Conference Agenda

The Norwegian national framework plan for preschool and the Norwegian national curriculum describe comprehensive sexuality education as part of promoting children’s and young people’s life skills and health (Directorate of Education, 2017a, 2017b). Preschool teachers are supposed to ensure that children are aware of and learn about their bodies and development and their own and other people’s boundaries (Directorate of Education, 2017a). Teachers in compulsory and upper secondary schools are supposed to thematise gender, sexuality, emotions and relationships in the interdisciplinary topic “public health and life skills” (Directorate of Education, 2017b). The national guidelines are in line with the World Health Organization’s standard for sexuality education in Europe, which states that children and young people should learn about cognitive, emotional, social, relational and physical aspects of sexuality (European Expert Group on Sexuality Education, 2016, p. 428). It is also in line with the state strategy “Talk about it!” describing good sexual health as “a resource and protective factor that promotes quality of life and life-skills” (Ministry of Health and Welfare, 2017, p. 7). The strategy indicates that knowledge about the body, emotions and relationships is the basis for a health-promoting lifestyle that should be taught from preschool age onwards (Ministry of Health and Welfare, 2017, p. 14). Learning about positive sexuality is also central to preventing sexual abuse and can help strengthen children and young people in regulating their own emotional behaviour (Seiler-Ramadas et al., 2021, p. 490).

Despite the underpinning of positive sexual health in national guidelines, sexuality education in Norwegian schools has been characterised by a negative approach to sexuality (Røthing & Svendsen, 2009, p. 66). A recent study shows that sexuality education of pupils in upper secondary school (16–19 years old) focuses on topics like sexually transmitted infections and different contraception methods, while most of the pupils want education on topics such as emotions, queer sexuality and sexual debut (Sex og Society, 2022, p. 5). Young people have also described the sexuality education they have received as too academic and unengaging, and they have called for education and guidance about body, sexuality and boundaries in preschool, primary and secondary school (The Children’s Ombudsman, 2018, p. 22).

Student teachers also request comprehensive sexuality education as part of teacher training (Svendsen & Furunes, 2022, pp. 34–37). Good competence, adequate language and security in one’s professional role seem to be important for promoting discussions in the classroom that can challenge both students’ and teachers’ “emotional comfort zones” and open them up to perspective-taking and critical reflection (Johannessen & Røthing, 2022, p. 12). International studies indicate that preschool teachers who have acquired knowledge about children’s physical and sexual development during teacher training do thematise these topics in preschool (Brouskeli & Sapountzis, 2017, p. 62). The lack of focus on sexual health in preschool may be related to fear of reactions from parents and restricted training in thematising the body and sexuality during preschool teacher training (Balter et al., 2021, p. 290).

This knowledge front shows the need for an extended focus on comprehensive sexuality education in teacher training. To develop courses and improve teacher training, it is important to know how experienced teachers feel that their competence meets the needs they experience in practice and what kind of knowledge and skills they possibly lack. The present study contributes to this focus by exploring the following research question: How do preschool teachers and schoolteachers assess their own competence in comprehensive sexuality education?

Most European countries face severe teacher shortages, particularly in mathematics, as well as an increased awareness of teachers’ self-perceived need for professional development (PD) in teaching mathematics. In Germany the lack of specialist teachers has led to a high percentage of out-of-field teachers, resulting in an additional need for PD (Eurydice, 2021). At the same time the average student’s mathematics achievements in many European countries, especially in Germany, have decreased (Mullis et al., 2020). Accordingly, students lack basic concepts that are necessary for the cumulative process of acquiring knowledge and competence in mathematics. Against this background, a PD program was implemented, aimed at improving teachers’ expertise for fostering students’ understanding of basic mathematical concepts (Prediger et al., 2023).

Evaluating whether a PD program promotes teachers’ expertise is challenging when the success of the PD program is not only measured in terms of the teachers’ increase in knowledge but also regarding the effect on teachers’ teaching practices. The latter often remains unclear when PD programs are evaluated by pre-post knowledge test results or teacher self-reports. Evaluating how teaching practice has been improved requires an ecologically valid instrument (Krolak-Schwerdt et al., 2018). To approximate teaching practice as much as possible, we developed a vignette-based approach that places teachers in an authentic teaching situation in which classroom discussions are conducted to foster students’ understanding of basic concepts in mathematics. Our instrument not only serves to measure whether teachers benefit from the PD, but also provides a tool to assess teachers’ abilities to foster students’ understanding. While extensive research on teachers’ diagnostic abilities and how they can be facilitated exists (Chernikova et al., 2020), evidence on how teachers foster students’ understanding is rare.

Previous evidence on how students gain conceptual understanding provides insights into conditions of supportive learning environments. Accordingly, using multiple presentations such as visual, numerical, and symbolical representations, and elaborating on the relationship between them is an effective strategy to support students in attaining conceptual understanding (Hunt & Little, 2014; O-Dwyer et al., 2015; Tzur et al., 2020). Further studies have shown that prompting students for explanations and justifications (Booth et al., 2015; Jansen et al., 2017) of their mathematical reasoning or what they have learned can support them to gain deeper conceptual understanding. Studying and reflecting on incorrect mathematical work in addition to or in combination with correct work are other ways to support students’ conceptual understanding that have been confirmed by evidence (Siegler & Chen, 2008). Also, encouraging students to verbalize their thinking and enhancing communication on mathematical aspects amongst students is a prerequisite (Erath et al., 2021) to enable students to gain a deeper conceptual understanding.

Therefore, teachers are assumed to foster students’ conceptual understanding if they provide a learning environment that considers the following supportive conditions:

• Connecting representations,
• Prompting explanations or justifications,
• Prompting student-initiated error analysis,
• Encouraging verbalization of students’ thinking,
• Encouraging communication among the students.

Starting from these assumptions we examined the following research questions.

1a. Do teachers choose a supportive learning environment to foster students’ conceptual understanding?

1b. Do teachers justify their choice of learning environment by identifying supportive conditions?

2a. Does the accuracy of choosing a supportive learning environment increase during the PD?

2b. Does the quality of teachers’ justifications of choice increase during the PD?

Topic:
Self-regulated learning (SRL) has been an important area of educational research (Panadero, 2017) and the development of self-regulating learners is one of the priorities in the global field of education (e.g., Sala et al., 2020). Although there have been successful interventions to foster self-regulated learning among students, it has been found that the interventions conducted by researchers have had on average a higher effect size on student outcomes and their use of strategies than the ones implemented by teachers (Dignath et al., 2008).

Therefore, there is a need to design and study professional development programs that effectively support teachers in helping students become self-regulating learners. In this study, we draw on Expectancy-Value Theory (EVT) (Eccles & Wigfield, 2020) to explore teachers' motivation for implementing professional development activities aimed at supporting self-regulated learning and its relation to their self-reported teaching practices in this domain.

The main aim of the study is to explore how teachers' motivation (expectancy for success, perceived value and cost) to implement professional development relates to their self-reported teaching practices in the domain of self-regulated learning.

Theoretical framework:
The three main pillars of the study are teacher professional development, self-regulated learning and teacher motivation.

Teacher professional development is a process of teacher learning and “transforming their knowledge into practice for the benefit of their students’ growth” (Avalos, 2011). To design the professional development programme the basic theory of action proposed by Desimone (2009) and the IMTP (insight, motivate, techniques, practice) framework proposed by Sims et al. (2023) were used.

Pintrich's (2000) model of Self-Regulated learning was used to conceptualize and define SRL as: "an active, constructive process whereby learners set goals for their learning and then attempt to monitor, regulate, and control their cognition, motivation, and behaviour, guided and constrained by their goals and the contextual features in the environment”. The content of professional development sessions was based on this model.

An important aspect of teacher professional development is their motivation to learn, apply knowledge to practice and reflect on the results. One of the leading theories on motivation has been Expectancy-Value Theory (EVT) (Wigfield & Eccles, 2000; Eccles & Wigfield, 2020). It has been found that EVT can be used to explain changes in teachers’ practice in the context of professional development programmes (Boström & Palm, 2020). Karlen et al. (2023) have found that teachers’ self-efficacy and intrinsic value regarding the promotion of students’ SRL were both significantly correlated to teachers’ self-reported promotion of metacognition and students’ perceived promotion of metacognition.

Based on Expectancy-Value Theory, Osman and Warner (2020) developed a scale that can be used to measure teachers' motivation to implement professional development. In accordance with their findings, expectancy for success, values, and cost were treated as distinct constructs of teacher motivation.

The following research questions guide the study:

1. What is the relationship between teachers' expectancy for success, perceived task value and perceived cost of implementing professional development in self-regulated learning?

2. How are expectancy, value and cost related to teachers' self-reported teaching practices in self-regulated learning?

3. How does teachers' written feedback on their motivation to participate in professional development relate to the quantitative findings about expectancy, value and cost of implementing professional development?

Cooperation between ECEC professionals and parents to support children’s learning, development and wellbeing is recognised as a key dimension of pedagogical quality (Council of the European Union, 2019). It can enhance the continuity of children’s learning experiences across the ECEC service and home, and positively impact their development (OECD, 2020). ECEC staff’s competences for working with families can encompass exchanging information, involving parents in the ECEC service and their children’s activities, and supporting parenting skills (European Commission, 2021). In working with families, approaching parents as valued partners in two-way communication, building a trusting relationship, and sharing goals have been recognised to improve cooperation (Aguiar & Pastori, 2019).

Current European policy asserts the need to potentiate competences in the education profession, including for promoting cooperation with families, and inclusive, digital and green environments (Council of the European Union, 2021). The European Quality Framework for ECEC highlights the relevance of providing time for staff to engage with parents (European Commission, 2014). The European Framework for personal, social and learning to learn key competence - LifeComp - reinforces the need to support educational staff in implementing competence-based teaching in diverse contexts. The European Framework for the Digital Competence of Educators - DigCompEdu - describes what it means for educators to be digitally competent, and includes a focus on working with parents. The European Sustainability Competence Framework - GreenComp - highlights the need to develop the sustainability competences of all learners, and guidelines for educators.

Cooperation between ECEC professionals and parents can promote inclusive, digital and green environments in educational contexts through the development of a shared vision. However, ECEC professionals can experience uncertainty about how to promote this cooperation (Murphy et al., 2021). Despite widespread recognition of the importance of cooperating with parents, the inclusion of parents and cooperation modalities can vary between and within education systems (European Commission/EACEA/Eurydice, 2019). As highlighted by Epstein's model of parent involvement, diverse practices and strategies can be used to involve parents in schools (parenting support, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision-making, and collaborating with the community), which can be associated with specific challenges (Epstein, 2001).

Further research on professionals’s views and approaches regarding cooperation with parents and inclusive, digital, and green environments in ECEC has been identified as necessary (Leitão et al., 2023; Norheim & Moser, 2020; Slot et al., 2018). The current study aimed to explore ECEC professionals’ practices and needs to promote cooperation with parents, and inclusive, digital, and green environments. It was conducted in Italy, Lithuania, Romania, and Serbia, as part of the PATHWAYS project (ERASMUS+; 2022-1-IT02-KA220-SCH-000087139), which aims to enhance and strengthen ECEC professionals’ strategic competences and skills.

The present study examined the multicultural teaching assistants’ profiles of culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy (CRTSE). It also investigated whether the profile membership predicted their practices to facilitate social integration and family-school collaboration. Pre- and post-tests were conducted to assess their CRTSE. Latent profile transition analysis indicated three distinct profiles: high, medium, and low. Multiple regression analyses found that participants with a high (vs. low or medium) CRTSE profile at Time 1 reported more willingness to facilitate family-school collaboration at Time 2.

Teachers play a critical role in student learning and academic development (e.g., Rubie-Davies et al., 2006).Although the number of ethnic minorities (EM), particularly those with South/Southeast Asian origin, continues growing in Hong Kong, kindergarten teachers are lack of understanding of EM cultures and inadequately prepared to teach EM students within a bilingual framework (Ng et al., 2020; Shum et al., 2011; Yuen, 2016). The linguistic and cultural discontinuities in school and home environments lead EM students to experience learning difficulties and show low academic competence (Yuen, 2016). The ethnic achievement gap has prompted educators to emphasize culturally responsive teaching (CRT; Gay, 2010) in teacher preparation programs. CRT underscores bridging course content with students' cultural knowledge to make learning relevant and more effective (Gay, 2010; Ladson-Billings, 2014).

Research also suggests that minority teachers would benefit student learning by, for instance, serving as role models, holding higher expectations for EM students, and helping better examine sociocultural factors that affect student learning (Vilegas & Irvine, 2010). Although diversifying the teacher workforce sounds promising, minority youth seeking teacher certification face many barriers in Hong Kong, especially in meeting the requirement of Chinese proficiency. In recent years, educational initiatives to recruit EM paraprofessionals who can work as assistants to teachers (i.e., “bilingual or multicultural teaching assistants”) have gained recognition (Gao & Shum, 2010).

As part of these initiatives, the Diploma Program in Early Childhood Education program (supporting learning and teaching for non-Chinese speaking children) or the D(ECE) program aimed to develop EM youth's professional capacityto work as teaching assistants at local kindergartens. This program intends to nurture multicultural teaching assistants who possess the language proficiency, pedagogical knowledge, and positive attitudes required to support preschool teachers, education, and community service workers in catering for EM children, build a solid base for learning, and create a social inclusion environment in the early childhood education and care sector. The D(ECE) consists of ten courses stronglyfocusing on CRT (Gay, 2010; Ladson-Billings, 2014), socio-emotional and language development of EM children, and L2Chinese learning. CRT self-efficacy (CRTSE; Siwatu, 2007) refers to how capable one feels of, for instance, preparing culturally responsive teaching or creating a supportive classroom climate. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the program by examining participants’ CRTSE profiles and their transitions throughout the D(ECE).

The present study

This study had three objectives—(a) to identify multicultural teaching assistants’ CRTSE profiles and replicate theseprofiles over time, (b) to assess the transitions in profile membership from the beginning to the end of the D(ECE) program, and (c) to investigate whether the identified profiles would predict participants’ multicultural practices (i.e., family-school collaboration and social integration) by the end of the program. We expected that participants classified as high or medium CRTSE would report higher engagement in practices for facilitating family-school collaboration and social integration than those classified as low CRTSE.

Theoretical framework. Social media (SM) is an integral part of our lives, affecting us as individuals, changing and influencing our behaviour and actions. The internet is full of different interpretations of past and present events, propaganda and deceptive information. The spread of fake news is particularly favourable under uncertainty. Due to the high pace of our life, constant change we do not know how to choose, to distinguish unbiased facts from opinions and emotions. Social media has affected people’s behaviour by making them more broad-minded and by developing mutual respect. However, this also led to negative changes in the personality: people became more self-obsessed, lazy and violent; their behaviour was determined by low self-esteem, mental health problems, and trust issues (Xanidis & Brignell, 2016; Primack and etc., 2017; Hussain & Griffiths, 2021; Bowden-Green, Hinds, & Joinson, 2021; Kotsonis, 2022). Only reflecting on ourselves as personalities and knowing our ways of thinking in social media we can better evaluate both ourselves and the information presented in it. It is important to understand how people interact on social networks and what influences their decisions to share content or follow different accounts. Research shows that knowing one’s personality helps predict such aspects of life as academic success, work performance, health, success in relationships, and behaviour in social media (Koçak & Kabadayı, 2016; Lampropoulos and etc., 2022). It has been proven that there is a direct connection between behaviour in SM and the personality’s individual traits, especially our critical thinking.

Some researches show that many people do not have any experience or willingness to critically evaluate information or look for reasons, or do not have any demand to reflect on possible consequences (Wineburg and etc., 2016). Critical thinking in this context is defined as the ability to critically analyze, purposefully choose, reflectively evaluate and to make a responsible decision who/what to trust and how to act. Our thinking depends on the characteristics of our personality and can be inflexible, inert, so it requires constant human effort to know and change it. As already mentioned, critical thinking can be understood as thinking about one's own thinking in order to improve it. Only by getting to know one's personality traits and peculiarities of thinking will it be possible to purposefully educate and guide the representatives of the younger generation in the future. It will be possible to educate purposefully and guide the representatives of the youth by recognizing personality traits and peculiarities of thinking. According to trait theorists, personality traits and critical thinking are key determinants of people’s behaviour in a given situation and also in social media (Nakayama, Kikuchi, & Yamamoto, 2021; Acevedo & Hess, 2022; Cheng and etc., 2022; Steinert and etc., 2022; Cheng and etc., 2022). They are important in predicting various behavioural outcomes, including the way of using social media and the type of behaviour in social media as well as the impact of media itself on the personality.

Research questions: What critical thinking skills are identified as essential by initial teachers in evaluating information on social media? Are there significant differences between initial teachers‘ involved on the project activities of critical thinking and media literacy and other initial teachers, who didn‘t participated in the project? What is the relationship between initial teachers' personality and critical thinking traits?

The purpose of the study is to reveal the relationship between the initial teachers' personality dimensions and the characteristics of application of critical thinking skills on social media.

The ongoing digital transformation poses a substantial challenge to the education system, requiring sustained adjustments across all levels, including instruction and school administration (European Commission, 2020; Eickelmann & Gerick, 2017). In the realm of such transformative processes, educational stakeholders assume diverse roles with varying degrees of influence (Stoll & Seashore, 2007). Extensive research underscores the pivotal role of teachers in general transformation processes (Leander & Osborne, 2008; Sebastian et al., 2016), particularly in the realm of digitalizing education (Wohlfart & Wagner, 2023). In our study, we understand teachers (as employees of governmental educational institutions) to be institutional agents for education due to their influence on educational practices, curriculum development, classroom culture, and student development. Fundamentally, teachers, as agents, wield substantial influence over whether and how institutionalized practices evolve over time or persist unchanged (Bridwell-Mitchell, 2015).

The aim of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of the dynamic relationships between teacher agency and institutional and infrastructural changes in the context of the rapid digital transformation initiated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent two-year period by answering the following research questions (RQ):

RQ1: Which institutional and instructional changes toward digital transformation were induced by the COVID-19 pandemic?

RQ2: How is teacher agency associated with institutional and instructional changes?

This research was conducted in response to the changes made to the external summary assessment of the 12th-grade students in physics for the 2023-2024 academic year. This decision was implemented by the Center for Pedagogical Measurements AEO Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools. Considering this modification, the study proposes the preparation of Paper 3, the third component of the high school external summative assessment in physics, based on the Paper 5 of AS & A Level Physics 9702. The objective of this research is to investigate the effect of constructive teaching approach on the development of high school students' ability to produce a laboratory activity report. The researchers employed the Plan-Do-Study-Act PDSA Model of Action Research and utilized a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design using quantitative approaches performed. The respondents of the research were the 11th grade students, with 34 students participating in the study. The preparedness for Paper 5 was assessed through a survey and control test administered to the 11th-grade students. Results indicated that a majority of students were able to distinguish dependent, independent, and control variables in the task based on Paper 3. They could construct a graph according to the given table and calculate the gradient. However, when it came to the tasks based on the Paper 5 laboratory work, students struggled with designing a laboratory work, defining variables, and explaining the physical meaning of a gradient. The rate of success in tasks based on Paper 5 laboratory was only 26%, as confirmed by both the survey and control test results. In response to these findings, an active learning model based on constructive teaching methodology, selected based on the PDSA model of action research, was implemented. The difference between the scores of the input and output diagnostic tests from the implementation of the learning strategy was significant, with a high Hake's index of 0.74 (<g> = 0.74). Thus, the active learning model, based on the constructive learning methodology of tasks prepared based on Paper 5, significantly improved students’ skills. Based on these results, the researchers recommend the promotion and use of this teaching methodology in the physics department, in the entire NIS ChB Almaty and NIS schools across country.

The rapid changes in life open up the situations of ambiguity and uncertainty, which not only triggers various challenges but also presents unlimited opportunities, encourages the society to change its customary procedures and behaviour, while simultaneously changing people’s thinking and beliefs. The information flow replaces previous knowledge with new discoveries and insights which require that we learn to live and work differently. Thus, in this context, a special role falls on the school and the teacher: to be a teacher preparing children for the future and, at the same time, to become a constant learner who is open to change, the search for new truths, and self-discoveries. Therefore, issues of effective professional development (Porter et al., 2000; Garet et al., 2001; Desimone et al., 2002; Darling-Hammond et al., 2017; Caena, 2011) that would respond to the societal needs, promote not only the student’s but also the teacher’s progress, and motivate them to grow when pursuing better personal results (Guskey, 2000; Evans, 2008; 2014) have become increasingly relevant.

The phenomenon of the professional growth of teachers and their personal professional growth experiences are not widely analysed in the field of educational research. More attention is being paid to professional development which can be characterised by specific professional development activities, such as seminars, courses, conferences, and the like. Professional growth is a process changing the individual’s personal world (value approaches, self-esteem, thinking, behaviour) related to the teacher’s constant improvement in the context of integrating the teaching of children and the teacher’s own learning in order to achieve a higher quality of his/her activities. This process is related to the very teacher’s activity and the personal changes which the teacher is bound to experience by consciously and responsibly using the development opportunities provided by the school. Thus, the problem of this research is outlined as the coherence of the interaction between professional growth experiences and professional development opportunities provided by the school. Therefore, this research is aimed to answer the following question: How does the personal professional development framework which is applied at school promote the professional growth of teachers?

The importance of improving schools, improving the quality of teachers' performance and improving student learning results encourages researchers to focus on teachers' professional development as one of the most important factors determining the ways of implementing these goals. The latter issues have been analyzed and researched for several decades, but they do not lose their relevance recently focusing on the possibilities, forms and conditions of teachers' empowerment for professional learning and professionalism, etc. (Krille, 2020; Desimone, 2023). Traditional systems considered ineffective, due to insufficient coherence with the specific context of the school community or classroom activities, too little attention to individual planning, specific needs of the teacher and the school itself, practical analysis of the teachers' experience and cooperation (Guskey, 2002; 2009; Cohen & Hill, 2000; Porter et al., 2001). Studies revealed that often short-term professional development seminars and trainings organized according to the priority directions of educational policies poorly meet their needs and help them adapt to changing educational circumstances (Clarke & Hollingsworth, 2002). Concepts of professional development are shifting from gap-filling workshops or instructional models to professional growth models in which teachers actively collaborate in exploring their practice to improve their knowledge of content, pedagogy, and students (Darling-Hammond & Richardson, 2009). Learning in the context of professional development is always more successful if it takes place as close as possible to the teacher's work environment, provides opportunities for reflection and feedback, involves the teacher's conscious commitment and uses external knowledge, e.g. consultant and/or critical friend, to increase the capacity of the service (Fullan, 2020). Structures that promote teacher development are necessary, but the most effective are those that are formed by the school community itself, based on its culture, context, teachers' experience and create opportunities for collaboration (Leu, 2004; Geijsel et al., 2009; Caena, 2011).

The research question: what happens and what changes does the teacher experience on the path of his personal and professional growth?

The purpose of the research: to reveal the experience of the teacher's professional growth in the context of the school's personal professional development system.

The advancement of the scientific and technological landscape necessitates a paradigm shift in education. Given the incessant influx of scientific discoveries and evolving information, the need to integrate these insights into educational content is escalating. Teachers, therefore, must perpetually elevate their professional competencies to align with these burgeoning educational demands (Milan Komnenovic, 2020).

In Kazakhstan, substantial emphasis is placed on the professional growth of educators. To effectively cater to the demands of the modern school and today's students, educators must continually engage in professional growth. Varied perspectives among scholars exist regarding teachers' competence. The proficiency and efforts of a teacher constitute a pivotal component of a student's knowledge and academic accomplishments (Darling-Hammond, Rockover, Hattie, as per Stankovici, Deric, and Milin 2013). At the same time, teachers' ongoing professional development enables them to enhance their pedagogical expertise (Borco, 2004, and Desimone, 2002). It is indisputable that the primary aim of a teacher's professional growth should center on facilitating students' acquisition of knowledge and accomplishments. (Avalos, 2020).

Nevertheless, the research underscores that numerous teachers need robust management and support to implement innovative teaching principles (Borco, 2004). To address this, the Nazarbayev Intellectual School of Chemistry and Biology in Aktau conducts Intra-School Course (ISC )every six months, tailored to the specific needs of teachers. These courses are designed to foster professional development and provide comprehensive methodological support for subject teachers, teacher-curators, and dormitory educators.

Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools operate 22 dormitories, accommodating a total of 3168 beds. These dormitories function as integral structural units within the school, ensuring the safety and comfort of students in grades 7-12. Their role extends beyond providing a secure environment; they actively contribute to developing students' knowledge, intellectual and creative capacities, and spiritual and physical abilities. The dormitory also plays a crucial role in instilling moral values, promoting a healthy lifestyle, and fostering effective communication with parents to facilitate the holistic development of students.

The functional responsibilities of educators in the NIS dormitory system encompass a range of tasks: planning and organizing social life of students residing in dormitory, engaging in educational activities beyond regular school lessons, coordinating cultural and educational events within the dormitory, providing assistance to students in their learning, leisure, and additional educational pursuits, organizing and conducting intra-school and inter-network activities between NIS schools, and engaging in ongoing professional advancement, certification, medical examinations, among other responsibilities (as stipulated in the regulation "Qualification requirements of NIS employees," approved under Protocol No. 9 on April 5, 2018, consisting of 20 points).

Studies conducted by Andrew Martin and others highlight the positive impact of additional extracurricular support on enhancing academic performance and motivation among students in dormitories (Martin et al., 2014). This underscores the crucial role of dormitory teachers and the significance of their professional expertise in the educational and developmental processes. Consequently, the professional growth of dormitory teachers should be continuous.

Responding to request from dormitory head, a professional development course for educators was conducted in first half of 2023-2024 academic year. Dormitory educators pursuing professional growth engaged in various activities at the ISC. These activities included setting professional development goals in alignment with SMART criteria, formulating short-term plans for club lessons, and acquiring innovative methods to conduct engaging club that enhance student interest.

The overarching goal of this research is to identify barriers in the practices of dormitory teachers and facilitate their professional development through the HSE.

• What barriers exist in the practice of dormitory teachers?
• How can the Intra-school Courses (ISC) contribute to eliminating identified obstacles?

