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This paper aims to investigate the impact of blogs on teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) to primary students. The study also explores educators’ perceptions of social media tools and digital literacy in school environments.

A three-step approach was used to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. First, the blogs of 23 fifth-grade students in an EFL class in Kuwait was analysed for one semester along with student perceptions and teacher observations. Second, a survey was distributed to the students at the end of the semester, and finally, four focus groups were conducted regarding educators’ perceptions on the use of social media, their skills and needs and problems encountered.

The findings showed that by the end of the semester, students were writing lengthy sentences, had fewer spelling and grammatical mistakes, were more motivated and independent and displayed a more positive attitude towards learning EFL. In addition, educators are enthusiastic about using Web technologies in their teaching practices but have several concerns such as digital literacy competencies, technology-use behaviour and lack of accessibility to digital content.

The number of questions on the student survey could be reduced. Also, it would be preferable in future studies to require all students to blog at least twice a week which could provide a broader representation of their writing abilities.

Little research has been reported in the literature on the use of blogs in teaching EFL to primary school students. Most literature focuses on teaching EFL to university students. By using a mixed-methodology approach, this study also highlights the needs of educators and students in technology learning environments and makes a good contribution towards offering pragmatic solutions.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the generic skills that are important for the career success of accounting graduates in Sri Lanka from the perspectives of university educators and employers.

Bui and Porter's (2010) expectation-performance gap framework was modified to match with the context of the current study. Data collected via questionnaire survey was analysed for non-parametric tests: the Wilcoxon signed-rank test and the Mann-Whitney test, using SPSS version 20, and quantified the expectation-performance gap and its components.

The major finding of this research is that the main cause for the expectation-performance gap, as identified in the analysis of the constraint gap is university educators’ low confidence in teaching the required generic skills for career success of graduates. However, university educators are aware of the employer expectations of graduate accountants in terms of generic skills. Employers indicated that many of the generic skills are not achieved by the accounting graduates.

Findings of this study reflect the importance of expanding the accounting curricula by embedding and assessing generic skill development activities. In addition, it is vital to develop the capacities of university educators in terms of teaching and assessing generic skills in accounting degree programmes.

This study contributes to the literature as one of few studies that investigate the generic skills development of accounting graduates in Asia, particularly in Sri Lanka.

This study sought to assess perceptions of support for organizational change and model the relationship between support for organizational change and leadership competencies among Extension educators. The knowledge gained through this work should expand current understandings regarding the nature, scope, and value of support for organizational change within the Extension educator role. We found that Extension educators mostly support organizational change. Our study also showed that leadership competencies predict a significant proportion of the total variation in overall support for organizational change. Extension leaders and leadership development practitioners should be aware that leadership education may increase receptivity to organizational change among educators.

The purpose of this paper is to check the veracity of educators’ apprehensions about peer assessments by comparing them with the actual peer assessment scores. It also explores the levels of satisfaction and current usage of peer assessment tools among educators.

The first phase of this study aims at providing insights into the educators’ apprehensions, their satisfaction and usage levels of peer assessments. The second phase involves analysis of peer assessment scores of 539 students in 117 teams. Findings from statistical analysis of peer assessment scores are compared against the apprehensions of educators.

The results do not support the apprehensions among educators about peer assessments. Findings on the usage, satisfaction levels of educators and their future intentions of using peer assessments are also presented in this paper.

Studies with larger sample size, qualitative in-depth research on experiences, designs and conditions of successful peer assessments and studies based on users’ experiences of peer assessments will help in getting richer insights in this area.

Results of this study indicate a need for educators to shed their apprehensions and adopt online or offline peer assessments tools with trust and confidence.

This study is important due to the existence of contrary views, inconsistent results and lack of adequate familiarity about the use, efficacy and practice of peer assessments. Though previous studies have tried to establish the reliability of peer assessments, this study finds that educators are still apprehensive about peer assessments. This is a unique study as no previous research has attempted a comparative study to check the veracity of the apprehensions of educators about peer assessments using the actual peer assessment scores.

Information is scarce on healthcare managers' understanding of simulation educators' impact on clinical work. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore healthcare managers' perceptions of the significance of clinically active simulation educators for the organisation.

Healthcare managers were invited to be interviewed in a semi-structured manner. Inductive thematic analysis was used to identify and analyse patterns of notions describing the managers' perceptions of simulation educators' impact as co-workers on their healthcare organisations.

The identified relevant themes for the healthcare unit were: (1) value for the manager, (2) value for the community and (3) boundaries. Simulation educators were perceived to be valuable gatekeepers of evidence-based knowledge and partners in leadership for educational issues. Their most prominent value for the community was establishing a reflective climate, facilitating open communication and thereby improving the efficacy of teamwork. Local tradition, economy, logistics and staffing of the unit during simulation training were suggested to have possible negative impacts on simulation educators' work.

The findings might have implications for the implementation and support of simulation training programs.

Healthcare managers appreciated both the personal value of simulation educators and the effect of their work for their own unit. Local values were prioritised versus global. Simulation training was valued as an educational tool for continual professional development, although during the interviews, the managers did not indicate the importance of employment of pedagogically competent and experienced staff.

The study provided new insights about how simulation educators as team members affect clinical practice.

There is a great deal of literature on leadership education best-practices (e.g., curricular considerations, teaching strategies, assessment of learning). Yet, to be a leadership educator is more than having knowledge or expertise of content and pedagogy. Perceptions, experiences, and values of leadership educators comprise a professional identity that is reflective of not only what leadership educators do, but also who they are and how they view themselves within the profession. This qualitative study builds on Seemiller and Priest’s (2015) Leadership Educator Professional Identity Development (LEPID) conceptual model by analyzing stories from participants of a professional leadership educator development experience. Leadership educators’ identity development reflected a consistent and linear progression through the identity spaces outlined in the LEPID model, and further can be viewed through three distinct dimensional lenses (experiential, cognitive, and emotional experiences). Additionally, leadership educator identities were shaped by a particular set of ongoing influences and critical incidents; the most prevalent incident was related to feelings of inadequacy in leadership expertise and competence. Findings from this study can inform educational programs and professional associations in efforts to train and develop leadership educators.

