Education and Learning in the Context of the New Normal: Sustainable Development and the Path to Sustainability

Background: During the school years, many contextual and academic scenarios ensue that demand students mobilise their intrapersonal and social abilities. The way these situations are faced will determine the future personality of teenage students. This study aims to analyse the relationship between self-esteem and self-efficacy and the possible mediating role of satisfaction with life in secondary school students. Methods: The study comprises 816 participants, both male (N = 426; 52.20%) and female (N = 390; 47.89%) from 11 private and public secondary schools. The instruments used are the Academic Self-Efficacy Scale (ASES), the Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale (RSES) and the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS). Results: The results reveal a gender difference in terms of self-esteem and significant correlations between the three constructs under consideration. Self-esteem is found to play a mediating role between self-efficacy and life satisfaction. Conclusion: The study reveals that self-esteem has significant influence in self-efficacy and life satisfaction in adolescents and in the mediating role that self-esteem plays in the relationship between the other two constructs. This emphasises the importance of building self-esteem towards the personal and psychological development of students. Full article

This study aimed to evaluate the Adaptive Learning Framework (Alef) platform and determine how parents perceive the implementation of such a program to support their children’s learning. Alef is a smart learning program that is mandated in United Arab Emirates (UAE) public schools to promote student-centered, interactive, and differentiated learning and personalized experiences. The participants were parents of students enrolled in grades 9–12 in UAE public high schools. The study used semi-structured interviews to gather qualitative data to delve deeply into parents’ perceptions of how Alef supports their children’s learning. The results showed that Alef offers stimulating and engaging educational experiences and encourages independent learning. It was found that students’ learning was bolstered when using Alef. In addition, the results indicated the existence of some challenges stemming from the usage of Alef that could have an impact on students’ learning and motivation and, ultimately, the sustainability of such a program. Recommendations are provided to overcome these challenges. Full article

Ensuring the success of medical students in post-baccalaureate training is crucial for providing sustainable, high-quality healthcare worldwide. However, international medical students encounter unique sustainability challenges that may affect their ability to learn and excel in medical schools. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate and assess the key attributes of learning styles and attitudes among first- and second-year medical students from a university in Southern Taiwan using the Attitudes Toward Thinking and Learning Survey (ATTLS). In November 2022, a cross-sectional survey and purposive sampling were used to recruit all 43 international medical students. Factor analysis was employed to identify and simplify complex personality traits associated with learning styles and attitudes. The resulting four-factor solution, which accounted for 70.364% of the total variance, was labeled as follows: Factor 1 “Understanding, Interaction Insights, and Empathy”, Factor 2 “Respect, Trust, and an Objective and Rational Vision of Multicultural Diversity”, Factor 3 “Comment, Debate, and Declare One’s Position”, and Factor 4 “Critical Thinking, Logical and Rational Problem Solving, and Rigorous Inference”. This study highlights the significance of connected knowers, who possess both Factor 1 and Factor 2, in providing holistic empathy and multicultural insight for future pedagogy. The four factors identified in this research can serve as a guide for developing teaching strategies that consider students’ diverse learning preferences and needs. By cultivating connected knowers, this research contributes to the sustainable improvement of pedagogical quality and the reduction of non-intellectual challenges in the classroom. Full article

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic forced a rapid transition of K-16 education to remote and online learning in the final quarter of the 2019–2020 school year. The disruption was extreme for all teachers in K-12 but particularly for teachers involved in pilot programs, such as the NSF-funded Engineering for Us All (e4usa) project. This paper reports the key findings obtained through systematic data collection from a pilot cohort of high school teachers who adapted a brand-new engineering curriculum during the COVID-19 pandemic, students who experienced the adapted curriculum, and a new cohort of teachers who were tasked with teaching the updated curriculum. Full article

