Journal of e-Learning and Knowledge Society

Innovation in teaching and educational leadership: rethinking the role of teachers in twenty-first-century schools

Chiara Carletti — 2025-03-01

The article explores the role of teachers in contemporary schools in light of the cultural and technological transformations taking place in today’s society. Through a critical review of the scientific literature, an analysis has been made of innovative teaching methods such as project-based learning, service learning and dialogic practices, highlighting their impact on student engagement, development of transversal skills and improvement of social inclusion. The reflection also focuses on the concept of distributed leadership, which promotes an educational community capable of integrating school, family and locality in a participatory and co-built formative process. Teachers emerge as facilitators of know-how, reflective practitioners and transformative intellectuals, capable of guiding students towards an active and conscious citizenship. Finally, the article underlines the importance of teachers’ continuing training in order to promote a pedagogy oriented towards dialogue, creativity and building essential skills to tackle the challenges of complexity.

The orientation towards multilingualism of future Italian teachers: perceptions and attitudes in the Humanities and STEM fields

Baldo Gianluca — 2025-04-30

Friuli Venezia Giulia is a multilingual region in northeastern Italy, where recent migratory flows create phenomena of contact between Italian, historically present minority languages, and the languages and dialects spoken by nuovi cittadini, the ‘new citizens’. School classes host significant percentages of minors with a migration background, and attention to multilingualism, its visibility, and its enhancement from a future European perspective is high. In this context, teacher training is a central theme, as the statements and positions of adults can directly affect the perceptions and attitudes of the minors entrusted to them. This study presents the results of a survey conducted through a sociolinguistic questionnaire as part of the initial training of future Italian teachers. The research, which complements previous works and studies in the literature, aims to assess the perceptions of new teachers regarding multilingualism, both in general and in relation to teaching in multilingual classrooms, and working with multilingual students. The information provided by the subjects engaged in humanistic disciplines is compared with the corresponding statements from colleagues in technical and scientific areas, with both a theoretical descriptive goal and an applied focus on possible future teachers’ training on the job and professional development paths.

Collaborating to cross subject boundaries with digital technologies: designing a training plan through action research

Lívia Rodrigues Lourenço — 2025-04-30

This study aimed to understand teachers’ conceptions and practices concerning collaborative work around planning pedagogical strategies with digital technologies. And to help design a training plan based on the F@R Model (Training-Action-Reflection). This is an innovative piece of work, in terms of methodology, in this area of study and intervention, and corresponds to the first of three action-research cycles designed. The participants were five teachers from the 2nd cycle of basic education in Portugal (equivalent to ISCED 2). Data collection was centred on interviews, with a focus on content analysis. In this study, the importance attributed by the participants to collaborative work, as well as to inter- and transdisciplinary practices, was verified. However, it turned out that these practices have only taken place informally and without planning. Structural and personal challenges and favourable factors for integrating digital technologies were highlighted. Difficulties related to access to technology were the main ones, with the highest number of references. The participants prioritised a collaborative and practical approach to training. In this way, it was confirmed that the approach followed was a promising strategy for planning the work to be done, which supported the design of the training plan.

Teacher training for the future: insights from a Needs Analysis on Digital Technologies and Artificial Intelligence

Letizia Cinganotto — 2025-04-30

This study aims to contextualize the pressing need for an updated framework in teacher training that responds to rapid technological advancement, particularly in Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the resulting shifts in educational practices. In today’s evolving landscape, teachers are expected to increasingly adopt the role of facilitators, guiding students in a learning process that is responsive to digital innovation and interdisciplinary knowledge. Consequently, the structure of teacher training must be realigned to prioritize students' needs and core learning objectives, with an emphasis on how much knowledge is conveyed. This contribution provides an in-depth analysis of the skills and competencies currently required by educators to effectively fulfill this evolving role. Through a comprehensive survey, the authors investigated the training needs of a sample of teachers, with a particular focus on digital literacy and Artificial Intelligence. The data gathered highlight the gaps and opportunities within existing training programs, offering insights that are essential for adapting teacher education to align with the demands of a digitally driven student-centered educational environment. The paper concludes with a reflection on the implications of these findings for future teacher training programs, emphasizing the necessity of a flexible, context-responsive, and technology-integrated training framework to equip educators with constructive, meaningful, and future-oriented learning.