This research holds significance due to the need for more studies in Kazakhstan addressing enhancing professional qualifications among dormitory educators.

In the global educational landscape, teachers have encountered challenges to their autonomy, due to the increasing standardization and regulation within national education systems (Burkhauser & Lesaux, 2017; Haugen, 2019; Hodge, 2018). However, South Korea, in contrast to this trend, has recently implemented a unique curriculum reform policy, deviating from its historically centralized education system. The Korean education system, traditionally guided by a national curriculum system specifying subjects and lesson hours (Gim, 2012; Park & Kim, 2014), has been heavily focused on preparing students for college entrance exams, thereby limiting both teachers’ autonomy and students’ learning opportunities (Kim, 2021).

To address these concerns, Korea introduced 'the exam-free semester system' in 2016 for middle schools (grades 7 to 9) (Kim & Joo, 2022). This policy aims to counteract the prevailing test-oriented school culture by providing teachers with greater autonomy in curriculum operation. During one semester of the three-year middle school program, there are no formal examinations, and schools are encouraged to offer diverse classes to allow students to explore their interests and talents, relieving them from exam-related stress.

In this decentralized curriculum structure, teachers encounter both opportunities and challenges. While they appreciate the newfound autonomy in planning and implementing the curriculum, they also face difficulties in designing exam-free semester activities and employing unfamiliar teaching methods.

The study operates under the assumption that new curriculum policies at the national level do not directly translate into implementation at the school level; rather, they involve an active process of interpretation by teachers. Teachers engage in sense-making when encountering a new policy, organizing it within their cognitive framework (Coburn, 2006; Spillane et al., 2002). Sense-making, described by Weick (1995), is an ongoing organizing process that occurs when unexpected events happen, influenced by existing knowledge, beliefs, and contextual conditions.

Teachers’ interpretation of reform messages during policy implementation is not a simple technical process but an active sense-making influenced by their interests, beliefs, and contextual factors (Alvunger, 2018; Leijen et al., 2020; Luttenberg et al., 2013). Teachers’ engagement in curriculum reform is shaped by this sense-making process (Pietarinen et al., 2019), leading to responses such as distantiation, toleration, assimilation, and accommodation (Luttenberg et al., 2013).

Complete curriculum reform, according to Fullan (2015), occurs when the intended reality is created and shared among implementing agents. Therefore, it is crucial to understand how teachers construct and execute the meaning of reform messages, considering differences among teachers and the dynamics in their interpretive practices. Drawing on sense-making theory, this study investigates how Korean teachers make sense of messages and mandates from the state-driven curriculum decentralization policy, specifically focusing on the exam-free semester system and how these meanings shape teachers’ teaching practices for curriculum reforms.

In November 2023,UNESCO adopted a resolution to establish an International STEM Education Research Institute in China. The goal is to achieve inclusive, equitable, context-relevant, Sustainable, and high-quality STEM education accessible to all. While flourishing in China, STEM education is problematic in its "elitism" and "urbanization" orientation(inequity in urban and rural education), utilitarian origins and practical tendencies , and insufficient integration in curriculum development.

From the theoretical perspective of connecting scientific learning with everyday life experiences and concepts such as “funds of knowledge”, we argue that agricultural civilization, as the "ethnic and cultural gene" of China, with its core concept of "harmonious coexistence between humans and nature," can counteract the utilitarian tendencies of STEM education. And the incorporation of themes and content that culture and context responsive may enhance the inclusiveness of STEM education and address urban-rural integration issues. Simultaneously, derived from real agricultural production and life practices, agricultural culture in the context of the history of science and technology provides abundant authentic problem scenarios that are rich in interdisciplinary and hands-on learning resources.

In changing educational environments, curriculum development is not always evidence-informed. Inquiry-based working could contribute positively when secondary schools deal with redesigning the curriculum. However, inquiry-based working is not yet commonly embedded in school cultures (Geijsel et al., 2020). This study aims to promote a sustainable research engaged school culture in nine secondary schools in support of reaching their school development goals. A research culture in schools (or a Research Engaged School; RES; Godfrey, 2016) requires leadership that stimulates colleagues to learn how to use knowledge, for instance, via effective professional learning communities (PLC’s). In such PLC’s, teachers collectively learn with colleagues or experts from inside or outside the schools. Moreover, a research culture in schools requires conditions for teachers to learn through inquiry-based working. Examples of such conditions are time to meet and collectively learn, and access to resources such as literature or podcasts. Research Engaged Schools are characterised by the way research informs curriculum decisions, policies, and practices.

The RES model identifies the following four areas (Godfrey, 2016). Inquiry-based working refers to developing knowledge by combining practical experiences with knowledge from scientific and/or teacher research (Baan, 2020). Multilevel distributed leadership concerns leadership that is provided by various colleagues in the school; formal and informal leaders (e.g., school leaders and teacher leaders) work together based on their position or role, and on affinity and expertise (Al-Fadala et al., 2022). The school as a learning organisation refers to an organisation in which teachers, teacher leaders, and formal leaders together learn how to work inquiry-based (Kools et al., 2020). A systemic perspective concerns the coherence between what happens in the classroom, school, and national context (Cohen et al., 2018).

In order to stimulate the research cultures of secondary schools, this study inventories the research culture level of nine schools. Informed by this inventory, teachers, teacher leaders, formal leaders, and researchers together design interventions aimed at promoting the areas of the RES model.

This poster focuses on the research question “How do schools perceive the Research Engaged School culture in their school?”. This questions concerns the inventory stage of the larger project.

The author will present an educational, upbringing and social program for young people at risk of social maladjustment, implemented in 2020-2021, titled "COOLektura".Twenty-three 7th grade students from Primary School No. 141 in Warsaw took part in the program.They were observed to have symptoms of risk of social maladjustment resulting from numerous school failures, growing up in a family/peer environment stimulating the use of violence, fearfulness, aggressiveness, risky behavior, as well as lack of motivation to put in effort, low self-esteem, vulgarity, school laziness, and breaking internal regulations, school orders and regulations, lack of sense of responsibility for one's actions, inability to overcome difficult situations, conflicts with teachers or peers, attention disorders.The main goals of the program were: consolidating the reading in an attractive form (poem, epigram, etc.) immortalized in the form of a short film, improving the skills of cooperation and sense of co-responsibility and overcoming one's own limitations, developing the habit of systematicity and planning activities, and the specific goals: learning the ability to write a film script; using students' hidden talents and potentials; discovering and strengthening students' strengths; developing a sense of agency and independence; learning through play.The program was low-budget and was implemented in cooperation with the Academy of Change Advocates and the Local Activity Center.

Sustainability efforts, such as environmentally friendly and resource-saving production, the efficient use of an energy management system, or the trade-off between renewable and fossil fuels, are becoming increasingly important for companies (cf. Cooremans & Schönenberger, 2019, p. 264f.). To address these efforts, different occupational disciplines, such as technical and management disciplines, need to combine their knowledge and expertise. For this, interdisciplinary skills are becoming increasingly important, as different occupations with different areas of expertise need to communicate with each other. One solution to foster interdisciplinary skills early on is to establish these skills during vocational education and training.

In Germany, a dual system of vocational education and training systems offers students the possibility of an apprenticeship. During this apprenticeship, students acquire job relevant skills based on occupation specific curricula. However, these curricula currently lack the promotion of interdisciplinary skills (cf. Sloane et al., 2018, p. 13). While business managers and technicians have to work together on a daily basis in most companies, German schools within the dual system of vocational education and training currently do not prepare their students for this task.

This study looks at the educational programme work of an interdisciplinary educational team of teachers from both business and technical vocational schools. An interdisciplinary team of teachers was formed to propose learning scenarios that are anchored in a curriculum to promote the interdisciplinary skills of students from business and technical vocational schools.

Following the design-based research method, a research portfolio on the interactions between teachers from the interdisciplinary educational team offers insights on interdisciplinary skills at the teacher level. First, the teachers themselves benefited from the interdisciplinary collaboration. Pedagogical experiences were exchanged, new learning and working strategies were developed, and the repertoire of teaching materials expanded. Second, challenges were identified regarding the coordination of course content within the apprenticeship. This includes course contents that are relevant for both business and technical occupations. Teachers had to identify common curricular links and consider their inclusion in the schools methodological and annual didactic planning as well as the concrete design of learning scenarios and the development of teaching-learning arrangements (cf. Sloane, 2021, p. 230). Another challenge that was identified relates to the different experiences, attitudes, and assumptions of teachers, partly due to their occupational discipline (cf. Krainer & Smetschka, 2014, p. 72). This creates barriers that make collaboration more difficult (cf. Claus & Wiese, 2021, p. 280). However, these barriers can be addressed systematically.

Following the framework of Claus & Wiese (cf. 2021, p. 282), the teachers showed "initiative for exchange" as they willingly and actively participated in the interdisciplinary exchange within the teamwork. They also intuitively used "target group-specific communication" to foster the interdisciplinary teamwork. Both mechanisms helped in reducing barriers. Regarding “integration of knowledge” and "reflection on one's own discipline" the teachers showed more difficulties. Here, the teachers appear to need additional support in understanding the other occupational discipline as well as acknowledging more strongly their own discipline.

The aim of this study is to explore what impact creating podcasts have in improving speaking skills and metacognition skills of students in the EFL classroom. Students face difficulty in expressing their ideas clearly and fluently while speaking due to anxiety, lack of enough grammatical and lexical knowledge and long processing time in face to face conversation . Moreover, the only place where students have the opportunity to speak in English is in the EFL classroom. This means that they may not have enough practice to develop their language skill and specifically, speaking skill. By development of technology, Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) and its subdivision Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) students will be able to take language learning beyond the classroom walls. Moreover, Podcast is a digital tool that is accessible without limiting itself to the place and time. Fluency is one of the aspects of speaking that can hinder communication. Scott Thornbury in his book “how to teach speaking” suggests that some conditions have an important role in the degree of fluency of speakers. These conditions are divided into three different categories such as cognitive, affective and performance factors. Cognitive factors include: Familiarity with the topic, familiarity with the interlocutor and processing demands. In this experiment students make podcasts about topics based on school curriculum, after receiving adequate knowledge in the classroom. Students create and share podcasts in the comfort of their home using smartphones in a group of three people. This enables them to prepare their speech in advance and practice it several times before making a podcast. Which consequently reduces the processing time and when they internalize required grammar and vocabulary. Affective factors include self consciousness, that is to say when students are under spotlight they may feel anxious and stressed which will lead them to make mistakes while speaking. Since students record their voice alone or along with their teammates, they will feel more comfortable and relaxed. Performance factors include: planning and rehearsal time, discourse control and mode. Real time speaking demands a great deal of processing time for speakers who are new to the language, so students lose their fluency during speaking. On the other hand, if they intend to compensate for fluency, they might lose accuracy. When students conduct research on the topic, write a script, plan the procedure of their podcast, practice it several times, and recreate the podcast many times, their performance will improve. In addition to that, to make a podcast students have to analyze, and evaluate their written text, and design a plan for the podcast. This will raise awareness of students' incompetencies. In contrast to the traditional methods of teaching and learning, when all students are dependant on a teacher to acquire knowledge, podcast making is a learner-centered method. In other words, creating a desirable podcast in the team depends on the individual works of teammates. Thus it will enhance students’ critical thinking since they have to evaluate their own work to make a better-quality podcast. This method improves students’ self-regulation and autonomy because podcasting enables students to notice and understand their own language inefficiencies and so try to overcome them on their own.

During the last two decades, the National Curriculum for Norway has experienced a shift from content-oriented to competence-oriented curriculum that has altered the understanding of how teaching can promote Bildung (Hilt & Riese, 2021). The culmination of this process took place in 2020, with a comprehensive reform of the national curriculum (Læreplanverket). It was said that one of the intents with the reform was to clarify how classroom teaching can reinforce Bildung (danning) among students (Meld. St. 28 (2015-2016)). As a part of this process, policy makers argued that philosophy teaching facilitates Bildung and that it deserved more space in the national curriculum (St.meld. nr. 30 (2003-2004); Meld.St. nr. 25 (2016-2017)).

This poster presentation is about philosophy teachers’ understanding of what the teaching of philosophy consists of and how it relates to the Bildung-promoting task of Norwegian public education. How do philosophy teachers in primary and secondary school in Norway represent the relation between Bildung and philosophy in their classroom teaching?

Curriculum work can be divided into a political, programmatic and practical level (Hopmann, 1999). The political level sets up the framework for the curriculum, the programmatic level is where the actual curriculum is written and formalised as a policy document, and the practical level is where the curriculum is locally interpreted and taught. In the context of curriculum work, effective implementation of Bildung-promoting teaching depends on a use of signifiers of Bildung on the programmatic level that opens for teachers’ interpretive freedom of the concept (Bergheim, 2023). Discourses on Bildung in the Norwegian national curriculum appear to greatly emphasise ‘method-based’ approaches to philosophy teaching at the expense of ‘content-based’ approaches (Bergheim, 2024). Method-based approaches encourage a comprehension of philosophy as a way of reasoning and tend to focus on philosophy as a transdisciplinary fostering of critical thinking and analytical skills (e.g., Vansieleghem, 2013; Kienstra, Karskens & Imants, 2014). Meanwhile, content-based approaches are built on the conception of philosophy as a field of knowledge, with its historical content (e.g., antiquity, renaissance and modernity) and themes (e.g., ontology, epistemology, and ethics) that must be taught to be able to philosophise. Because Bildung-promoting teaching is intimately connected to the autonomy of teaching and learning processes (Hopmann, 2007), for a curriculum to heavily rely on particular teaching methods at the expense of others may be counterproductive. The reason is that it reduces the possibilities for students to experience Bildung-promoting teaching as an integrate part of teachers’ adaptation of the curriculum. However, considered the limited impact of the written curriculum on teaching practices (Hopmann, 1999; Priestley et al., 2021), it is of interest to investigate how philosophy teachers in Norway themselves perceive the relation between their teaching practices and Bildung on a practical level.

The objective of shedding light over philosophy teachers’ representations of the relation between their teaching practices and Bildung is threefold. First, it offers insight into what philosophy teachers themselves perceive as Bildung-promoting in philosophy. Second, it serves as a contribution to studies on the interplay between the programmatic and practical level of curriculum work. Third, it serves as a case-study of how global educational policy ideas, such as competencies-based education, influence the Scandinavian Didaktik-tradition and Bildung-centred teaching.

The study’s theoretical framework is based on discourse theory. Discourses are forms of knowledge that are socially produced and set limits to how social objects and practices can be thought of and expressed (Bacchi & Goodwin, 2016). The concept of ‘discourse’ denotes that language itself is structured according to social patterns that influence our use of language and which can be identified through discourse analysis (Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002).

The aim of the dissertation is to describe and compare the views and experiences of teachers working with pupils in the complex current conditions of inclusive education in the Czech Republic and Finland. On the basis of the summary of the results of the research part of the thesis, real teacher profiles in the Czech Republic and Finland will be created and compared and these profiles will be interpreted against the background of the complex conditions of education in the Czech Republic and Finland. The final output will be the creation of an empirically based competent primary school teacher in inclusive education conditions. The thesis will also offer recommendations for teacher professionalisation in the Czech environment.
Research questions:
VO1 What professional competencies do teachers in mainstream classrooms consider crucial in ensuring quality teaching in inclusive education?
VO2 How do teachers assess their mastery of professional competencies in the context of inclusive education?
VO3 What teaching concepts/activities in teaching do teachers choose to ensure quality inclusive education?
VO4 What are the real conditions to practice the teaching profession , what other factors influence the teacher's work and what conditions do teachers need for their work?

One of the most frequent issues in relation to inclusive education (IE) in the research field is the topic of teachers’ attitudes, concerns, self-efficacy, intentions, etc., which reflects the international debate on inclusion. These 'constructs' rightly belong to the focus of researchers’ analytical attention. In particular, teachers’ attitudes have been empirically demonstrated many times to be crucial for the successful implementation of inclusive practices in the context of collaborative learning for diverse learners, as well as in the approach to individualization and differentiation of instruction (e.g., Hellmich et al., 2019; Schwab & Alnahdi, 2023).

The Czech Republic has adopted many measures in the past two decades based on international recommendations and legal judicial decisions (ECtHR, 2007 – the case of D. H. and Others v. the Czech Republic). Czech educators have been inspired by more advanced education systems in other countries that have successfully implemented IE (Norway, Finland, etc.). The idea of IE in the Czech Republic, however, comes into strong confrontation with the domestic tradition of special education. Like other former post-communist countries in Europe, the Czech Republic is still coping with the consequences of the long-term process of fragmentation and institutionalization of pupils with special educational needs (SEN), e.g. early selection and other inequalities in education. Probably the most extensive research to date in the Czech Republic (Pivarč, 2020) which has mapped the perception of IE by teachers and principals of primary schools shows that teachers from Czech primary schools did not declare clearly positive attitudes towards IE.

A number of research studies have shown that teachers’ negative attitudes towards IE can be perceived as an undesirable phenomenon and may represent a significant barrier to the systemic changes in education. Studies show that teachers’ attitudes towards IE are associated with the implementation of inclusive practices in practice, are relatively stable, and may be difficult to change. Some studies point to a significant association between teachers’ self-efficacy, intentions, concerns, readiness, perceived support, or experience with IE, and teachers’ attitudes toward IE (Yada et al., 2022). In particular, behaviour/intent (the conative component) has been cited as a key factor, as well as high level of self-efficacy, which generally predict more positive teacher attitudes towards IE – however, a significant effect of the relationship between these factors has not always been clearly confirmed (Savolainen et al., 2020). Attitudes also tend to be associated with sociocultural and demographic factors. Demographic variables such as gender or age, however, appear to be particularly significant with respect to the type and severity of disabilities of the students that teachers encounter in their practice.

In the Czech research context, there have not been many studies analysing predictors of primary school teachers’ attitudes towards IE using a hierarchical multilevel structural model. The aim of this research was to analyse selected predictors at the individual and school (contextual) level and to find out which have a more significant effect on the attitudes of primary school teachers in relation to IE. Main research question: Do the variables predicting primary school teachers’ attitudes towards IE take into account teachers perceived self-efficacy and intention towards IE, gender and number of years of experience in education (individual level) and the average level of school teachers’ self-efficacy and intention towards IE, the tenure of the school inclusion coordinator and the schools’ experience with IE (school level)?

The main objective of this study is to provide an appropriate theoretical framework for the integration of noise-cancelling technology into everyday school life for autistic students with auditory sensory difficulties. Research in this area is sporadic and lacks integration of research from the traditionally distinct fields of special needs education and noise- cancelling technology (Kulawiak, 2021). This study aims to address this research gap and answer the research question:

‘What is an appropriate theoretical framework for the integration of noise- cancelling technology in the everyday school life of autistic students with auditory sensory difficulties?’

There is a broad international consensus that inclusion in education should be both a guiding principle and an aspirational goal for all students (UNESCO, 1994, 2005). The UN-aligned 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development emphasises the need for a continued global commitment to ensure inclusive and equitable education for all (United Nations, 2023). In addition, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is important to ensure that children with disabilities are not excluded from education because of their disability, that they receive the necessary support within the mainstream education system and that reasonable accommodation is provided (United Nations, 2007). An important contribution to promoting inclusive education is the design of technology-rich learning environments that are flexible and meet the needs of diverse learners, often defined as digital inclusive education (European Commission et al., 2021). Digital inclusive education should consider how digital tools, such as noise- cancelling technology, can benefit marginalised groups from the outset, rather than as an afterthought. (UNESCO, 2021).

Autism is a heterogeneous, lifelong neurodevelopmental condition. Sensory difficulties have recently been added to the diagnostic criteria and are now considered a core feature of the condition (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Atypical sensory experiences can manifest in all modalities, with auditory sensory difficulties reported to be the most common in autistic individuals (Neave- DiToro et al., 2020; O’Connor, 2012; Williams et al., 2021).

As a result, everyday sounds are often perceived as overwhelming, intense, and frightening and can become a source of distress that affects school participation for autistic students (Tyler et al., 2014). Such strong physiological responses lead to reduced concentration, distractibility and increased off-task behaviour, which affects cognition and learning in school (Howe and Stagg, 2016). Studies have shown that autistic students with auditory difficulties are at higher risk of experiencing challenges in school, such as increased stress and anxiety, decreased concentration, learning difficulties, social challenges and general distress (Hall et al., 2016; Howe & Stagg, 2016; Neave- DiToro et al., 2020).

Given these significant challenges and the risk of being excluded or denied equal learning opportunities because of their disability, it is important to focus on how the school environment can be adapted to compensate for the potential challenges that autistic students with auditory difficulties may experience in school. Noise- cancelling technology holds great promise in this context. To reduce potential negative experiences with auditory stimuli, studies (Neave- DiToro, 2020; Pfeiffer et al., 2019) show that the use of noise-cancelling technology is beneficial for autistic students with auditory difficulties in school, helping to reduce auditory distraction and distress and improve their learning potential. Noise-cancelling headphones are often used for this purpose and can be divided into two main categories, passive and active. Both provide basic sound insulation, but in addition active noise- cancelling headphones can often reproduce sound and fade in ambient noise. Both active and passive noise- cancellation do not provide complete noise isolation, but they do attenuate the intensity of sound to some degree (Kulawiak, 2021).

Inclusion constitutes both a guiding principle and a practical approach dedicated to ensuring the participation in education for all individuals, irrespective of their backgrounds or individual characteristics (e.g., culture, religion, gender, ability, SES; Grace & Gravestock, 2008; Göransson & Nilholm, 2014). This as a goal involves active cultivation of an environment that not only embraces but also celebrates diversity, fostering a sense of belonging and equal opportunities for all. Inclusion involves valuing and facilitating the full participation and belonging of everyone in all aspects of the school communities (Cologon, 2019). These kinds of school communities respect their members and provide a safe learning environment for everyone, including the adults working in the school. Further, in these communities everyone can learn and is allowed to express their opinions, raise awareness, and develop their skills.

In a school community, there are not only shared tasks, there are also common goods. When teachers and students are together engaged in an educational community, they can see themselves as members of a collective in a pursuit of educational goods (Westheimer, 2008; Bielaczyc, & Collins, 2013). These goods define the nature of education, and may help to build the identity of the members of the school community. To develop inclusive school communities, teachers and school leaders should persevere with the continuing professional development in order to be able to respond to the needs of all learners (Marin, 2014); their beliefs and practices have to meet the needs of diverse learners in an inclusive school culture. In addition, school communities that value and respect their members and provide a safe learning environment are more likely to be inclusive (Bielaczyc & Collins, 2013).

All the above lays the grounds for an initiative carried out through an Erasmus+ project: Co-Creating Inclusive School Communities (2021-2024). The primary objective of the project is to provide support to educational institutions in fortifying inclusive school communities characterised by the warm reception, respect, valuation, and empowerment of every participant, thereby fostering an environment that embraces and celebrates diversity across cultural, religious, gender, ability, and socio-economic spectrums. Several schools in Europe struggle with establishing equitable opportunities for all learners (Ainscow, et al., 2013). Addressing this issue necessitates the cultivation of an inclusive community where each stakeholder (including teachers, students, parents, school leaders) actively participates and feels responsible for the development of inclusive school cultures, while also receiving support in both individual and collective learning processes. The nexus between the learning environment and social milieu is paramount within such inclusive school communities. Specifically, this project concentrates on the social environment. Through the establishment of inclusive school communities, educational institutions can enhance engagement with internal and external stakeholders, thereby increasing the likelihood of achieving sustainable advancements toward optimal and egalitarian opportunities for all learners.

Mental health is an important aspect to consider in the overall wellbeing of an individual. Many mental health related concerns and illnesses (such as anxiety and depression) have their onset in adolescence with studies showing that having mental health problems before age 14 leads to increased risk of developing mental disorders in adulthood (Mulraney et al., 2021). Moreover, recent evidence points towards a mental health paradigm that focuses on fully established mental health disorders in adulthood while relatively neglecting prevention and early intervention efforts in youth (Uhlhaas et al., 2023). As adolescence can be a challenging time in human development with individuals beginning to attain the skills and competencies necessary for becoming productive adults (Barker, 2007), as well as it is a development period being of utmost importance for social and occupational adjustment (Thompson et al., 2020), it is essential to take care of mental health and mental health literacy (Nobre et al., 2021) of this population. Moreover, the affiliation adolescents currently have towards using digital devices and social media might put their mental health at risk even further but there is limited evidence (Girela-Serrano et al., 2022). Taking the above into consideration, with changes in adolescent mental health also reported during the COVID-19 pandemic (Panchal et al., 2023), there is a clear need for developing evidence-based digital interventions that are aimed at youth with the goal of preventing mental health concerns and equipping youth with the knowledge and skills necessary to provide help for themselves and/or their peers when encountering mental health challenges.

The above is outlined in the purpose of creating a digital program being developed and aimed at fostering the mental health and resilience of students aged 12 to 15 years old (within a project called me_HeLi-D). Even though there are some established digital programs for mental health of youth (e.g. Manicavasagar et al., 2014), more has to be done to provide universal prevention programs to youth. The involvement of the youth in the process of developing the program is one such example and the me_HeLi-D program aims to fill this gap.

The me_HeLi-D program is being designed as part of a participatory approach (Orlowski et al., 2015) in which students are seen as experts of their experience and help researchers with their feedback and preference in the development of the digital program. Using a participatory approach in development can increase the chances of acceptability and usability as students are included in the design process. This means that researchers do not just come up with ideas on what is best for students, but students take on the role of active participants in the design process, which increases the likelihood that the program will be used.

As part of the participatory approach in me_HeLi-D, participatory workshops were conducted in project partner schools. The workshops focused on the design and content elements of the digital program. In the following paper, we focus on student’s voices and perspectives on mental health. As mental health is not just the absence of mental illness, but also encourages aspects of mental wellbeing (i.e. the positive aspects of mental health, Tennant et al., 2007), such as happiness and joy, our aim is to incorporate these constructs within the digital program. Previous research has shown that mental health is related to happiness, joy, resilience, and gratitude (Bono et al., 2023; Schultze-Lutter et al., 2016).