This study aims to validate self-regulated writing strategies for advanced EFL learners through a structural equation modeling analysis. Two sets of advanced, university-level EFL learners in China were recruited on the basis of results from a nationwide standardized English test. Sample 1 consisted of 214 advanced learners and served mainly as a data source for exploratory factor analysis. Sample 2 consisted of 303 advanced learners; data from this group were used to conduct confirmatory factor analyses. The results confirmed the goodness of fit of the hierarchical, multidimensional structure of self-regulated writing strategies. This hierarchic model has the higher order of self-regulation and the second order of nine self-regulated writing strategies that belong to four dimensions. In terms of model comparisons, the indices of Model 1 (nine-factor correlated model of EFL writing strategies for SRL) and Model 2 (four-factor second-order model of EFL writing strategies for SRL) mark significant improvements in terms of fit over the indices of Model 3 (one-factor second-order model of EFL writing strategies for SRL). This means the four-factor model (cognition, metacognition, social behavior, and motivational regulation) offered a better explanation for advanced EFL learners than the model treating self-regulated writing strategies as a single convergent factor. These findings, in some ways, differ from the results of earlier research on EFL learners’ self-regulated writing strategies, and the findings of this study have certain implications for L2 writing teaching and learning. Full article

During the COVID-19 pandemic, entire university courses were moved online. This represented a challenge for universities, who were required to move toward an entirely online learning environment without adequate time to manage the change from traditional courses to online courses. However, beyond the emergency of the pandemic, higher education does increasingly incorporate an online learning element, and such a provision does appear to reflect both the desires of modern-day students and university offerings. For this reason, assessing students’ online engagement is fundamental, not least because it has been seen to be related both to students’ satisfaction and their academic achievement. A validated measure of student online engagement does not exist in Italy. Therefore, this study aims to assess both the factor structure and the validity of the Online Student Engagement (OSE) Scale in the Italian context. A convenience sample of 299 undergraduate university students completed a series of online questionnaires. The Italian OSE scale presents good psychometric properties and represents a valuable instrument for both practitioners and researchers examining students’ engagement in online learning. Full article

The curriculum is a dynamic and continuous process that must be adapted to the requirements and needs of specific contexts to respond to current problems. Currently, it is estimated that more than 828 million people in the world suffer from hunger, so food security must be based on the production and availability of food and physical and economic access to food, as well as its safety. For the above, this research aims to propose a curricular innovation to the professional competences of the study program of the Agricultural Technician (TAP) that is offered in the Agricultural Technological Baccalaureate Centers to train technicians who contribute to food security in the region. A methodology with a mixed perspective with a qualitative approach and descriptive exploratory character was used. Based on the primary information and data collection, it was possible to specify and substantiate a curricular proposal according to the training needs of specialized technicians, who develop professional skills to promote food security, the establishment of agricultural production system, management of livestock production systems, operation of agro-industrial production system, and the design and execution of projects to promote the cultivation of food from small-scale families. Full article

Environmental attitudes are supportive for learning about the environment and for pro-environmental engagement. The question, then, is how to strengthen and establish environmental attitudes. Based on a sample of 429 middle and high school students, we investigated the effect of self-determination-based motivation on environmental attitude. While high levels of self-determination (i.e., intrinsic motivation) positively affected pro-environmental attitude (β = 0.40), low levels of self-determination (i.e., external regulation) negatively affected attitude (β = –0.31). Our data further pointed to a distinct trajectory of self-determination and inclusion of nature throughout adolescence (high scores for 12-year-olds that decline to a minimum around 15–16-years old); a trend that has already been shown for environmental attitude. Such a dip might help derive teaching recommendations in environmental education, e.g., by supporting high scores in time to attenuate a decline. Further teaching recommendations include strengthening students’ self-determination through their basic needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness). Full article

The current wave of technological development globally necessitates certain entrepreneurial abilities for most professionals to succeed in the job market. This paper explores the factors influencing entrepreneurial skills acquisition amongst rural university students in Nigeria and South Africa. The strategic goal of setting up rural universities is to enhance the human capital of the host communities. As a result, an attempt is made to pinpoint challenges that stand in the way of achieving this objective. Data was gathered using a quantitative research methodology. A self-designed questionnaire was used to obtain primary data from 1088 randomly selected third-year students. The study’s outcome indicates that the acquisition of entrepreneurial competencies amongst undergraduates in the two higher education institutions was impacted by a number of similar factors, such as the university support system, campus entrepreneurial network, family background, availability of mentors, and entrepreneurship education curriculum. The study focuses on the necessity for universities to address skill shortages among undergraduates. Thus, the results could serve as a guide for policymakers on how to motivate rural university students to obtain globally relevant skills. Full article