Evolving challenges in Ukrainian education: a comparative study of teacher perspectives

Nataliia Avsheniuk — 2025-04-30

This study compares the educational challenges faced by teachers in Ukraine between 2022 and 2024, with a particular focus on the deterioration of student learning outcomes, lack of student motivation, and the ongoing influence of the war. In 2022, an open-ended survey was administered to 86 practising teachers, revealing key difficulties such as adapting teaching methods for distance learning, deteriorating student outcomes, large class sizes, motivational challenges, and managing students' social and emotional issues. These challenges were largely attributed to limited resources and the disruptive impact of the war rather than deficiencies in teachers' abilities.
To assess how these issues have evolved, the same survey was redistributed in 2024 to a comparable group of educators. The data were qualitatively analyzed to identify recurring and emerging themes, allowing for a direct comparison of the educational landscape across the two years. The study found that while some challenges persisted, the war’s ongoing influence exacerbated issues like declining student performance and motivation, as well as the stress on both students and teachers.
The findings underscore the need for increased teacher involvement in national decision-making processes, particularly in the context of a protracted conflict, and highlight the ongoing struggle to balance educational quality with limited resources and external pressures. By comparing the experiences of teachers over these two years, this study provides valuable insights into the evolving needs of educators in Ukraine and offers recommendations for future policy and practice.

Time Perspectives and Career Anxiety Among Vietnamese teacher education undergraduates

Pham Ngoc Thien Nguyen — 2025-04-30

This study examined the relationship between time perspectives—present fatalistic, present hedonistic, and future—and career anxiety among 354 Vietnamese teacher education undergraduates (68.4% female). The findings show that present fatalistic and present hedonistic time perspectives are positively correlated with career anxiety and its dimensions, while a future time perspective (FTP) is negatively correlated with career anxiety. The study also highlights that lower socioeconomic status (SES) is linked to higher present fatalistic, lower present hedonistic, and variations in career ambiguity. The results suggest that promoting a future-oriented mindset may help reduce career anxiety. Additionally, the study emphasizes the significant role of employment pressure as a key source of career-related stress, underscoring the importance of integrating stress management and coping strategies into career development programs. Furthermore, notable differences in time perspectives and career ambiguity across SES groups highlight the need for targeted interventions. The study concludes with a discussion of its implications and limitations.

Mindfulness levels among pre-service English language teachers: a comparative analysis of KIMS and MAAS scales

Servet Çelik — 2025-04-30

Mindfulness practices have gained increasing attention in educational settings, including language classrooms, for their potential to benefit both learners and teachers. While research highlights the positive impact of mindfulness on language learners, its role in the professional development of language teachers remains an area of interest. This study explores mindfulness levels among pre-service English language teachers and examines the comparability of two widely used mindfulness assessments: the Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills (KIMS) and the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS). A total of 148 pre-service English language teachers from a Turkish state university participated in this quantitative study. Data were collected through online self-reported questionnaires, with both KIMS and MAAS demonstrating acceptable reliability for this sample. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses revealed that participants exhibited moderate mindfulness levels across both scales. While overall mindfulness levels did not significantly vary based on demographic factors, notable differences emerged in specific subcomponents of KIMS and MAAS concerning gender and class level. Additionally, significant relationships were found between mindful attention awareness and the ‘describe’ and ‘act with awareness’ dimensions of KIMS. These findings suggest that pre-service English language teachers generally demonstrate moderate mindfulness levels, regardless of demographic characteristics. Moreover, the comparability of KIMS and MAAS results indicates that both instruments can be effectively used to assess mindfulness in this population.

Video-based learning activities in teacher education: effects on self-efficacy and perception of feedback for learning

Maurizio Gentile — 2025-05-09

Transferring pedagogical knowledge from university courses to school is a complex challenge for many teachers. For this reason, teacher education experts began to recommend integrating practice during pre-service learning activities. Classroom videos could be one of the resources in supporting this critical process. The research involved 84 future teachers randomly assigned to two experimental conditions. In both conditions, the subjects watched two clips in which two teachers interacted with students following a triarchic feedback model: task-oriented feedback, motivational-oriented feedback, and student-oriented feedback. In the first treatment, the participants observed the clips in the context of the knowledge construction (KC) approach. By contrast, in the second treatment, the participants viewed the clips in the context of a direct instruction (DI) strategy. The study had two objectives: understanding the participants’ perception of video-taped teachers’ feedback; and testing the effects of treatments on the participants’ self-efficacy to provide feedback. For the first research goal, the findings partially confirm the three-facet model of feedback. The analysis produces a two-factor solution based on the following components: learning-oriented feedback, and motivational-oriented feedback. Concerning the second research goal, the results show that KC approach seems to produce a higher level of self-efficacy in providing feedback to students. This treatment has a direct impact on the self-efficacy score, with evidence that no teacher and contextual factors directly influence the score or moderate the effects of the approach on the dependent variable. This finding is consistent with studies that address how university courses may positively promote teacher self-efficacy.

