Student dropouts led to a squandering of the education budget. The education system and society are significantly affected, particularly in terms of potential development. To ensure vocational students graduate and secure satisfactory employment in line with the field of study. Implementing a comprehensive system that encompasses promoting, supporting, preventing, and resolving various student issues is essential. This system includes close, meticulous care and support, timely and appropriate interventions, enhancement of life skills, guidance, and holistic student development. This research found that the risk factors in the teaching and learning process account for 90.78 percent of the reasons scholarship students drop out of the education system; there are instances of absenteeism, inappropriate behavior, and a dislike for the teacher and the subject they are teaching. Additionally, the care and support system for vocational students at risk of dropping out consists of four components: Component 1: living care; Component 2: dropout protection; Component 3: counseling and advising; and Component 4: transfer to support. The empirical evaluation of the care and support system for students concluded that the overall assessment was highly suitable. The information should be utilized for planning and policymaking in educational institutions.

This paper explores the potential of Eye Movement Miscue Analysis (EMMA) as a method to evaluate the complexity of picturebooks as reading material for primary school children. While EMMA has been applied to examine reading processes and strategies, this paper reports on the first study using EMMA to examine classroom picturebook complexity and its implications for developing readers. This research found EMMA method revealed specific nuances for understanding children’s reading practices in response to the complexity of the text at hand. Drawing together an internationally established reading teaching resource, the text complexity guide (Pinnell & Fountas, 2007) with miscue analysis reading assessment and eye movement technology, this research sought to gain insights into potential areas of complexity or challenge in picturebooks commonly available in Australian school libraries and classrooms. The method shared here examines text complexity ratings, children’s reading performance, and eye movements, as they read in natural classroom settings. Analysis of children’s reading miscues revealed that readers encountered challenges not anticipated through the use of the text complexity guide. Argued in this paper is that EMMA methodologies could extend understandings about text complexity beyond established frameworks and hence guide future assessments.

This study delved into Terry Borton’s reflective model and 7E instructional model to produce comprehensive and guided tools that fit as observation and reflective tools for enhancing learners’ engagement and outcomes in Mathematics lessons. The aim was to gather insights that can inform strategies to adapt Borton’s model to produce tools to be used to observe and analyse 7E model-based Mathematics lessons to contribute to improved student outcomes. Literature information was used to explore, analyse, and synthesise the study’s related existing theories and models to provide a deeper understanding of constraints and prompt question descriptors to produce 21st-century tools to observe and reflect on a Mathematics lesson. After comparing different prompt question descriptors from different literature and Borton’s model, concise descriptors were retained for educational purposes to be analysed, considering the 7E model phases, to produce the guided tools. As a result, two products. “Classroom Observation-Guided Tool”, which includes a guided tool table with a last column for the observer to write comments during class. This column is used to identify gaps in student engagement and learning practices across the 7E phases, which may have been misused. The “Post-Lesson Discussion Guided Tool”, to make a positive post-lesson discussion session, enabling teachers to identify areas for improvement in student engagement to achieve better outcomes next time. Other researchers can study the applicability of 21st-century observation and reflection-guided tools to other subjects, exploring their long-term impact on teacher professional development to improve overall student achievement across all school subjects.

This qualitative study explored the implementation of Differentiated Instruction (DI) in Philippine multigrade classrooms with the aim of understanding teachers’ experiences, strategies, and challenges, as well as developing a performance appraisal tool. Guided by its specific objectives, the research examined how teachers plan, deliver, and manage differentiated lessons while addressing the diverse learning needs of students across multiple grade levels. Findings revealed that effective DI is rooted in intentional instructional planning, including learner profiling, curriculum mapping, and flexible pacing. Instructional delivery was enriched through the use of thematic and multimodal strategies, ability-based groupings, and contextually relevant teaching aids, although technological access and training remained persistent barriers. Classroom management practices emphasized inclusive routines, peer collaboration, and adaptive learning spaces. Teachers also highlighted the importance of assessment tools and reflective teaching practices in continuously improving instruction. In response to these findings, the study developed the Multigrade Differentiated Instruction Performance Appraisal Tool (MDI-PAT), which synthesizes theoretical frameworks with authentic classroom practices. The MDI-PAT serves as both a self-assessment and professional development guide for multigrade educators, promoting ongoing improvement in DI competencies. The study concludes that enhancing teacher capacities in planning, delivery, assessment, classroom management, and reflective practice is essential for fostering inclusive and effective learning environments in multigrade contexts. The insights and tools presented provide a practical framework for educational stakeholders seeking to enhance multigrade instruction in resource-constrained settings.

The personalization of learning and teaching processes represents an advanced approach to education that adapts content, pace, and teaching methods to the individual needs and preferences of students. This approach relies on analyzing diverse student characteristics, such as their knowledge level, progress, learning style, and interests. Achieving these goals is significantly supported by the use of information and communication technology, which facilitates and enhances the implementation of personalization in technology-enhanced learning (TEL). The primary objective of personalization is to increase student engagement, motivation, and support in achieving learning outcomes through individualized learning paths, real-time progress tracking, and feedback. This systematic literature review examines existing personalization approaches in secondary and higher education, supported by technology. The study investigates their effectiveness and provides recommendations for future research. Results reveal that personalized teaching methods—primarily through recommender systems, adaptive learning platforms, and algorithm-driven models—are effective in tailoring educational experiences by leveraging diverse student data, such as demographics, prior achievements, learning styles, and digital engagement. The review shows a predominant focus on higher education, particularly in subjects related to computer science and digital technologies. Quantitative evaluations complemented by qualitative insights, consistently indicate that personalization enhances content mastery, motivation, and overall satisfaction, with no significant negative effects identified.