In the present presentation we aim to answer the following research questions:

1) What are the students’ voices on happiness, joy, mental health, resilience, and gratitude? 2) How can these voices be incorporated into the me_HeLi-D program?

The way students adapt to the educational system becomes apparent by their performance, evaluated through both self-perception and grades (Goñi, Ros & Fernández-Lasarte, 2018). Several research (Jung & Zhang, 2016; Lauderdale & Heckman, 2017; Motti-Stefanidi et al., 2015) consistently indicate higher dropout risks for young immigrant students compared to native students (Motti-Stefanidi et al., 2015). Moreover, several PISA cycles reveal a significant academic performance gap between native and immigrant students in European countries (OECD, 2019 & 2023). Different factors such as early educational tracking, migrant students’ origin, destination country, and migrant group contribute to this inequality (Sporlein & Schlueter, 2018). Notably, disparities persist among first- and second-generation immigrant students, even when excluding socioeconomic variables (OECD, 2019 & 2023). School environments, practices, and resources which promote students’ well-being can help migrant students overcome achievement gaps (Agasisti et al., 2021). Relevant aspects include high-quality physical and technical resources, positive school and classroom climates, and extracurricular activities (Borman and Overman, 2004; Cheema and Kitsantas, 2014; Lavoven and Laaksonen, 2009; Blomfield and Barber, 2011).

This poster primarily focuses on exploring differences in mathematical achievement among native and migrant students and the predicting factors across five well-being domains, as defined by Kaya and Erdem (2021). Based on extensive literature review they defined five domains of well-being as:

• subjective well-being, associated with the hedonic perspective, evaluates individuals' overall assessments of life, including positive emotions, life satisfaction, and minimal negative feelings
• psychological well-being, based on Ryff's (Ryff & Keyes, 1995) model, includes sense of autonomy, growth, mastery, purpose, positive relations with others, and self-acceptance
• social well-being includes feelings of connection to a community and functioning in it and involves five dimensions: social integration, social acceptance, social contribution, social actualization, and social coherence
• cognitive well-being, a subjective component, involves life appraisals, including academic proficiency, collaboration, and problem-solving
• physical well-being considers health, exercise, and diet, often measured subjectively or objectively

This study specifically investigates these aspects among students with a migrant background and native students in Slovenia who are part of the PISA 2022 sample. Additionally, the poster conducts a comparative analysis between Slovenian data and data from two other EU countries, namely Finland and Estonia. The choice of these two countries stems from their performance in first-generation mathematics achievement in PISA, with Estonian first-generation migrant students demonstrating high achievements and Finnish first-generation migrant students exhibiting low achievements. Furthermore, the selection is also based on the Migrant Integration Policy Index assessment, indicating the responsiveness of the educational systems in these countries to the needs of immigrant children, with both Estonia and Finland representing highly responsive systems.

Using the PISA 2022 data, the poster initially examines differences in mathematical achievement as one of the indicators of the successful adaptation of immigrant students (both first- and second-generation). Subsequently, based on the premise that well-being is demonstrated to be linked to achievement (Berger et al., 2011; Gutman & Vorhaus, 2012; Novello et al., 1992) it analyses and compares factors across well-being domains, namely subjective, psychological, social, cognitive, and physical.

The overarching goal of the poster is to determine which well-being domains can predict the mathematical achievement of migrant students, providing guidelines to schools and policymakers. Additionally, the study's findings address issues of equal opportunities, academic performance of migrant students, and could contribute to overall well-being in the educational setting. This research has the potential to pinpoint more suitable interventions tailored to the needs of immigrant students.

The aftermath of the unlawful killing of George Floyd and the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) people have prompted educational leaders to make commitments to decolonize curricula, address attainment and remuneration gaps, and prioritize Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) in higher education. However, despite the increasing ethnic diversity in UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), recent data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency reveals persistent disparities for BAME staff in terms of permanent contracts, senior leadership positions, and higher renumeration bands (AdvanceHE, 2021).

In this study, the researchers explored institutional racism in HEIs, focusing exclusively on the perspectives of White university staff. The study aimed to shed light on the Psychosocial Costs of Racism to White (PCRW) university staff, an area that is relatively unexplored in UK-based HEIs.

The concept of White people experiencing psychosocial costs of racism (PCRW) was introduced by Kivel (1996), who suggested that awareness of institutional racism could lead to feelings of guilt and shame among White people, particularly if they benefit from unfair privileges. This emotional turmoil may result in isolation and decreased social interactions. Additionally, PCRW can have economic consequences, as some White people may feel compelled to maintain their standing within hierarchical organizations, and as such, they may perpetuate historical inequalities. This can lead to White people’s lack of interest in the welfare of disadvantaged communities and cognitive dissonance, characterized by mental discomfort from conflicting beliefs.

Goodman (2001) expanded on this idea, by presenting a comprehensive framework addressing personal and systemic consequences of racism. Her study with White students revealed that racism disproportionately benefits them by providing access to resources denied to non-White students. The negative consequences for White students included reduced empathy, guilt, and feelings of internalized oppression. Indeed, McGhee (2021) argued that racism's harms extend beyond direct targets (i.e., racially minoritized people) and affects society as a whole.

When Spanierman et al. (2009) examined PCRW behaviours in White university freshmen, they found that empathic guilt evolved over time. Some students became anti-racist, while others grew more insensitive, possibly due to cognitive dissonance and the adoption of a White superiority perspective. Then, in a more recent exploration, Exum (2022) used mixed methods to explore the perceived costs of being a Black person. White students envisaged negative consequences, such as mental distress and loss of respect, in a hypothetical situation where they appeared non-White. Furthermore, White participants anticipated economic losses without White privilege.

Despite these insights, a gap in research exists concerning the psychosocial costs of racism to White university staff, particularly in the UK. The current study addressed this gap by contributing to the understanding of racism's effects on university staff. This is significant because historically, White university staff members have benefited from their positions of power, privilege, and influence. The researchers supposed that, given the persistent and widespread nature of institutionalized racism in HE, White university staff members may be better placed (compared to BAME people) to bring about tangible change.

Between 2016 and autumn 2023 more than 850 schoolchildren have been forcingly or “voluntarily” deported from Hamburg (Hamburgische Bürgerschaft, Parlament of the City of Hamburg). The number of schoolchildren threatened by deportation is far above that figure. How do pedagogues handle the deportation (threat) of their students? To answer this question, in context of a PhD thesis, I research the actions pedagogues take in relation to the deportation and deportation threat of their students enrolled in five Hamburg schools.

Uncertainty about if, how, when and where a threatening deportation is going to take place influences every aspect of a schoolchild’s life, including his or her access to formal education. An example of how formal education is affected by the threat of deportation is the fact that Vocational Education and Training secures a specific kind of temporary suspension of deportation, in German called Ausbildungsduldung (§60 of the Aufenthaltsgesetz, Act on Residence), while the schooling path pursuing access to a university degree does not offer a formal protection per se (Weiser 2017).

The position of teachers in this situation can be regarded as a dilemma (Meyer, 2003). On the one hand, teachers are responsible for the inclusion, well-being and education of children and teenagers in schools, while on the other hand, being part of the public system that excludes these students by limiting their chances in formal education (Neumann et al., 2003, p. 23) and enforcing their deportations. Theory on the antinomies of pedagogical professionalism (Helsper 2021) serve as a frame to analyze the way teachers navigate the deportation (threat) of their students. From that frame, the borders between teacher’s interpretation of their role as a pedagogue, their own self-reflection as a person and possible arising antinomies are explored.

Research on how pedagogues react to deportation or deportation threat of students is scarce in the German speaking countries (Meyer, 2003; Stern, 2017). Some studies in the US show how school staff focus on the needs of the students and their families affected by migration policies: organizing professionalized psychological counselling (Gallo & Link, 2016; Macías & Collet, 2016, p. 180;), organizing social support through peer groups (Gallo & Link, 2016, p. 191), helping find legal counselling, looking for financial support, or helping in finding a safe place to stay when the family goes underground (Macías & Collet, 2016). A common ground with the German publications is the importance of building trusting student-teacher relationships (Crawford et al., 2019, p. 120; Gallo & Link, 2016; Meyer, 2003).

A few studies show how teachers act within the school level and allow their students to draw on their experiences “for academic purposes, such as personal narrative and descriptive writing” (Gallo & Link, 2016, p. 193). However, many teachers explicitly decide not to include topics on immigration in their classes (ibid.). When deportation is unavoidable, some authors recommend enabling a space to say goodbye. An example of this would be throwing a farewell party (Foitzik et al., 2019, p. 90).

Finally, some publications point to the pedagogues´ actions directed to the public opinion and political actors, mostly when supporting the initiatives of the classmates of the affected student (Stern, 2017). They take different forms, such as online petitions, applications to the commission for cases of hardship (Härtefallkommission) or press releases (Foitzik et al., 2019). At times, school projects have been involved, such as composing a song and sending it to a political song contest (Stern, 2017), or putting political knowledge into practice through legal, political, and civil disobedience measures (Stein, 2016).

Social-emotional learning (SEL) is particularly important in early childhood, as it serves as a basis for the learners’ development, helping them function effectively at school and in life in general (Cline, 2019). This is all the more so in a diverse and segregated society where the need for developing awareness of others and enhancing skills for their acceptance is acute (Weissberg & Cascarino, 2013).

While designing SEL programs, the learners’ sociocultural background is important (Kopelman-Rubin, 2020). Israel is a highly diverse and segregated society. The relations between its various cultural communities are characterized by inequality, a lack of dialogue, and mutual denial. This is particularly so regarding the Jewish majority and Palestinian-Arab minority (Smooha, 2010). Recent recommendations from an expert committee called for the Israeli educational system to foster SEL to address these cultural tensions (Benbenishty & Friedman, 2020).

Given the dearth of studies in this area, it is important to examine the effectiveness of programs based on children’s literature in establishing socioemotional skills in the Israeli education system, as well as compare Arabic and Hebrew books in this regard. Examining children’s books included in government programs is particularly important, as they serve as major socialization agents and are accessible to large populations (Haj Yahya, 2021). Accordingly, the present study examines the following question: How are social-emotional skills reflected in Arabic and Hebrew children’s books included in two government programs for Jewish and Arab schools, respectively?

The current study focuses on Hebrew children’s books included in the educational program “March of Books," intended for Jewish schools, and its sister program for Arab schools. From the different age groups participating in this program (1st–3rd, 4th–6th, 7th–9th, and 10th–12th), this study will focus on the 50 books intended for the 1st–3rd age group for the 2020–21 school year (25 each from the Arabic and Hebrew programs).

The findings indicate that world literature works translated into either Hebrew or Arabic have established socioemotional skills more than the original works in either language. Moreover, Hebrew works have established such skills more than Arab ones. Finally, whereas the Hebrew works have established individual skills such as self-management, in addition to social awareness skills designed to strengthen individuals’ attachment to their country, the Arab works have established interpersonal skills designed to strengthen individuals’ attachment to their immediate social environment. These differences suggest that the determination of skills to be provided by children’s books is affected by external, sociopolitical factors and by divergent cultural perceptions of childhood.

According to Desai et al. (2014), SEL should contribute to equality and social justice. While not applied to the most crucial area of the Jewish-Arab conflict in Israel, this is applied in the Hebrew program in the context of equality between different Jewish ethnic groups (two titles), between the genders (15), and across ages (20). This is done by granting space and power to characters identified with marginalized population. Thus, the Hebrew program attempts to establish a pluralist and multicultural approach within Jewish society, but not beyond. Similarly, the Arabic program tries to establish equality and social justice using different strategies, including protesting against injustice or resisting threatening external elements (7). This finding supports Agbaria’s (2020) conclusion that indigenous minorities often experience racism and discrimination, which become integral to their collective identity.

Adolescents around the world are part of a distinct generation. They are maturing in a society where social media is not only intensive and widespread but also increasingly incorporated into their everyday lives (Valkenburg & Piotrowski, 2017). The swift uptake of these technologies, particularly among the youth, has sparked concerns among scholars, policymakers, educators and the general public globally about the potential negative effects social media may have on adolescent health and well-being (Valkenburg et al., 2022). These worries are primarily driven by two notable trends: a marked rise in the amount of time teenagers spend online and an increase in symptoms of depression and anxiety among adolescents (Twenge et al., 2022). Simultaneously, substantial evidence indicates that adolescents' experiences with social media engagement, social media risks, and associated health outcomes vary significantly, underscoring the issue of equity in young people's opportunities to safe and secure social media use (Kickbusch et al., 2021).

The evidence on the role of social media in explaining adolescent health has thus far been conflicting. On the one hand, numerous reviews have established a connection between social media use and negative health outcomes among adolescents (Ivie et al., 2020). On the other hand, a recent umbrella review concluded that the association between social media use and adolescent health is 'weak' and 'inconsistent' (Valkenburg et al., 2022). Calls have been made for research to shed light on these conflicting findings, focusing on the mechanisms that could make social media harmful to adolescents' health (Beyens et al., 2020; Twenge et al., 2022; Valkenburg et al., 2022). Encounters with social media threats have been proposed as one such mechanism (Smahel et al., 2020). Social media threats are defined as harmful, provocative or dangerous situations arising from the use of social media (Ognibene et al., 2022) and include, but are not limited to, cyberbullying, sexual harassment, racism, and misinformation (Smahel et al., 2020).

Realizing that the use of social media is a multifaceted and complex phenomenon, one of the limitations of earlier scholarly has been the insufficient attention given to the user's individual characteristics and social contexts (Beyens et al., 2020; Twenge et al., 2022; Valkenburg et al., 2022). This is particularly relevant when considering disparities, vulnerabilities, inequities, and opportunities, such as skills (e.g., emotional intelligence) (Davies et al., 2010) and resources (e.g., social support) (Smahel et al., 2020) for safe and secure social media use.

Therefore, in order to shed light on the conflicting findings of the previous research on adolescent social media use and health, this study investigated the prevalence of the nine social media threats: 1) cyberbullying, 2) sexual harassment, 3) racism, 4) unauthorized distribution of sensitive material, 5) phishing attempts, 6) misinformation, 7) the sale or distribution of drugs, 8) harmful or dangerous social media challenges, 9) content causing appearance pressures and their association with self-rated health, depressive feelings, and anxiety symptoms. Bearing in mind inequities (i.e., social media use differs from adolescent to adolescent) (Beyens et al., 2020), the study also investigated how individual (e.g., gender, age, emotional intelligence) and social factors (e.g., family affluence, family support, friend support) are associated with social media threats. Furthermore, to investigate whether vulnerabilities begets vulnerabilities in the digital world, the associations between adolescent problematic social media use (indicated by addiction-like symptoms such as preoccupation and tolerance) (Boer et al., 2022) and online communication with strangers were considered. Theoretical support was derived from The Differential Susceptibility to Media Effects Model (DSMM) (Valkenburg & Peter, 2013).

Bullying is a persistent issue in the school environment and can have significant impact on the mental health of adolescents involved. The challenge in preventing and responding to bullying is in its nature, as traditional forms (verbal, physical, social) are typically limited to the school setting, while cyberbullying can extend itself into the personal space of students outside of school (Kowalski et al., 2014). Thus, a complex phenomenon that is already difficult to detect in its traditional form becomes even harder to assess in cyberspace. Identifying students involved in bullying (i.e. victims, bullies, bully-victims) may become increasingly challenging for teachers and school staff. From a research perspective, person-centred approaches, such as Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) can offer detailed insights into the complex interplay of the bullying roles and associated factors (Antoniadou et al., 2019). This is because students are not grouped in bullying roles based on predetermined criteria, but the data itself leads the creation of the latent profiles based on statistical analyses.

Over the course of development of bullying research, perspectives on why students bully have changed. Early explanations focused on the bullies’ aggressive personalities, but with further research it has become evident that bullying is associated with the bully’s position in the peer group (Salmivalli, 2010). Therefore, bullies bully to achieve the goal of reaching a certain position in the peer group. As social status becomes more important in adolescence, students’ beliefs and motives related to social status become important for understanding bullying. Thus, constructs, such as social status goals and social status insecurity, are relevant in explaining bullying behaviour (Li & Wright, 2014).

Socials goals can be defined as mental representations of what students want to achieve in peer groups and can be further distinguished into popularity goals and social preference goals (Li & Wright, 2014). In previous bullying research, social status goals were operationalized as perceived popularity obtained by peer nominations. Košir et al. (2022) found that higher levels of bullying were reported by students with high popularity goals or high social status insecurity showing that social status is a motive for bullying behaviour. Research on the relationship between social goals and victimization is scarce. However, relational victimization was positively associated with social insecurity goals, but only for the group of less popular students (Long et al., 2020).

Another significant factor contributing to the relationship between social status and bullying is moral disengagement which is defined as having the ability to disengage from moral self-sanction (Hymel & Bonanno, 2014). According to a recent review by Thornberg (2023), moral disengagement is a predictor of subsequent bullying behaviour, while victims and bully-victims reported lower moral disengagement compared to bullies (Menesini et al., 2003; Runions et al., 2019).

The purpose of the present research is to assess what are the differences between (traditional and cyber) bullying roles according to social status goals, social status insecurity and moral disengagement. We have devised two research questions:

1. Which (traditional and cyber) bullying roles can be defined using LPA?
2. How do the identified profiles differ according to social status goals, social status insecurity goals, and moral disengagement?

Early childhood education and Care (ECEC) are current interests in many countries following international studies that show the importance of children starting their early years within a high-quality education and caring environment (Karila, 2012; Lenaerts et al, 2017). ECEC is of great value for their development and learning, which include health and well-being (Shonkoff, el al.,2000). During childhood the trajectories of well-being and health are established for life, which could impact adult life. Studies have shown that a high degree of well-being has positive consequences; such as good health and effective learning (Huppert,2013).

Children´s rest, recovery and well-being are essential and decisions should be based on what is considered best for the individual child (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, 2016). The Swedish ECEC institutions is divided into preschools for children aged on to five years and preschool classes for six-year-olds before formal schooling starts at seven years. All Swedish children from one year have the right to be educated and cared for in ECEC institutions. The School Act (SFS 2010:800) establishes that the education within the school system, with includes preschool, aims to promote the development of all children and a lifelong desire to learn. The Swedish preschool curriculum (2018) emphasis that the preschool must offer a good environment and a well balanced daily rhythm adapted to children’s need , meaning that activities are a part of the preschools learning environment. It states that preschool education should be planned and implemented to promote the children´s development , health and well-being. Research on children´s own subjective opinions about their well-being has mainly been conducted among children over those from preschool age ( Sandseter & Seland, 2015). Mashford-Scott et al. (2012) point out that research-based knowledge on what promotes and impedes the perception that the youngest children have of subjective well-being in ECEC settings is lacking. Studies using preschool children-based data are relevant and therefore the aim of this study is to explore 4-6-year-old children´s subjective experience of well-being at preschool and how the learning environment can support the early childhood settings. The study is based on an understanding of preschool children as active participants and focus on children´s lived experience of the artefacts, activities and environment that are available at the preschool, both outside and inside the buildings. The intention is to improve more knowledge about what promotes and constrains children´s subjective well-being.

The research question is: How do children experience their subjective well-being in their daily life in the ECEC settings, related to activities, environment and artefacts at the preschool?

Mashford-scott et al (2012) shows that the definition of well-being can differ; is an abstract, multidimensional, social and culturally constructed phenomenom, and different forms for understanding and researching it can be identified. Barblett and Maloney (2010) means that the term well-being is abstract, multi-dimensional and socially and culturally constracted, and that the term is often used in different ways across different fields and contexts. In this study, the perspective of holistic well-being that involves positive emotions/affect and fulfilling way of being (Thoilliez, 2011) with a connection to the development of a positive and healthy sense of self and one´s relation to others (Deci & Ryan, 2008).

Teachers experience various demands in their job, and teachers’ well-being has become a common concern. However, we know less about how teachers’ both positive and negative aspects of teachers’ occupational well-being are related to their quality of interactions with students, at the lower primary school classrooms.
This study investigated the psychological aspects, specifically the occupational well-being of teachers, in diverse primary school classrooms in Finland. Methodological approach that included both self-rated teacher perspectives and third-party observations (Classroom Assessment Scoring System, a systematic observation system developed in the US) was employed.

The aim of the study was to explore the relation between teachers’ occupational well-being and teacher–student interactions in primary school classrooms in Finland, by answering the following research questions (RQs):

RQ1. To what degree does teacher’s experience of work engagement (i.e., vigor, dedication, absorption) relate to the quality of teacher–student interactions?

RQ2. To what degree does teacher’s experience of work-related burnout (i.e., emotional exhaustion, cynicism, inadequacy) relate to the quality of teacher–student interactions?

Although the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic has somewhat subsided, its aftermath remains evident. While schools adapted quickly to changes, the progress of learning has also slowed down. Reading skills of German primary school students now show a deficit of up to one-third of a school year, which has been directly attributed to the pandemic experiences (Ludewig et al., 2022). Similar declines have been observed in other areas such as mathematics (Schult et al., 2022). These delays are critical, as children need to catch up on existing skills as well as continue acquiring new skills and knowledge.

The transition to a new school is often associated with anxiety due to new teachers, requirements, and social contacts (Tay & Hast, 2022). Following the transition, German students first become familiar with science as a distinct school subject, which builds on skills that have been critically delayed due to the pandemic, such as reading or numerical proficiency. Science anxiety, defined as “a debilitating combination of fearful negative emotion and cognition in the context of science learning” (Bryant et al., 2013, p. 432) hampers general participation in science lessons but also directly affects performance, success (Ucak & Say, 2019), and knowledge acquisition (Theobald et al., 2022). Preventing a domino effect starting with insufficient preparation thus gains importance. Science anxiety is comparatively underexplored but is distinct from test and generalised anxiety (Megreya et al., 2021).

To address the challenge of these three elements meeting – pandemic, transition and science anxiety – the current project aims to investigate science anxiety among German fifth-graders. The project’s goals include adapting an existing science anxiety rating scale (Megreya et al., 2021) for use with German students, In addition, training sessions using mindfulness have shown to alleviate test anxiety and positively impact knowledge acquisition (Theobald et al., 2022), reducing stress by improving attention and emotion regulation (Lam & Seiden, 2020). The project aims to additionally examine whether the implementation of a mindfulness program can successfully reduce science anxiety among German fifth-graders.

Survey data from International Large-Scale Assessments (ILSA) provide valuable information for governments, institutions, and the general public. High response rates are an important indicator of the reliability and quality of the survey, conversely low response rates in ILSAs can threaten the inferential value of the survey method. ILSA data are highly valued by the Ministries of Education of participating countries as a guide to inform policy-making.

An important ILSA is the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) which assesses the performance of 15-year-old students in reading, mathematics, and science. First administered in 2000, PISA has been implemented every three years since. Meeting the response rate thresholds specified by a low-stakes test such as PISA has often proven to be a challenge for many PISA participating countries (Ferrera et al. 2010). In the PISA 2022 cycle, an elevated number of countries were required to undertake Non-Response Bias Analysis (NRBA) due to low response rates (OECD, 2023). Ireland has participated in PISA since the first cycle in 2000 and had consistently met the response rate standards at both student and school level until 2022, when it failed to meet the student response rate. This leads us to the main research question ‘Why was there a change in the student response rate between PISA 2018 and 2022 in Ireland?’.

Two major differences were observed between 2018 and 2022, a move from spring to autumn testing and the COVID-19 pandemic. For Ireland, the PISA Main Study took place in the spring (March/April), this was followed by a Feasibility Study in the autumn (October/November). The purpose of the Feasibility Study was to evaluate the possibility of moving testing in Ireland to autumn and for the first time in PISA, testing took place in the autumn 2022. Secondly, while school restrictions were no longer in place in Ireland during testing in 2022, there was still a level of disruption associated with the COVID-pandemic in the school environment.

Various theories have been proposed to understand response rates and why some people participate in surveys and others do not. For example, the theory of cognitive dissonance which according to Festinger (cited in Miller, Clark, & Alayna, 2015) suggests that reducing the lack of agreement between people is an important factor in whether a person will respond or not to a survey. Alternatively, the theory of commitment or involvement suggests that the nature of the first request in the ‘foot in the door’ technique may have a significant effect upon participation (Freedman & Fraser, 1966). However, Self-Determination Theory (SDT) may provide a theoretical framework to facilitate the examination of the role motivation (extrinsic/intrinsic) may play in determining response rates. In SDT, three factors that assist motivation are competence, autonomy and relatedness, according to Deci and Ryan (1985). These three factors are seen as essential psychological needs that guide behaviour. Wenemark et. al. (2011) used SDT to redesign a health-related survey in an effort to improve response rates. In a similar vein, this study will use it to examine the change in the student response rate between PISA 2018 and 2022 in Ireland.

While the focus of this poster is on the changing response rates in PISA in Ireland, the implications of the findings will assist other countries participating in similar ILSAs. With the number of countries experiencing lower response rates in PISA 2022 at an unprecedented level, it is of urgent importance that countries begin to understand and address the complex reasons behind falling response rates in order to maintain the reliability and quality of these kinds of studies.

Theoretical literature (Beauchamp, & Thomas, (2010), Pelini (2017), Danielewicz, (2001), Vermunt et al (2017), Schultz, & Ravitch, (2013), Maaranen, & Stenberg, (2017), Beijaard et al (2000), Beijaard et al (2004), Curry et al., (2016), Crosswell & Beutel (2017), Cuadra, & Castro-Carrasco, & Oyanadel, & González, & Živković, & Sandoval-Díaz, & Perez-Zapata, (2023), Beijard (2019) reveals that there are various concepts of identity and professional identity, but it is evident that teachers with a stronger teacher identity are more successful in the education system and less likely to drop out of the system, it is also evident that the most intensive professional identity formation occurs during the years of study, which can be called the most intensive years of becoming a teacher.

