Defining, designing for, and measuring “social constructivist digital literacy” development in learners: a proposed framework

We uncover some of the practical issues and problems experienced when implementing a dialogic approach to teaching which is designed to encourage the active engagement of first-year students making a transition into higher education (HE) and to develop their capacity for reflective practice. Our approach draws on dialogic practice to promote critical thinking and active engagement of students. Dialogue is also addressed within Freirian principles and enshrined within the wider democratic framework which calls for student voices to be listened to and taken seriously. Consequently, we give attention to the power dynamics which set the parameters for active engagement and consider to what extent students are treated as participants in the production of their own knowledge.

Medical student is expected to acquire a significant amount of knowledge during their training period and this becomes major stress for them. The purpose of the current review was to understand the need for active learning and student engagement and identify the various tools or strategies to promote student engagement. An extensive search of all materials related to the topic was carried out on the PubMed search engine, and a total of 21 articles were selected based on their suitability with the current review objectives. Keywords used in the search include student engagement and medical education in the title alone only. Student engagement is a crucial aspect to ensure active learning as it aids in stimulating and enhancing the ability of students to comprehend the concepts and apply them. As we envisage interactive teaching should be the new norm in medical education delivery, it becomes a crucial factor that medical teachers should use appropriate tools/vignettes to ensure student engagement. To conclude, considering the complexities in medical education, ensuring student engagement during the teaching–learning session is of paramount importance. It becomes the responsibility of the teachers to employ various strategies and tools to engage students in the class, as it will help them to acquire knowledge and skills better and will eventually prepare them for their future competent medical practitioner.

PurposeInstructional design students’ training may not include game-based learning (GBL). This paper aims to review the literature on GBL to determine the role of the instructional designer who is interested in GBL approaches to enhance learning especially for the novice learner.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology for determining the instructional designers’ roles is based on the comparison of game-based and traditional instructional design and the identification of what is needed to aid instructors and designers in development and evaluation of GBL products.FindingsThe literature reveals that GBL shows learning potential. The existence of slim empirical research cannot posit GBL effectiveness in general, within specific disciplines, or with specific learner types. If GBL is to be effectively included in instructional design, the instructional designers, game designers and educational stakeholders need to collaborate to understand and combine optimal design features that meet both game and education objectives and to develop a common nomenclature so that research and its findings can be effectively communicated.Originality/valueThis review identifies specific digital game-based strategies that align with the learning goals sought in instructional design, differences between game and instructional design and steps needed for the instructional designer to bridge gaps in knowledge or practice between educators, researchers, game designers and instructional designers. These identifications may aid all GBL stakeholders in development of future GBL.

Abstract—Nowadays, Online Education has been an inevitable choice of practice in the teaching-learning process. Learner engagement is one of the ineluctable challenges faced by the course teachers. For sustaining the learner's engagement throughout the course, teachers have to plan teaching-learning activities such as learning environment, content delivery, active student engagement, assessment, and evaluation. To plan teaching–learning activities effectively, the ADDG9E Instructional Design model, the combination of ADDIE and the Gagne’s 9 events models, has been proposed. Computer Programming CP101x – online bridge course has been offered to first-year engineering students. This course has been offered to improve the problem-solving skills of the learners. The proposed model has been implemented for organizing an online bridge course using the Moodle platform. The experimental results show that the proposed model has improved the learner's engagement, sustainability in learning, formative and summative assessment scores compared to physical classroom teaching. The course feedback shows that how well the learners have enjoyed their learning in the proposed ADDG9E Instructional Design modelbased online bridge course on computer programming. Keywords— ADDIE Model, Gagne’s 9 Events Model, Online Instructional Design, Online Learning, Online Course Design, Student Engagement, Self-Learning, Self-Motivation.

The development of digital technology requires fiqh instruction to adapt to the characteristics of 21st-century learning; however, the reality in madrasah shows that the use of technology in fiqh learning has not been optimal. This study aimed to describe the implementation of fiqh instruction at MTs Nurul Islam 2 Boyolali in the digital era and to identify the obstacles encountered in applying instructional technology. A descriptive qualitative approach was employed, with data collected through observation and interviews with fiqh teachers and madrasah administrators, and subsequently analyzed descriptively. The findings indicate that fiqh learning is still dominated by conventional methods due to low levels of teachers’ digital competence and limited digital learning infrastructure. This situation results in low levels of active student engagement and suboptimal development of students’ digital literacy. The novelty of this study lies in its mapping of the interrelationship between teachers’ digital competence, infrastructure readiness, and the utilization of students’ potential as a digital generation in the context of fiqh instruction in madrasah. These findings highlight the importance of enhancing teachers’ digital competence and strengthening technology-based learning support systems in madrasah so that fiqh instruction becomes more relevant to the demands of the digital era.

