The Impact of a Messaging Intervention on Parents’ School Hesitancy During COVID-19

Throughout the 2020–2021 school year, families’ access to—and desire to participate in—in-person educational experiences was highly unequal. Concerns about “school hesitancy” in light of COVID-19 have continued into the 2021–2022 school year, driven both by concerns about well-being and concerns about safety. Using a nationally representative sample of families, we tested a messaging intervention aimed at reducing school hesitancy. We found that targeted messaging to address well-being and safety concerns substantially improved parent reports of their likelihood of sending their child back for in-person learning for parents who were previously unsure. The findings suggest the importance of careful COVID-related communication from schools.

Educational inequality in the Kebribeyah Somali refugee camp in Ethiopia: an autoethnography

Due to the Somali Civil War of 1991, more than 10,000 Somali refugees resettled in Kebribeyah, a town in the Somali region of Ethiopia. For nearly three decades, the local and resettled refugee communities shared the resources the region had to offer, adopted a new common cultural norm, and fostered some levels of social cohesions. It is the education sector, however, that caused social conflicts and hatred between resettled Somalis and the native Somali-Ethiopians. Currently, the education of Somali refugee children is funded by various international organizations, such as the United Nations. On the contrary, the local Somali-Ethiopian children pay their way to schools which leads to poor educational experiences. Using autoethnography as the research method, this article examines the formation of educational gaps between the local and refugee children. Findings suggest that educational inequality can exist between refugee and host communities, if not properly managed, and can ultimately impact social cohesion and stability in the refugee-hosting regions.

i9MASKS Project

Engineering education is a challenging topic that has been deeply explored in order to provide better educational experiences to engineering students, and the learning by doing approach has been appraised. Amidst a global pandemic, an engineering summer program denominated i9Masks emerged and aimed to create transparent facial masks for preventing the virus spreading. This project had the participation of 21 students from different engineering areas, as well as professors and monitors whose guidance and commitment were of great importance for its success. Aiming to understand the importance of this engineering hands-on project for students' training, two inquiries were applied, being one for students and the other for professors and monitors/researchers. Students described this initiative as an amazing and innovative experience that they would like to repeat and considered useful for their careers. Regarding the impact perceived by the teaching staff, the results proved that they enjoyed participating in the i9MASKS project and sharing knowledge with students in a practical way.

Wholistic Planning and Literacy Assessment for Bi/Multilingual and Bi/Multicultural DHH Students

This chapter presents Hornberger's *continua of biliteracy as a comprehensive and wholistic examination of diverse deaf and hard-of-hearing students' multilingual and multicultural abilities. The continua consist of four domains—development, content, media, and contexts—through which biliteracy is acquired. The continua are described then applied to three diverse immigrant DHH students and their families who are from Cambodia, Vietnam, and Chile. This results in unique insights into the students' current skill development and future needs including attainment of a positive dual minority identity and optimal academic skills. The final section utilizes the continua with a miscue analysis of an African American eighth grader. Miscue analysis provided a naturalistic, language-neutral means of assessing reading skills and identified a number of strengths not previously observed. This combination of tools more thoroughly examines the positive and negative influences on diverse DHH students with sensitive and insightful approaches for optimizing their educational experiences.

Implications of Gamification and Virtual Reality in Higher Education

Gamification and virtual reality are becoming more common in higher education, leading to more research toward this topic and its applications. Following this new trend, this chapter identifies and proposes practical applications and future directions for gamification and virtual reality in higher education environments. Authors contribute with precise inputs how to create student engagement and motivation towards learning and academic activities. Future research avenues in these domains are given. Authors draw conclusions about future changes in the educational experiences through gamification and virtual reality.

Gamification and Game-Based Learning

Teachers can use game mechanics in a non-game environment (gamification), or they can consider playing a game as an option to learn content. In the first case, adding elements inspired by games to the classroom environment allows teachers to create a motivating atmosphere for the learning of social sciences, geography, and history. The second case is directly related to games that “teach” content through making decisions and observation of consequences. With a focus on elements, benefits, strategies, and some of the most important resources to introduce gamification and game-based learning in social science education, the authors highlight student motivation and learning of content and skills. Although gamification is not a new concept, it can be considered that the technological development and the recognition of its didactic possibilities have extended the educational experiences in a new way, contributing significantly to education.

Exploring Maieutic Instruction

General views of the Socratic Method consist of it being a dialectical exchange based on probing questions concerning a topic. While this definition may prove practical, it may not do justice to the broad nature and practice of the instructional strategy. It is, therefore, equally important to explore how maieutic questioning grounds the Socratic Method as a viable instructional strategy. By realizing the maieutic process as giving birth to discoveries, educationists and students are given a clearer framework in implementing the Socratic Method in educational experiences. In further elucidating this claim, this chapter first draws from the maieutic practice found in Plato's dialogues. Second, the chapter explores research on maieutic questioning in teaching and learning experiences. Lastly, a recognition of both Socrates' original maieutic practice and the modern conception of it are advanced as strategies educationists can implement in their courses.

COVID-19 Innovation Approach to Support Wellbeing, Anxiety, and Depression Through Gaming Technologies

With this current Covid-19 pandemic, colleges and Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) must focus on applying educational experiences that are enriching, joyful, rewarding, and engaging. With such dynamic changes to the education systems due to the Covid-19 pandemic, gaming technologies have played an essential part in improving retention, engagement, motivation, and wellbeing. The needs of students are ever-changing within the pandemic, and institutions need to focus on wellbeing, anxiety, and depression. Current evidence does support that institutions have seen an increase of students seeking support from specialist teams for anxiety, depression, and wellbeing issues. The preliminary study used within this research is used to discover if gaming approaches can assist individuals/students who are experiencing distress within the Covid-19 pandemic. The research finding within the preliminary analysis studies does show that the use of a Game Jam provided students a chance to interact with others, assist with aspects of engaging in activities outside the everyday routines.