The Lithuanian education system faces various issues, such as the shortage of teaching staff and low teacher status in society, the attraction of the best candidates to the teaching profession, etc. Despite this, young people still choose to become teachers. This research explores the experiences of pre-service Lithuanian teachers. The research sought to answer the question 'What is the lived experience of becoming a teacher?’. Since the problem question highlights a concern with the experience of becoming a teacher and the focus is on the personal experience and seeking meaning in this experience, the study adopts the method of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (hereafter abbreviated as IPA), which is considered to be one of the most appropriate methods for this type of research question, thus allowing to go in more depth on the experience of the participant. The research aims to shed light on the experience of becoming a teacher and its characteristic features as they appear in the minds of the research participants. The analysis seeks to describe the results in a way that makes them understandable to the reader as a meaningful named reality. Although IPA belongs to a type of phenomenological research, it has some distinctive features that distinguish it from other phenomenological approaches (Peoples, 2021; Smith, Flowers, & Larkin, 2009, 2022).

Over the last few decades, the term intelligence has broadened in meaning. It has shifted from a more traditional perspective to one that also takes emotions into account. In this regard, some studies focus precisely on individual differences in how people process, analyse and show their emotions (Salguero et al., 2010).

Thus, there is a growing concern for emotional intelligence in different contexts. As Santos Rego and Lorenzo (2000, p. 227) point out "emotional intelligence is a different way of being intelligent". Nelis et al. (2009) also suggest that it can influence the level of success that a person can achieve in life.

People with emotional intelligence are able to respond to stressful situations in a more flexible way, preventing the associated negative emotions or, if they are present, focusing them from a positive perspective (Ortega , 2010). In this sense, the development of emotional intelligence will make it possible to promote people's well-being by being able to optimise their lives and vital circumstances and events (Cruz et al., 2017).

Therefore, these emotional competencies, that allow us to recognise and manage our own and other people's emotions, are a key element in higher education, especially in Education Sciences degrees. According to Extremera and Fernández-Berrocal (2004) and Cabello et al. (2010), the development of these competencies will enable students to cope with work-related stress in the future and to learn to recognise and respond more appropriately to the emotional needs of the population they work with.

Furthermore, the role of these professionals will be fundamental in the development of socioemotional competences of the group they will attend. In this sense, it should not be forgotten that they can function as facilitators of learning motivation and contribute to students' academic performance and educational success (Durlak et al., 2011; García-Martínez et al., 2023).

Knowing the emotional competences of Education Sciences students allows us to analyse their training needs and offer perspectives for improvement for this group and others with similar characteristics. Therefore, the main objective of this work is to analyse the type of emotional intelligence of Education Sciences students in a Spanish university. This information will allow us to draw up competence profiles in relation to the students' ability to attend to, understand and regulate emotions. In this way, it will be possible to offer training proposals in order to respond to the perceived deficiencies or to strengthen those competencies that are less developed and that are also considered essential for the professional career of these students.

This work is part of a doctoral thesis which has been supported by the Government of Spain through a pre-doctoral contract for “University Professor Training (FPU18/01858)”.

The professional development of university faculty is a critical aspect of ensuring the quality of teaching, research, and contribution to the academic community (Biggs, 2005). Most universities offer pedagogical training programs to ensure that higher education responds effectively to the needs of students and society, as well as to improve the quality of teaching and contribute to the formation of individuals capable of facing learning challenges in an autonomous and reflective manner (Boud & Hager, 2012).

In this context, the Institute of Educational Sciences (ICE) of the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) has been developing the Expert Diploma in University Pedagogy (DEXPU) for more than two decades, in which more than 600 teachers from different areas of knowledge have participated throughout its editions. Its aim is to develop the necessary competencies to implement quality teaching, where the students and their education are at the center, using various strategies and training tools to face contemporary educational challenges(Paricio, J.; Fernández A.; Fernández I.; 2019).

The program focuses its attention on the professional experience of each teacher, on their analysis and evaluation, in order to later confront them with others and thus obtain ideas and sensations that can serve as a model for the general public (Paricio, J.; Fernández A.; Fernández I.; 2019). This approach highlights the uniqueness of each participant's experience, resulting in personalized learning objectives, where support from peers, tutors, and trainers is crucial (Zeichner & Liston, 2013).

The importance of this training is undeniable in the current educational context. As universities face changing challenges and diversity in their communities, the faculty's ability to provide quality education has become more critical than ever. Constant technological evolution, the demands of a diverse student group, and varying expectations for higher education quality underscore the importance of faculty acquiring and refining solid pedagogical skills.

Facilitating professional development not only benefits the teacher, but also has a direct impact on the student learning experience (Pintrich, 2004). Pedagogically well-prepared teachers are better able to adapt to different learning styles, encourage active participation in the learning process, and develop the ability to adapt to the needs of students (Pintrich, 2004). Teachers who are better prepared pedagogically are better able to adapt to diverse learning styles, encourage active participation and provide meaningful feedback.

Furthermore, the competence of "learning to learn" becomes central in this context, referring to a person's ability to acquire, process, organise and apply knowledge effectively and autonomously (Yániz; Villardón-Gallego, 2015). This competence is essential in an ever-changing educational and professional environment. Thus, faculty, by developing pedagogical skills, empower students to become independent and adaptable learners (Deakin; Stringher; and Ren, 2014), preparing them to face changing challenges in their future careers (Panadero, 2017).

Therefore, our research question focuses on how the professional development of university faculty influences their ability to effectively promote the acquisition of the "Learning to Learn" Competence (AaA) among their students.

In this paper, we present the results of the self-assessment guide, developed by our research team and carried out by the participants of the last edition of the DEXPU. The self-assessment guide focuses on the analysis of their teaching task, evaluating key aspects influencing their professional work. It is a personal tool that facilitates faculty reflection on their teaching performance and encourages self-management of adjustments and/or changes they deem appropriate. The guide consists of eight dimensions defining a good teacher according to research standards (Paricio, J.; Fernández A.; Fernández I.; 2019).

Newly qualified teachers (NQTs) face challenges and need support in their first years in the profession (Caspersen & Raaen, 2014). However, the quality of support they receive in schools varies greatly (Jacobsen & Gunnulfsen, 2023), and they may be unsure of the relevance of their teacher education in practice (Jakhelln, Eklund, Aspfors, Bjørndal, & Stølen, 2019). Although NQTs need support, they also bring updated knowledge to schools and can contribute to colleagues' exploratory dialogues and innovative thinking, as resources in their professional communities (Jakhelln, 2011; Kvam, Roness, Ulvik, & Helleve, 2023).

Mentoring programs for NQTs can provide support for individuals and contribute to professional development in the school's professional community (Jakhelln, 2011). Governing documents emphasize that support for NQTs should be integrated with other professional community activities and school-based development work (Jacobsen, Jensen, & Lejonberg, 2023). A review study suggests that learning and professional development for teachers should be seen as a continuous process involving formal and informal structures (Tynjälä & Heikkinen, 2011). Therefore, it is important to examine how structures for mentoring NQTs can promote the resources developed in teacher education. This study investigates the use of tools to promote mentoring that recognizes NQTs as resources in the professional community. The tools are understood based on three dimensions: discursive, material, and relational (Kemmis et al., 2014).The research question is: How can mentoring be shaped by tools developed to promote NQTs as resources in the professional community? To answer this question, we consider the competence of NQTs in the teaching and mentoring arenas, and how mentoring can contribute to the professional community. Primary data includes videos of one-on-one mentoring and group mentoring, with follow-up interviews and group discussions with mentors as secondary data.

Theory

In this contribution, mentoring using tools is understood based on the Theory of Practice Architecture (TPA) (Kemmis et al., 2014). The practices examined in this contribution are understood as social phenomena where the dicursive, the material, and the relational aspects constitute three dimensions in which practice unfolds. The tools investigated here are understood as architectures that surround and have the potential to hinder and promote practice. What we examine is what characterizes the discourse, actions, and how the actors relate to each other, when they interact in mentoring using tools. In the discursive dimension, the focus is on the participants' language and thinking, as hindered and promoted by the tools. In the material dimension, the focus is on what participants do, as hindered and promoted by the tools. In the relational dimension, the focus is on how relations are hindered and promoted by the tools.

The tools

The tools, understood in light of presented theoretical framework, can inhibit and promote practices related to discourse, action, and relationships. As discursive arrangements, the tools suggest questions and formulations for mentoring, shaping speaking and thinking. Previous research shows that the tools' theoretical concepts and proposed formulations are utilized in mentoring (Hunskaar & Gudmundsdottir, 2023; Nesje & Lejonberg, 2022). The tools include guides with relevant questions to promote reflection on the mentee's competence and its application in the professional community. For example, "What was your master's thesis about?" and "How can the school benefit from your expertise in this field?” The tools also encourage appropriate actions, providing structures for interaction and mentoring sequences. As relational arrangements, the tools offer equal access to mentors and mentees, empowering mentees to take ownership and initiative in mentoring.

Subject to global pressures since the fall of communism in December 1990, efforts to modernise and improve Albania’s education system through policy initiatives have produced little, if any, change (Maghnouj et al., 2020; UNESCO, 2017). Attempts to address the conspicuous gap between policy and practice have focused on reforming initial teacher education (ITE) (European Commission, 2015; European Union, 2007, Mita et al. 2023) but the effects are yet to filter through to in-school classroom practice. Extant studies demonstrate that, Albanian pre-certified teachers (who have completed a two-year Professional Master of Teaching program) fail to demonstrate government-mandated learner-centred practices during their three-month internships. Instead, they tend to replicate what they experienced in their own schooling and much of their teacher training; namely, direct textbook instruction (Zaçellari, 2019). What is clear, after decades of Albanian educational reform, is that applying policy without adequate support and training hampers teachers’ capacities to develop and flourish in the classroom.

If improvements to quality are to be addressed and achieved, quality needs to be understood and operationalised. Taking such reform to scale requires a solid conceptualisation of what constitutes quality teaching, without which teachers will not have the capacity to understand when they have indeed achieved it (City et al., 2009). This is where the Quality Teaching (QT) Model, developed in Australia, has potential value (State of NSW, Department of Education, 2020). As a longstanding framework on quality teaching, backed by rigorous research showing positive effects on teachers and students when used as an instrument for coding lessons, the QT Model provides a solid foundation for building quality practice in Albania, based on clear concepts and a common language with which to talk about quality teaching.

This poster outlines a first of its kind analysis of Albanian teacher education carried out as part of a larger PhD project whereby Albanian pre-service teachers were introduced to the QT Model and coding process in an attempt to build their capacity for quality teaching.

Taking an existing model from one educational context and simply implementing it in a vastly different setting is not recommended. Indeed, doing so with little regard to context is unwise and potentially damaging. Therefore, as a first step in determining the potential suitability and likely benefit of utilising the QT Model in future Albanian teacher education, I investigated the alignment between the Albanian ITE curriculum of three universities and the QT Model. My contention was that demonstrated alignment would increase the Albanian Ministry of Education’s confidence in the value of the Model for improving quality teaching and would identify where the greatest improvements to teaching might be anticipated as newly trained teachers engage with the Model.

To investigate how Albanian ITE potentially relates to the QT Model, the following two research questions were employed in undertaking a curriculum analysis:

1. Which QT elements, if any, are evident within the written curricula for the pedagogical subjects taught at three Albanian ITE institutions?

2. How does the enacted ITE curriculum align with the written curriculum and with the QT Model?

The international dialogue on sustainability and Agenda2030 has grown globally in response to societal changes. Humanity is responsible for protecting the planet while creating equitable societies for prosperity. The United Nations published the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be reached by 2030 for transformation (United Nations, 2015) and Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4) on quality education is critical to achieving sustainability transformation (UNESCO, 2021). The Teach4Reach international project (OeAD-funded from 2021 until 2023) hosted four online webinars based on SDGs 3 (good health and well-being), 4 (quality education), 5 (gender equality) and 10 (reduced inequalities). During these webinars, presentations and panel discussions took place based on teacher education and the role thereof in supporting Agenda2030. The webinars included stakeholders worldwide, including pre-and in-service teachers, experts, and policy-makers familiar with Agenda2030 since they can support change (OECD, 2019; United Nations, 2022). During the SDG4 webinar, discussions took place in breakout rooms regarding teacher education and SDG4, from which the study aimed to identify stakeholders' perspectives on the fourth SDG, quality education. This SDG, which focuses on reaching quality education worldwide, is essential since it can transform unsustainable tendencies (De la Sienra, 2020). Focusing on quality education can support us in developing societies with citizens who are more aware and responsible, which can support transformation for society’s betterment (Kumar, 2020). Therefore, this study was based on SDG4 targets 4c and 4.7, supporting the increase of qualified teachers through teacher education and the required knowledge and skills for sustainable societies (United Nations, 2015). Investigating the quality education concept was essential since it involves a holistic approach to learning that focuses on skills and competency development (including critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, collaboration, and creativity) and not only academic achievement (Adams, 1993; UNICEF, 2000). Livingston (2023) believes that international comparisons of educational systems and the resulting measurability and standardisation often reduce the concept. When directly analysing SDG4 and its targets as they appear in Agenda2030, it is found that quality education should be globally accessible and inclusive, providing students with the necessary knowledge, skills, and attitudes essential for building a sustainable future (United Nations, 2015). Madalińska-Michalak et al. (2023) argue that education's purpose and significance in one´s context should inform one's view of quality education in our rapidly changing world. This idea of not having one definition for this concept and instead gaining different perspectives on the concept of quality education led us to ask the following questions that guided the analysis: (1) What are educational stakeholders’ perspectives on SDG4 (quality education), and (2) How can we imagine education that promotes transformation towards a sustainable future? Education is crucial for achieving sustainability (UNESCO, 2017; United Nations, 2018; Ferrer-Estévez and Chalmeta, 2021), and a diverse discussion on quality education was therefore needed (Livingston, 2023).

With rapid technological development, learning improvement is one of the concerns in the field of education. Looking for appropriate teaching and learning approaches, methods that are effective for different types of learners, as it is impossible to find one unique method that is best for everyone (Han & Rokenes, 2020). Safapour, Kermanshachi, & Taneja (2019) studied various teaching methods and concluded that, alongside methods such as gamification, case studies, etc., the flipped classroom method is one of the most commonly studied.

The authors (Anderson et al., 2017; Koo et al., 2016) mention that learners who were taught using the flipped classroom teaching method showed a significant improvement in performance. This approach provides flexibility for both learners and teachers (Bergmann & Sams, 2012), increases motivation (Bhagat, Chang, & Chang, 2016; Sengel, 2016), engagement and active learning" (Steen-Utheim & Foldnes, 2018), creates time flexibility (Fraga & Harmon, 2014), satisfaction with one's own creative ability (García-Sánchez & Santos-Espino, 2017), and a greater understanding of one's learning (Kurt, 2017; Jeong et al, 2018), fostering independent learning, innovation, flexibility, critical thinking (Ng, 2018; Ma, 2023), and positive emotions (Jeong, et al., 2019). However, research also highlights barriers to such learning, such as time management and confusion issues (Fraga & Harmon, 2014), negative emotions (worry, nervousness) (Jeong et al., 2018).

The flipped classroom is a fairly widely used method in the higher education environment, and for these reasons it is essential that pre-service teachers receive theoretical and practical training in this methodology, i.e. experience the strengths and issues of this approach for themselves.

Particularly relevant in the digital age is the context of social media being integrated into teaching and learning processes (Burbules, 2016) (where teaching is based on or enriched by social media). Learning that takes place in such contexts can provide multiple learning contexts for learners and teachers, develop independent learning and facilitate collaboration between learners and teachers (Xie and Derakhshan, 2021), which can be facilitated by using flipped classroom.

As Han and Rokenes (2020) argue, research on the flipped classroom approach is rarely related to the training of pre-service teachers.

Research questions: What are the main d benefits of using flipped classroom approach? What are the differences between a flipped classroom and a traditional lecture?

The purpose of the study is to reveal the learning experiences of preschool teachers using the flipped classroom method in the context of social media literacy.

Contemporary educational paradigms emphasise the importance of student-centred learning experiences, especially in higher education. The debate surrounding grading and its impact on learning outcomes has been fuelled by the limitations of traditional grading methods (see Cain et al., 2022 for a recent review) and the emergence of various alternative grading systems, such as ungrading (Spurlock, 2023), student-created rubrics (Kilgour et al., 2020), portfolios (Froehlich et al., 2022) and other approaches (Newton et al., 2020; Reck, 2022).

In modern educational paradigms, such as digitally-enhanced service-learning experiences (Froehlich, 2018; Froehlich et al., 2023) or challenge-based learning (Van Den Beemt et al., 2023), traditional grading metrics often do not align with the experiential nature of these approaches, as they rely on quantifiable assessments rather than qualitative growth and community impact.

As service-learning and challenge-based learning are widely used approaches in higher education (Gallagher & Savage, 2023; Salam et al., 2019; Sotelino-Losada et al., 2021), it is necessary to consider appropriate grading systems for these approaches. This poster presentation introduces contract grading as a solution to capture the progress and unique contributions of each student in this dynamic learning environment.

One of the priorities of the education policy is the psychosocial well-being of pre-primary and primary school-age children. Preschool teachers have a special role to play in ensuring children’s psychosocial well-being. Research conducted in Lithuania (Teachers’ Professional Development: Analysis of Progress Data for Lithuanian General Education Schools, 2021, Report on the Study of General and Didactic Competences of Lithuanian General Education School Teachers, 2017) and abroad (Ibda, et al., 2023; Carmen, et al., 2022) shows that teachers are mostly developing their subject-specific competencies, yet they emphasize the importance of psychosocial competencies. According to Sabaliauskas (2018), subject-specific and general competencies have synergies and must go together, as it is not only about what to teach, but also how to teach. Strengthening teachers’ empowerment and social and emotional competencies is essential and, together with teachers’ subject-specific competencies, can help ensure high-quality education.

Preschool teachers in Lithuania and around the world face many challenges in their work. They are at a high risk of professional burnout, which is particularly relevant in today’s context. High levels of occupational stress arise from the demands of the working environment on teachers, such as dealing with the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic in the areas of children’s academic achievements and social and emotional difficulties, the expansion of teachers’ responsibilities and the areas of required competencies, etc. A meta-analysis of many longitudinal studies on the determinants of professional burnout among preschool teachers (Mijakoski et al., 2022) has shown that disruptions to lessons due to schoolchildren’s behavior and social-emotional difficulties are among the main factors that increase teachers’ risk of professional burnout. The data obtained in Lithuania are in line with global trends: even among preschool teachers, professional burnout is linked to emotional and psychological difficulties expressed by children (Murauskienė, 2023). Unfortunately, research on the needs of preschool teachers at work and the enhancement of their psychological well-being has not yet received sufficient attention.

The changed roles of pre-school educators require ever higher qualifications and new competencies. In Lithuania, there is a lack of research that would reveal what competencies of a pre-school educator are important in order to ensure the successful education of children with emotional and behavioral disorders.

The aim of the research was to reveal pre-school teachers’ attitude towards competencies needed to ensure the successful education of children with emotional and behavioral disorders.

Introduction

The educational content in primary schools is constantly evolving in an effort to respond to the current needs of the modern world. Changes are now taking place in many countries as the curricula are being revamped to be closer to the technological developments. In the Czech Republic, computer science is newly implemented as a compulsory subject from the 4th year of primary school (ISCED 1). The new curriculum includes, among other things, the principles of the Internet’s functioning. The topic of the principles of the functioning of the Internet is very important, because the knowledge of it might facilitate the teaching of Internet safety. Little is known about how prepared primary school teachers are for the new curriculum content , nor what teachers' attitudes towards the new curriculum content are. Teachers are trained for the new curriculum through development courses. In order to prepare a quality course, it is important to first identify the preconceptions of the teachers and ideally their attitudes towards the new educational content.

Project aims and research questions

Our research project has two parts. The first part aims to answer the following research questions:

1. What preconceptions novice primary school teachers have about the functioning of the Internet?
2. What attitudes towards this topic novice primary school teachers possess?

In the second part of the project, the aim is to design and realise a university course for primary school pre-service teachers on teaching the principles of the Internet. The course will be developed based on the results of the first phase and conducted using the Learning Study method. It will be transferable and scalable to non-Czech contexts. The results of the first part and the preliminary results of the second part will be available at the ECER conference.

Conceptual and theoretical framework

It is widely accepted that people build new knowledge in the context of an old one [e.g. 5]. Children have a priori knowledge acquired out of school before formal learning begins. This knowledge is often called preconception, as we will term it in our work. This project stems from the work of A. diSessa, who posits that preconceptions are fragmented and often mutually contradictory mental representations („Knowledge in pieces”), not coherent mental models. This idea is supported by the findings of many research studies, often for example in mathematics and science [5] .

Since the principles of the Internet in Czech primary schools (and also in other countries around the world) are a new topic, we decided to investigate not only the preconceptions but also teachers' attitudes towards teaching this topic. In this project, attitude is understood as an individual's evaluative relationship to a specific reality, and also as one of the factors that can affect the quality of teaching or the quality of implementation of new topics into education [8].

The findings on preconceptions and attitudes will be followed up by the development of a course for of primary school pre-service teachers. It is especially important to know the preconceptions, because they may complicate formal learning [6] . The course uses the Learning Study method, which is based on the teachers' collaboration (with the facilitation of a teacher-researcher) in planning their own teaching lessons. Their lessons are realized in the course and then reflected upon, identifying the main problems and areas of risk, improving them and thereby increasing the teachers' competences.

The project focuses on novice teachers (pre-service teachers and in-service teachers with less than 3 years of practice). We focus on preconceptions of more experienced in-service teachers in a different project (not yet published).

Abstract:

This research aims to investigate the impact of incorporating "Choice Boards" in the study of biological and chemical processes on students' learning activity self-regulation skills. The study seeks to explore diverse ways in which the implementation of Choice Boards influences students' ability to regulate their learning activities and engagement in the context of complex scientific subjects. Through a comprehensive examination of student outcomes and perceptions, the research aims to provide insights into effective pedagogical strategies for fostering self-regulated learning in the fields of biology and chemistry. The findings from this study could contribute valuable information for educators seeking to optimize instructional methods and enhance students' autonomy in the learning process.

Introduction

The Institute for the Future (IFTF) [1], a California-based social forecasting organisation, has released a list of 10 professional skills that are scientifically grounded and appropriate for a 21st-century individual. The capacity for projective thinking, which includes setting objectives and organising the steps necessary to reach them while considering the unique circumstances of each situation, ranks first on this list. It also includes selecting the best way to accomplish each task and allocating all available resources, including efficient time management. Stated differently, a young person in the present era needs to learn how to autonomously plan and manage his own activities. It is the responsibility of the school to help students acquire the capacity to self-regulate learning activities based on the content of all disciplines, including biology and chemistry. Thus, it appears that a pertinent and significant issue is the development of students' self-regulation of educational activity during the teaching of chemistry and biology, based on their psychological features and the creation of an appropriate technique.

Adolescence, which spans from 14 to 17 years old and corresponds with the time spent studying biology and chemistry in school, is a critical stage for the development of self-control. Students acquire ideals and views throughout this period, as well as attitudes towards others, themselves, and society at large. Adolescence also brings with it the demand for independence, which entails taking personal responsibility, creating one's own standards and evaluations, or accepting others as best in particular circumstances. During adolescence, the development of self-regulation of activities facilitates increased independence. Adolescents acquire motivation for accomplishment, goal-setting, and teamwork; they are more prepared for a wider range of collaborative tasks. American social psychologists reached an intriguing conclusion [2]: they believed that contemporary teens are acquiring the following self-regulation skills: perseverance in finishing difficult, extended projects; problem-solving skills to reach a particular goal; self-monitoring while pursuing the goal; and behavior management based on future objectives.

Researchers from all around the world have been very interested in the issue of schoolchildren's and students' self-regulation of their educational activities over the past 25 years. The ability to effectively monitor and regulate one's own learning through the use of a variety of cognitive, metacognitive, and behavioural strategies, such as maintaining volitional effort, managing resources, organising and processing information, and self-testing, is accepted in foreign psychological and pedagogical practice [3]. In Western pedagogy, the terms "self-regulation of educational activity" and "self-regulated learning" first surfaced in the 1980s. The primary expert in the field of study on schoolchildren's self-regulation of their educational activities abroad is B. J. Zimmerman [3] of New York University (USA). This researcher has been publishing psychological and pedagogical resources since 1989 that focus on how students regulate their own learning, how to assess and develop it, and how it relates to learning achievement. P.H. Winn [4], S.G. Paris [5] examined the nature, composition, and aspects of self-regulation as well as its function in learning processes.

This action research focused on the effectiveness of interactive strategies designed to foster reading literacy within 8th graders at an intellectual school in Kazakhstan.
In this action research proposal, the issue of interactive approaches of which Jigsaw reading is an example was carefully studied and analyzed in terms of 8 th-grade students’ development of reading skills. It has to be because it gives an incentive the rationale of this action research came from the need for knowledge on new innovative, and effective teaching strategies that were focused in active involvement of students while reading texts.
The main quest being pursued by this study is: “What are the outcomes of Jigsaw reading implementation, as a feature of an interactive method within 8 th-grade students' growth of reading skills?”
Its main challenge was centered on the analysis of how potent solving jigsaw problems reading as a medium through the interactive method effectively improved reading capabilities among 8th graders.In detail, the findings investigated participants’ understanding, critical thinking, and group-learning results.

This study’s theoretical foundation is formulated from the constructivist learning theories, sociocultural perspectives and interactive approach to teaching. Based on constructivism, this research is actual concepts that imply meanings as a result of interaction with fellowmen and texts. The sociocultural theories imply that learning requires collaboration and social interaction between learners, which characterises the nature of the Jigsaw reading practice. Moreover, the adherents to the interactive approach hold that involvement, activity, and meaningful interactions are necessary parts of well-designed or potentially useful learning. Both theories are the theoretical foundation of this research used to investigate the interactive and collaborative nature of Jigsaw reading that can promote 8 th-grade students’ developing auditory reading competence. Not only does this study focus on the different approaches to teaching that are interactive but it also evaluates their effects on the students’ reading ability. The research is based on the idea that traditional approaches do not completely meet the specific needs of all students, whereas interactive methods offer interactive learning and help personalisation. This investigation includes both structural analysis of each topic by reviewing relevant literature, active pedagogical practices that allow electrical machinery subjects to be taught in the way more interactive than traditional lectures and practical results among 8th graders.

