This paper presents findings of an investigation on students' attitudes towards coding and its relationship with interest in STEM-related careers. A concurrent mixed-method research design involving a pre-intervention-intervention-post-intervention non-equivalent control group was adopted. A sample of 50 grade seven to nine South African students…

This dissertation consists of two chapters at the intersection of labor and the economics of education. In Chapter 1, I examine the role of management in the public sector, focusing on school principals and how they impact student outcomes. I find that a one standard-deviation increase in principal quality raises average student achievement by…

This article analyses contradictions in the Thai engagement with UNESCO discourse by examining how concepts relating to Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship Education have been interpreted in key national policies. Thai education policy discourse signals convergence with certain aspects of the international sustainability…

Background: Early Childhood Education Institutions (ECEIs) require a model for the cultivation of religious values from an early age. Religion encompasses fundamental values that strongly instil belief in the existence of God and promote harmonious relationships among individuals. This study examines the role of ECEIs in fostering religious values…

Students' challenging classroom behaviour remains problematic in some primary schools, causing daily disruptions. In South Africa, alternatives for managing student behaviour have proven ineffective, leaving teachers to grapple in classrooms. To gain insights into "what teachers are doing to curtail the problem," fifteen teachers were…

Utilising a social constructivist lens, this study explores how students from rural areas constitute and negotiate their identities in the context of an urban South African university. Much of the research on rurality in South Africa has focused on rural areas as places, and not on the people occupying them. This qualitative study employed a…

Despite the rapid advancement of virtual reality (VR) and its integration into educational settings, the adoption of metaverse learning platforms often encounters challenges. These include technical limitations and a lack of understanding of how these platforms impact learning effectiveness and user engagement. Previous studies have revealed mixed…

Purpose: Mental health professionals' personal values have a critical role in providing efficient services to culturally diverse clients, being social advocates, and promoting social justice. In the present study, mental health professionals in Turkey were assumed to be grouped under three categories: the ones who are sensitive, who are rigid, and…

Although extracurricular activities are valuable for school communities, they present specific contextual challenges including (a) scheduling outside of school hours/locations, (b) attendees who may not be directly connected to the school community, (c) large groups together in unstructured spaces, (d) potential opportunities for increased access…

According to situated expectancy-value models, motivational variables play an important role in students' engagement in academic mathematics courses and achievement. However, for academic mathematical learning, only a few studies provide information regarding the fluctuation of task values on different occasions (situation-specificity, state) and…

In most OECD countries, more women than men enrol in undergraduate degrees. I analyse this gap in enrolment using the elicited subjective beliefs of a sample of 240 17-18-year-olds living in England. I use these beliefs to estimate a discrete choice model. The results from this model can explain the majority of the gender gap in enrolment. Gender…

Learning in virtual environments is an ethical experience. This research aimed to understand the ethical experience of a virtual learning environment from the perspective of university students and their teachers. The participants were 205 higher education students from different Spanish-speaking countries (Colombia, Argentina, Mexico, Ecuador,…

This study investigates teachers' perceptions of school democracy within a low-stakes accountability context. While previous studies have focused on teachers' perceptions of school climate and citizenship norms, we know less about factors associated with their perceptions of democracy in their schools. Through a multiple regression analysis of…

Human beings naturally prefer and support ingroup members more than outgroup members, but to what extent do we "morally value" equal treatment to ingroups and outgroups? Across four preregistered studies, we examined the development of "group-transcendent fairness," that is, the moral endorsement of allocating resources equally…

Although it is widely accepted that reading motivation erodes over the elementary years and school experiences shape motivation, few have examined young readers' motivation for their reading intervention programs. This two-year qualitative case study probed the motivation-related perceptions of four young children specific to their involvement in…