In the future, vocational students will face all changes and developments in technology and information. In this context, students' digital literacy skills need to be trained to adapt to the demands of the world of work. This article aims to present the results of a study on factors that can improve the digital literacy practice for vocational students as a roadmap for digital learning in the current era. The sampling technique used purposive random sampling of 8 Vocational Schools in East Java Province, Indonesia. The number of respondents in this study amounted to 355 second-year students. The study has found that online learning, motivation, and technology introduction are influenced by students' digital literacy practices, while teacher readiness and infrastructure must be mediated by online learning. The findings in this study indicate that collaboration from various parties is needed from teachers, school administrators, and policymakers in planning learning that focuses on students' digital abilities.

The accuracy of assessing the capabilities of the process and product in chemical practice activities requires appropriate measurement procedures to be followed. It is crucial to identify the components that can introduce bias while measuring student abilities during the measurement process. This study aims to identify the components or criteria used by teachers to assess student performance in practicum activities and analyze the quality of the rubrics developed. The study was conducted with the participation of three raters, 27 high school students, and nine assessment criteria. A quantitative descriptive approach was employed using the many-facet Rasch model (MFRM) analysis for measurement. The results of the MFRM analysis show no significant measurement bias, with data measurement facets fitting the MFRM model. The reliability of all the facets meets the criteria, and the scale predictor functions appropriately. While all students can easily pass four out of nine items, five items can only be partially passed by students. The assessment criteria that require special attention include communication skills, tools and assembly, interpretation, cleanliness, and accuracy when performing practicums. These criteria provide feedback for teachers and students to ensure successful practicum activities. The Discussion section of this study delves into the findings and their implications.

This study investigates whether digital competency and self-leadership influence teachers’ innovative work behavior in Islamic International schools. The participants in the quantitative research were 108 teachers from the Islamic International School, who were selected using saturated sampling. The researchers used a 41 items questionnaire to collect data on the study variables. Quantitative data were analyzed by applying structural equation modeling partial least squares (SEM-PLS) using Smart-PLS 3. According to the study's findings, digital competency has a positive and significant impact on innovative work behavior, while self-leadership also has a positive impact that significantly influences innovative work behavior. Overall, the impact of digital competency and self-leadership simultaneously was 0.584 or 58.4%, while the other variables not tested in this study influenced the other 41.6%. This research emphasizes schools to improve building their teachers’ innovative work behavior and for teachers themselves through training, self-development programs, building knowledge sharing among teachers and school leaders, and open ideas about developing pedagogical and sustainable programs for schools.

This study aimed to compare and examine the effectiveness of interactive STEM learning and paper-and-pencil STEM learning in terms of mathematical literacy skills of elementary school students. This research is of a quasi-experimental type with a non-equivalent pretest-posttest control group design. Sampling was carried out on the elementary school populations in Bengkulu and South Sumatra Provinces in two stages. In the first stage, schools in rural and urban areas were selected, and in the second, classes in each school were randomly selected. The selected sample consisted of fifth-grade students of the Public Elementary School of Terawas, Musi Rawas, with an experimental class A (n = 20) and an experimental class B (n = 19), as well as fifth-grade students of the Public Elementary School of Bengkulu City, with an experimental class A (n = 25) and an experimental class B (n = 22). Data collection was conducted using mathematical literacy skills tests in reference to the PISA and Minimum Competency Assessment (level 1–3). Data analysis was performed using descriptive and inferential statistics; it employed an independent t-test for the comparative testing and an N-gain test for testing the effectiveness of STEM learning. The results showed that there were differences in math literacy skills between interactive STEM and paper-and-pencil STEM for students in urban schools, but not significantly different for students in rural schools. General STEM learning was effective in increasing the literacy of elementary school students, and interactive STEM in particular demonstrated the highest level of effectiveness in the urban school.

21st-century learning requires teachers and students to integrate literacy skills, scientific literacy, mathematics, reading, writing, and technology in the learning process. Students must have initiative, discipline, responsibility, confidence, motivation for independent learning, and the ability to think critically about the problems presented. This study aims to determine students' autonomous knowledge and critical thinking abilities (CTA) using mobile learning technology (MLT). This research is a quantitative study involving 83 students from four junior high schools in the city of Mataram. The data collection for independent learning and students' CTA was carried out by giving tests and non-tests to students. The test conducted was a written test in the form of a description of 10 questions covering indicators of CTA. The non-test was conducted by giving a student learning independence questionnaire with as many as 15 statements, including five indicators of learning independence. This quantitative research data analysis uses the Rash modeling application with the help of Ministep software. The analysis results show that the learning independence of male and female students in the four junior high schools obtained a percentage of 77.38% in the “good” category. Each indicator of learning independence accepts a percentage above 70%, which is in the excellent category. Meanwhile, the CTA of male and female students from the four junior high schools obtained 75.28% in the “good” category. Each indicator of CTA also gets a percentage of more than 70%, meaning that each indicator is in a good category.

The objective of this study is to create a tool for evaluating teachers’ effectiveness in boarding schools. Planning and preparation stages, instrument testing, and measurements were used in this study to implement research on the creation of the Mardapi model instrument. In order to generate instrument items, the planning and preparation stage tasks included a literature assessment of teacher performance appraisal manuals. Data were gathered utilizing documentation approaches, and descriptive and qualitative analysis was performed. Six specialists validated the built instruments, which were subsequently put through limited testing at two boarding schools and extensive trials at nine boarding schools in Surakarta residency area. The Aiken formula was used to examine the expert’s evaluation data, and confirmatory factor analysis was used to analyze the test results. The results of this study indicate that the instrument for assessing teacher performance in boarding schools meets the validity criteria. This is indicated by the existence of loading factor values ranging from .51 to .72 (>.4) and t-sign values ranging from 4.75 to 9.25 (>1.96) and meeting the requirements of a fit model since Chi-square = 1307.95 < 2524 (2*df), p-value = .17956 (>.05), and RSMEA value = .014 (<.08). The instrument items are reliable assessment packages, and this is shown by the reliability value of omega .967 > .70. Because there is a guarantee of validity and reliability, the test can be used to further assess teacher performance in boarding schools.