Invoking the interactive approach in reading denotes referring to a strategy which aims at developing active problem-solving, communicating with other learners or querying a resource and associating it with particular issues. An active reading thus recognizes that instead of merely consuming information, the reader rather contributes and constructs meaning actively through interactions with both the text and other social actors. The multifaceted nature of reading has given people the need to interact more in such a way that it is an interactive approach that is always driven with the understanding that reading as there are so complex and constructive and social activity. Through the use of interactive technologies in reading educational practice, educators attempt to make the process more learner-centered and enjoyable while creating a student meaningful relationship to the literature and helping them comprehend this very central literary theme.

The study presents the results of the ERASMUS+ project “Sciencing Europe” (2020-I-ES01-KA201-082876) in Latvia. Strengthening the approach of inclusive education in compliance with the country's external regulatory enactments (Latvian Educational Development Guidelines for 2021-2027, 2021), the objective of the study is to analyze the effectiveness of the greenhouse, as a teaching and learning resource in education, in natural sciences in the context of inclusive education.

School gardens and greenhouses are part of lots of schools. Especially in elementary schools, they are applied as a learning and experience space for students. Their importance in the development of students' cognitive and emotional affective abilities and their positive impact on the prosocial behavior of children and adults, as well as on nature, has been empirically proven (Pollin & Retziaff-Fürst, 2021) - social and emotional skills related to cooperation with others and interpersonal conflict resolution among students increase when students are involved in gardening and horticulture experience; which is especially true for students with special needs (Markham-Petro, 2019).

Socio-emotional factors such as attitude, identity, and interest are more important long-term outcomes than achievement scores or grades (Fortus & Touitou, 2021; Nguyen & Riegle-Crumb, 2021).

One of the most well-known approaches to natural science teaching is Science, Technology, Society, and Environment (STSE), which embodies the idea of inclusive science (Bennássar et al., 2010) and includes teaching strategies based on science contextualization , emphasizing the relevance of appropriate contexts to students' personal, social and everyday aspects of life, as well as opportunities to form the principal scientific ideas, relationships among them and theoretical models (Blanco et al., 2015).

Thus, gardens, greenhouses and other contexts are important contexts in the natural science learning process, causing interest and learning motivation (Eugenio-Gozalbo et al., 2019) which helps connect abstract learning with individual and collective experiential learning, and integrate daily life activities with the learning content (Tello & Diaz, 2017).

Gardens, greenhouses are a suitable real-life context for teaching natural sciences at all stages of education, where students experience space and develop their observation skills. In primary education, gardens “provide a climate of affectivity and motivation, promote the establishment and consolidation of simple cause-effect relationships” (Eugenio-Gozalbo et al., 2020, 12).

Garden and greenhouse resources are used to engage students in food production and to experiment with production and consumption patterns (Pineda Encalada & EstradaMartínez, 2019), as well as to promote healthy eating habits (Ohly et al., 2016).

Using the 3C3R PBL model to develop students' functional literacy in programming by integrating science subjects

Research Question

What is the impact of using the 3C3R PBL model to develop students' functional programming literacy through science integration?

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of problem-based learning strategies on improving students' functional literacy in programming/coding through problem solving in science subjects. By adopting the 3C3R model, there was a notable improvement in students' critical thinking, planning, collaboration, and communication skills in programming subject.

Objective

The purpose of the lesson study is to use the 3C3R PBL model to develop students' functional literacy in programming through the integration of science subjects

Problem statement

-The research was motivated by an observation that students taking programming classes had insufficient research and problem-solving skills. This hindered them from fully expressing their programming ideas. From observing student tasks and through classroom engagement, it was evident that their task interpretation was superficial, with problem decomposition being a serious challenge. -Similarly, based on the results of the external summative assessment of the 10th grade in the 2022-23 school year, only 54.5% of the students were able to fully answer the problem-solving tasks given. This motivated the researchers to seek interventions for the problem. Hung (2009) alludes that ineffective PBL problems affect students' acquisition of sufficient domain knowledge, as well as properly directing their learning. Hung proposed a 3C3R PBL model which has been widely embraced by schools across the world adopting PBL pedagogical approach. 3C3R is a conceptual framework that provides a blueprint for designing effective and reliable problems for PBL.

The model is made up of two components; the core and the processing components. The former comprises context, content, and connection, and the latter Research, reasoning, and reflection.

The core component “relates to the content or concept of learning that will be processed by the 3R processing component that supports the cognitive process of problem-solving and thinking skills possessed by students” (Malik, et al. 2020).

The core components are primarily concerned with issues of appropriateness and sufficiency of content knowledge, content contextualization, and knowledge integration. Content provides a clear definition of the problem statement. It gives breadth and knowledge. Context on the other hand is responsible for the authenticity of the identified problem hence it should be made valid for instructional goals and should seek to evaluate context based on the future setting. For learners to fully embrace it, context should be made as relevant as possible. Connection fosters learners in creating links between sources and knowledge and being able to cross-reference topics.

The processing components are designed to facilitate mindful and meaningful engagement in the PBL process. They address the learners’ cognitive processes and problem-solving skills. Processing components guide the learner to the core components. Researching helps the learner to understand the problem and ensure that the learner is researching the necessary information for a given domain by using the goal and context to ensure the research is backed by content and connection. Reasoning entails analyzing the aspects and nature of all variables and underlying systems of the problem along with the relationships between them. Learners process and integrate new knowledge into meaningful knowledge. HOT skills are used during researching and reasoning stages which are not naturally part of their cognitive base hence practice and training help the learners to master these skills throughout their academic life and beyond. Reflection allows learners to organize and integrate their knowledge into a more conceptual framework.

The study has shown that adopting the 3C3R model has the potential to boost students’ critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Professional development as employment capital is increasingly seen from a lifelong learning perspective, providing a means for improving the quality of the workforce and retaining competent and effective staff. Such an approach can sustain individual growth and optimism and empower individuals to fulfil their potential while also contributing to society (Mackay, 2017). To achieve this goal, flexibility and accessibility are among the priorities in organising adult education, with a strong focus on facilitating employability and inclusion through adult learning (Kersh & Laczik, 2021). The transfer of professional development results of adults to practice is described in theory as a complex and multi-layered process of taking what was learned in one context and applying it effectively and continuously to new job-related contexts (Kubsch et al., 2020).

A range of theories have been developed so far that conceptualise transfer of learning results into practice. The findings of the previous theoretical and empirical studies revealed that solutions for effective professional development of adults and transfer of adult learning results depend on many different factors, including contextual factors such as local culture, which affects how adults learn and whether they apply the new knowledge in their workplaces (Brion, 2023). One of the offered solutions is the Integrative Transfer of Learning model (Galoyan & Betts, 2021) with 4 dimensions identified: (a) task dimension, (b) personal dimension, (c) context dimension, and (d) pedagogical dimension. In this model, social and cultural contexts are defined as factors that explain how intercultural norms and different cultural ways of thinking may interfere with the process of communication, learning, and transfer into practice.

Besides, a thorough understanding of adult perceptions and choices related to their professional development can assist service providers in developing the opportunities that adults are likely to uptake (Heckathorn & Dotger, 2023; Korsager et al., 2022). As identified by a seven-country study (Brown & Bimrose, 2018), the main drivers for learning of low-skilled adults are as follows: enhancing self-efficacy, working on self-improvement, raising the capacity to meet labour market needs, being motivated by a significant other, and advancing work-related practical skills(learning by doing). Contrary to this, an effective professional development, and hence an effective adult learning, of high-skilled professionals (e.g., teachers, managers), according to previous studies (Goldhawk & Waller, 2023; Wakefield, 2022), should meet the following criteria: it should be sustainable, active and collaborative, it should include modelling of effective practices, coaching and expert support, and feedback and reflection. High quality, easily accessible and effective professional development of teachers showed a positive and significant effect not only on teacher self-efficacy and teaching practices, but also on student learning processes and outcomes (Didion et al., 2020; Jensen & Würtz Rasmussen, 2019; Korsager et al., 2022; Murphy et al., 2020).

The goal of the current research (December 22, 2023 - December 21, 2026) is to develop an evidence-based framework and propose practical solutions for effective professional development of adults and the transfer of its results into practice, offering tools for assessing the impact of professional development on practice at organisational and system levels in Latvia. The research questions leading the inquiry are as follows: What does effective professional development for adults mean and how is it implemented in Latvia? What is the most appropriate framework for ensuring effective professional development of adults at organisational and system levels in the private and public sectors in Latvia? How to evaluate or measure the process efficiency and effectiveness of transferring the results of professional development of adults to practice at an organisational and system level in Latvia?

The results of summative assessment and practical work testify to the insufficient level of formation of research skills among 12th grade students. A low percentage of completion was observed in those tasks where it was necessary to provide reasonable conclusions and alternative solutions based on the interpretation and evaluation of the data. This problem determined the purpose of this experimental study is to evaluate the effect of intensive practical lessons on students’ educational achievements in exams in physics and biology.This study was conducted among 12^th grade students in the intellectual schools of Mangystau region, Kazakhstan. The study involved 27 students . The students were taught using the system,consisting of three types of practical lessons: a laboratory workshop, a workshop on the study of physical processes based on computer simulation, and a workshop on problem solving.All three types of practical lessons are built on the basis of the scientific method of understanding nature. Lessons-workshops are united by a single structure, scheme, scientific method of cognition, educational and research activities.

Research in education has shown that integrating theory with experiment has many benefits, including developing research skills and understanding of scientific concepts and theories (Fadzil & Saat, 2013; Schwichow, Zimmerman, Croker & Härtig, 2016).

The following research questions were selected for the study:

• How the application of practical lessons affected the student's ability to provide scientific explanations for phenomena, systems and relationship?
• Is there a significant difference between the academic achievements of students who taught through practical lessons before and after the implementation

In this study, a comparison of students' levels of academic activity was conducted based on a concept that explores the development of educational skills. According to the results of the international PISA test (2022), it was revealed that the level of students' academic activity in the areas of mathematics and creativity turned out to be low. This indicates that the level of educational skills is at a low level, particularly in terms of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation, according to Bloom's taxonomy. As a solution to the problem, research was conducted at the Nazarbayev Intellectual School in Aktobe for a year. The main reason for choosing this topic was to enhance students' educational skills by employing advanced methods in the subjects of history and geography, as well as establishing connections with humanitarian subjects to expand their knowledge.

The goal of the study was to develop students' educational skills and promote the application of knowledge in life through the use of advanced methods in the subjects of history and geography. Empirical research methods were utilized in the study. By interviewing and monitoring the lesson, quantitative data were collected, as well as qualitative indicators from students were obtained.

First and foremost, the results of the international PISA test (2015, 2018, 2022) were examined. The survey was conducted through the Microsoft Forms platform, with the participation of 123 students. Project-based learning, problem-based learning (PBL) and Formative.com were utilized as platforms. The research findings were presented at the school's methodological council.

The research topic is the development of reading skills in high school students based on data analysis through a conceptual framework.

Reading literacy is a technology of intellectual development, a way of assimilation of culture, an intermediary in communication, a means of solving life problems.

Initially, the results of the international PISA test conducted in 2022 in Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools were analyzed. According to the results of the exam in mathematics, reading, and natural sciences, a low level of reading skills was observed in schools in Kazakhstan, the OECD, and NIS. The study involved 35 schools from 20 countries, including 16 students from NIS. It can be seen from the data that Aktobe NIS occupies the 19th place. Compared to 2015, where NIS ranked 492, and 511 in 2018, there is growth, and in 2022, it reached an average score of 490.

In 2018, the students' results were high. Among the 20 NIS schools participating in the study, it is evident that reading skills, compared to all NIS, decreased by 508, and in 2022, by 483, indicating a gap of -25.

In NIS schools, it is noticeable that PISA increased by 39 points compared to PISA - 2015 and PISA - 2022. In terms of reading, PISA - 2015 and PISA - 2018 increased by 19 points, while PISA - 2022 decreased by 21 points, and natural sciences decreased by 19 points.

Therefore, based on the results of the international PISA test from 2015 to 2022, NIS students exhibit a low level of reading skills. This, of course, should be aimed primarily at developing reading skills through working with texts when acquiring subject knowledge beyond students' classroom activities. To initiate our research, we decided to attend classes and interview students in order to determine the level of reading skills in the research activities of 10th grade students. Access to the lesson was provided at various stages of the class.

In order to address the issue, 10th-grade students at Nazarbayev Intellectual School in Aktobe were tasked with developing reading skills through data analysis based on conceptual learning in geography and the history of Kazakhstan lessons.

This research work aims to investigate the capacity of the Flipped classroom method to enhance the academic performance of student groups (grade 11) at Nazarbayev Intellectual School (NIS) – Aktau. NIS is a trilingual school where subjects in the primary stages are taught in Kazakh and Russian and where English is the teaching medium in grades 11 and 12. It was noticed that the students in grade 11 had difficulties formulating clear answers, in English, to educational and structural questions. The quality of students ' knowledge and their ability to communicate their understanding is considered one of the most important factors for their admission to an educational institution. To find solutions to enhance the learning quality and to motivate students, it was planned to use the "Flipped classroom" method. This allowed students to complete written tasks during the lesson, analyse difficulties more independently, and eliminate difficulties by comparing answers with other students. To carry out this method, subject teachers created video lessons, uploaded them to the Teams Microsoft platform and presented them to students in advance. The students were taught this method for the next three weeks. It has been observed that student’s participation in the class is acceptable to a certain extent as compared with classes run through conventional teaching methods. It was also noticed that students use more independent learning techniques such as using scientific dictionaries, Also, it was observed that overall tested classes showed slightly lower results in students who had difficulty self-learning and did not complete the video lessons.

In today's rapidly changing age, the influence of technology on human life, including in the field of education, plays a very high role. The versatility of independent search and development of a person can be evidenced by the fact that people achieve success, in particular, because of technology-oriented methods. American Scientists Maureen Lage, Glenn Platt and Michael Treglia introduced their very extensive experience in the field of education in 2000. The concept introduced by the scientists was that "a flipped classroom was what had traditionally determined that events that took place inside the class could now also take place outside it, and its effectiveness."[1]. In our case study, due to studying in different languages, and high expectations of performance, the desire to equip the students with tools for self-learning, we anticipated that The "Flipped classroom" method was a good candidate to address these needs. An important feature of the chosen method is the combined learning model, which is integrated with tasks based on the consolidation of the knowledge gained by the teacher, presenting educational materials for training to students in advance. Scientists theoretically put forward this method. As an applicable concept, in 2007, two chemistry teachers named Aaron Sams and Jonathan Bergmann began recording their presentations using a video program. They uploaded videos online to help those who missed classes. It was observed that these videos helped students overcome difficulties and aided students who had difficulties in experiments. With the development of the internet, the flipped classroom began to gain popularity in North America. [2]

Nowadays any field of enterprise demands innovative and informative specialists with a comprehensive knowledge of the international languages. The future specialists are founded for the knowledge acquisition at school. The main purposeful mission of the educational policy of Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools is to bring up future Kazakhstan citizens with deep knowledge, educate speaking skills of three languages, appreciate the culture of their country and respect the other countries culture of global vision. The NIS's trilingual training policy is said: “Studying subjects in Kazakh, Russian and English contributes to expanding access to supplementary information, new development prospects and a deeper understanding of other cultures. Grateful of the created trilingual sphere is increased students' potential, flexibility, critical and creative thinking, intercultural relationship, the ability of respect themselves and others also desire learning language skills”. In Russian and one Kazakh groups of 11^th grades studying Physics in English is mastered in the content of Physics is going to propose research work carried out in the 2019-2020 academic year to determine the effectiveness of the CLIL technology in the developing of scientific and students’ language skills. Due to the fact the need of researching is firstly, students in the 11^th grade have difficulties in expressing their thoughts using keywords in the implementation of Physics tasks and speaking the academic language, secondly, in previous years, when analyzing of the 12^th grade students’ results of the external summative assessment exam, we noticed that the indicators for the 2^nd component were lower. In accordance to the course of the studying a wide range of CLIL methods were selected according to the content of the lesson developed skills were identified by a series of sequential lessons were taught with the purpose of training. The 11th grade students who participated in the studying showed 100 percent quality in the external quantity assessment as a result of the 2020-2021 academic year.

Among the research skills of students, analysis and synthesis, and the weakness of the justification of the method or the answer used in the performance of the assignment when writing papers in natural subjects, are the most common problems. This, in turn, indicates that students experience difficulties in solving problems assigned to high-order thinking skills. In this regard, after considering the theoretical materials on pedagogical methods and tools that develop analysis and synthesis skills, it was planned to study the effectiveness of the "algorithmization" method among high school students according to age characteristics.The problem of this study is based on "The development of analysis and synthesis among students by the method of "algorithmization". The study aims to conduct experimental classes to complete tasks using the "algorithmization" method in mathematics lessons for high school students and to determine how this method influences the development of their analysis and synthesis skills. The study concludes that the method of "algorithmization" affects the systematization of students' thoughts and the development of analysis and synthesis skills. In order to use the "algorithm" method in the classroom, students learn new material in advance, study various methods related to the mathematical model of the task or problems, take into account all variables, quantities, and parameters, link the stages of solving the problem in a logical sequence. Shaikina and Sapozhnikova (2016) writes that "the involvement of students in the creation of an algorithm is, in turn, a variant of heuristic learning". Shaikina and Sapozhnikova (2016) writes that "the involvement of students in the creation of an algorithm is, in turn, a variant of heuristic learning". Temerbekova (2019) shows a connection between the "algorithm method" and analysis and synthesis (p.214). Blinova and Vasilyeva (2014) state that this method affects the individualization and strengthening of the learning process in accordance with the modern education system.. Pushkareva et al. (2017) reveal the need for the "algorithm" method of high school students for their future professions since "A modern engineer needs to have high potential cognitive abilities, including algorithmic thinking, to solve complex technological and professional problems". In traditional classes, the teacher shows the steps for solving an algorithm or problem and pays attention to the student's correct execution of these algorithm steps. This is called algorithmic learning. A peculiar feature of the method in this study is that the student creates an algorithm for the general situation while performing various tasks. The difference between algorithmic learning and algorithm creation is that the first method encourages students to perform a particular method step by step like a "robot" without thinking. In contrast, the second method aims at the student's creativity. This study, in the form of action research, allowed us to get answers to questions such as "What is the effectiveness of using the "algorithmization" method, which develops the skills of analysis and synthesis, influencing the development of student's skills and abilities, and what are its effective and ineffective sides?" The research hypothesis was that the algorithmic method positively impacted the development of students' analytical and synthesis skills.

Literature shows that parent involvement is associated with the cognitive development, academic achievements and well-being of children (Turney & Kao, 200; Okeke, 2014). When parents are involved in school, a partnership can develop between teachers and parents, allowing the child to be monitored by both parties (Crosnoe, 2010; El-Hilali & Al-Rashidi, 2015; Turney & Kao, 2009).

However, the engagement of parents is frequently assessed through a predominantly one-dimensional lens, which centres on the school’s perspective (De Mets et al., 2018). In other words, schools prescribe what parents should and can do in order to be considered as 'involved parents', including expectations about presence during formal school meetings, checking the child's agenda, etc. Parents who do not meet these expectations are often considered as 'not involved enough' or as 'difficult to reach parents'.

Yet, research consistently demonstrates that parents want to be involved in their child’s education, but not all parents have the tools to do so or there may experience barriers. This is particularly the case for newcomers who have limited or no knowledge of the education system in the host country. They may encounter financial, practical, cultural and social barriers that prevent them to fully engage in their children’s education (Schneider & Arnot, 2018). Common barriers include difficult working hours, the care of siblings, difficulties to support their child’s schoolwork, insufficient resources and knowledge and language barriers in overall communication.

To address the barriers that prevent migrant parents from being involved in school, this Erasmus+ project aims at bridging the gap between newcomer parents and elementary schools. This European consortium consists of seven partners from Belgium, Italy, Greece, Austria and Slovenia. The question underlying this project reads as follows: Can co-creative and interactive workshops in primary education, targeting newcomer parents bridge the gap between elementary schools and parents?

The project aims to provide non-formal education to migrant parents who are most often unfamiliar with the education systems of their new host countries. It strives to empower migrant parents by identifying, creating and applying tailored methods that help improve these parents’ host country language, digital skills and knowledge of the educational system, thereby enabling them to better

support their children’s learning, to effectively collaborate with school and to integrate in the local community.

The project also seeks to improve the professional knowledge of school staff concerning the challenges

of those parents and enhancing their culturally sensitive competencies in order to better support them. It does so by organizing dialogue with migrant parents, and by providing them with tools and training on

how to engage with and communicate with this target group. In this way the project makes a cross fertilization between elementary education

education and adult education. Moreover, via mobilities and international events, teachers get the chance to exchange with

and learn from colleagues in other countries.

Children are a secondary target group via cross-generational impact,

meaning that the improved knowledge and skills of parents will have an indirect impact on the children’s learning.

The customized workshops for parents departs from a non-traditional perspective on parental involvement, meaning that we move beyond deficit thinking and aim at mutual understanding between school and migrant families whereby existing knowledge and skills of the parents are recognized and valued. This creates opportunities for parents to explore similarities and differences between their new and origin countries and to build bridges between the two experiences. Methodologically, it adopts a co-creation approach to engage migrant parents in both the understanding of their real needs and the development of new models for the participatory empowerment of the migrant family unit.

For children’s academic and socio-emotional development, cooperation between teachers and parents is supportive (Bakker et al., 2013; Epstein, 2020). Governments therefore encourage teachers to invest in Family-School Partnerships (Thompson et al., 2018). Family-School Partnerships (FSP) are defined as "child-focused approaches, wherein families and professionals cooperate, coordinate, and collaborate to enhance opportunities and success for children and adolescents across social, emotional, behavioral, and academic domains" (Sheridan & Kim, 2015, p.5).

Building Family-School Partnerships requires specific teacher competencies (Bakker et al., 2013; Epstein, 2020; Willemse et al., 2017), especially in the education of newcomers. When working together with newcomer parents, teachers experience specific challenges, such as different language practices, cultural identities, and expectations regarding mutual responsibilities (Antony-Newman, 2017; Bakker et al., 2013; McWayne et al., 2019). These experiences stress the need for further professional development.

Research on the difficulties teachers experience in establishing FSP in multilingual contexts reveal that they attribute the difficulties to linguistic, cultural, attitudinal, practical, socio-economic and political factors (Antony-Newman, 2019; Bakker et al., 2013; Goedhart et al., 2024). Researchers call for more research into successful practices to move beyond deficit discourses (Gouwens & Hendrikson, 2021) and to support teachers and teacher professionalization (Epstein, 2020; Antony-Newman, 2019).

For building FSP it is considered necessary to know the cultural and family sources (Moll et al., 2005), otherwise there is a risk of missing "powerful information about home-based practices and routines, families' funds of knowledge and other aspects of children's out-of-school lives that can form a basis of engaging" (McWayne, 2021, 16:54). It is important to evaluate the perspectives of members of ethnocultural communities as "a matter of scholarly rigor and responsibility" (Hall et al., 2016, p. 41), particularly in research and practice in ethnocultural communities, which are underrepresented in conceptual frameworks and research studies (Antony-Newman, 2019; Hall et al., 2016; Wayne et al., 2019).

The challenges teachers experience in building FSP in a multilingual context require responsiveness of teacher attitudes and communication (Bakker et al., 2013). In a previous study, we have asked experienced primary teachers in newcomer education to share successful experiences in establishing FSP and to elaborate on what these experiences meant to their attitude and communication (Goedhart et al., 2024). Participating teachers considered learning processes resulting in trust, understanding and agreement particularly as positive experiences in building FSP. They used different approaches depending on the needs of parents and their own motives, role perception and available time. Their attitude was characterized by being inviting, understanding, diligent, willing to learn, responsible and cooperative and in their communication, they made choices about which languages to use, the purpose, the channel, the setting, the conversation techniques, and their non-verbal communication.

This input from teachers is valuable to design a relevant teacher professionalization program, but it lacks parents’ perspective and their experiences with FSP. Knowledge about parents' perspectives may provide additional insights for teacher education.

Parents can give us valuable information from their experiences about the role of teachers in building FSP in a multilingual context, more specifically regarding teachers’ attitude and communication. This information can be used to prepare teachers to build partnerships with parents and address the specific challenges they experience in building FSP in a multilingual context. In this study we focused on newcomer parents’ experiences in their interactions with teachers, in search of answers to the following research questions:

1. How do newcomer parents experience their interaction with primary school teachers for building FSP in a multilingual context?
2. What do parents share as relevant in their interactions with teachers, particularly regarding teachers’ attitudes and communication?

Much has been written about the need to work towards the development of relationships of mutual trust between family, school, and community (Bolívar Botía, 2006; Bryan et al., 2020). In this regard, it is well known that the Funds of Knowledge (FoK) approach has been established as an effective tool for developing dialogue between these three actors (Santos Rego et al., 2022).

Such effectiveness lies in understanding that families, especially working-class ones, can be characterized by the practices they have developed and the knowledge they have produced and acquired during their lives (Gonzalez et al., 2005). The social and economic history of households are particularly relevant because they reveal experiences that generate much of the knowledge that household members may possess, display, elaborate or share with others (Moll, 2019). It also can be said that household livelihoods may involve establishing and participating in social networks, through which such knowledge can be exchanged to address some of the necessities of life.

Therefore, research, especially when conducted in close collaboration with teachers and other members of the community, can provide an opportunity to document the lived experiences and knowledge of families that can be useful in defining households as resources or sample assets, which can also be valuable for teaching. Additionally, it can help to set up discussion sessions with teachers to prepare them theoretically and methodologically to conduct the research and assess the usefulness of the results for classroom practice (Moll, 2014; Santos Rego et al., 2022).

In our context, in collaboration with the Fundación Secretariado Gitano (https://www.gitanos.org/) of Pontevedra (Galicia, Spain), we designed, developed, and assessed the socio-educational program "Funds-Knowledge-Families" with Roma mothers and their children (Santos Rego et al., 2021).

The program consisted of two phases: the first took place during the first quarter of the school year in three primary schools in the city of Pontevedra, where the children participating in the program studied; and the second phase took place during the second quarter at the main site of the Fundación Secretariado Gitano (Santos Rego et al., 2021).

