Volume 2, Issue 1, 2025

ABSTRACT: Academic institutions’ mental health programs and services play a vital role in nurturing students’ well-being and success. Despite progress, challenges in implementation and the need for sustainable strategies highlight the importance of collaborative efforts to optimize mental health programs and create supportive academic environments. This research is important as it bridges gaps in existing knowledge and lays a foundation for both future academic inquiry and practical application. The study engaged experienced mental health advocates and professionals through a two-round Delphi process to refine strategies for improving mental health programs in academic institutions. The exploratory stage identified twenty-one essential strategies for developing sustainable and inclusive mental health programs in academic settings, emphasizing the importance of policy integration, culturally responsive interventions, peer support networks, technology utilization, capacity building, and resource advocacy. The integration stage further synthesized these into nine strategies, highlighting the need for embedding mental health into institutional policies, strengthening leadership accountability, fostering community collaboration, enhancing program accessibility, and promoting awareness through education and innovation. The findings underscore the value of evidence-based practices, professional development, and regular evaluation mechanisms to ensure adaptability, inclusivity, and long-term program sustainability, offering critical implications for practice, policy, and future research.

ABSTRACT: Currently, the integration of Music and Dance into curricula has become increasingly common due to its clear benefits in developing social communication skills and improving students’ mental and physical well-being. However, effectively addressing the complex relationship between Music and Dance when combining them into a single subject remains a significant challenge for educators. This study aimed to identify the causes of these challenges and propose solutions to overcome them. Through document analysis, a mixed-method approach (qualitative and quantitative), and field observations, the study collected participants’ insights on the impact of separating Music and Dance in teaching. The results showed that, in addition to the benefits of integrating Music and Dance in enhancing student interaction, improving communication skills, and fostering practical learning abilities, the separation of these two elements reduced the educational effectiveness of the subject. Based on the findings, the study proposed key pedagogical principles and specific solutions to address the challenges of integrating Music and Dance. These findings could serve as a theoretical framework for innovating course content and teaching methods, thereby contributing to the overall improvement of educational quality in this subject.

ABSTRACT: This qualitative study explores the impacts of leaders’ leadership skills on the well-being of Vietnamese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers. Utilizing a grounded theory approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with six participants selected through purposive sampling from both public and private sectors. This study is important because it addresses a significant gap in existing research by focusing on the well-being of EFL teachers in Vietnam, a context where English proficiency is increasingly prioritized but where teachers face growing pressures and challenges. Understanding how leadership skills contribute to teacher well-being can inform leadership practices and policies that enhance teacher retention, job satisfaction, and ultimately, the quality of English language education. The findings revealed a range of leadership skills and practices that positively influence teacher well-being, including fostering collaboration and teamwork, adapting to changes, respecting teachers’ professional judgment, providing emotional support and fair workload distribution, promoting work-life balance, providing continuous feedback and growth opportunities, ensuring clear communication, empowering and appreciating teachers, resolving conflicts, and establishing trust.

ABSTRACT: Traditional education alone is no longer adequate to prepare students for the challenges of a globalized and diverse society within the context of sustainable development. The European Higher Education Area places a strong emphasis on educational methodologies to achieve its goal of fostering the holistic development of university students as competent professionals and responsible citizens and cooperative learning appears to be a more effective methodological approach to address this evolving reality. This study explores whether a collaborative learning approach promotes meaningful learning and skill development among university students. We compared two groups using different learning strategies: traditional and cooperative. The statistical analysis was conducted in two phases. First, a survey was distributed to students in both groups. A t-test was then applied to examine the differences between the two groups. The findings indicate that the cooperative group outperformed the traditional group in terms of motivation, personal skills, and self-assessment confirming that cooperative learning is more effective in developing the skills necessary for a sustainable society.

ABSTRACT: This study compares the preprimary education systems of Singapore and Ethiopia, two nations with contrasting socioeconomic and legislative environments. Using a comparative analysis that integrates both quantitative and qualitative data, the research identifies discrepancies in accessibility, curriculum, teacher training, infrastructure, and policy efficacy. It fills a research gap by comparing ECE in a developed and developing nation, contextualizing global best practices for resource-limited settings. Ethiopia’s gradual progress (20% to 60% coverage, 2016–2025) reflects external collaboration and bottom-up approaches, but it lacks structural changes. The findings reveal significant gaps in essential resources, particularly textbook shortages, which hinder learning outcomes, and concerns about teacher expertise, highlighting the need for improved professional development programs. In contrast, Singapore’s coordinated curricula and nearly universal enrollment demonstrate astute investment and efficient regulation. Key findings reveal divergent long-term effects, values, and resource investments. While Singapore’s model offers insights into standards and technology utilization, recommendations emphasize Ethiopia’s need for additional funding and teacher professional development. The report underscores the importance of policy convergence with Sustainable Development Goal 4 to ensure inclusive early childhood care and education (ECCE) worldwide.

