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Virtual professional learning communities provide digital platforms for teachers across the globe to join learning networks and engage in continuous and unrestricted learning. This study aimed to explore the impact of contextual factors on establishing virtual professional learning communities in Maldivian schools.

This quantitative study used a sample of 420 Maldivian in-service teachers chosen using two-stage cluster sampling and a stratified random sampling method.

The findings revealed that all three contextual factors – micro-, meso- and macro-contextual – positively and significantly influenced the virtual professional learning communities.

These findings recommend an integrated framework with micro-, meso- and macro-contextual factors as valuable instruments for educational leaders striving to establish virtual Professional Learning Communities (PLCs).

This study is among the first to examine the association of contextual factors of schools with the establishment of virtual PLCs in a country such as the Maldives, with geographically dispersed islands and limited resources.

This study aimed to determine the expectations of students from mathematics teachers in the planning phase of lesson study (LS) in mathematics classrooms.

This study reported only a part of large-scale action research. The participants were Grade 8 students selected by the convenience sampling method. The data were obtained through open-ended questions. The content analysis method was used to analyze the data.

Four categories emerged: connection, technology-supported teaching, use of concrete materials, practice, and teacher behavior and teaching style.

This study reveals how students in a different culture and education system, such as Türkiye, want to learn mathematics in the LS process of Japanese origin. It also gives some important clues for applying LS in a different culture.

This study may attract the attention of educational stakeholders who want to implement LS in mathematics classrooms by considering student perspectives.

Due to the nature of LS, this study may emphasize teacher–student and teacher–teacher interactions. Thus, it can draw attention to the importance of social learning environments where students take responsibility and interact.

This study emphasizes the importance of listening to student voices in LS. Some ideas about mathematics teaching in Turkey should also be given. Finally, it can provide a good basis for understanding and comparing LS practices in different cultures and understandings.

This article highlights the dynamic and evolving nature of libraries and the role of librarians within the changing landscape. It discusses how libraries have traditionally operated and how they have been impacted by 4IR and external factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study employed a mixed methods research approach, combining an online questionnaire to derive quantitative data and interviews to provide qualitative data. The follow-up interviews provided a comprehensive understanding of how academic librarians at the DUT library use Continuing Professional Development (CPD) to adapt to the evolving environment.

This paper reports that there was consensus that CPD empowers the librarians to adapt seamlessly to the dynamic library landscape. It equips them with the knowledge and skills to stay updated on the latest trends, technologies and best practices in their field.

The findings carry implications for the planning and executing of ongoing CPD programmes and activities across all academic libraries.

This study provides an insight into the results of the importance of CPD for librarians within a developing country in southern Africa.

This paper will discuss one university’s efforts to initiate a process to better support PK-12 continuous school improvement goals for all 13 schools in their PDS network as a way to broaden the university’s mission and respond more formally to the individual school communities with which they partner.

The paper is conceptual in that it presents an innovative idea to stimulate discussion, generate new ideas and advance thinking about cross-institutional collaboration between universities and professional development schools.

The paper provides insights and ideas for bringing about change and growth in a seasoned PDS partnership network by connecting PK-12 continuous school improvement efforts to PDS partnership work.

This paper fulfills an identified need to study how seasoned partnerships can participate in simultaneous renewal by offering ideas that school–university partnership leaders can build upon as they make efforts to participate in the process of growth and change.

This paper aims to explore how the competence-based vocational education and training (VET) curricula facilitate shaping of work values of VET students. It discusses methodological and ideological orientations of competence-based VET in teaching work values and discloses the typical characteristics of teaching work values in the VET system of Lithuania.

A quantitative research approach leading to a survey method is adopted to investigate how VET students acquire and apply work-related values and attitudes to work.

The survey of the VET students has disclosed that students are open to accepting different values of work, including cognitive values, social prestige and altruist values. However, orientation of the VET curricula to and provision of instrumental values lead to relatively weak internalization of the work values related to societal and spiritual dimensions.

The paper provides empirical evidence regarding the implications of the competence-based curricula for teaching students work values in the school-based VET.

The aim of this study is to illuminate the perceptions of the essential factors for sustaining Learning Study of the curriculum leaders who have led Learning Study in schools over a sustained period.

This study adopted a case study research approach to explore the perspectives of the curriculum leaders regarding the sustainability of Learning Study. Data were collected through interviews, observations and document analysis. To analyse the data, thematic analysis was conducted to identify themes related to the research aim.

Four themes were deemed crucial by the curriculum leaders for sustaining Learning Study: (1) integrating Learning Study into the overall development plan of the school, with milestones recognisable by all stakeholders; (2) developing a shared understanding of and patience towards the different developmental needs of stakeholders; (3) developing a sustained programme of professional development for teachers regarding variation theory of learning, which underpins Learning Study; and (4) creating an improvement culture and a safe environment for sustaining professional development. We argue that Learning Study models should be flexible that they fit various school contexts while retaining the aim of enabling learning.

Sustaining Learning Study in schools becomes a challenge if support in the form of government funding and research involvement from tertiary institutions is withdrawn. This study is the first to voice the opinions of school curriculum leaders regarding this complex issue, who play a key role in initiating, implementing and sustaining Learning Study.

There is a global concern about the effectiveness of vocational education and training (VET) programmes in developing job-related skills and competencies for real-world environments for disadvantaged and unemployed youths. Experiential learning (EL) is a major component of VET programmes. This article aims to examine the effects of facilitating VET through EL theory to promote youths' skills acquisition. The study looks at the effects of material resources on the use of experiential learning theory (ELT), the types of EL and the contribution of ELT to VET programmes.

The research design mainly entails a qualitative research design and research method to allow the researcher to view the reality as is experienced from the inside out by the trainees and training centre managers on important data for a thorough understanding. The study participants were 512 young trainees who completed different training courses from the VET programmes and 24 centre managers in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa.

The findings reveal that the use of ELT in VET programmes helped the trainees to gain real-world skills, hence contributing to their empowerment in terms of work experience and competence for their future employment. Based on the findings, the study concludes that ELT is an effective instrument to promote VET programmes for disadvantaged and unemployed youths.

The practical and social implications of the findings are that, while disadvantaged youths cannot access and afford higher education, public and private sectors can remedy their situation by providing non-school-based technical and vocational training to help such youths enter the labour market. The findings will motivate the providers of skills development for unemployed youths to use ELT in designing course curricula, planning resources and directing teaching-learning approaches to help trainees to acquire skills and competencies to perform tasks close to real-work situations.

The socio-economic implication of the article is that skills development plays an important role in poverty reduction. Investing in the skills development of citizens is vital to raise the incomes of poor groups and to reduce poverty (ILO, 2018). Although the causes of unemployment have also to do with economic factors in a country, skills development is an essential ingredient in developing capacities for labour market entry and increased income generation of a vulnerable group of people.

The article is significant because the study provides new insights into the use of ELT in VET programmes to improve their effectiveness in developing job-related skills and competencies for real-world environments for disadvantaged and unemployed youths. The study contributes to the body of knowledge by establishing a solid base for the evidence-informed practice of the effects of facilitating the VET programme through ELT to promote skills acquisition for the employment of unemployed and disadvantaged youths.