Teachers competencies in evaluating digital sources and tackling disinformation: implications for media literacy education

Nicola Bruno — 2025-05-10

This study examines teachers’ competencies in evaluating digital content and tackling disinformation through analysis of pre-test data from 243 Italian primary and secondary school teachers participating in a media literacy training program. Drawing on the DigComp 2.2 framework, we assessed seven key digital literacy competencies, including source evaluation, social media verification, and visual literacy. Our findings reveal significant gaps between teachers' digital engagement patterns and their critical evaluation skills, particularly in visual content assessment. Using cluster analysis, we identified four distinct teacher profiles: Skeptical and Vulnerable Teachers, Traditional Trust-Based and Uncritical Teachers, Digitally Engaged and Trusting Teachers, and Balanced Critical Evaluators. The results show that teachers are moderately good at finding assertive signs of reliability, but they have trouble with more difficult “inferred context” tasks, especially when it comes to judging visual content. The study shows that different types of professional development are needed and suggests specific ways to help teachers improve their media literacy skills in a world where digital information is getting more complicated.

eCRONY: hypothesis and experimentation of a new educational tool in motor skills teaching

Arianna Fogliata — 2025-05-12

The eCRONY project hypothesises the development and ongoing experimentation of a digital educational tool aimed at enhancing motor sciences teaching. Traditionally, motor skills education relies on demonstration and imitation, often limited to describing visible movements. This approach does not delve into biomechanical causes or proprioceptive sensations as primary learning tools, aspects typically left to practical internships. However, the growing adoption of digital technologies and distance learning highlights the need for an approach that integrates these elements to better support online students with limited guided practice.
eCRONY, structured in four progressive levels (proprioceptive exploration, biomechanical analysis, comparison of causes and effects, and simulation in the absence of terrestrial forces), aims to serve as a valuable educational supplement. The educational pathway promotes a deep understanding of movements, exploring causal forces and enhancing both sensory learning and autonomous feedback abilities. The proposed experimentation aims to assess the effectiveness of this innovative approach compared to traditional methods, hypothesising improvements in proprioceptive awareness, biomechanical understanding, and critical self-assessment abilities among students. If confirmed, the expected outcomes could position eCRONY as a valuable tool for a more scientific and accessible approach to motor skills teaching.

Avanguardie educative, a collaborative network for Italian teachers' professional development

Andrea Nardi — 2025-05-12

The COVID-19 pandemic posed significant challenges to education, particularly in countries like Italy with limited prior experience in distance learning. To support the educational community during this crisis, a series of 41 webinars was organized, addressing key themes of educational innovation. Rooted in mentoring, knowledge exchange, and reflective practice, this initiative was part of the broader efforts of Avanguardie Educative, a network encompassing nearly 1,600 schools, to adapt to the shift toward remote teaching. Participants completed satisfaction surveys after each webinar and a follow-up questionnaire at the series' conclusion, enabling an analysis of emerging needs in professional development and training. Findings highlighted high levels of satisfaction with the program and confirmed its effectiveness as a tool for coaching and professional growth. The initiative also demonstrated strong networking potential, emphasizing its value in fostering professional learning communities. These results encourage further exploration of how webinar-based technologies can facilitate the exchange of practices and support professional development.