For the development of the second phase, we counted on the advice and direct collaboration of two technicians from the Fundación, who acted as intermediaries between our working group within the Esculca Research Group (https://www.usc.es/esculca/) of the Faculty of Education of the University of Santiago de Compostela, the schools where we developed the first phase, and the participating families.

Parallel work was carried out with the mothers and their children. With the former, we addressed issues related to culture and the functioning of the educational system, highlighting the role of the school and the importance of family involvement in the school environment. With the students, we focused on study methods, the organisation of time for homework, as well as issues related to their own cultural practices at home and in the community (Santos Rego et al., 2021).

The aim of this proposal is, on the one hand, to illustrate the perspectives of these two specialists in the field of education regarding the FoK approach and its potential for working with families at risk of exclusion, specifically Roma families (Abajo Alcalde, 2021). And on the other hand, to collect the points of view on the development of the first phase of the Funds-Knowledge-Families program from 3 teachers, representatives of each of the participating schools. Finally, we present a didactic guide resulting from the results of the program and the contributions of both groups of educational agents. It is our intention that this guide will serve as a model for the introduction of the Funds of Knowledge approach in schools.

The home literacy environment plays a crucial role in the language and literacy development of children during early childhood (Gutiérrez-Fresneda, 2019; Inoue et al., 2020; Torppa et al., 2022). Through interaction and meaningful experiences at home and in the community (Zuilkowsli et al. 2019), children acquire the foundational skills necessary for literacy (Neuman, 2014). Therefore, a literate family environment fosters pre-literacy skills in children, which are correlated with later reading success and attitudes developed in childhood, where family environment seems to be essential (Mora-Figueroa et al., 2016).

The emergent literacy skills acquired by children in the home environment differ according to the typology of activities undertaken, with formal practices associated with written skills and informal practices with oral skills (Sénéchal and LeFevre, 2014). In this sense, age seems to be an aspect that influences in the skills promoted by parents at home (Jáñez et al., 2023). Inoue et al. (2018) found that parental teaching and shared book reading contribute to the reading fluency and accuracy in early childhood, with a literate home environment positively affecting reading comprehension in later ages.

Moreover, there is evidence that Family Literacy is influenced by family and socio-economic factors (Friedlander, 2020; Zhang et al. 2023). Moreno et al. (2018) demonstrated that literacy practices among children from high socio-economic households align more closely with institutional practices, while those from low socio-economic households lean towards traditional practices. McGinnity et al. (2022) investigated differences in reading ability based on gender and social background, noting that both factors influenced reading scores between ages from three to nine. Despite social class, girls tended to have higher reading scores than boys, but boys benefited more from parental involvement at home (Jeong and Hofferth, 2016).

According to these ideas, the present study explores current inequalities in emergent literacy and home literacy within a sample of Spanish families with 4–6-year-old children. The objective is to identify differences in parents’ literacy involvement, parents’ literacy habits, and children’s literacy. The research questions are: What are the family practices of emergent literacy? And are there differences in family literate environments according to the gender and school grade of the children?

In this proposal, we present the design of the evaluation of the Family Preservation Spaces Programme that the Meniños Foundation (https://meninos.org/) and the ARELA Association (https://arela.org/), with funding from the Department of Social Policy of the Galician Regional Government, have been implementing on an experimental basis since 2022 in two of the Galician counties with a significant number of open cases in the child protection system. Our aim is to present the evaluation design that will allow us to establish this initiative as an evidence-based programme.

This programme offers a comprehensive service of psychological, social, and educational support to children and adolescents in a situation of low risk and their families, from a systemic approach to intervention that allows the strengthening of the family unit. The aim is to prevent children and young people from entering the child protection system and to demonstrate the effectiveness of the family preservation model through evaluation.

Family education programmes in Spain, based on the positive parenting approach, have increased significantly in recent decades (Álvarez et al., 2016). As a result, there are multiple programmes aimed at preventing maltreatment and promoting good treatment to ensure the well-being of families (Orte et al., 2022).

However, only some of these initiatives can be considered evidence-based programmes because they meet certain quality standards, including "a scientific theory base, a rigorous research design, a high quality of programme implementation, and control of factors related to the intervention that can contribute to the replication of results" (Máiquez et al., 2015, p. 79).

Although evidence-based programmes were initially applied in the field of health sciences, their presence has been increasing, particularly in the social sciences. This is precisely due to initiatives such as the European Family Support Framework (EurofamNet), which identifies those programmes that meet high quality criteria and can be replicated with maximum guarantee of success (Rodrigo et al., 2023).

Specifically, this approach argues that professional practice with families should be based on evidence, and therefore it is essential to have empirically validated programmes to improve the quality of the interventions carried out and thus obtain better results (Álvarez et al., 2016). It is necessary to introduce a culture of scientific evaluation of the social programmes they develop in social organisations and to be able to rely on evidence that supports their effectiveness. Evaluation remains one of the unresolved issues in social interventions.

The purpose of this research study was to improve the ability of students to prove concepts in nerve impulse generation and transmission topics using the Pear Deck learning approach. The objectives of this research study were to use the Pear Deck learning approach to explain the neuron's shape and position in relation to its activities and describe how mechanoreceptors react to stimulus pressure and how nerve impulses are transmitted via the PNS and CNS.

Pear Deck Learning is a technique of active participation strategy that involves students in different ways. Pear deck is straightforward and fosters a collaborative environment between the teacher and the students. In today’s education world, students require more engaging, interactive, and thought-provoking learning interactions, especially in today’s technological world.

Pear Deck Learning is a powerful ecosystem of education tools that monitors progress, offers real-time feedback, and provides differentiated instruction and gamified practice that keeps students engaged and excelling. Pear Deck Learning allows the students to interact with the presentation by answering questions, sharing their thinking, giving short structured questions, drawing, and following along during the teacher’s presentation so it makes engagement a lot and it is more fun for students to have this interactive experience.

As a teacher, one can add questions on the PowerPoint slides while teaching and lock students’ screens so they can focus on what you are teaching. One can incorporate a student-paced option which is beneficial for small group instructions that students can complete independently. The audio option is beneficial for students who are slower in reading and pronunciation of terminologies. The teacher dashboard allows one to view students’ responses and provide feedback on their progress in real-time. Multiple choice questions can be used in all kinds of ways like checking for understanding, determining what students already know, or providing them with a choice about where they want to go next.

For the group that went through the Pear Deck Learning lessons, the results showed that fifteen students out of twenty (75 %) achieved 70 % or higher scores on their work on the formative assessment questions. For the group that did not study through Pear Deck Learning the results showed that seven students out of twenty (35 %) achieved 70 % or higher scores on their work on the formative assessment questions. This was an indication that this group of students could not answer questions that required them to prove the concepts of the neuron’s structures, functions, location; and nerve impulse transmission between the PNS and CNS.

According to the research study, the majority of the student’s ability to prove concepts of the human nervous system was in a good category and above. Therefore, if the concept taught has a higher complexity than the lower complexity concept the Pear Dear learning approach can allow a strong association between thinking level and the capacity to verify concepts.

Some recommendations for Biology teachers include being innovative and creative to diversify instructional aids based on current scientific research, technology, and psychosocial factors. For example, by using animation, videos, and research articles in Pear Deck Learning to explain abstract and microscopic concepts. Stand-alone learning utilities allow students to study at their own pace either in or out of school hours and gain knowledge beyond the textbook content. This pedagogical technique should begin in preschool or elementary school. If necessary, the Pear Deck learning technique can be repeated in the following classes with minimal customization.

With the increasing use of information and communication technologies, cybercrimes against children have also increased. Online risky behavior can take many forms: making personal data available to other subjects, sharing visual material with the general public, engaging in online discussions with sexual undertones and vulgar comments, and establishing new friendships with unknown people (Ybarra et al., 2007; Kopecký et al., 2021).

Wylęgły (2021) mentions anonymity as a possible risky aspect of leading potentially to the development of cybercrime, an unlimited range of users, and the universality of Internet access. Kopecký et al. (2020) also consider, among other things, the use of fictitious identities, so-called equality of status, synchronous and asynchronous online communication, and social multiplicity in communication with an undetermined number of users to be risky. The very issue of sharing has thus gained attention in recent years not only in the field of law (Lavorgna et al., 2023; Bezáková et al., 2021) but also in the field of pedagogical sciences (Brosch, 2018; Kopecký et al., 2020; Kopecký et al., 2023). This contribution focuses on the experiences and possible risks of sharing among lower secondary school pupils in the Czech Republic.

Sharing adolescents' data on social networks can bring, in addition to positive benefits, specific threats, such as threats to privacy, integrity, the right to one's own identity, and personality development. It can negatively affect not only privacy but also a good name, the very development of personality and image (Ordóñez Pineda & Calva Jiménez, 2020). Sharing, which can be defined as the publication of much detailed information about adolescents in the form of photos, videos, and posts through social media, can violate children's privacy (Brosh, 2018) and lead to several other negative phenomena, such as frustration (Ouvrein & Verswijvel, 2019) or child abuse as a tool for creating extremist and hateful content (Kopecký et al., 2020).

In the field of pedagogical research, children's privacy is associated with the protection of personal data and is often linked to the issue of sharing, which violates children's privacy (Brosh, 2018; Kopecký et al., 2020; Kopecký et al., 2023), but also another possible risks such as exclusion from the collective due to the inability to use the Internet, the risk of increasing aggression, sexual coercion, threats to privacy, identity theft, and new forms of surveillance and exploitation are mentioned.

General description on research questions, objectives and theoretical framework (up to 600 words)

Research questions and problems:

• What do students think about sharing information and other content (photos, videos, etc.) about their privacy and personal data on the Internet, social networks, and other online services?

• What is the students' opinion about the possible risks of sharing information and other content about their privacy and personal data on the Internet, social networks, and other online services?

• What experience do students have with sharing information and other content about their privacy and personal data on the Internet, social networks, and other online services?

The main goal of the contribution is to find out and describe the basic aspects, topics and experiences of elementary school students connected with sharing privacy and personal data on the Internet, social networks and other on-line services.

Sub-research objectives:

• To find out the opinions of pupils in terms of how they constitute and shape opinions on sharing privacy and personal data in cyberspace

• Analyze the students' opinions

Introduction: research questions
This paper presents a teacher training program centered on travel (PEERS project) as a space for training and experiential learning, with the aim of opening up to otherness. In this contribution, I wish to highlight how the narrative of experience specific to this training device enables us to "produce and produce ourselves in the world". I will attempt to demonstrate how identity is constructed for the subject, through and in his or her actions and interactions with the world. Using a qualitative method, my research will analyze the reworking of identity inherent in this training system, which has an impact on the professional practice of future teachers. I will examine which parts of the self and which parts of the other are mobilized in the construction of the subject in the face of the experience of otherness as proposed in the PEERS projects.

Field
I will begin by presenting the field in which my research materials were produced. It takes place in the context of the initial training of primary school teachers at the Haute école pédagogique du canton de Vaud in Switzerland, and more specifically in the context of an intercultural exchange module (PEERS) between Switzerland and Italy (University of Bologna) that I have been organizing every year for the past seven years. Through the apprehension of comparative educational systems and the discovery of otherness, these PEERS projects, which involve around ten Swiss and Italian students each year, aim to develop the mobility capital of future teachers in training, in order to make it operational in the classroom. The main educational theme is welcoming and integrating students' cultural plurality.
I'll now turn to the materials analyzed in this research. The students involved in these projects are encouraged to take a meta-posture on their experience of decentering through reflective writing in a travel diary, where they record their experience of otherness and then transpose it into their professional gestures and identity construction as future teachers. This experience of mobility, recounted through biographical writing, is then reworked in a final report on their return from the trip. This report gives an account of the transformations in their professional posture.

The society is undergoing rapid changes in aspects such as increased mobility of individuals, the necessity for lifelong learning, cultural diversity resulting from heightened migration movements, particularly forced displacements, advancements in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), exponential growth of knowledge, and the emergence of new scenarios for social relations. More specifically, according to European Commission statistics as of October 2023, 446.7 million people were residing in the EU, with 8.5% born outside its borders. Additionally, the Union hosts 20% of the world's refugees, with Spain ranking as the third country with the highest asylum applications (UNHCR, 2024).

It is not unexpected, therefore, that there is an increased focus from Higher Education on the reality of migrants/refugees in host communities, contributing to a more inclusive society (Cowling et al., 2019; Gonçalves et al., 2023; Prentice, 2023). Universities must not diminish their role in conventional tasks such as coordinating academic programs and research lines; rather, they have an obligation to reflect on their civic mission. This reflection prompts the promotion of methodologies such as service-learning (SL), fostering the social mission of the university and a more comprehensive education of students as responsible citizens within a strong democracy, creating exchange situations where diversity is a central element (Santos Rego, 2013; Santos Rego et al., 2021).

The impact of this methodology on students' perspectives regarding diversity is well-documented, enabling them to confront personal or social stereotypes, acquire knowledge about the served population, believe in the value of an intercultural society, feel more comfortable interacting in diverse contexts, and recognize universality and common traits (Santos Rego et al., 2016; Van Rensburg et al., 2019).

Therefore, it is pertinent to study the impact of service-learning on university students and migrants/refugees, collaborating to identify needs, propose actions, and engage in a reciprocal educational and social innovation process. As Nussbaum (1997) emphasizes, universities must be committed to developing critical thinking among students and constructing a community capable of debating social issues, progressing towards a true 'community of reason' and fostering the construction of a democratic community.

In this work, we present the design of a comprehensive project, with a strong investigative and formative character, involving researchers from three European universities and two social entities. The main objectives are:

- Analyze the role of universities in the European social and intercultural project.

- Examine the reality of migrants/refugees in the European Union.

- Contribute to the enhancement of social and cultural capital for university students and migrants/refugees through collaborative work networks, reciprocity, and social support.

- Promote democratic and civic participation of university students by encouraging opportunities for social engagement and intercultural development.

Therefore, one of the primary aspirations of the project is to progress, through service-learning, towards a reciprocal relationship between the university and the community (social entities), considering the latter as an active participant in the educational process (Asghar and Rowe, 2017; Jacoby, 2015). The goal is to foster, using SL as a pedagogical strategy, relationships of exchange and mutual benefit between the Academy and social actors, endeavoring to turn individuals into agents of social change.

This paper stems from the project "Mobilizing university-community resources through SL(M) for the inclusion of migrants/refugees," funded by the Erasmus+ Program (2022-1-ES01-KA220-HED-000087650).

Starting from September 2021, the Chinese government has introduced an anti-addiction game policy for teenagers in mobile games, aiming to prevent youth from spending more time and money in mobile games, and expect youth to invest more energy to study and extracurricular activities, and strictly restrict youth to only play mobile games from 8 to 9 pm every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The policy also states that relevant schools and parents should cooperate with the government’s policies Assist. However, there has not yet been a clear study to explore the understanding of the policy by youth and parents during the implementation of the policy, as well as their views and opinions on the policy. Based on the above situation, I raised several research questions:

(i) The current state of online gaming among young people, along with parental and state interventions in China.

(ii) Identification of problems and their impact on family relationships.

(iii) Exploration of potential solutions to enhance family relationships and establish an appropriate level of intervention in young people's gaming.

Also, according to Foucault's (1975) understanding of Panopticon, such surveillance makes children pay more attention to self-restraint because such surveillance is not full-time surveillance like Panopticon (1995) by Jeremy Bentham, which refers to the fragmental surveillance and this surveillance mode makes young people to be vigilant at all times to avoid intentional or unintentional surveillance or monitoring coming at any time.

When teenagers want to play mobile games, they need to consider whether their parents will see them playing games without permission, and whether these situations are allowed in the eyes of their parents. This kind of self-restraint enhanced by fragmented monitoring will gradually become automated and even become self-monitoring. And when young people know that their parents are opposed to mobile games.

However, being constantly vigilant will make the youth feel bored to a certain extent, which will also lead to the deterioration of family relationships. The anti-addiction policy was promulgated later. Although it was freed from the management of the parents, due to the parents' lack of understanding of the policy, the implementation of the policy has relatively become a decoration, and the conflicts between parents and youth regarding mobile games have gradually intensified.

In this thesis, I used this theory to find out how Chinese youth currently navigate the surveillance of parents and government policies, and what actions they take after learning about these things and how they modify or self-regulate their behaviours.

The formal establishment of school leadership in Switzerland, initiated around three decades ago with the introduction of the principal's role, significantly transformed traditional structures. Currently, leadership and management responsibilities are characterized by a shared mandate, subject to negotiation among school boards, principals, and teachers. Despite its acknowledged importance, empirical findings on the practice of distributed leadership in German-speaking Swiss schools remain limited. This study aims to address this gap by exploring leadership beyond formal positions, focusing on its manifestation through the practices of individuals, interactions, and mediating artefacts (Spillane et al., 2004). Guided by a distributed leadership perspective, the study seeks to uncover the intricate dynamics of leadership as an interaction (Diamond & Spillane, 2016).

Acknowledging the suggestion for leadership to be understood and studied as „a process that comprises both organizational and individual scopes“ (Tian et al., 2016, p. 156), a comprehensive research design is being used; aiming to capture both the "official" distribution of tasks based on legal regulations and school-specific policies, as well as lived experiences in public schools. Therefore, triangulation serves as an exploration into both the formalized structures and the realities of practices, contributing insights to the discourse on distributed leadership.

The research questions guiding this study are:

1. What is the legal and institutional context for cooperation?

The first dimension explores how responsibilities and competencies are officially regulated among board members, principals, and teachers. Emphasis is placed on investigating the official channels through which responsibilities and competencies are allocated within the school structure, including cantonal legal texts and location-specific regulations. The aim is to extract insights into the formalized structures guiding responsibilities.

1. How is the practical assumption of responsibilities and competencies shaped within the school setting?

The second dimension delves into the practical aspects of how responsibilities and competencies are assumed and negotiated within the dynamic school environment. This involves extensive shadowing-type observations of principals and teachers, as well as interviews with key stakeholders, including principals, teachers, and board members. These qualitative explorations aim to capture the nuanced arrangements and perceptions of leadership practices, decision-making processes, and the lived experiences of assuming leadership responsibilities. Through these interactions, the intricacies of how stakeholders navigate and interpret their roles within the established leadership framework are sought to be uncovered.

1. Why do actors or groups engage in leadership-related collaborative efforts or refrain from doing so?

This dimension sheds light on the expectations, motivations, and barriers that influence actors or groups to assume or relinquish responsibility, collaborate, participate in, or withdraw from distributed leadership practices. Understanding the underlying factors, such as organizational culture, power relations, and perceived benefits, will provide insights into the complex dynamics shaping collaborative endeavours or the lack thereof.

The data collection includes:

1. Examination of official documents detailing the distribution of responsibilities and accountability: This process involves a meticulous review of policies governing leadership roles to extract insights into the formalized structures guiding responsibilities and accountability.
2. Approximately 25 interviews: Conducted with key stakeholders, including school leaders, teachers, and board members, these interviews delve into the nuanced perceptions of leadership practices, decision-making processes, and the lived experiences of assuming leadership responsibilities in the dynamic context of education. The aim of conducting such semi-structured interviews is to gather in-depth insights from participants while allowing flexibility to explore emerging themes and clarify ambiguities during the interview process.
3. Observational data from about 20 weeks of shadowing: Documenting day-to-day school activities of principals, teachers, and other stakeholders to provide contextual insights. This observational component aims to capture the practical execution of leadership, offering a real-time portrayal of how responsibilities and competencies are assumed and negotiated in fast-paced school environments.

The quality of schools is not only determined by educational achievement. Non-cognitive characteristics, children's health, well-being, moral education are important. However, learning success is an essential component of school quality. The greatest successes here are the TIMSS and PISA projects, which are carried out in the format of a large study. Large-scale studies have made progress in discovering predictors that impact learning success. These are social and economic factors: urban-rural differences, gender differences, school type differences, family characteristics, etc. These are also educational factors - learning environment, educational curriculum, learning methods, etc. Psychological factors should also be mentioned: motivation, school self-concept. Unfortunately, the question of what role the school principal plays in ensuring good learning outcomes is still relatively poorly addressed. More has been done in areas such as evaluation research and school improvement studies. The limitation is that these are mostly local, sampling-based studies. Questionnaire methods based on subjective self-assessments are mostly used. Social desirability and confounding effects inevitably occur. There is a need to examine the impact of school leadership and principal's potential on students' learning achievements. This is about the total census data from state statistics. Learning outcomes are multi-causal in nature, so it is not worth hypothetically expecting that the principal's factor will be crucial. It's probably relatively small, but it's still there. How does the phenomenon occur? What statistical regularities occur here? There is currently no information on this. This research and report is dedicated to partially clarifying this question. School leadership can be conceptualized in different ways: through the career model, personality traits and leadership style, etc. The big data from state statistics handed over to the research team was characterized by a limited number of variables describing the position of the director. The study is limited a few aspects. 1. Can older school leaders of pre-retirement and retirement age ensure good student learning outcomes and be as effective as younger school leaders? The issue is particularly relevant in the major debate over raising the retirement age for workers in the EU. Is it appropriate to introduce a limit of two consecutive terms of office for school principals, as happened in Lithuania? 2. Is it appropriate to give official ranks to public school principals? Does a degree guarantee better educational achievement of students whose schools are led by such respected “elite” principals with higher prestige, symbolic capital and higher salary? Should such categories and ranks be seen only as a relic of the Prussian government system of the 18th-19th centuries? Should the director's performance be evaluated without regard to professional history and only based on actual results based on external audit? 3. Should an applicant who has previously been a good teacher representative and has experience in education become a principal? Is it appropriate to appoint a person with management experience in business or public sector as a director? The question is not only relevant to education and can hypothetically be transferred to other sectors. Who can be a good director of a museum, library, hospital: a specialist or a general manager? In Lithuania there has always been a rule that only a former educator with experience in education can lead a school. At the moment anyone with management experience and a university education can participate in the selection process to become a school director. The peculiarity of the study is that the answers to the questions were examined not on the basis of sampling studies, but on the basis of total census data, which ensures the objectivity, validity and universal generalizability of the discovered statistical regularities.

Ensuring the effectiveness and quality of educational institutions is not just the responsibility of individual school stakeholders. Rather, the school as an educational organization is embedded in a complex system of interdependencies. If we want to understand how transformation processes (e.g. digitalization) are implemented in schools, we must also consider the role of regional school supervisory authorities, municipal school boards, institutions linked to the regional department of education, and other supporting structures., However, there is a lack of research on these supporting structures of schools and the associated educational administration (Berkmeyer, 2020). Attempts to close this gap usually focus on the interaction and task profiles of school leadership and school supervision (Dobbelstein et al., 2020).

In practice, the school boards of the municipality and the support institutions linked to the regional ministries of education present themselves as important contributors who create the necessary framework conditions and control resources, especially for the promotion of digitalization (Bockhorst & Kreutzmann, 2021). This is where the article becomes relevant. Using the example of the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate, the perspective of the school leaders and the teachers responsible for digitalization in schools - in this state, individual teachers are selected by the school leader and designated as ‘coordinators for education in the digital world’ (KoBiddW) - is included in addition to employees of the municipal school boards and employees of the regional school supervisory authorities. Since the survey examined on our poster was conducted in the context of the evaluation of a digital competence center in Rhineland-Palatinate and because the digitalization of schools can be internationally regarded as one of the central challenges for the development and success of education in general, the poster places a special focus on this topic.

The theoretical foundation for this examination is provided by Educational Governance research, focusing on the alignment, communication, and coordination within the multi-level system of the institutional environment of schools as a central research topic (Hafner, 2022). Based on the cross-cutting theme of digitalization, this contribution can provide implications and insights for analysis beyond the German borders, thus making a valuable contribution to the pan-European discourse on the challenges and opportunities of digitalization in the education sector and interinstitutional cooperation. This highlights the potential to develop common strategies and share best practices within Europe to strengthen and advance educational systems across the continent.

To approach this complex structure, the poster addresses the following questions:

• How do school leaders, teachers in the KoBiddW function, employees of the municipal school boards, and employees of the regional school supervisory authorities assess their cooperation and their mutual relationship?
• What conditions for success and obstacles can be identified for cooperation between the actors?

Drawing on the work by Leithwood et al., (2006) and Day, Gu & Sammons (2016), this paper reports on findings from a 3-year research project aimed at investigating the impact of school leadership on teachers’ work and pupils’ outcomes. The project draws on existing literature that points to the pivotal role of school leaders in school improvement. While much attention has been devoted to investigating the impact of classroom and school conditions on student learning, there has been a scarcity of studies focusing on how leadership, particularly headteachers, can positively shape these conditions (Leithwood & Day, 2007; Cruickshank, 2017). The headteachers have the potential to employ a combination of transformational and instructional leadership strategies to advance school improvement (Day, Gu, & Sammons, 2016; Cruickshank, 2017). The efficacy of this integration is intricately linked to teacher commitment and school culture, contributing to enhance student outcomes (Cruickshank, 2017). In this context, school headteachers play a pivotal role in schools. Research recognises pupils as key informants in understanding school dynamics (Day, 2004, Horgan, 2016, Ansell et al., 2012) as well as teaching and learning improvement (Mitra, 2004, Flutter & Rudduck, 2004, Roberts & Nash, 2009). Moreover, pupils are very proficient at understanding the attitudes, intentions and behaviour of teachers and other educational actors (Day, 2004). Listening to pupils is key to improving teaching and learning (Flutter & Ruduck, 2004). This paper explores pupils’ views and their experience of schooling as well as their perception in relation to the work of the school leaders, particularly, their school headteacher.

In Norway, Teacher Education is strictly regulated by the Ministry of Education and Research, and it is up to each higher education institution to ensure the management of the quality of programs. Report no. 16 to the Parliament, “Culture for quality in higher education” (Meld. St. (2016-2017) says that program management is expected to ensure that the entire academic environment is engaged in the study programs and that there is academic coherence and coherence in the curricula. This is in line with what the European Commission (2017) describes as an important task in renewing the EU agenda for higher education: “Good institutional leadership and effective internal cooperation and resource management become even more important when the institutions’ range of tasks increases and more emphasis is placed on measuring and demonstrating performance”.