Currently, there is concern about following an active and healthy lifestyle in the adolescent population. This is why the present research aims to conduct a systematic review covering the period 2017–2022 in order to analyse the levels of physical activity and adherence to the Mediterranean diet in the adolescent population. A search of the scientific literature was carried out in the Web of Sciences and Scopus databases during the month of December 2022. The search was carried out in the main collection of the database, limiting the time range to the last five years (2017–2022). The following structure was used to carry out the research search: “Physical Activit*” and “Mediterranean Diet” and “Adolescents”. In conclusion, it has been noted that the practice of any sport shows numerous benefits in anthropometric, respiratory, and physical factors. In addition, increased physical activity time is positively associated with increased adherence to the Mediterranean Diet, which has numerous academic, physical, and psychological health benefits. Full article

The current study investigates the Simple Model of Environmental Citizenship (SMEC) in a representative sample of Lithuanian emerging adults. The SMEC is a practical model of assessing environmental citizenship and is intended to be simple to use in interventions and longitudinal research. A total of 700 individuals (50% female) with a mean age of 30.6 years participated in the survey. The participants filled in a questionnaire comprising measures assessing all the components of the SMEC as well as a personality trait measure. Participants were clustered by their personality traits and the resulting profiles were used as a moderator for the SMEC. The results revealed that the SMEC functions differently for individuals possessing different personality trait patterns and that in order to promote environmental citizenship or to engage in education for environmental citizenship, different strategies might be more effective for different individuals. Full article

Drinking water is a scarce resource and the problems associated with its poor management and conservation are generating significant imbalances in the well-being of society, human health, and the environment. This research paper aims to determine the level of environmental awareness of primary school students in Spain (n = 95) of the management, use, and sustainable care of water, before and after applying a training program that allows working on the contents of water, from the different dimensions and shortcomings of environmental awareness identified in the paper. The study was undertaken from a mixed Research and Development approach (R&D), with an exploratory sequential design [QUAL(quan) → QUAL(quan)], in which, initially, a qualitative content analysis of the students’ drawings was carried out, to subsequently apply a number of complementary quantitative analyses. The qualitative phase involved the elaboration of a mixed category (deductive-inductive) system that allowed for the organization and interpretation of the information obtained. The results of this work reveal low levels of knowledge about the integral water cycle. Primary school students also show a low degree of responsibility towards water issues. The conclusions of this study point to the need to address content related to water care and conservation in the educational curriculum from a multidimensional and interdisciplinary approach, in order to understand the origin and impact of water problems. Full article

As one of the important ways to cultivate internationalized and highly competitive talents, Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools (CFCRS) is very significant to education for sustainable development (ESD). From the perspective of ESD, we developed a teaching quality evaluation model using 18 indicators in 4 dimensions: resource input, faculty environment, teaching process, and teaching outcome. The DANP (Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory-Based Analytic Network Process) method is used to explore the mutual influence relationship of teaching quality in CFCRS, and the TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution) method is used in this empirical study. The results show that the evaluation dimensions listed by impact level from big to small are as follows: teaching outcome, teaching process, faculty environment, and resource input. Among them, resource input and faculty environment are the cause dimensions, while teaching process and teaching outcome are the result dimensions. Academic support is the most influential indicator, followed by teaching resource and teaching management, and the teacher’s nationality is the least influential indicator. The CFCRS A of a comprehensive university in the developed region of China has the highest comprehensive score, followed by the CFCRS C of an applied science and technology university and CFCRS B of a comprehensive university in the underdeveloped region. The teaching quality of CFCRS can be improved by increasing the frequency of academic activities, strengthening teacher training, reinforcing curriculum and discipline management, and encouraging students to participate in competitions and paper publications. Full article

Background: Around the world, the emergency brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic forced medical schools to create numerous e-learning supplements to provide instruction during this crisis. The question now is to determine a way in which to capitalize on this momentum of digitization and harness the medical e-learning content created for the future. We have analyzed the transition of a pathology course to an emergency remote education online course and, in the second step, applied a flipped classroom approach including research skills training. Methods: In the summer semester of 2020, the pathology course at the Technical University of Munich was completely converted to an asynchronous online course. Its content was adapted in winter 2021 and incorporated into a flipped classroom concept in which research skills were taught at the same time. Results: Screencasts and lecture recordings were the most popular asynchronous teaching formats. Students reported developing a higher interest in pathology and research through group work. The amount of content was very challenging for some students. Conclusion: Flipped classroom formats are a viable option when using pre-existing content. We recommend checking such content for technical and didactic quality and optimizing it if necessary. Content on research skills can be combined very well with clinical teaching content. Full article