The room is full, but the learning is empty: pedagogy for the disengaged generation in Indian education

From Policy to Pedagogy: English Teachers’ Lesson Planning and Classroom Enactment of Mindful, Meaningful, and Joyful Learning

This study investigates the implementation of Mindful, Meaningful, and Joyful Learning (MMJL) principles within the Merdeka Curriculum framework in English language teaching at SDN 01 Pijot Utara. The research subjects consisted of a sixth-grade English teacher who served as both the designer of the Teaching Module and the classroom practitioner, along with sixth-grade students as secondary participants. Adopting a qualitative descriptive case study design grounded in Policy Enactment theory, data were collected through document analysis of the Teaching Module and systematic classroom observations. The findings reveal that while the MMJL principles are thoroughly embedded in the macro-structural design of the Teaching Module and successfully enacted during foundational and receptive instructional phases, a significant divergence occurs during productive phases. Activities demanding student autonomy, such as independent writing, reflection, and collaborative summarization, were only partially enacted, largely due to a lack of anticipatory scaffolding in the written plan and the persistence of teacher-centered norms intended to manage classroom silence. The study concludes that although MMJL principles effectively support classroom management and emotional well-being, their potential to drive higher-order intellectual engagement remains constrained by the gap between policy intentions and classroom realities. Practically, this research contributes to curriculum development and teacher training by recommending that Teaching Modules evolve into dynamic pedagogical instruments, supplemented by anticipatory scaffolds and differentiated strategies, to bridge the distance between curriculum vision and practice.

Flipped classroom and micro learning in the digital age: A comparative study on cognitive, emswellerotional, and behavioral engagement of elementary school students

DIMENSIONS OF EDUCATIONAL MENTORING: FORMATIVE VALENCES AND SUCCESSFUL PRACTICES IN CONTEMPORARY SCHOOLS

This study analyzes from a psychopedagogical and academic perspective the fundamental needs of modern early childhood education, focusing on the reconfiguration of the educator's professional identity as a vector of change. Premised on the idea that the evolution of current generations demands a definitive abandonment of professional comfort and traditional routines, the study explores the core pillars of the reflective teacher paradigm. It addresses the essential dimensions of didactic success: cultivating enthusiasm as an epistemic resource, the courage to implement methodological innovation, and the smart management of resistance to change. Aligned with European educational standards and grounded in the theoretical contributions of prominent Romanian academics (M. Bocoș, H. Catalano, I. Albulescu, A. F. Roman), the paper demonstrates that modern preschool didactics measures success not by classroom silence or rigidity, but by the level of authentic engagement and autonomy stimulated among children. The study advocates for a conscious and creative assumption of the modern educator's role, capable of opening new chapters in the praxis of early childhood education.

“More Feedback, Please”: Student Perceptions of Active Learning Strategies for Formative Assessment to Enhance Sustainable Learning in Higher Education

This study examines a persistent puzzle in active learning research in education: why do pedagogically sound interventions not always translate into perceived student value? We analyzed Information and Communications (ICT) Engineering students’ perceptions of three structurally distinct activities (weekly quizzes, individual concept maps, and a finance escape room) within a compulsory business course. Using bipolar laddering, 133 positive and 72 negative perception elements were mapped onto four dimensions of theSustainable Learning in Education (SLE) framework: renewal and relearning, transferability, independent and collaborative learning, and active learning. Self-regulated learning (SRL) functioned as the mechanism linking environmental dimensions to student agency and engagement. Students perceived all three activities as useful for examination preparation, but through different cognitive pathways. Quizzes supported distributed retrieval practice and were valued for re-attempts, though their usefulness declined with weak exam alignment or limited access. Concept maps enabled synthesis and relational understanding, yet received the lowest student endorsement, largely because in some instances student work was not returned post-submission. The escape room achieved the strongest and most consistent endorsement for exam preparation, with perceived limitations related only to activity duration and syllabus coverage. Activity alignment with SLE dimensions was uneven: quizzes aligned principally with renewal, concept maps with transferability, and all activities with independent and collaborative learning in distinct ways. Active learning was present throughout, but not uniform. The central finding was that perceived usefulness depended less on activity type than on feedback distribution and continuity. When feedback loops broke, perceived value declined. Together, the activities, therefore, form a complementary course-level feedback system. Through this case study, we identified five design recommendations to be implemented in the next edition of the course, positioning feedback as a system-level variable.

The Modern Educational Ecosystem: Triangulating the Lived Experiences of Learners, Parents, and Teachers

Modern educational environments are undergoing rapid global transformations driven by accelerating digitization, intense academic competition, and shifting socio-emotional demands. While structural and technological advancements continue to reshape instructional delivery, true educational efficacy remains anchored in the human dimensions of the learning ecosystem. This paper presents a conceptual synthesis that triangulates the concurrent lived experiences, systemic alignments, and underlying points of friction among three core educational stakeholders: learners, parents, and teachers. Grounded in contemporary global assessments from the OECD and UNESCO, alongside foundational frameworks like Self-Determination Theory, the analysis reveals a complex triadic tension. Learners exhibit high demand for interactive, autonomous engagement yet face severe digital cognitive fragmentation. Simultaneously, parents provide unprecedented levels of resource investment but inadvertently pass down systemic performance anxiety through hyper-monitoring behaviors. Caught between these pressures, teachers struggle to deliver highly creative, student-centered pedagogies under conditions of unsustainable administrative workload and acute professional burnout. Rather than viewing these challenges as isolated institutional defects, this paper argues for an integrated, humanistic framework that treats education as an interdependent relationship network. Ultimately, sustainable educational reform requires policymakers and administrators to move beyond clinical performance metrics, deliberately fostering mutual structural support to build ecosystemic resilience.

From training to classroom practice: a multiple-case study of universal design for learning implementation in Indonesian universities

While Indonesia has successfully increased higher education enrollment for students with disabilities, a critical graduation crisis persists, with rates plummeting from 8.97% to 4.7% between 2018 and 2023. This study argues that the mere provision of physical access is insufficient; the persistent gap between access and academic success is fundamentally rooted in the inconsistent enactment of inclusive pedagogy. Utilizing a qualitative multiple-case study design examining 14 lecturers, this study argues that professional development alone fails to guarantee classroom equity. Findings reveal that one year post-training, Universal Design for Learning (UDL) implementation remains stagnant at an “Emergent” level. Crucially, while lecturers demonstrate baseline proficiency in the principle of Representation, they systematically fail to afford the necessary learner autonomy within Action and Expression as the critical dimension driving student success. These findings prove that sporadic professional training cannot dismantle the entrenched “teacher-led” hegemony in Indonesian higher education, exposing a structural misalignment where individual motivation is actively undermined by rigid institutional barriers. Consequently, achieving SDG 4 requires a systemic transition from individual agency to institutional political will, including discipline-tailored STEM support. Ultimately, this research establishes the empirical repository necessary to reposition UDL from an optional instructional adjunct to a foundational imperative for institutional survival amid increasing learner variability.