Research and Advances in Education

Teachers’ Perceptions of the Role of ICT Training in Enhancing the Quality of Education in Government-Aided Secondary Schools in Busia District

2025-12-26T10:33:21+00:00

This study examined teachers’ perceptions of ICT training and its influence on the quality of education in government-aided secondary schools in Busia District, Uganda. It focused on formal ICT training, training frequency, and the relevance of training programs. Participants were 334 teachers with at least one year of teaching experience, selected through stratified random sampling. Data were collected via questionnaires and interviews and analysed using a mixed-methods approach, integrating quantitative analysis (descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and regression) with qualitative thematic content analysis. Results indicated that 58.7% of teachers had received formal ICT training, though much was general rather than subject-specific. Frequent and relevant training enhanced teachers’ confidence and their integration of ICT, with 69% reporting regular use of digital tools. Correlation (r = 0.719, p < 0.001) and regression (β = 0.771, p < 0.001) analyses revealed a strong, statistically significant relationship between ICT training and quality of education, measured through instructional effectiveness, student engagement, and learning outcomes, explaining over 60% of variance. The study concludes that continuous, practical, and subject-focused ICT training is vital for improving teaching practices and learner outcomes. Recommendations include increasing training frequency, enhancing content relevance, and strengthening leadership support and ICT infrastructure.

How Parents Provide Support for Their Children’s Learning in Mobile ECCE Contexts: Practitioners’ Views

2025-12-26T10:40:56+00:00

Researchers are increasingly interested in the role of early childhood care and education (ECCE) provided in mobile units in South Africa. By utilizing mainly transport vehicles such as trucks, the practitioners facilitate teaching and learning to the most vulnerable children aged birth to five years in remote rural areas. The study’s primary aim was to explore the practitioners’ views on the support parents provide for their children’s learning in a mobile ECCE context to promote quality service delivery. The study was theoretically anchored by Epstein’s overlapping spheres of influence theory. The researchers adopted the interpretive research paradigm combined with the phenomenological research design to make sense of practitioners’ subjectivity. Qualitative data was obtained from semi-structured, in-depth interviews by selecting and engaging twenty conveniently sampled ECCE practitioners. By adhering to the interview guide, the researchers focused on the study’s objectives to elicit rich data. The collected data was analyzed thematically using the Atlas. Ti software. Findings revealed that parents support practitioners through involvement in decision-making processes, regular meeting attendance, and cleaning the mobile units. It was recommended that better parental support and increased stakeholder interest in children’s early learning will result in children’s enhanced early cognitive development for future success.

A Study on the Design and Application of a Home-School Collaborative Progress Tracking System for Special Children’s Rehabilitation

2025-12-26T10:43:50+00:00

This study addresses the persistent “5+2=0” dilemma in special children’s rehabilitation, wherein over 30% of the gains from five days of school-based intervention are nullified by two-day gaps in home environments. Drawing upon fifteen years of frontline teaching and competition experience, coupled with AMI Montessori observational methods and formative assessment theory from Loyola University, the researcher developed the “Xu Ting Rehabilitation Data Assessment Index.” This index, embedded within a home-school collaborative rehabilitation progress tracking system, comprises 32 tertiary behavioral anchors and employs a hybrid data collection mode combining Likert scales with 15-second video clips, enabling automatic validation of data authenticity in home settings. An 18-month quasi-experimental study conducted across four special schools in Wuhan involved 120 children with autism, intellectual disabilities, and speech-language disorders aged 3 to 8, randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Results demonstrated that the experimental group’s home rehabilitation completion rate increased from a baseline of 45% to a stable 80.2%, significantly exceeding the control group’s 47.5%. In the “social reciprocity” domain, rehabilitation progress accelerated by 0.85 standard deviations compared to the control group. Teachers’ average daily data processing time decreased from 47 minutes to 19 minutes, while home-school communication frequency rose from 3.1 to 12.3 monthly interactions (Bornman, J., 2004). Qualitative analysis revealed a fundamental shift in parental roles from “passive implementers” to “observant reflectors,” with teachers’ decision-making patterns transitioning from “experience-driven” to “data-driven.” The study also identified challenges including privacy concerns, intergenerational digital divides, and the need for sustained professional support for teacher role transformation. This research provides a quantifiable, replicable digital solution to address data discontinuities and the “last-mile” problem of professional guidance in home-school collaboration, bridges theoretical gaps in localizing Montessori observation science, and offers practical guidance for optimizing special education resource allocation in central China.

A Study on Design Aesthetic Education and Innovation-Driven Teaching from the Perspective of Kansei Engineering — Taking the Course “Intelligent Agricultural Equipment System Design” at Jiangsu University as an Example

2025-12-26T10:46:07+00:00

Against the strategic backdrop of rural revitalization and building a strong agricultural nation in China, design education urgently needs to respond to the demands of the times by cultivating innovative talents capable of deeply integrating technology, culture, and aesthetics. This paper takes the course “Intelligent Agricultural Equipment System Design” as a practical vehicle, integrating the ternary theories of Kansei Engineering, a new-era “farming-reading” culture, and agricultural intelligent-manufacturing aesthetics to construct a teaching framework connecting user emotions, cultural roots, and technological aesthetics. The core of the course systematically translates the four aesthetic dimensions of “Form, Meaning, Intelligence, and Reflection” into four core competencies that design students should possess: Innovation in Form and CMF, Scene and Narrative Construction, Interaction and System Integration, and Sustainability and Social Responsibility. Through a meticulously designed “Five Questions, Five Answers, One Extension” teaching path, along with diversified methods such as project-based learning, interdisciplinary workshops, and virtual-physical combined field studies, the course achieves an integrated cultivation of aesthetic perception, cultural understanding, value shaping, and innovative ability. This paper elaborates on the course’s theoretical model, instructional design, implementation process, and innovative features, providing a referential paradigm for teaching reform practices that deeply integrate professional education, aesthetic education, and quality education within design-related disciplines.

Commercialization of Intellectual Property Rights in Kenyan Universities

2025-12-29T09:59:24+00:00

This study examined the commercialization of intellectual property (IP) rights within Kenyan universities, focusing on the level of IP awareness among university staff, as well as the current state of institutional IP policies. With declining government funding and an increasing demand for innovation-driven revenue, universities faced mounting pressure to transform research outputs into commercially viable products. However, several challenges, such as limited awareness, inadequate policies, and weak institutional linkages, continued to hinder this process. A mixed-method research design was employed, utilizing a structured questionnaire administered via the KoboCollect Toolbox. A total of 52 respondents from both public and private universities participated, resulting in a 94.5% response rate. Findings revealed that 59.6% of staff reported the existence of Technology Transfer or IP offices and formal IP policies within their institutions. Regular IP seminars were uncommon (21.2%), and only half of respondents rated their IP knowledge as “good.” Commercialization activity was modest and skewed toward books (28.8%) and software sales (30.8%). Private universities outperformed public counterparts in securing patents, trademarks, and copyrights, whereas public institutions showed relative strength in industrial designs and traditional medicine protections. Among the recommendations is the need for a longitudinal study to assess the developmental trajectory of universities towards embracing IP fully.