Designing a new teacher and educator training on Sexuality Education: the SETTE training course

Valeria Bruno — 2025-05-12

The SETTE training course for teachers and educators on sexuality education addresses a critical gap in the Italian education system, aiming to provide scientifically accurate and inclusive training. This article presents the course's design, content, and methodology, developed as part of the European UNI-T project using the Blended Learning (BL) model to enhance accessibility and engagement. Structured across seven modules, the course equips teachers and educators with essential tools for addressing complex topics such as sexual identity, relationships and consent, homolesbobitransphobia, and sexual rights. Each module combines evidence-based knowledge with reflective practices, fostering personal and professional growth and preparing teachers and educators to cultivate inclusive, respectful, healthy, safe, and informed school environments. The anticipated outcomes include enhanced competencies, awareness of the importance of a gender-based perspective, and greater sensitivity to disabilities, neurodivergences, and individual differences. Additionally, it aims to establish a foundation for a respectful, human rights-oriented approach to sexuality education that is crucial in today’s digital and social contexts. The conclusions highlight the SETTE course’s potential to promote student well-being, gender equality, and critical digital literacy, contributing to a more inclusive school culture and supporting teachers and educators in addressing evolving societal challenges.

STEAM, inclusion and engagement through makerspaces: the voice of students and teachers

Laura Menichetti — 2025-05-12

Over the past few decades, there has been a growing interest in tinkering and making, also driven by environmental concerns that define this era. This has led to the rise of creative recycling, facilitated through Do-It-Yourself practices enhanced by digital technologies and practiced in equipped spaces, where commonly used tools and materials are shared by small communities. These makerspaces have also been established in schools, contributing to the adoption of active learning methods, which research shows to be highly effective. The European Erasmus+ “Steam2Go” project aims to create a mobile makerspace that is easily transportable, equipped with pedagogically effective instructions and detailed descriptions of consistent educational experiences. The goal is to make the teaching of STEAM subjects more active, engaging, and inclusive. The pilot experiments conducted with mobile makerspaces involved students (N=184) and teachers (N=15) from various school levels and grades across four partner countries (Cyprus, Greece, Italy, and Poland). The research, conducted through individual questionnaires completed by all participants at the end of the activities, focuses on perceptions and beliefs related to the empowerment achieved by students and teachers. The findings reveal a high level of enjoyment, a perception of improvement in STEAM subjects as well as transversal skills, and a positive appreciation of the Open Educational Resources, which transform the mobile makerspace into an effective educational tool.

Experiences of newly recruited educators in Early Childhood Services: a phenomenological-hermeneutic study

Alessia Rosa — 2025-05-14

The initial training programs for educators in Early Childhood Services need to be integrated within specific training characterised by recursive self-sustaining circularity, able to produce professional skills. The present work analyses the model and the perspective realised in the municipality of Foligno (Italy). Such a pattern is found in phenomenological-hermeneutic research, a time of tight integration of the perspectives that guide the childcare workers, maximizing moments of action, reflection, and appraisal. This tool has made it possible to investigate the Early Childhood Educators’ perception of their role, and the characteristics of the educational profession addressed to children up to three years old. Educators have been able to rethink their skills and practices.

Investigating the mediating effects of motivation on academic performance in a synchronous EFL online learning

Pham Minh Ngoc An — 2025-03-16

The issue of motivation in synchronous online teaching and learning is still an area of continued research and development. This research seeks to determine the roles played by cognitive presence, teaching presence and social presence concerning external and internal motivational factors and the students’ academic performance with a particular focus on the effect of the two motivational factors on the English performances of EFL learners learning online in a parallel mode. Questionnaires were administered to 233 EFL students at a private university in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. The effects of the research variables under consideration were analyzed by Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings indicate that cognitive presence significantly influences both external and internal motivation. Teaching presence positively impacts external motivation, but not internal motivation or academic performance. Whereas social presence does not significantly affect motivation or academic performance. External motivation was found to positively influence academic performance, while internal motivation showed no significant effect. These results suggest that enhancing cognitive and teaching presences can effectively enhance students' external motivation, which in turn improves academic performance in synchronous online EFL learning. The study highlights the need for well-designed instructional strategies and active facilitation to engage students. The study’s limitations include employing cross-sectional research design, and participants engaging in one institution only, a recommendation for future research, that is, the use of longitudinal research designs and large samples. These findings are crucial for educators and policymakers who aim to optimize online educational strategies to enhance students' ...