This study aimed to develop and validate a comprehensive core competency assessment instrument specifically designed for undergraduate students at a research-focused university. Despite growing emphasis on competency-based education (CBE), there are limited psychometrically sound tools tailored to evaluate students’ level of core competencies in research-intensive universities. The current study proceeded in three phases: (a) development of a conceptual framework comprising six core competencies: Integrated Thinking, Knowledge Inquiry, Creative Integration, Global Citizenship, Communication & Collaboration, and Self-Management; (b) item generation and expert validation; and (c) validation through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. The final instrument included 77 items across the six competencies. CFA confirmed adequate model fit (CFI = .934–.957; RMSEA = .057–.088). The results showed that the validated instrument can provide a reliable and comprehensive assessment for students' core competencies in research-oriented university settings. This instrument can provide guidelines for developing competency-based education (CBE) curricula in higher education, as well as criteria for evaluating and refining existing CBE programs. This instrument functions as both a psychometrically robust assessment tool and a practical guide for institutional enhancement. It enables precise measurement of students’ core competencies, offering evidence that can inform curriculum design, academic advising, and policy development. In addition, the validated framework lays a strong groundwork for future research to investigate the long-term effects of competency-based education on student achievement, career readiness, and personal development across various higher education settings.

Teachers’ self-efficacy in classroom management is essential to their professional identity and teaching quality. While contextual factors shape these beliefs, the role of pre-service teachers’ perceptions of teacher education courses in influencing self-efficacy through their classroom management beliefs remains underexplored. This study expands self-efficacy theory by proposing an integrated model in which beliefs serve as both a mediator and a moderator between course perceptions and classroom management self-efficacy, particularly in inclusive classrooms. It builds on previous evidence that pre-service teachers’ beliefs about proactive strategies partially mediate the relationship between their course perceptions and capability beliefs in proactive management practices. This leads to the proposal of a moderated mediation model to explore a more nuanced relationship by investigating whether pre-service teachers’ punishment-oriented classroom management beliefs alter the strength and direction of this partial mediation effect. Data collected online from 480 pre-service teachers enrolled in State University and National Colleges of Education in Sri Lanka, which were used in the previous study, were analyzed using SmartPLS4 structural equation modeling. The findings indicate that punishment-based beliefs negatively moderated the indirect partial effect of pre-service teachers’ perceptions of classroom management training on their self-efficacy for inclusive classroom management, mediated by preventative beliefs. This positive indirect effect was significant only when reactive punishment-based beliefs were at low to moderate levels. These findings suggest that an overreliance on reactive strategies diminishes the beneficial influence of teacher education on self-efficacy in implementing preventive measures for inclusive classroom management. The results emphasize the importance of fostering proactive beliefs through targeted training within initial teacher education programs, supported by dedicated engagement from teacher educators and policymakers.  

Educational researchers, as well as researchers in other disciplines, often work with ordinal data, such as Likert item responses and test item scores. Critical questions arise when researchers attempt to implement statistical models to analyse ordinal data, given that many statistical techniques assume the data analysed to be continuous. Could ordinal data be treated as continuous data, that is, assuming the ordinal data to be continuous and then applying statistical techniques as if analysing continuous data? Why and why not? Focusing on structural equation models (SEMs), particularly confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), this article discusses an ongoing debate on the treatment of ordinal data and reports a short review on the practices of conducting and reporting SEMs, in the context of mathematics education research. The author reviewed 70 publications in mathematics education research that reported a study involving SEMs to analyse ordinal data, but less than half discussed how data were treated or guided readers through the analysis; it is therefore harder to repeat such an analysis and evaluate the results. This article invites methodological discussions on SEMs with ordinal variables in the practices of educational research. Subsequently, a standard for reporting SEMs with ordinal data is proposed, followed by an example. This standard contributes to educational research by enabling researchers (self and others) to evaluate SEMs reported. The example demonstrates, using real-life research data, how two different approaches for analysing ordinal data (as continuous or as a product of discretisation from some continuous distributions) can lead to results that disagree.

Analysis of student grades and demographic data to understand the effects of modality and Covid-19 on academic performance is important for universities to understand the impact these factors may have on course grades. This study analyzes all the 615,964 complete undergraduate student-course records from Kennesaw State University (KSU) spanning from 2015 to 2024 to examine the impact of course modality and the Covid-19 pandemic on academic performance. The population dataset includes student demographics (e.g., sex, age, ethnicity), prior GPA, and course characteristics (e.g., department, modality). Descriptive statistics and trend analyses were employed to evaluate grade outcomes across in-person, online, and hybrid modalities over the 9-year period. Results indicate a temporary increase in mean course grades during the Covid-19 period, followed by a return to the pre-pandemic upward trend. Hybrid courses consistently exhibited the highest mean grades throughout the study period. However, consistent patterns across modalities, demographics, and academic units suggest that these factors have limited influence on grade outcomes. These findings raise questions about the reliability of GPA and course grades as indicators of learning success across different instructional contexts and student populations.