The demands of 21st-century education emphasize the mastery of critical thinking, creativity, communication, collaboration, and digital literacy, particularly for Generation Z, who grew up in the era of rapid technological advancement. One relevant approach is the integration of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education with deep learning, which focuses on conceptual understanding, reflection, and active student engagement. This article aims to review recent national and international research findings on the implementation of deep learning-based STEM integration to enhance 21st-century skills among Generation Z. The study employs a literature review method by analyzing scientific publications from accredited national and international journals. The analysis reveals that integrating STEM with deep learning effectively strengthens science process skills, problem-solving abilities, collaboration, and digital literacy, aligning with the adaptive nature of Generation Z toward technological development. Furthermore, this approach promotes contextual, innovative, and future-oriented learning. Therefore, the integration of deep learning-based STEM education can be considered an effective strategy to facilitate the mastery of 21st-century skills while preparing Generation Z to face global challenges

This study investigates integrating deep learning approaches and digital literacy into reading instruction to support the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 4 (Quality Education) among high school EFL students in Central Java, Indonesia. The study objectives were to evaluate the efficacy of deep learning-based reading strategies in improving students' comprehension, assess their digital literacy levels, and evaluate teachers' perceptions of integrating deep learning and digital literacy in EFL reading classrooms. One hundred seventy-eight tenth-grade students from three public high schools in Central Java participated in this study, which employed a mixed-methods sequential explanatory design. A digital literacy questionnaire and reading comprehension pre- and post-tests were used to gather quantitative data. Semi-structured interviews, teacher focus groups, and classroom observations were used to gather qualitative data. After using immersive learning methodologies backed by digital media resources, pupils' reading comprehension scores significantly improved, according to quantitative studies. There was also a high correlation between students' reading competence and their digital literacy levels. The qualitative data showed greater student participation and high comprehension of the text as observed by teachers accompanied by enhanced engagement, critical thinking, and autonomy of students in reading activities. These results substantiate the integration of deep learning and digital literacy into reading lessons. It raises both cognitive and affective dimensions in EFL contexts. The significant study about pedagogical innovation emphasizes the SDGs, teacher training, and curriculum support that sustain tech-enhanced learning environments in Indonesian secondary schools.

This chapter describes active student engagement and strategies used to promote it. The research literature has repeatedly demonstrated positive academic and behavioral outcomes associated with active engagement. Regardless of where students are taught or the content delivered, a predictor of student achievement is the opportunity to have meaningful opportunities to engage in a well-designed lesson. Students may actively respond during a lesson through engaging in hands-on activities, constructing or generating permanent products, or responding individually or as a part of a group to a teacher question or cue. The chapter explains the benefits to students including increased skill acquisition, enhanced rates of on-task behavior, decreased rates of off-task behavior, and increased opportunities to respond. Instructor benefits include the ability to formatively assess student comprehension during the lesson. The chapter presents strategies for teachers when using active responding in groups including the use of choral responding, response cards, and high-tech response systems. Planning and implementation decisions are outlined for teachers to use when individualizing active responding strategies for students with extensive support needs.

ABSTRACTIn this article we explore the potential for attempts to encourage student engagement to be conceptualised as behaviour change activity, and specifically whether a new framework to guide such activity has potential value for the Higher Education (HE) sector. The Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW) (Michie, Susan, Maartje M van Stralen, and Robert West. 2011. “The Behaviour Change Wheel: A New Method for Characterising and Designing Behaviour Change Interventions.” Implementation Science : IS 6 (1): 42. doi:10.1186/1748-5908-6-42) is a framework for the systematic design and development of behaviour change interventions. It has yet to be applied to the domain of student engagement. This article explores its potential, by assessing whether the BCW comprehensively aligns with the state of student engagement as currently presented in the HE literature. This work achieves two things. It firstly allows a prima facie assessment of whether student engagement activity can be readily aligned with the BCW framework. It also highlights omissions and prevalence of activity types in the HE sector, compared with other sectors where behaviour change practice is being successfully applied.

Active student participation and engagement in diverse practice exercises are essential for mastering all four language skills. Due to the lack of active participation, students' proficiency in Arabic language learning, particularly in speaking skills (maharah kalam), falls below the required educational benchmarks. This research uses a quasi-experimental approach to assess the effectiveness of two different learning media: Plotagon for Tenth-grade students of IPS 1 and digital comics for Tenth-grade students of IPS 2 in improving Arabic speaking skills. The research findings indicate that students who used Plotagon as a learning tool to enhance their speaking skills achieved significantly better learning outcomes on average compared to students who used digital comics for the same purpose. Additionally, this study found that students who utilized Plotagon for learning exhibited higher engagement levels than those who used digital comics. These findings highlight the significance of active engagement in learning Arabic and indicate that Plotagon animation can be a valuable tool for enhancing learning outcomes and student engagement.

The aim of this study is to examine the relationships between academic self-efficacy, student engagement, and learning styles of students in different sports sciences departments, and to identify which learning style leads to more effective learning during student engagement. A total of 629 students, including 355 male and 274 female participants, voluntarily took part in the study. These students were enrolled in three universities in the Aegean region of Turkey: Ege University, Celal Bayar University, and Adnan Menderes University. Scales measuring academic self-efficacy, student engagement, and learning styles were used to assess the students' characteristics. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, cluster analysis, multivariate analysis of variance, and post-hoc tests were conducted for data evaluation. The results revealed a low positive correlation between the subdimensions of all three scales. Students with high academic self-efficacy preferred both verbal and visual learning styles, with a stronger preference for verbal styles. Additionally, male students with high academic self-efficacy used both verbal and visual learning styles more frequently than their female counterparts. These findings highlight the influence of self-efficacy on learning preferences and engagement in the academic context.