Educators are recognized as key agents of social change, responsible for shaping future citizens. Beyond imparting knowledge, teachers are crucial in addressing societal challenges such as sustainability, democracy and social equality. This study aims to investigate the attitudes of Jewish and Arab students toward democratic values and how they perceive their role as educators in a multicultural society.

This study explores the attitudes of majority and minority group students in an Israeli teacher training college towards realizing democratic values and promoting shared citizenship. The sample included 382 Jewish and Arab students, who answered a questionnaire about attitudes regarding education for democracy and shared society, and their perception of their role in promoting this education.

The investigation delves into students’ civic perceptions, shedding light on the moderate and pluralistic stances held by both Jewish and Arab students. They advocate for cross-cultural exposure and interaction, with Jewish students demonstrating slightly more moderate views than the prevailing norms in Israeli society. Interestingly, Jewish students exhibited a willingness to engage in discussions on conflictual topics, whereas Arab students tended to avoid them.

This study underscores the potential of teacher training colleges in shaping the upcoming generation of educators as advocates of tolerance, and democracy, and promoters of a shared society.

This research gains heightened relevance in a contemporary landscape where numerous nations, especially those comprising diverse cultures, grapple with surges of nationalism that threaten democratic values. Teacher training colleges hold the key to forging a more harmonious future by becoming beacons of transformative pedagogy. These institutions can shape a new generation of educators who are poised to catalyze authentic social change.

A number of recent artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled technologies, including summarisers, paraphrasers and the cutting-edge chatbots not only have outstanding potentials in modern educational systems but also could lead to a dramatic paradigm shift in the whole education process. This study aims to explore the factors that shape the academic community’s desire and intention to use AI conversational chatbot technology, with a particular focus on the leading ChatGPT.

This study uses a mixed method approach to explore the educators’ adoption of chatbots through an empirically validated model. The model, known as the “Educators’ Adoption of ChatGPT”, was developed by integrating the theoretical foundations of both the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology and Status Quo Bias (SQB) frameworks, as well as insights gathered from interviews. The relationships within this model were then tested using a quantitative approach. The partial least squares-structural equation modelling method was used to analyse 243 valid survey responses.

The outcomes of the analysis indicated that perceived educators’ effort expectancy, educators’ autonomous motivation, perceived learners’ AI competency, perceived educators’ competency, innovative behaviour towards technological agility and perceived students’ engagement are significant determinants of educators’ intention to use chatbots. In contrast, perceived unfair evaluation of students, perceived students’ overreliance and perceived bias/inaccuracies were shown to have significant impacts on the resistance to use the technology, which typically implies a negatively significant influence on the educators’ use intention. Interestingly, perceived fraudulent use of ChatGPT was proven insignificant on the resistance to use chatbots.

This study makes a significant contribution to the field of educational technology by filling the gap in research on the use and acceptance of AI-enabled assistants in education. It proposes an original, empirically validated model of educator adoption, which identifies the factors that influence educators’ willingness to use chatbots in higher education and offers valuable insights for practical implementation.

During a site-based certification program in a large county school district in the southeastern United States, 14 educators took 7 graduate courses on teaching emergent bilinguals. These educators made a shift in their practices and perceived a corresponding shift in their teaching efficacy. Ten years after the onset of this program, researchers returned to the site and conducted a mixed-methods study. The first purpose of this study was to explore educators’ perceptions regarding instructional practices for teaching emergent bilinguals after a decade had passed. The second purpose was to identify course features perceived by educators as having been most instrumental in fostering a long-term transformation in their teaching practices. Data were collected from a survey and interviews with the 14 educators (13 teachers and a program specialist) who had completed this certification program. Results indicated changes in their teaching methods and interactions with parents as well as heightened confidence for taking on leadership roles. Study participants identified professional learning communities, cyclical reflective activities, and action research projects as the course features that had been instrumental in transforming their practices for working with emergent bilinguals. Findings suggest that this site-based certification program was a catalyst for generating individual change that continued beyond program completion. By exploring this decade-long transformation, the current study provides implications for designing and implementing graduate certification courses that prepare in-service teachers to work effectively with emergent bilinguals.

The purpose of this paper is to explore educator collaborative inquiry in the shared workspace in professional learning communities (PLCs). Specifically, this investigation was part of an ongoing investigation of well-established PLC collaborative interactions and self-directed learning of educators as part of the shared workspace as a component of school improvement.

A qualitative design was used for this investigation. Participants were purposefully selected to provide qualitative data on existent, well-established PLCs and their practice as educators in the shared workspace. Qualitative data were collected about participant perception. Data were collected from each participant by conducting semi-structured interviews, observations, and the collection of document and artifacts.

Findings from this ongoing investigation point to positive collaborative physical interactions and intellectual discourse that lead to educator learning through the collaborative inquiry process.

Theories on PLCs and educator job-embedded professional learning are unique in this paper. The concepts of PLCs and the collaborative inquiry process have been well developed but not in the context of the shared workspace. Recent literature on effective collaborative inquiry educators undergo in PLCs as a continuing professional development model provides a foundation for the work done in this ongoing case study. Sustained collaboration and continued professional development of teaching innovations as a product of the collaborative inquiry process in the shared workspace are underdeveloped as yet but further developed in this paper.