The program management is responsible for creating good arenas for discussing the program's development so that the entire academic community is engaged and feels ownership of the study program. The objective of these regulations is to ensure that teacher education institutions offer integrated, profession-orientated teacher education rooted in research and experience-based knowledge (Ministry of Education and Research, 2016, p. 1). The education shall be characterized by high academic quality, by coherence and coherence between subjects, subject didactics, pedagogy, and practical training, and by close interaction with the professional field.

This project will especially look at how program leaders (head) of Teacher Education across disciplines in a matrix organization work with external and structural framework conditions, how to engage the academic community in the strategies, and how to build professional-orientated teacher education that is both research- and practice-based. We present a project and discuss some issues related to the study program’s role in a university in Norway where different departments of discipline deliver their service (knowledge) to the Teacher Education Program across institutes. The expectations are that the head of the program should work collaboratively in a matrix organization where institutes are organized according to subject discipline and must deliver to the various programs.

Leading and managing study programs has been pointed to as one of the most complex and challenging aspects of higher education, partly because program management often appears more as an important piece in coordination than as a strategic actor (Aamodt et al., 2016; Johansen, 2020). There is also a change in higher education institutions, for example, new strategic policy documents, whitepapers, new financing arrangements, lower recruitment, and changes in institutional structure that have a great influence on the role of leading and managing study programs.

Previous research nationally, and especially internationally (Evans, 2022; Irving, 2015; Johansen, 2020; Jones et al., 2014) points to the challenge it is for heads of study programs to see themselves as leaders in an educational institution. Therefore, we ask: what opportunities and challenges to strengthen quality lies in leading a Teacher Education Program in a matrix organization?

The research problem is characterized by the contradiction between formal requirements regarding the skills of the head of an educational institution in Latvia and the respondents' stories of experience in using English as a foreign language in daily work.

The research problem emphasizes the need to see the interrelationships in the understanding of the managers of educational institutions about professional capital and the resources necessary for its provision. This study investigates the understanding of educational institution managers about English language skills as an element of professional capital.

The management of an educational institution in the 21st century must be able to demonstrate leadership skills in at least four different areas: teaching management, organizational management, public management and evidence-based management (Jellig, 2018).

However, what the leaders of educational institutions are forced to manage in the first place are the constant and rapid changes - both dictated by the digital revolution and curriculum reform, as well as the forms of learning caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the explosion of artificial intelligence in the field of education.
Therefore, the head of an educational institution should be both "professional" and "professional" at the same time (Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012).
One must be able to understand and make informed decisions about both what programs to offer and how to spend the institution's budget most effectively. Achieving the desired result requires new skills - from ensuring the modern functionality of school premises to foreign language skills.

For additional formal compliance with the requirements of the law, the head of the educational institution is expected to have a series of skills that are constructed and determined by the relevant era, for example, foreign language skills.
During the period when Latvia was part of the USSR, a person who did not know the Russian language could practically not work as a head of an educational institution.

On the other hand, since the regaining of independence, Russian language skills are no longer important in the work and career opportunities of the head of an educational institution.
Instead, English language skills are assessed in some cases. Skills in other European languages can also become decisive.
This is also confirmed by the data obtained in the course of this research from the interviews of the respondents, which lead to the conclusion that foreign language skills affect the career ceiling or direction.

The Czech national curriculum was revised in 2021 to include the basic principles of the Internet in teaching computer science at ISCED level 2. This topic was introduced into curricula in other countries in Europe and beyond (e.g. CSTA, 2017; Eurydice, 2019). However, support for teachers is lacking. Some textbooks addressed this topic (e.g. Page & Levine, 2019), but as far as we know, no evidence-based materials concerning principles of the Internet at ISCED 2 level are available.

Our goal is to fill this gap by creating and evaluating four 45-minute model lessons at two difficulty levels (Grades 6-7 and Grades 8-9) on the following topics:

• What does the Internet look like?
• How do we connect to the Internet?
• Packets, IP address, and what does the Internet companies know about me?

On a theoretical level, this work stems from a constructivist tradition and capitalizes on the Evocation – Realisation of meaning - Reflection educational model (ERR) (Meredith & Steele, 2010). Constructivist theories and models (e.g., Vygotsky, 1987) describe the acquisition of new, scientifically correct knowledge as an intensive process of creating new mental entities in students’ working memory and integrating them into long-term memory. In the process of integration, new knowledge is formed from, and on top of, prior knowledge. Prior knowledge cannot be erased, rather it is suppressed, altered or reused in new knowledge representations.

Prior knowledge, typically acquired during everyday tasks, is often called preconception. Knowing students' preconceptions about a topic is crucial for creating lessons that target parts of the topic that are difficult for students to understand. In this respect, our starting point presents preconceptions about the Internet studied previously (see Brom, 2023; Babari, 2023).

The ERR educational model follows this theoretical thread. The first phase, the evocation, activates pupils’ prior knowledge, rendering it apparent to both fellow learners and the instructor. The second phase, realization of meaning, brings new information in order to augment prior knowledge into knowledge closer to normative understanding. This could involve showcasing and discussing multimedia material, providing direct demonstrations, using analogies, or engaging in activities. The concluding phase, the reflection, involves solidifying the newfound knowledge alongside prior knowledge. Our model lessons are organized around these three phases.

Low participation in science has been an ongoing concern amongst science educators, policy makers and industry groups for several decades (Hoyle & ACER 2016). In Australia, this is particularly the case for Indigenous students, girls, and students from low Socio Economic Status (SES) backgrounds and rural areas. Science outreach is one approach that has arisen over recent decades that attempts to address this concern. Science outreach involves programs developed by university and non-university providers that aims to promote science to children, schools, families and the general public and often have a focus on creating opportunities for underrepresented groups to engage with science learning from a young age.

Recently, science outreach has become an industry in and of itself. Driven by research funding that requires evidence of research impacts for the community, many outreach programs are developed in fulfilment of research expectations. This has led to an increase in the number of science outreach programs offered to the general public and in turn, the research conducted on them. While the aims of many science outreach programs are to promote science to young people and the broader public, and to enhance science literacy, attitudes, engagement, and retention (Clark et al., 2016; Rennie, 2014) this body of research has been predominantly focused on single case studies. Further, rather than building on findings of previous science outreach programs the research tends to focus on individual outreach programs in isolation.

Although it is well understood that early experiences of science and the role of parents and carers are influential on science engagement, what research has been undertaken on the influences of science outreach itself has tended to be evaluative in nature, published across a diverse range of fields and publication types and rarely brings together and builds on previous work. Given the scale and investment in science outreach, understanding the nature of outreach’s influence is critical.

We now find ourselves in a position to review over 30 years of academic literature to gain a detailed picture of the type of research conducted on science outreach. This systematic literature review is a first attempt to bring together the existing science outreach research into a more coherent whole to understand the influences of science outreach, what science outreach does, and what it looks like.

Adopting a mixed-methods systematic review approach (Stern et al, 2021), this research aims to understand the common characteristics of outreach programs, the nature of science outreach research and the impacts and recommendations of this body of literature. The specific research questions address include:

1. What are the common characteristics of science outreach programs reported in academic literature?
2. How is science outreach defined across the academic literature, and what are the underlying reasons for initiating outreach?
3. What are the impacts and recommendations of science outreach across the academic literature?

Recent comparative analyses indicate a continuous rise in the number of students who fail to meet basic educational standards. This highlights the necessity for personalized and focused support to address the diverse needs of students (OECD 2023, p. 141).

Adaptive teaching is often considered crucial in dealing with heterogeneity in primary education. Recognized for its responsiveness to individual student needs, adaptive teaching is currently seen as a central approach to designing instruction to meet these challenges and is receiving increasing attention (Bernard et al., 2019).The concept is defined as a key competence for addressing the diverse social, linguistic, motivational, didactic and cultural teaching needs of students and their learning processes and it refers to a reservoir of specific interactions and measures that occur at the procedural micro level (Beck et al., 2008; Parsons et al., 2018).

Adaptive teaching is the ability to meet the varying social, linguistic, motivational, didactic, and cultural instructional needs of students and their individual learning processes (Helmke & Weinert, 1997; Vaughn & Parsons, 2013). Parsons' (2018) meta-analysis identifies adaptive teaching as a source of specific instructional actions and interactions, such as questioning, assessing, encouraging, modeling, managing, explaining, providing feedback, challenging, or making connections (Parsons et al., 2018). Teachers adapt to students' needs when planning and teaching, resulting in an interplay between intended and situational execution at the interactional level (Corno, 2008; Cronbach & Snow, 1981; Hardy et al., 2019). During the teaching and learning process, educators engage in metacognitive observation and reflection as they develop and communicate instructional adaptations. These processes, known as 'moment-to-moment' (Hardy et al., 2019, p. 175), rely on finely structured diagnostic strategies (Tetzlaff et al., 2021).

This understanding is fundamental not only to the interaction itself but also to instructional concepts such as scaffolding and formative assessment, which are central to our research perspective (de Boer et al., 2020). Research has identified various forms of scaffolding, including feedback, explanation, modeling, and questioning. However, maintaining a nuanced balance between supporting and activating learners presupposes the use of formative assessment (van de Pol et al., 2023). Educators can assess students' current understanding and encourage cognitive engagement through well-crafted feedback using diagnostic strategies. This approach goes beyond mere assessment, as it encourages students to reflect on and refine flawed strategies (Buttlar, 2019).

In empirical research, teaching and learning take place in the dynamic and multidimensional environment of the classroom. It is imperative to identify adaptive teaching and learning within a specific instructional context, observed authentically in a classroom setting. However, the scarcity of tools for operationalizing and validating adaptive teaching has led to limited empirical models, underscoring the need for further investigation (Hardy et al., 2019).

This study aims to address this gap by employing a deductive-inductive approach to develop a category system. The research analyzes teacher-pupil interactions in eight primary mathematics classes through video recordings.

The modern world places high demands on the education, it must provide students with high-quality education. The Republic of Kazakhstan is modernizing the education to meet international standards. The quality of education becomes a top priority in educational institutions. The key criterion for the quality of education is the necessary skills for students in the 21st century: the ability to express their point of view, listen to other people, analyze and evaluate various life situations, draw conclusions. According to a modern scientist and teacher Mark Potashnik: “The quality of education is the ratio of goal and result, a measure of achieving goals (results), while the goals are set only promptly, predicted in student’s potential development zone”.

The basis for this study was the results of the PISA International Study, which was conducted among students aged 14-15 years. Analysis of the PISA results showed that most students have difficulty analyzing information and drawing conclusions. Therefore, it was decided to conduct research in Chemistry, History, and English on topic “Developing analysis and synthesis skills through the use of problem-based learning (PBL)”. The research question: How will problem-based learning (PBL) contribute to the development of analysis and synthesis skills? The choice of the tool is justified by the fact that PBL provides a deeper and better understanding of the topic, “it meets the requirements of modernity: to teach by exploring, to explore by teaching” [1]. PBL is an educational approach based on the search for solutions to real problems. In 1969, Howard Burrows, a professor at McMaster University in Canada, and his colleague Robin Tamblyn decided to introduce a new approach to teach students to solve real problems. According to Borrow “PBL is learning that is the result of the process of working on understanding the solution to a problem. The problem is the first element of the learning process”. PBL refers to active learning technologies that promote the development of high-level skills and students’ creative abilities. Students receive a practical assignment before they acquire knowledge about the object being studied. The challenge that students receive in the process of working on a task pushes them to independently search for the necessary knowledge and tools, stimulates creativity and critical thinking. Working in pairs or groups, participants analyze the problem, divide it into mini problems; discuss ideas, identifying their strengths and weaknesses, that is, again, develop the skill of analysis. Students form hypotheses, study additional information, and choose optimal solutions, constantly analyzing and making choices (developing synthesis skills). “The student must be well aware of the problem and the meaning of his own activity, otherwise the whole course of the search for the unknown will not be mastered by him, even if it is shown correctly by the teacher”. [2]. One of the important advantages of PBL is that students must find not only the right solution, but also determine the area of their ignorance. That is, they needed to understand what knowledge or skills were missing in the process and cover those gaps.

The use of PBL in the learning process leads to a change in the teacher’s professional role. He turns from a standard teacher into a facilitator and expert. Candidate of Psychological Sciences Valeria Petrova, notes in the article “The possibilities of using PBL technology in higher education practice” the objectives of a teacher are:

• formation of a bank of problem-based cases,

• feedback on students' work,

• maintaining a positive classroom atmosphere,

• evaluate the results together.

Thus, there is a “horizontal” interaction between teachers and students, in which responsibility for learning, control, and evaluation falls equally on both participants.

Education is the right of every citizen as it helps people, if done effectively, develop a positive perspective on internal and external factors of their life, which in turn, can guarantee success on education and career (Outlaw, 2016). Starting from primary school students encounter challenges which they need to be taught how to overcome without losing own identity and contributing to the betterment of the world. However, every decade educationalists have to rethink their approaches and adapt to the new realities. Currently they are faced with the urge to teach the first generation of learners, generation Alpha (Perano, 2019). One of the most striking features about that generation is that they are known as introverted population (Das, 2023). Thus, educational system is required to adjust to the needs of such students.

It is crucial to consider the educational needs of the introverted personality type seriously since the world’s population, 30–75% are introverts (Laney, 2002; Helgoe, 2008; Cain, 2013). Moreover, according to Koceva (2021) the presence of introverted learners in every classroom is undisputable. It is advisable not to try to help introverts be more extraverted but work with their strengths and honor their personality type (Friedlund, 2016; Stewart, 2019). Thus, there is an overwhelming majority of research conducted within classroom settings since students spend most their school time there (Chamorro-Premuzic, Furnham, & Lewis, 2007; Pawlowska, Westerman, Bergman, & Huelsman, 2014 and other). However, education takes place not only at the lesson. Time after class hours is valuable as well. This is when teachers’ guidance can be of a paramount importance as they are helping to adapt their behaviors to fit different contexts (Jacobs, 2014). Educators should be equipped to help students discover their own strengths, identify and improve their weaknesses, and offer opportunities to practice their skills (Hakim 2018).

The purpose of this study is to identify how collaborative learning develops research skills of introverted students in a non-classroom environment. The idea that learning is a social process in which children gain knowledge through social interaction and exchanging ideas with their classmates (Vygotsky, 1978) was utilized to conduct a Science school club. As a result of this study, a new Geology school club was created where mainly students who self-identified as being introverted participated.

The following research questions were shaping this study:

How can schools organize extracurricular activities for introverted students to enhance their research skills?

What is the attitude of introverted students to collaborative form of learning and its influence on their research achievements?

What do teachers think about introverted students and their preferences in learning?

To understand the educational needs of introverted students and organize extracurricular activities more effectively, thorough analysis of literature was organized. The main topics that were selected are as follows: the modern characteristics of introverted students, the most effective learning conditions for introverts and collaborative work among students. These findings may help teachers to guide when to incorporating changes into educational process for enhancing students’ research skills.

Linguistically responsive teaching (LRT) involves recognizing the significance of language in creating meaningful learning environments. This study explores the perceptions of linguistically responsive teaching among language specialist teachers and mainstream teachers at Nazarbayev intellectual school in 7^th and 8^th grades. The aim is to gain insights into how these professionals perceive and implement strategies that support language development in linguistically diverse classrooms. The research utilizes a mixed-methods approach, combining surveys and interviews to gather comprehensive data. Findings highlight differences in teachers' perceptions, with language teachers demonstrating more comprehensive insights into the LRT framework compared to their mainstream counterparts. The study contributes valuable information to educational practices, emphasizing the importance of tailored approaches to support diverse language needs in both specialized and mainstream educational settings.

The study concludes that, although teachers acknowledge various elements of the LRT framework, further emphasis on skills and knowledge related to second language acquisition is crucial for better preparation of linguistically responsive educators.

Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools implement education in Kazakh, Russian and English languages. Kazakh is the state language and is the duty of every member of the school community, Russian is the language of international communication, and English is important for integration into the global community. [1] Consequently, in 2007, the government announced adoption of a new policy, “Trinity of languages”, which aimed to develop multilingualism in Kazakhstan. In 2015 the Ministry of Education and Culture introduced “the Strategy of Multilingual Education in Kazakhstan”. The program targets to facilitate joint trilingual education throughout the whole education system, relying on international teaching standards and practices in all contexts of education. This implies that high schools are expected to carry out the progression towards teaching natural science courses in English, History of Kazakhstan and Geography courses in Kazakh and World History in Russian. [9] In NIS, teachers are expected to use all three languages in balance, and if they are not proficient, then they are expected to learn these languages. Apart from that, teachers have access to training programs where the schools welcome cross-curricular and cross-linguistic integration (AEO NIS, 2013b, as cited in Bakytzhanova.[7]

The importance of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is increasingly recognised. It is becoming increasingly important to address the challenges of sustainable development in education (e.g. O'Donoghue et al., 2018; UNESCO, 2020). One way to do this is through social entrepreneurship education (SEE), where students learn how to make an entrepreneurial contribution to sustainable development. At its core, SEE is about developing new ideas and creating value in the field of sustainable development. SEE is positioned at the intersection of education for sustainable development (ESD) and entrepreneurship education (EE) (Lindner, 2018; Van der Wal-Maris, 2022). SEE can be understood as education aimed at a) compassion, empathy and caring - as a stimulus for entrepreneurial activity in the field of sustainable development; b) entrepreneurship - the process of recognising opportunities, generating ideas, developing initiatives and creating value; and c) the interaction between the two (Van der Wal-Maris, 2019).
In teacher education, SEE is adressed at the level of student teachers and at the level of students (cf. Vare et al., 2019). Five Universities of Applied Sciences from the Netherlands, Finland, Austria, the Czech Republic and Belgium developed the blended intensive programme 'SEE-ing a Better World'. It aims to familiarise student teachers with the characteristics of SEE and its practical implementation in their teaching practice. Currently, little is known about the design of an international programme for student teachers to develop their SEE competences. This research addressed this knowledge gap.
Accompanying research was conducted to answer the following question: "What are the key factors, according to the students, for an international learning programme in which student teachers develop SEE competences? Online surveys were conducted before and after the programme. The students kept diaries during the programme. Survey data were analysed using SPSS; qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the diaries.

Preliminary results show that students develop new insights and competences related to SEE through learning in an international context and that communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity can be identified as key factors.

Focus of the Study

Education that empowers students to address significant global challenges and guides them in understanding how to contribute to solving these issues should have a permanent place in the curriculum. Unfortunately, students in secondary education currently have limited exposure to this in their educational programs. It is crucial for students to comprehend the complexities of scientific issues and recognize their role in promoting a sustainable future, leading to more informed and responsible citizens (Bayram-Jacobs et al., 2019). In response to these global challenges, often framed as sustainability issues, such as biodiversity and climate change, the educational concept of challenge-based learning (CBL) emerges as a potential solution for addressing these complex, open-ended, and interdisciplinary challenges. This learner-centered educational approach has been gaining prominence in higher education, positioned as a method for students to integrate disciplinary knowledge with the development of transversal competencies while addressing authentic sociotechnical societal problems. However, despite the extensive literature on CBL in higher education, less is known about this approach in secondary education. Therefore, our objective is to explore the dimensions of CBL evident in secondary education, how these are implemented, and to identify challenges and successes in the design and implementation of CBL.

Theoretical Background

Education for sustainable development (ESD) aims to educate students in learning the appropriate knowledge and skills to find solutions to environmental, economic and social problems (UNESCO, 2020). The goal of sustainable education is for innovative pedagogies to bring students closer to the main conflicts of social reality (Castro & Zermeno, 2020). Competencies for ESD include communication, critical thinking, collaborative skills, reflection, creative thinking, innovation and a holistic understanding. One way to address the development of these competences and to prepare students to become informed citizens is by means of CBL, an innovative pedagogy wherein students are actively engaged in pressing real-world problems (Castro & Zermeno, 2020). Extensive research has shown the benefits of this approach for ESD (e.g., Castro & Zermeno, 2020; Malmqvist et al., 2015), given that this approach immerses students in authentic, complex challenges, reflecting the complex nature of sustainability issues. By integrating sustainability issues into the educational curriculum, CBL prepares students to actively contribute to sustainable solutions, aligning with the overarching goal ESD.

However, despite the extensive literature on CBL, the wide variety of implementations and conceptualizations presents challenges for practitioners in designing their educational strategies. Publications on CBL span from standardized frameworks to hybrid-like approaches and more generalized models where only the challenge is introduced in the design (Gallagher & Savage, 2020). Moreover, literature on CBL is mostly grounded in the higher education context, leaving uncertainty whether the same dimensions of CBL are involved in secondary education, how teachers implement them, and what their experiences include.

Therefore, drawing upon the higher-level conceptual framework for CBL (van den Beemt et al., 2023) as a guiding tool, this study set out to explore the dimensions of CBL and teachers’ associated experiences with CBL implementations in secondary education. This guiding tool adopts the why-how-what approach, identifying educational processes of CBL at the levels of vision, teaching and learning, and support (Van den Akker, 2003; Van den Beemt et al., 2023).

Research Question

What challenges and opportunities do secondary school teachers experience with the implementation of challenge-based learning in the context of sustainability education?

University-society cooperation has important implications at the level of knowledge development and research, enabling the transfer of innovative practices and methods that address concrete problems for the advancement of society (Shek & Hollister, 2017; Watson et al., 2011). Under this premise, it is possible to consider that many of the challenges facing civil society can be addressed through academic expertise and research, through collaboration between the university and its immediate environment, thereby improving the quality of life of the community itself (Labhrainn & McIlrath, 2007).

In this regard, the links established between the university sphere and society also strengthen community participation in decision-making and project implementation from a more inclusive perspective, responding to real needs and problems from a more democratic approach (McMillan et al., 2016). From a reciprocal perspective, civil society benefits from access to scientific knowledge and highly qualified professionals, while the university gains practical learning opportunities that allow it to get closer to the real world (Asghar & Rowe, 2017). Undoubtedly, such collaboration fosters the development of social capital that strengthens the relationship between academia and socio-community organisations and actors, as they work through mutual commitment to solve social problems and contribute to the sustainable development of the community itself.

The projects resulting from this collaboration facilitate the integration of the university into its community. In this way, the knowledge generated is transferred and the university is promoted as an agent of social change. In this way, through active participation in projects that benefit the community, there is an alignment of values and goals that strengthens the identity and projection of the university as an institution, addressing contemporary challenges and generating a positive long-term impact (McNall et al., 2009).

In particular, joint work between universities and civil society has led to significant advances in rural development. Firstly, there is applied research on specific challenges related to environmentally sustainable practices, natural resource management, technologies in the rural environment, etc. (Taibo, 2020; Turiel, 2020). There is also the transfer of specialised knowledge to civil society through technical training, the implementation of different sustainable practices or the development of rural entrepreneurship, thus boosting the economy of different areas (Bisquert & Cartea, 2020; Porto et al., 2022).

Similarly, work to strengthen community participation in decision-making and project design in response to social problems has contributed to a more inclusive and responsive approach to local needs and aspirations (e.g. through the creation of networks and partnerships that have broadened the impact of such initiatives).

With this last issue in mind, we present a participatory action research project, funded by the Galician Agency for Rural Development (2023-CP028), which has developed from various collaborative teaching and research activities between the University and socio-educational agents in rural areas, with the aim of contributing to a greater democratization of knowledge in the Autonomous Community of Galicia (Spain). All this has been done through the design of joint publications, training activities for teachers and professionals working in rural areas, the application of innovative methodologies such as service learning, as well as the planning of different institutional meetings involving teachers, students, socio-community organisations and professionals from the public administration.

This study examines the effectiveness of a literacy development program in improving the ability of 12th grade students to critique and analyze biology-based research articles. The experimental methodology involved use of targeted instructional strategies, specifically scientific articles published in the last five years in the domain of biology, and activities aimed at improving comprehension, critical thinking, and the ability to synthesize information from scientific texts. A quasi-experimental design with pre- and post-assessments to measure the impact of the intervention was employed. The results show a significant improvement in reading and pronunciation skills in the context of biology literacy, indicating the potential of such programs to promote scientific literacy. The results contribute to the ongoing discourse on improving reading skills and science education in Kazakhstan and have implications for curriculum design and instructional practice in high school biology classes.

In today's digital age, the ability to read and comprehend scientific articles is becoming increasingly important for students, especially in subjects like biology. As 12th grade students prepare for higher education and scientific careers, it is crucial to develop their reading skills in order to navigate and understand complex scientific literature. This is particularly important for developing countries like Kazakhstan where science literacy is relatively low. For context, a report titled “Education Policy Outlook Kazakhstan” published in 2018 emphasized the need for improvement of reading skills among Kazakhstani students as performance indicators adjudged through the PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) showed that students’ performance in reading tasks remain low and unchanged despite improvement in other metrics including mathematics (https://www.oecd.org/education/Education-Policy-Outlook-Country-Profile-Kazakhstan-2018.pdf). The report also hinted that this has contributed to a decline in the number of students entering higher education. This research study therefore aims to explore effective strategies for developing reading skills in 12th grade students during biology lessons with a focus on the analysis of scientific articles.

Reading skills are fundamental for acquiring knowledge in any subject and biology is no exception. The ability of high school pupils to understand and critically assess scientific papers becomes even more important as they proceed to more advanced educational levels. Scientific articles serve as valuable resources that provide the latest research findings, methodologies, techniques and technologies, and theories in the field of biology and other STEM subjects. By developing strong reading skills, 12th grade students can enhance their understanding of the subject matter, critically evaluate scientific facts, and apply acquired knowledge in practical situations.

In general, the commonly adopted strategy for developing reading skills is to introduce scientific articles early to students in their biology education. By gradually increasing the complexity and length of the articles, students can develop their reading skills over time. Pre-reading activities such as predicting the content based on the title and abstract, identifying key vocabulary, subject-based terminology, and setting reading goals. During reading, students can highlight important information, annotate the text, analyze using SWOT approach, debate, and summarize each section. Post-reading activities may also involve group discussions, concept mapping, and reflection on the main ideas and practical implication of the article.

Our study looks into the efficacy of a focused reading skills development program with an emphasis on biology classes for 12th graders. The study fills a vacuum in the literature by focusing on interventions specifically designed to address the special difficulties associated with reading and understanding scientific texts in biology classes at high schools. By enhancing reading skills, students can engage more meaningfully with scientific content, fostering science literacy as well as preparing them for future academic and professional pursuits.