The development of digital technology demands that students possess digital literacy as a core competency of the 21st century, encompassing critical thinking, problem-solving, and effective technology utilization. One strategic approach to improving digital literacy is through visual programming-based coding learning. Lightbot hour, a game-based learning platform, provides an interactive learning experience that supports the strengthening of computational thinking, algorithmic logic, and active student engagement. Coding learning activities using Lightbot Hour have demonstrated a positive impact not only on improving digital literacy but also on students' fine motor skills through eye-hand coordination activities in operating digital devices. Furthermore, the student-centered learning approach can increase student motivation, participation, and confidence in the learning process. Therefore, integrating coding learning using Lightbot Hour is considered effective and relevant for implementation in elementary education to support students' comprehensive cognitive, psychomotor, and affective development.

Purpose: Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) has become a central feature of contemporary education, offering digital platforms and tools to improve teaching and learning. In Ghanaian Senior High Schools (SHSs), TEL adoption has accelerated, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, yet questions remain about its impact on student engagement and motivation. This study therefore examined role of technology-enhanced learning on student engagement and motivation in selected Ghanaian Senior High Schools. Methods: Anchored in Self-Determination Theory, the study employed a positivist paradigm and a descriptive cross-sectional survey design. A deductive approach guided the analysis of theoretically grounded constructs. The sample comprised 73 students purposively selected from two public SHSs with established digital infrastructure. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire administered via Google Forms, adapted from validated instruments, and analysed using IBM SPSS (Version 27). Descriptive statistics summarised perceptions, while Pearson’s correlation tested associations among digital literacy, motivation, and engagement at a 95% confidence level. Findings: Findings revealed that students perceived digital literacy particularly confidence and positive attitudes toward digital tools as critical enablers of TEL use. Confidence in digital skills strongly influenced collaboration and motivation (Mean = 4.00; r = 0.93). Digital tool use was highly correlated with improved focus, enjoyment, and active participation in TEL classrooms (r = 0.91–0.94). These results highlight that competence and confidence are stronger predictors of motivation and engagement than peer influence or system usability. Conclusion: The study concludes that TEL can significantly enhance student motivation and engagement when supported by digital literacy. Implications: The implications highlight the need for targeted teacher training, equitable resource allocation, and digital literacy programmes to maximise TEL’s benefits in Ghanaian SHSs, thereby advancing SDG 4 (Quality Education). Originality: The originality of this research lies in its focus on the relationship between digital literacy and motivational outcomes in Ghanaian SHSs, moving beyond access and infrastructure debates to provide empirical evidence on how TEL shapes students’ learning experiences.

Legal education is essential for preparing students for professional success by providing them with academic information and practical skills. Student engagement in academic, career-focused, and extracurricular activities varies, impacting students’ overall readiness for legal practice. Previous studies have demonstrated that passive learning prevails in legal education, constraining students' engagement in critical thinking and professional growth endeavors. This study aims to analyze the participation patterns of students at Hanoi Law University in academic, career-oriented, and extracurricular activities. This research aims to elucidate trends and problems in student engagement to enhance legal education and professional readiness. This research utilized a quantitative methodology with a structured questionnaire to evaluate student engagement in three principal domains. Data were gathered from 480 students spanning various academic years and specialties. Descriptive statistical techniques, such as the mean, standard deviation, frequency analysis, and Cronbach’s alpha reliability assessment, were utilized via SPSS 20.0 to guarantee data precision and uniformity. Research reveals that students mostly partake in passive learning activities, including attending lectures (M = 2.37, SD = 0.59) and notetaking, but their involvement in interactive learning methods, discussions (M = 2.18, SD = 0.46), and debates (M = 2.10, SD = 0.58) is low. Career-related involvement, encompassing networking (M = 2.33, SD = 0.58) and job research (M = 2.39, SD = 0.56), is comparatively elevated; nevertheless, skill development (M = 2.19, SD = 0.64) and legal research activities (M = 2.03, SD = 0.66) are accorded lesser priority. Participation in extracurricular activities, including law clubs (M = 1.63, SD = 0.80), moot court competitions and legal contests (M = 2.08, SD = 0.93), and legal internships (M = 1.81, SD = 0.84), is minimal owing to academic demands and insufficient institutional incentives. This research underscores the need for a more adaptive and learner-focused methodology in legal education. Promoting active learning methodologies, augmenting career development initiatives, and cultivating extracurricular involvement can increase student readiness for legal practice.

This paper reports the findings from a descriptive phenomenological exploration of the lived experience of dialogue days, a student engagement activity, from the perspectives of staff and students. I suggest that dialogue days enhance the relational and emotional aspects of learning with the potential to impact on future student engagement and motivation. In the discussion, I consider the role of the self and the importance of community within a concept of ‘relational pedagogy.’ In conclusion, I propose that dialogue days are one way to develop relational pedagogy as a means to enhance student engagement.