ABSTRACT: Literature reports, chemistry teachers in Ghanaian high schools struggle conceptually in teaching organic chemistry. Pre-tertiary exposure, professional collaboration, professional competence, and tertiary exposure have been identified as the factors accounting for these challenges. This research studied the factor(s) that predict most of the teachers’ conceptual difficulties in teaching organic chemistry in high school. The findings can help researchers, Ministry of Education (MOE), Ghana Education Service (GES), and Teacher Education provide in-service teachers with necessary intervention or professional development and materials to improve organic chemistry teaching and learning. In a cross-sectional survey, 71 teachers were randomly sampled from 114 chemistry teachers teaching organic chemistry at the high school for the study. Data collected with tests and questionnaires were organised quantitatively and analysed using means, standard deviation and multiple regression. It came to bare that teachers have difficulties in organic chemistry and that the factors accounting for these difficulties are pre-tertiary exposure, tertiary exposure, professional collaboration and professional competence and the most predictive factor was tertiary exposure. Pre-tertiary exposure involves experiences and knowledge acquired before tertiary education, while tertiary exposure involves experiences and knowledge acquired during tertiary education. Professional collaboration involves continuous engagement in professional groups, sharing experiences, and knowledge, while professional competence involves using teaching resources and acquiring in-service training. The recommendation is for chemistry educators and researchers to develop innovative instructional strategies for effective teaching of organic chemistry at the tertiary level.

ABSTRACT: Teacher emotion has garnered increasing scholarly attention as a critical catalyst shaping professional performances and sustained professional development. This qualitative case study, anchored in Resilience Theory, investigated the emotional experiences and regulation strategies of Vietnamese pre-service EFL teachers during a school-based teaching practicum in the Mekong Delta region. Data was gathered through semi-structured interviews with ten pre-service teachers and five teacher mentors and analyzed through thematic analysis. Findings uncovered a spectrum of participants’ emotional fluctuations influenced by teaching responsibilities, feedback from stakeholders, and administrative tasks. Participants reported emotional uncertainty in dynamic real-life teaching settings, a feeling of being overwhelmed caused by multiple roles, and emotional conflicts in professional identity formation. To regulate these complex emotions, participants employed agent-based and antecedent-based emotional regulation strategies. These strategies aimed at mitigating self-doubt, cultivating emotional resilience, optimizing teaching practices, and fostering their sustainability in the teaching profession. These findings subsequently shed light on the emotionally intensive nature of the practicum and call for the integration of emotion-based assistance to enhance pre-service teachers’ overall well-being. Pedagogical implications were also proposed to advise relevant stakeholders to better their teacher education and training programs.

ABSTRACT: The impact of recent pandemics and natural disasters on societies requires a multidimensional examination. Chaos theory, which posits that small changes in the initial conditions of complex systems can lead to significant and unpredictable outcomes over time, can serve as a framework for this analysis. This study investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and earthquakes—both of which can be regarded as social problem situations within the framework of chaos theory—on pre-service teachers. This study, conducted during the 2023–2024 academic year, employed an explanatory case study design—a qualitative research approach—to explore the lived experiences of 27 students enrolled at Necmettin Erbakan University. The findings indicate that a considerable majority of participants reported a decline in motivation, encountered psychological difficulties, and recognized a lack of professional development opportunities, all of which were attributed to the inadequacies of distance education. Consequently, many students articulated feelings of insufficient preparation for the teaching profession. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the earthquakes of 2023, which are regarded as chaotic events in Türkiye, distance education was implemented. However, the distance education methods used by universities to maintain their educational services were generally found to be inadequate. As a result, students faced several psycho-social challenges during this period. Furthermore, research findings indicate a widespread belief among students that they lack adequate professional competencies.

ABSTRACT: Mathematics plays a crucial role in fostering innovation and addressing societal challenges, making its enhancement essential in the context of Education 4.0. This study addresses a gap in the literature by providing expert-driven recommendations for transforming mathematics education in response to the demands of Education 4.0, which has been underexplored in existing research. Through an iterative consultation process, experts agreed on integrating key 21st-century skills such as critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and digital literacy. The findings emphasize the importance of innovative teaching methods, ethical use of technology, and global competence in fostering adaptable, problem-solving learners. The study also highlights the need for inclusive and sustainable approaches within mathematics education. The proposed frameworks offer practical strategies for bridging theoretical content with real-world applications.

ABSTRACT: The study examined how applying mathematical concepts to real-life situations and using mathematical history as teaching strategies affect students’ performance in mathematics. It also investigated the impact of students’ perceptions and teaching and learning materials on these relationships. This study is important because it offers insights into how context-based and historically grounded teaching methods can enhance mathematics achievement, informing more effective and culturally relevant instructional practices. Conducted with a cross-sectional survey design, the study used a structured questionnaire to collect data from 579 secondary school students across six schools in the Kwabre East district, Ashanti Region, Ghana. Data analysis was performed using structural equation modeling in Amos (v.23) software. Results indicated that applying mathematical concepts to real-life situations positively and significantly influenced students’ performance. Incorporating the history of mathematics did not directly impact performance but was fully mediated by students’ perceptions. Additionally, students’ perceptions partially mediated the link between real-life application and performance. The use of teaching and learning materials moderated both the relationship between real-life application and students’ perceptions and the relationship between history of mathematics and students’ perceptions.