The importance of research competence in pre-service teacher education has been highlighted in many studies, but concerns over the lack and inconsistency of definition, measurement, and development of research competence still exist. This poses a challenge for pre-service education programmes to provide quality education to pre-service teachers in this area. Through a systematic literature review it was found that there is a gap in the existing literature regarding the definition of research competence in pre-service teacher education, as there seems to be no consensus on the definition. There is, however, an agreement that the development of research competence is an important part of study programmes, as it contributes to higher quality education of pre-service teachers. Addressing this, the review proposes a concise definition of research competence as a multifaceted construct that includes critical thinking, self-directed learning, and organizational skills essential for effective research. The review also highlighted a lack of consensus on the most appropriate frameworks and tools to use in measuring research competence in pre-service teachers, with studies using various frameworks and tools that differ in terms of research methods, instruments and sample characteristics. The results suggest that there is a need for greater attention to be paid to the definition and measurement of research competence, as well as its development within pre-service teacher education programmes.

It is known that the COVID-19 pandemic led to learning losses among students both domestically and internationally. Therefore, situational and casual factors were examined to discover and understand them so that learning loss could be reduced or recovered from. This research aimed to: (a) study learning loss situation; and (b) develop and examine the causal model of learning loss among lower secondary school students affected by the pandemic. The sample included 650 Grade 7-9 students selected by multi-stage random sampling. The data was collected using a self-developing questionnaire as a research instrument. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent samples t-test, ANOVA, and structural equation modeling (SEM) through the LISREL program. The findings were: (a) Lower secondary school students had an average academic achievement learning loss at the moderate level with the highest mean of learning loss in mathematics (M=3.012, SD=1.074), and an average learning characteristics learning loss at the medium level (M=2.824, SD=0.842). Several situational factors had a different effect depending on the school size with a statistical significance of .05.; and (b) the causal model showed the learning loss of grade 7-9 students was consistent with the empirical data (χ2=46.885, df=34, p= .069, GFI=0.991, AGFI=0.964, CFI=0.999, RMSEA=0.024, SRMR=0.014).

eTwinning is a community of European schools that promotes networking and transnational collaboration projects. Therefore, as part of the Initial Teacher Education (ITE) initiative, we decided to explore how the research projects on scientific topics familiarize pre-service primary school teachers with eTwinning. 251 pre-service primary school teachers from Spain, Iceland, and Slovenia designed and carried out joint research projects on scientific topics. The aim was to gain insight into their self-assessment of their knowledge of the platform, the limitations of working with it, and their responses. An electronic questionnaire was used as the main instrument for data collection. It turned out that the pre-service teachers enjoyed this international collaboration, but also found it challenging. By the end of the projects, they were familiar with the eTwinning platform, although the least engaged prospective teachers recognized that they needed strong support and considered the platform a non-intuitive environment. Overall, they were willing to use the platform with pupils in the future, which is in line with the aim of the ITE initiative.

This article describes a methodology and a didactic innovation in higher education that employs Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) across four universities in the fields of sociology, psychology, social education and economics in order to explore the phenomenon of economic violence. The COIL activities were developed by four teachers in the second semester of 2022. The students explored the social and cultural origins of economic violence and the daily exposure to economic inequality in the domestic sphere, while also studying the prevention and responses offered by anti-violence centers from both organizational and social perspectives. The most novel aspect of COIL projects is the research approach to the topic (gender violence) and the students' participation in extracurricular activities, namely presenting the results of their research developed during their academic subjects after the course, at international events. In this study, we describe the projects and the assessment of this part of the research, analyzing the perceptions of the Italian and Spanish students who participated in the dissemination activity. The students' perceptions were recorded through a semi-structured questionnaire utilizing Likert scales and open-ended questions, which included their self-assessments of their knowledge before and after participating in the project, the impact on their development of competences and skills, and their satisfaction with the whole experience. Students acquired a great deal of knowledge and understanding of the phenomenon being studied through COIL methodology and connected these extracurricular activities to a clear improvement in their transversal skills.

Integrated learning has emerged as an approach to developing critical thinking and creativity skills. This meta-analysis synthesizes the effects of integrated learning on critical thinking and creativity, drawing from experimental studies published over the past decade. This study addresses the research question: What are the impacts and factors influencing integrated learning on students' critical thinking skills and creativity compared to conventional learning over the past decade? In the database, 403 articles were obtained, which were then supplemented by seven articles from manual searches, so that there were a total of 410 articles. After a strict inclusion process, 8 articles were selected for analysis. The inter-rater reliability test using Cohen's Kappa coefficient produced a value of 0.78, which indicates a substantial level of agreement. The analysis includes data from 497 participants for critical thinking and 266 for creativity. Heterogeneity in critical thinking skill data was 96%, and in creative skills, it was 86%; then, a subgroup analysis of education level was carried out to find out where the high heterogeneity was. The results show a significant positive effect of integrated learning, with an SMD of 1.48 (p = .004) for critical thinking and 1.60 (p = .0001) for creativity. Funnel plots and Egger's regression tests indicate no risk of publication bias. In addition, this study also synthesized the causal factors of how integrated learning affects critical thinking skills and creativity. Further research is recommended to explore its long-term impact and implementation strategies in various educational settings.