Abstract:

Significant strides have been made to establish the distinctions between academic and informal writing, emphasizing that academic language demands conciseness, formality, precision, and careful structure (Smith, 2019). Further research was needed to apply new strategies in an active learning time in the classrooms to bring an advancement in academic writing. Depth of the issue was investigated with surveys, observing students work in class, conducting assessment, students interviews and consulting with teachers of all subjects and concluded that weak academic writing is also a reason of students’ poor academic performance and lower grades in subjects which eventually leads to the loss of students’ confidence. The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe (Gustave Flaubert). Team composed fresh intervention tactics after students’ workshops, interviews, and meetings. Implemented strategies for decided period and closely monitored the students’ performance. Deployed vocabulary-expansion activities, systematic writing workshops. Subject teachers incorporated specific grammar and syntax activities to help students with typical language difficulties. Endorsed dictation in lessons so students can encounter shortcomings. Created writing assignments and workshops that are pertinent to science subjects so that students may use their language abilities in a useful context. Kaizen principal was used to promote and strengthen virtuous writing habits, gave students regular, constructive comments on their work to make them consistent. Surveys were done on a regular basis, and the findings showed that many teachers were improving their pupils' performance using these tactics. Teachers were taken aback by the outcomes both before and after, numerous pupils began raising their scores and started taking science projects. This research promises an overall academic improvement of students in science subjects.

Introduction:

Upon thorough examination of the principal examiner reports spanning the past three years, which meticulously detail the outcomes of external assessments for all NIS schools under the aegis of the Cambridge International Exam Board (CIE), a discernible pattern has emerged. It has come to our attention that a substantial portion of students, exceeding 70%, encountered challenges in tackling high order thinking questions, necessitating a heightened proficiency in academic writing. Furthermore, an alarming statistic reveals that more than 80% of questions requiring written responses elicited answers that were below the established average competency level. This analysis underscores the pressing need for targeted interventions to enhance students' capabilities in handling advanced cognitive tasks and written assessments.

The teachers also had the audacity to interview students, as if their subjective opinions could shed any light on the matter. And to top it all off, they consulted teachers from various subjects, as if their biased perspectives would offer any valuable insights. The results of this endeavor revealed that weak academic writing contributes to students' poor academic performance and lower grades.

The implementation of inventive tactics brought about a sense of excitement and anticipation, as they promised to improve students’ academic writing and performance. As an outcome, educators realized the importance of this research and developed a team of 12 science teachers with 250 students from two schools.

Team decided to lounge an action research about the improvement of students’ academic writing by implementing fresh and innovative intervention strategy “dictation” under the umbrella of following research question:

“How systematically “dictation” helps students to improve academic writing?”

The pandemic period created new challenges for students in terms of academic achievement as well as social interaction which interferes with students’ well-being at school. It is known that engagement and interaction, communication and self-efficacy are key points for every EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learner. However, during distance learning, students lacked proper peer interaction, which negatively influenced productive skills development (speaking and writing). For new-coming students, who spent their first year at a new secondary school remotely, it was a double challenge as they experienced online communication with peers who they had never seen face-to-face before. Thus, in the post-pandemic period, teachers had to deal with an increased number of students who felt reluctant to communicate with each other.

Research purpose

The following research questions were shaping the study:

• To what extent have online lessons affected students’ collaboration skills?

• What are the ways of improving newcoming students’ deteriorated collaboration skills?

The analysis of pre-pandemic era literature have showed that most of the studies presented distance learning as a tool of self-paced autonomous learning (Jones and Chen, 2008; Abraham, 2007), however the remote learning experience during the pandemic period unveiled many drawbacks in terms of collaboration and engagement. Students experienced lack of face-to-face interaction, misunderstanding in social or educational networks, failure in group works, etc (Dragomir & Simon, 2021). Thus, “back to the classroom” period meant shift from autonomous learning to collaborative learning for students.

In addition, previous research shows that pair work is the main interaction type which is used in English lessons for developing students’ communicative skills. This method is found to be one of the most effective as it requires every student to participate in class discussions in comparison to group work, where some students might be less involved. Additionally, pair work enables silent students in a class to be enrolled in the discussion, and introverted students who are hesitant to talk in front of the class get a chance to express their viewpoints. Moreover, earlier studies show that engaging audible conversation takes place mainly during face-to-face interaction between students (Achmad, 2014). Besides improving language skills by correcting grammar mistakes or helping to choose appropriate words during the conversation, learners develop social skills like politeness, turn-taking, respect for each other, attentive listening, etc. (Phipps, 1999). Harmer (2014) and Storch (2013) mentioned the importance of effective organisation of pair work in the ESL classroom. According to Harmer (2014), the decision on putting students into pairs or groups could be based on principles like friendship, streaming, chance, task, changing groups, gender and status. Thus, it is clearly seen that the process of pair work in class should be held in accordance with the above-mentioned factors.

Therefore, the current study focuses on the importance of organising effective pair work in English lessons during the post-pandemic period.

It has been more than a decade since the trilingual policy was established in Kazakhstan for the nation's future prosperity and economic development. Russian and English languages for many students have become their second (L2) and third foreign (L3) languages along with the state Kazakh language taught in secondary schools. In adherence to legal requirements students are obliged to certify their level of language proficiency. The research on difficulties encountered by Russian and English language students in compulsory school settings, particularly in relation to reading, is limited and requires further exploration. Reading is a fundamental in four language skills in developing foreign language that helps to enhance vocabulary and grammar, ultimately playing a significant role in achieving language proficiency (Renandya et.al, 2009). According to recent PISA 2022 results by OECD (2023) Kazakhstani students demonstrated a minimum level of reading proficiency slightly similar to the previous results which is below the OECD average. Moreover, it widened the gap between the weakest and highest scoring students in comparison with 2018. It means that students mainly can define the main idea, purpose and form of the texts, but it is generally challenging for them to meet more complex criteria. Previous research has found that there are constructs that predict academic reading comprehension in various language learning settings (Uccelli, P. et.al., 2015, Wenjuan, Q., 2023). Moreover, there is a study on how L1 constructs have relation to L2 (Jarvis, S., & Pavlenko, A., 2008), however there has been limited exploration into the academic reading comprehension of students across two distinct language groups. Consequently, we employ Core Academic Language Skills (CALS) which are operational constructs designed to facilitate reading in context of language learning and teaching. Using adapted CALS as a study framework we decided to examine students' 1) understanding of complex words, 2) comprehension of complex sentences, and 3) organizing argumentative text. It attempts to identify their reading difficulties and assess academic reading skills related constructs in both L2 and L3 aiming to uncover factors that contribute to overall reading comprehension. This study seeks to understand the interrelationship between L2 and L3 and its constituent skills, particularly for multilingual students.

In this paper, the following research questions are addressed:

Do 11 grade students’ reading skills of academic texts vary by their second and third languages?

What language constructs predict reading comprehension of students in L2 and L3?

To what extent is there a correlation between L2 and L3 languages in the development of reading comprehension?

The effective functioning of a modern school in an Age of Uncertainty requires conscious creation of its culture, which, when shaped, ensures the school's implementation of its mission in a dynamically changing social, economic and cultural reality. Recognizing the possibility of influencing culture and shaping it in accordance with a given direction means focusing on identifying its elements subject to modification, learning about the factors conducive to cultural change and the possibilities and ways of carrying it out. School culture highlights specific aspects of school life and brings out the importance of "who we are" and " the way we do things around here" (Deal & Peterson, 2010). Research on school culture is one of the most interesting directions in the search for factors in the development and improvement of school organization (Hoy, 1990).

Many researchers agree that school culture is a crucial variable in school improvement (Deal & Peterson, 1999; Stoll & Fink, 1996).

Scientific analyzes regarding intra-school processes, referred to as "school culture", come from various disciplines and were initially associated with the concept of school life by Waller (1932), who noted that schools have an identity of their own, with complex rituals of personal relationships, a set of folkways, mores, irrational sanctions, and moral codes (see also: Maslowski, 2006; Schoen & Teddlie, 2008). The concept of organizational culture began to receive attention in the research communities (e.g., Deal & Kennedy, 1982; Ouchi, 1981) as a factor associated with organizational performance in the 1980s. Lack of early attention by researchers may be because culture is associated with taken-for-granted values, underlying assumptions, expectations, collective memories, and definitions in an organization (Cameron & Quinn, 1999, p. 14). Over the last few decades, the discussion on the concept of school culture has become an integral part of both the educational discourse ongoing in various circles and empirical studies devoted to school. Despite different interpretations of the category of school culture itself (see e.g. Deal & Peterson, 1999; Schoen & Teddlie, 2008; ), there is consensus among researchers that its cognitive value results from a comprehensive understanding of various aspects of everyday school life and is therefore helpful in learning and understanding the nature of school life and institutionalized education.

The aim of the poster presentation will be to present a research project on the cultures of alternative education schools, to discuss its conceptual assumptions and planned methodological solutions. The project is a team effort, prepared with the intention of identifying the cultures of selected institutions, defining their specificity and analyzing the interactions between individual dimensions and cultural elements. An equally important goal of research activities will be to compare the cultures of the studied institutions - to determine whether the teaching-learning environments, which are unique examples of innovative educational ventures, are clearly different and how this is expressed.

Learning about different educational proposals is cognitively fascinating, but also in the social interest. Typical human characteristics are activity, searching for new solutions, improving the existing reality, and this, in relation to the school reality, becomes particularly important due to the need to provide high-quality modern educational services. The planned research will primarily provide new knowledge and is therefore significant for building and developing school culture theory.

The concept of culture as applied to schools is difficult to define as well as to operationalize in research terms. That is why there are attempts to create different models of school culture with a promise of more comprehensive and coherent approach to school culture research (e.g. Kent, 2006; Brady, 2008; Schoen & Teddlie, 2008; Torres, 2022). Undoubtedly, the study of school culture is quite a challenge, not only because of the difficulty in operationalizing the object of analysis itself, or even because of the need for interdisciplinary profiling. The study of school culture requires reaching the subtle elements of the phenomenon being explored. Elements such as values, perceptions, experiences, feelings can be difficult to accurately capture quantitatively. However, taking them into account is necessary to build a coherent, complementary picture of the school environment.

Given these difficulties, researchers turn to metaphor as a tool of knowing the culture of the school. Metaphors can play a vital role in conceptualizing and reflecting the nature of learning and are used in establishing a connection between educational theories and personal beliefs (Leavy et al., 2007). From this point of view, metaphor is a beneficial tool in close examining teachers’ and students’ thoughts on their learning and teaching environment (Martinez et al., 2001; Saban, 2013). It is also a tool in the process of organizational assessment and change (Cleary & Packard, 1992).

Lakoff and Johnson (1980, p. 5) state that person’s perceptions of concepts are based on metaphors. They argue that the essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another. Educators use metaphors as a way to attract the students’ attention through comparing objects, reflecting on them in their mind and teaching them. Although the context for the development of values by young people has grown more complex and the possibilities for choice have expanded as a result of sociocultural development and globalization, schools still operate as major social environments where pupils share their beliefs, norms, values, and fears for a substantial part of their lives (Demir, 2007).

According to the social, cultural and economic conditions of the society, different metaphors emerged in the field of education, such as the school as a figurative factory, a plant, a social center, a welfare agency etc. (Bishop, 2019; Eshenkulova & Boobekova, 2022). Metaphors not only structure the way of thinking about schools but also help create a world of the school. Some researchers (e.g. Jordan, 1996) identified several powerful metaphors for schooling and school improvement that dominate the thinking of policy-makers, scholars and practitioners (Demir, 2007).

Transferring ideas about the school to other objects allows researchers to reach subtle elements of school culture which resist quantitative approaches. The aim of the poster presentation is to show a fragment of research material collected as part of a team project. The methods and tools used in this project provides an insight into the cultures of selected institutions: their specificity and the interactions between individual dimensions and cultural elements. This, in turn, allows to compare the cultures of selected non-public primary schools – schools "other than all".

The purpose of this study is to analyze the perceptions of two primary school students of school and schooling by examining the metaphors they produce. The process of verbalizing school experiences through a metaphorical description of them is a component of communication processes, but it can also be used for consensus, decision-making or persuasion. It makes it possible to discover existing beliefs that subjectively describe the functioning of the school, and which can be used as one of the sources of knowledge about it.

Because every European citizen should feel safe and be able to be themselves, recent legislative developments, case law and policy initiatives have been evoked to improve people’s lives and to build equal and welcoming societies, including for LGBTQIA+ people. Nevertheless, this has not always been translated into clear improvements in their lives. Discrimination against LGBTQIA+ people persists throughout the EU and they are still unable to be themselves without the risk of social exclusion and the feeling to be threatened. The European Union Fundamental Rights Agency’s (FRA) LGBT survey identified transgender persons as particularly vulnerable to hate crimes and unlikely to report them (EU-LGBTI II, 2020). Despite that, anti-trans violence has become the focus of attention in European and international policy discussions and research in recent years (e.g. the LGBTIQ Equality Strategy 2020-2025), there is still a need for more research focusing on the strengths and opportunities from the transgender persons' perspective. As many are still vulnerable to being bullied at school, experience gender-related violence in society and at home and are not being accepted by significant others. Parents of transgender persons report high levels of bullying, lack of attention for transgender persons in the anti-bullying policy at school, lack of understanding and exclusion from staff and inconvenient rules regarding bathroom use, school uniforms and sports participation (Johnson et al., 2014). This also has an impact on student learning. Therefore, efforts should be made to make secondary schools more transgender inclusive and supportive (Beemyn, 2012).

In this project, we aimed 1) to increase resilience of transgender youth within the school context and 2) to guide educational professionals on how they can combat and prevent violence and bullying against transgender youth. Both by developing a gender manifesto. We want to raise awareness and improve skills of educational professionals to counter stereotyping, stigmatization, pathologizing, discrimination, harassment and bullying affecting trans people. The research question of this project is: How can we enhance the resilience of transgender youth and develop a trans-sensitive environment in secondary schools through the use of a gender manifesto?

As such, we hope to facilitate community building at school. Community building consists of creating an inclusive school culture in which every individual feels at comfort. For this, a shared vision between teacher, (transgender) student and parents is essential and was captured in the manifesto. Research shows that there is a need for this type of approaches to make school-wide changes, rather than just focusing on the safety of the transgender community (Sergiovanni, 2022).

What makes this project innovative, is that it aims to strengthen the resilience of transgender youth (16-25 years old) in a bottom up manner, using a co-creative research approach, instead of victimizing transgender people (van Dijk-de Vries et al., 2020). Inspired by the Lundy Model of child participation, transgender youth received a voice, platform and safe space to influence society (Kennan et al., 2019). This can help to reduce the impact of victimization on the mental health of trans youth, helping them to speak openly about violence, feel more confident in coping with violence, to find social support and to report experiences of violence.

In this European CERV project educational professionals (n=6), transgender youth (n=5) and cis gender peers (n=4) were involved to create the manifesto. This gender manifesto describes how school teachers can broaden their view on gender education and how schools can make (minor) adjustments to meet the needs of transgender individuals.

Equality is currently one of the most debated aspects of the curriculum and the revisions of curricular documents and the educational strategies of all four analysed countries formulates gender and gender equality as an important issue to address (Ministerstvo školství, mládeže a tělovýchovy, 2020; Higher education authority, 2017; Ministry of Education and Research, 2021; Swedish government, 2018). It is also one of the key issue within strategies and policies produces by the European union concerning education and gender equality.

This study focuses on the topic of gender and gender equality in the curriculum of four countries whose curricular documents have recently been revised, or are in the process of revision, and which are characterized by diametrically different social discourse and level of gender equality (as indicated in Gender Equality Index conducted by the European Institute of Gender Equality) - Sweden, Ireland, Estonia and the Czech Republic (European Institute for Gender Equality, 2023). The study analyses and then compares the national curricular documents of all four countries, maps how and where the topic of gender and gender equality, as well as gender principles, are present and how they are thematized.

The aim of this study is to analyse various curricular documents from countries that score across the Gender equality index (both in overall results an withing the area of knowledge) from best to worst, to map if and how each curricular document integrate, thematize and conceptualize the topic of gender and gender equality. By studying national curricular documents and the ways in which gender and the principles of gender equality are integrated into these documents we can identify the examples of good practices, which can be inspiring during the process of curriculum revisions. Combining the results from various curricular documents will help create an analytical scheme, a categorical system that will be used as a tool to analyse curricular documents and to integrate different aspects of gender into curriculum.

Science provides reliable knowledge about the empirical world that is reproduced (also) in the school environment. It is therefore absolutely crucial that it includes the gender dimension and perspective (Harding, 2016) and the principles of gender equality.

Curricular documents are created different levels, this study analyses curriculum documents at the state (national) level (Dvořák, 2012).Gender and gender equality topics can be presented in the school environment within the intended curriculum as expressed in the official state curriculum documents (Dvořák, 2012). The study follows the aspects of feminist pedagogy and the notion that knowledge is a social construct. According to Lawton (1975), curriculum is a selection from culture and society and it is not possible for everything to appear here. Whether the issue of gender will be included in this selection depends on the approach of a particular society or culture to this topic (Elwood, 2016).

Mainstreaming gender equality into education within the European Union is one of the focuses of EU policies as we see that inequalities (in this case gender inequalities) are persistent in education in EU countries, although to a different level in each country (Driel, Donlevy & Melstveit Roseme, 2023). The focus of many studies dealing with the issue of gender (in)equalities in the education content is on textbooks and teaching materials with only few of them analysing the curricular documents.

The concept of "rape myths" emerged in the 1970s, from feminist and sociological theories (Schwendinger, Schwendinger, 1974; Brownmiller, 1975). The term was created to explain a set of cultural beliefs, rooted in sexual aggression against girls and women (Payne et al. 1999). The researcher, who developed one of the first diagnostic tools to study the phenomenon, defined rape myths as "prejudices, stereotypes or false beliefs about rape, rape victims or rapists" (Burt, 1980, p. 129). A similar definition, but broader, was proposed by Lonsway and Fitzgerald (1994), who described rape myths as ‘attitudes and beliefs that are generally false but widely and persistently held, and that serve to deny and justify male sexual aggression against women’ (p. 134). Furthermore, rape myths are designed to perpetuate sexual violence by blaming the victim, absolving the perpetrator, and rationalizing acts of sexual aggression. In addition, they serve to blame the victim, acquit the perpetrator, and downplay the seriousness of sexual violence.

Research on the existence and impact of rape myths today is extensive, making it clear that the widespread acceptance of rape myths spans diverse societies, cultures, and diverse social groups. Rape myths are dynamic risk factors that contribute to violent behavior and influence people's perceptions of acts of sexual assault, victims as well as rapists. They also play a role in maintaining false beliefs about sexual violence. Rape myths influence the widespread tendency to trivialize and naturalize the problem of sexual violence, to despise victims, and to devalue them.

The primary aim of the systematic research review is to precisely identify, analyze, and comprehend prevailing rape myths in Europe. Furthermore, its aim is to delineate the functioning of myths concerning sexual assault and identify factors influencing their prevalence. Our goal is to gain a deeper understanding of the cultural and social aspects associated with this phenomenon.

We have identified the main research questions as the subject of our study:

1. What factors contribute to the perpetuation of myths about rape in Europe?
2. What are the mechanisms related to the functioning of rape myths in European societies?
3. What are the most common contemporary rape myths in Europe?
4. What educational and pedagogical solutions do researchers propose in this area?

Understanding and debunking these myths is crucial for fostering a safer and more informed society. By unraveling the deeply ingrained cultural beliefs associated with sexual aggression, educational efforts can address and challenge these misconceptions. In essence, these research endeavors not only contribute to academic knowledge but also hold immense potential for shaping educational practices, fostering a society that rejects harmful beliefs, and creating safer environments for all.

Despite the equal talent of girls in STEM, they are less likely to choose STEM-related fields, a trend reflected in the labour market. To address this societal challenge in education, we developed the Gender Sensitive Education Checklist (GSEC) and corresponding workshop. This reflection tool for teachers focuses on 4 pillars on which teachers can focus. The GESC helps them make timely adjustments to their lessons, supporting all children, regardless of their gender, more effectively in their STEM careers.

The four pillars of the checklist

Awareness of gender biases is crucial for gender equity. Teachers should avoid a so called “gender blind” attitude (Garrahy, 2001) that overlooks gender differences and historical disparities. Recognizing how our thoughts and actions are changing, depending on the gender of the pupil that we’re interacting with, is the first step in creating gender-sensitive STEM lessons (Consuegra et al., 2013). Therefore, ‘awareness’ forms the first pillar of the Gender Sensitive Education Checklist (GSEC), which includes reflective questions for teachers.

The second pillar focuses on girls’ representation in technology. Early imaging and framing in STEM are often formed by stereotypes about boys’ superiority in STEM, which can deter girls (Brown, 2021). Therefor, critically examining study materials for these stereotypes and implementing positive female role models can influence attitudes of all students (Cheryan et al., 2011; Smeding 2012).

Classroom interactions, the third pillar, are influenced by gender biases (Consuegra et al., 2016). Stereotypical language (example: “I need 2 strong boys”) can reinforce existing stereotypes (Rhodes et al., 2019). Implementing small changes can boost girls’ interest in STEM, such as explicitly addressing the female word for a profession instead of the regular ‘male’ form (in Dutch: there is a female and male word for most professions).

The fourth pillar pertains to pedagogical methodologies. The integration of students’ personal experiences into the curriculum can enhance engagement and performance, particularly for those with diminished expectations of success (Hulleman & Harackiewicz, 2009). A STEM curriculum contextualized within societal and experiential frameworks appears to be favored by female students as it strengthens the idea of being able to make a significant societal contribution. Previous research suggests that female students exhibit heightened motivation when provided with opportunities to design and conduct their own investigations (Ardies et al, 2015).

The workshops

We organised workshops to foster gender sensitivity in STEM education, introducing the checklist. This two-hour workshop systematically overviewed all pillars: general gender awareness, imaging girls, classroom interactions, and teaching methods. Theoretical underpinnings and relevance were elucidated, punctuated with practical examples and participant interaction. The workshop’s design ensured effective elements like context-specific approaches and reflective practice. Utilizing appreciative inquiry we facilitated the transition from current reality to a gender-sensitive STEM future, resulting in tangible plans and growth areas.

Summarizing the results

This study, conducted with 58 participants who participated in the workshop using the GESC, aimed to support gender-sensitive teaching in STEM through a checklist and workshop. The checklist was found useful for organizing gender-sensitive lessons, and suggestions for wider dissemination were made. Most teachers found the workshop valuable and reported changes in their behaviour. However, these changes were self-reported and not measured directly. More professional development options are recommended, as one workshop may not lead to sustainable changes in attitudes and behaviour. Longer, more in-depth professional development courses could provide more support (Merchie et al., 2016). Despite some teachers expressing doubts about reusing the checklist, most participants gained new insights and intended to make behavioural changes for a more inclusive classroom. Thus, the checklist and workshop show promise in promoting gender sensitivity in STEM education.

A healthy and thriving democratic society needs active, informed, and responsible citizens (European Commission/EACEA/Eurydice, 2017), in which Citizenship Education (CE) plays an important role. CE prepares students for active engagement in social and political life, while fostering respect for the participation of others (Geijsel et al., 2012). Schools, functioning as miniature societies, provide opportunities for students to reflect on and engage with issues related to citizenship and democracy (Joris, 2022) and facilitate the development of students’ participatory and decision-making skills (Godfrey & Grayman, 2014). In this setting, schools cultivate real-world citizenship practices that enable students to apply theoretical knowledge in practical situations. Lawy and Biesta (2006) make a clear distinction within CE, highlighting the difference between ‘citizenship-as-achievement' and ‘citizenship-as-practice'. Citizenship-as-achievement represents a narrow interpretation of citizenship, suggesting that young people should act and behave in a certain way to achieve their citizenship status. This study approaches CE as an ongoing developmental practice, where citizenship-as-practice encompasses various aspects, including daily activities, behaviours, and engagements that collectively contribute to one’s sense of being a citizen. Citizenship-as-practice provides a more robust and inclusive framework for understanding and supporting young people’s citizenship learning, removing the distinction between citizens and not-yet-citizens (Lawy & Biesta, 2006).

In this perspective, all citizens should have the opportunity to develop citizenship competences, such as civic knowledge, political behaviour, societal involvement, and democratic attitudes. However, research has shown that these competences are unequally distributed among student groups based on cognitive level, gender, family socio-economic status, and ethnic background (Geijsel et al., 2012; Nieuwelink et al., 2019; Thijs et al., 2019). In other words, opportunities to practice and develop citizenship are not equally accessible to all students, and thus the way CE is enacted in schools often reproduces social inequalities (Rinnooy Kan et al., 2021). For example, research indicates that objectives and practices within CE can differ between different educational tracks, with pre-vocational students having fewer opportunities to engage in discussions or debates about everyday activities and socio-political issues compared to those in the pre-academic track (Nieuwelink et al., 2019). In addition, Campbell's (2008) study shows that school exacerbates existing differences in political knowledge, which is detrimental to the development of democratic and political attitudes. Furthermore, a global trend of increasing diversity in student populations, both academically and socio-culturally, challenges educational institutions to create inclusive and equitable environments within CE (Rinnooy Kan et al., 2021).

These developments call for a close examination of how a citizenship-as-practice approach can address social inequalities in citizenship learning practices and thus contribute to the citizenship competences of all students. Previous review studies (Campbell, 2019; Donbavand & Hoskins, 2021; Geboers et al., 2013) have enhanced our understanding of the effects of CE on different competences. However, as CE is not available to all students in the same way or to the same extent, there is a need for a systematic review that addresses inequalities in students’ CE and how schools can address them. The aim of this systematic review is to address this knowledge gap and to deepen our understanding of the following two questions: (1) What are the inequalities in students’ CE?, and (2) How can schools contribute to enhancing equality in students’ CE? The findings of this study have the potential to inform educational policy and practice and promote more equitable opportunities for all students to develop citizenship competences. In summary, this review contributes to the ongoing educational discourse on creating inclusive and participatory democratic societies through citizenship learning practices.