Previous work by Hille and Schupp (2015) examined the associations between learning a musical instrument (ML) in childhood and cognitive functioning, academic achievement, personality measures and perceived control using a longitudinal data set, the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP). In this article we replicate major parts of this study by…

Although there is a push to provide more student agency in science classrooms, teachers and students may become frustrated when inquiry activities and equipment do not work as planned--teachers because of the time crunch to "cover" topics and students because of the perceived lack of value in activities that are "off task." In…

Considerable research has been devoted to exploring aspects of higher-order thinking across various disciplines and in daily life. However, insufficient attention has been paid to synthesizing core dimensions of higher-order thinking, particularly within subject-specific contexts. Moreover, there is a lack of reliable and valid methods for…

Purpose: Using a longitudinal design, the present study evaluated the utility of the picture sequences in the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN) for assessing Mandarin-speaking children's narrative skills from kindergarten through Grade 2 in Taiwan. Method: Participants were 27 children with typical language (TL) and 22 with…

This study investigates the growing interest in ChatGPT's role in education, with a particular focus on its effects on postgraduate students' English-speaking proficiency--an area predominantly explored through theoretical perspectives with limited empirical evidence. The research aims to address this gap by examining the experiences and…

Purpose: Accessing higher education (HE) in the UK has been a primary pathway for school and college leavers for the past two decades. The present study, through a case study approach, aims to explore graduates' evaluations of the usefulness of university education by examining their evaluations of skill development, employability-focused learning…

Children's academic skills, particularly in the early stages of life, are significantly shaped by the support and resources available in their home learning environments. However, the underlying mechanisms by which the home learning environment influences children's academic skills are not fully understood. To address this gap, the present study…

A basic question about bilingual development is how the acquisition of one language affects the acquisition of the other. Previous findings are few and mixed. The present study addressed this question with longitudinal data on the dual-language vocabulary growth of 149 US-born children from Spanish-speaking immigrant families, who were followed…

Background/purpose: Educational leadership plays a fundamental role in promoting a democratic school culture that fosters participation, coexistence, and inclusion. However, the development of such a culture largely depends on how leadership teams perform their roles and the leadership styles they adopt. This study aims to explore the perceptions…

This study investigates the integration of computer-aided design (CAD), a technology for creating digital drawings and models, into art education to enhance creativity and improve teaching quality. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach with a cohort of 150 students, the results demonstrate significant advancements in creativity (a 33.3% increase),…

This article discusses the author's experiences teaching an undergraduate course, Graphic Narrative in the Hispanic World, in order to share some strategies to help students recognize how the study of comics and other humanities disciplines can help them develop crucial skills for their success and career readiness. The article first outlines the…

Background/purpose: Despite its informal setting, it is astonishing that the members of online English-speaking club (ESC) are adept at speaking. Employing a mixed-methods approach, more specifically a descriptive case study, this study aimed to evaluate the ESC contribution to its members' speaking competence development, to examine their…

Executive functions (EF) have long been recognized as critical factors in accounting for individual differences in literacy development. However, their role in second language (L2) learning, particularly in non-alphabetic languages such as Chinese, has not been fully explored. This study endeavored to examine the role of EF in word reading among…

Traditional teaching methods in Aircraft Maintenance Technology (AMT) often struggle to maintain student engagement, motivation, and knowledge retention. While gamification has been recognised as a potential solution, its application in AMT education remains underexplored, particularly in bridging theoretical knowledge with practical skill…

This guide aims to make corpus building and corpus analysis feasible and practical for language instructors and/or researchers who may view building a corpus as difficult or believe that linguistic analysis requires advanced programming skills. Many avoid creating custom corpora due to these perceived barriers, instead relying on existing corpora…