersonal, internal and external (to the company), and strategic skills. The findings highlight the significance of integrating both theoretical foundations and practical applications in PSM education. The study provides insights into how PSM courses can be designed to foster the development of both hard and soft skills that are crucial for procurement professionals. Moreover, the results highlight the importance of regular course reviews to accommodate emerging trends and industry demands. This study makes both theoretical and practical contributions. Theoretically, it offers professors and lecturers a comprehensive framework for designing PSM courses. Practically, it provides managers with guidance on collaborating with academic institutions to promote project-based learning with students, which can help attract talent and advance applied research in the field of PSM. © 2025 The Authors

Marginalised youth in resource-constrained vocational education and training (VET) centres struggle to create engineering products and services with entrepreneurial value. This is due to limitations in the vocational engineering curriculum in addressing real community needs, exacerbated by inadequate resources, limited technology access, and other socio-economic challenges. This paper explores how the vocational engineering programme curriculum can be enhanced to improve learners’ capabilities to create engineering solutions with entrepreneurial value tailored for low-income consumers. The approach explores the Learning Factory (LF) concept, where design optimization strategies are investigated, rooted in sustainable humanitarian engineering, cost-effective materials, and energy-efficient production methods. The research entails enhancing the vocational curriculum by integrating authentic, real-world projects in real settings, giving students hands-on experience with engineering and business practices. The proposed methodology allows for a participatory approach to be explored in engaging local communities and stakeholders, ensuring the solutions fit the region's cultural and economic needs. The research highlights challenges and opportunities in VET institutions in Western Kenya and ways to optimise their engineering design and production processes. Additionally, this study offers insights for educators, policymakers, and practitioners in similar resource-limited settings. This study explores how a traditional hands-on, project-based approach complements the principles of learning factories, offering a practical model for fostering innovation and skill development in resource-constrained vocational settings. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2026.

The emergence of Industry 5.0 (I5.0) and the integration of smart technologies in Operations Management (OM) are reshaping the competences required for sustainable business practices. By aligning human-centric, sustainable, and resilience-driven principles with advanced technological solutions, Work 5.0 emphasizes the critical role of human workers in collaboration with intelligent systems. This paper investigated the specific Work 5.0 competence-based requirements essential for achieving smart and sustainable operations management. Therefore, through a survey conducted in Italy, we identified a competence framework tailored to smart and sustainable operations. Key competences preferred by respondents included data management and analysis, project management skills, modelling skills, programming and software development cloud management, and digital marketing. In addition, participants recognized project-based learning, hands-on learning, and problem-based learning as the favored teaching approaches for getting course. The results will have direct implications for the design of engineering education 5.0 programs and lifelong learning initiatives for requalification of existing workforce. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2026.

The rapid advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies demands a fundamental transformation in vocational education curricula to prepare students for the evolving digital economy. This paper presents the evaluation of the AIM4VET project, an Erasmus+ funded initiative that integrates ambient intelligence and IoT technologies into Vocational Education and Training (VET) programs across Portugal, Spain, and Slovenia. The study focuses on the implementation and assessment of twelve modular teaching units centered around smart home energy management systems, utilizing Arduino-Raspberry Pi architectures and KNIME analytics platform. Employing project-based learning methodologies, the curriculum addresses critical competencies in sensor integration, data processing, machine learning, and ambient intelligence applications. Results from 14 VET students demonstrate significant improvements in technical understanding, with post-assessment scores showing mastery across all evaluation criteria. Student feedback revealed high satisfaction levels with instructional clarity, while teacher assessments confirmed strong performance in autonomy, creativity, and collaborative problem-solving. The majority of students rated module difficulty as appropriate, indicating well-calibrated instructional design. The findings validate the effectiveness of integrating ambient intelligence environments in VET curricula, demonstrating enhanced student engagement, practical skill development, and preparation for Industry 5.0 contexts. This research contributes to the growing body of knowledge on technology-enhanced vocational education and provides a scalable framework for implementing AI and IoT literacy across European VET systems. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2026.

This paper reviews the performance of students who graduated from the foundation year programme in business studies and compares their performance with non-foundation students at the higher national diploma equivalent to the foundation degree in the business programme. The study is conducted to understand how foundation students perform at the same level as their peers who have completed their schooling from the traditional school system in UAE. Data collected was secondary from the institution’s archive files of both the groups of students and their academic performance over fifteen modules. Descriptive statistical techniques were used to analyse the data. The results from the analysis found that the foundation students performed equally better as non-foundation students in most modules while in a few cores mandatory modules, students performed better than non-foundation students. The foundation programme students were not found to underperform in any module. In specialisation modules the data varied, however these modules were in marketing/finance/business in which the results were no longer comparable due to differences in specialisation, the field of study, and the type of assessments varied. Foundation students exhibited greater variability in their grades. This study contributes to scarce literature and research work in the area of foundation education in the UAE higher education teaching and learning and guides the future direction of studies based on the findings. © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly integrated into early childhood education (ECE), equipping educators with the skills to effectively incorporate AI tools into their teaching practices is essential. Through reviewing current literature, the chapter outlines AI's potential in education and case studies, emphasizing its impact on young learners’ engagement development, and highlights the key competencies required for AI-enabled pedagogy in ECE, including transforming pedagogical approaches, that require educators to develop new competencies to effectively leverage AI tools. Various professional development (PD) approaches are also discussed, as they are crucial for ensuring that educators are well-prepared to integrate AI into their teaching, fostering continuous growth and support. The chapter also addresses the challenges educators face when integrating AI in classroom settings. Overcoming these challenges is essential for creating a supportive environment where AI can be integrated effectively and ethically in ECE. By addressing barriers such as infrastructure limitations and ethical concerns, educators can ensure equitable and responsible AI usage that benefits all students. The chapter concludes by offering recommendations for designing sustainable PD initiatives that align with educators’ diverse needs and institutional goals, ensuring that AI integration enriches teaching practices and enhances student outcomes. © 2026 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2026 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Agile methodologies are widely used in engineering education to align academic outcomes with industry needs. Embedding Agile as a learning culture requires the pedagogical adoption of its principles rather than reliance on tools. This study examined links between Agile principles, team quality, and professional readiness in vocational software development education, where students often face tight deadlines and limited real-world experience. A pilot framework was implemented across 6 courses at an Indonesian polytechnic (51 students, 9 teams), operationalized around 12 principles over 5 sprints, and evaluated through peer assessments and retrospectives. Team quality was computed using a hybrid metric from Tuckman's stages and Lencioni's dysfunctions; students rated their agility on a 10-point scale. Results showed heterogeneous levels of team quality and principle adoption. A regression model explained a modest share of variance (R2 = 0.26), and the average rank correlation between team quality and principle scores was low to moderate (Spearman's ρ̄ = 0.39). Correlations were stronger for constant pace and self-organizing team and weaker for customer satisfaction and technical excellence. Cultural norms (politeness and hierarchical deference) tempered direct feedback during retrospectives. These findings support the integration of Agile principles into vocational curricula, with attention to local cultural dynamics. © 2025 Wiley Periodicals LLC.