The daunting challenge of Artificial Intelligence in Education: a systematic literature review

Rubén Arriazu — 2025-03-16

This paper presents a Systematic Literature Review on the challenges that Artificial Intelligence (AI) poses in the field of education, specifically, on teaching and learning processes. Based on an exhaustive search in the Web of Science and Scopus databases, 1657 articles published between 2010 and 2024 were initially selected to be examined. The final sample consisted of 52 studies. To achieve this goal, the PRISMA 2020 protocol was employed. Identified challenges are grouped into several key categories. In pedagogical terms, the need to adapt teaching methods and curricula to leverage AI capabilities is highlighted, as well as the importance of maintaining a balance between AI-assisted teaching and human interaction. Additionally, training teachers to use these tools effectively is also considered as a significant obstacle to integrate the new ecology of learning. Finally, there are also ethical and social challenges that address concerns about the privacy of student data, equity in access to advanced technologies, and the potential of AI to perpetuate existing biases. Transparency in the operation of AI systems and the involvement of educational stakeholders are crucial to mitigating these risks. In conclusion, although AI has the potential to transform new ways of teaching and learning. These challenges encourage new paradigms where learning will be more flexible and closer to people's interests. Therefore, AI is not inherently good or bad; rather, it is the way we use it that will be the true key to promoting or not promoting changes in educational paradigms.

Personalized Learning Systems: Essential Components and Their Impact on Learning Outcomes

Ubaidah — 2025-03-26

Personalized learning has emerged as a promising approach to meet the diverse needs of learners. Personalized learning flexibly provides various learning options to suit learners’ needs and learning speed. Instructional designers and researchers need directions regarding the components of a personalized learning system that can support achieving learning objectives. Many researchers propose personalized learning components only to identify the characteristics of personalized learning. This paper explores and elucidates the key components of personalized learning as an instructional system to ensure the achievement of learning objectives. The research method used is a systematic literature review. This study reviews related literature to analyze the personalized learning system's input, process, and output components. We included literature that proposes personalized learning models in various application and experimental contexts to see the personalized learning components used and their impact. After the identification and screening process, we reviewed eligible works of literature. We proposed a conclusion that there are five components of personalized learning: 1) learner profile, 2) learning objectives, 3) learning path, 4) learning environment, and 5) learning result. This research recommends future research on personalized learning to measure and ensure the achievement of learning objectives with personalized learning.

Integrating educational technologies: critical analysis and perspectives from teacher training students

Tommaso Santilli — 2025-03-16

The growing spread of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) across multiple contexts of use has triggered the transformation of traditional educational environments to welcome their use in ordinary teaching and learning processes. However, the mere availability and supply of educational technologies does not guarantee the activation of meaningful and inclusive trajectories for technology integration in the classroom, as the knowledge and competences of teachers and students is still the primary factor to drive an equitable and effective use of technology as a didactic mediator. Considering the challenges of teacher training within an ever-changing technological landscape, this paper focuses on the Italian national context, analysing the perceptions of 830 Italian teachers participating in a training course for teachers (30 credits Training, Prime Ministerial Decree of 4 August 2023) with reference to the use of ICTs in their previous teaching experience. The Italian version of the Intrapersonal Technology Integration Scale (ITIS) was implemented as a tool to collect data and examine the dynamic relationship between the teachers’ perceived competences on educational technologies and the factual use they make of them to support teaching across disciplines. Results show useful insights on the reasons underlying the choice of implementing and integrating technology in ordinary teaching practices and unveil possible trajectories to reshape the training paths for teachers. In this sense, this contribution unfolds a deeper analysis of the intersection between teacher professionalism, educational technologies and educational systems’ inclusiveness and efficacy.

Automating the analysis of social interactions in educational settings: a scoping review

Simone Pinetti — 2025-04-30

Social interactions are crucial for children’s development, attracting significant interest from educators and researchers. Traditional methods of data collection in educational settings have limitations, prompting the exploration of ICT devices for more accurate and efficient quantitative data collection. This systematic review, following the PRISMA framework, analysed 21 studies that used sensor devices to collect data on social interactions among children aged 0-12 in educational environments. The studies investigated various aspects such as interaction mapping, disease transmission, homophily, and play types, predominantly using observational or descriptive approaches. They were categorized into three levels of ecological complexity: (1) validation of sensor devices, (2) interaction analysis as a predictor of disease spread and vocabulary growth, and (3) examination of children’s social dynamics. Findings indicate that sensor devices are particularly effective when combined with Social Network Analysis (SNA), which facilitates comprehensive analysis and graphical representation of social networks. Quantitative data on social interactions could help identify and support children facing exclusion or marginalization, allowing for targeted educational interventions. However, there is a notable gap in the literature regarding the use of sensor devices in educational interventions, underscoring the need for further research to evaluate their effectiveness and facilitate their application in education.