This research investigated the early language development of children who are cochlear recipients in this population, with the objective of identifying language acquisition profiles and determining how they were affected by chronological age, duration of use (its initiation time and total period in months), and the effects of the timing of the intervention. Design: A descriptive cross-sectional study. A structured questionnaire was applied to parents and speech-language pathologists in Medina, Saudi Arabia. The sample comprised 78 children within the ages of 1–5 who were using cochlear implants. The questionnaire included 28 language skills, which ranged from basic auditory-receptive abilities to syntactic knowledge.

The results revealed a clear rank-ordering of language development. The item pool and receptive skills demonstrated the highest achievement rates, with the recognition of personal items at 93.59% and various interactional skills exceeding 90%. Higher-order expressive and syntactic skills, in contrast, were significantly impaired. The lowest attainment rates were found for generating three- to four-word utterances (55.89%) and for comprehending complex question forms, such as "why," "who," and "how many" (57.69%), indicating an ongoing delay in acquiring more complex language structures.

The instrument had excellent reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = .949). Trends toward significance indicated that a younger age at cochlear implantation and an earlier onset of language intervention were related to higher linguistic profiles, while a greater amount of device experience correlated with better overall language performance. Together, the results show that Arabic-speaking children with cochlear implants develop basic language skills more easily than complex syntax. The findings highlight the need for early implantation, continuous intervention, and culturally and linguistically appropriate interventions to achieve higher-level language development.

This presentation reports on an industry–university partnership between a large-scale multinational company and an educational outreach STEM Maker Space. Industry representatives co‑facilitated STEM outreach workshops with children aged between 6–12 years old and their teachers with STEM facilitators and experts in the field of STEM education from a college of education in Ireland. Drawing exclusively on post‑activity reflections from the industry volunteers, this presentation examines motivations for participation, perceived learning and, facilitation challenges, and translate these into practical recommendations for strengthening university–industry collaborations in STEM education.

Volunteers’ primary motivations were values‑driven: inspiring the next generation; sharing a passion for science; giving back; and personal connections (e.g., being parents or STEM advocates). Volunteers reported substantial learning about how children learn: curiosity and questioning as entry points; the power of hands‑on demonstrations; unexpectedly high prior knowledge among 8–12‑year‑olds; and the need to adapt explanations by age. Challenges clustered around age-appropriate communication, simplifying abstract concepts for younger learners, and managing learner engagement and the learning environment.

From an industry perspective, the partnership yielded clear benefits: employee engagement and morale, development of communication skills, strengthened community relationships, and early talent pipeline visibility. The presentation will explore best practices in STEM educational outreach involving industry volunteers and propose a model of engagement for University-Industry Partnerships in the delivery of STEM outreach to younger children at elementary level education. The findings demonstrated how thoughtfully structured university–industry collaborations can amplify STEM interest among children while delivering reciprocal value to industry volunteers and partners.

This paper presents a strategic framework for building leadership capacity in inclusive education through a systems theory lens, drawing on the collaborative RISE (Realising Inclusive Special Education) strategy led by a post-primary management body and a university involved in teacher education in Ireland. Designed to bridge policy, practice, and research, the RISE strategy adopts a whole-system approach that mobilises the expertise of educators, leaders, researchers, and stakeholders across Ireland’s post-primary schools.

Grounded in ecological systems theory, systems leadership, and social learning theory, the strategy promotes values-driven leadership, inclusive practice, and collaborative knowledge engagement. It supports meaningful participation by students and families and facilitates context-sensitive school support aligned with national policy frameworks.

RISE employs Design-Based Implementation Research (DBIR), an iterative methodology involving co-design and evaluation with practitioners and system leaders. Data from 220 post-primary schools across 16 districts, alongside 10 cross-sectoral partner schools, informs ongoing development. Mixed-method evaluations, including surveys and interviews, have demonstrated enhanced strategic planning, increased collaboration, and improved professional learning alignment.

Key outcomes include the following:

• Strengthened communities of practice that foster teacher leadership.
• Evidence-informed decision-making supporting policy and resource allocation.
• Clarified professional learning needs and reduced duplication.
• A sustainable model for inclusive school improvement.

This paper argues that inclusive education transformation requires systemic investment and adaptive leadership. By leveraging existing expertise and fostering collaborative learning environments, RISE unleashes schools’ untapped potential to improve themselves and optimise existing expertise in the system. Communities of practice stimulate momentum through contextually relevant learning. Sustainable leadership originates within schools but requires ongoing support to thrive. Continued stakeholder collaboration supports agile, research- and practice-informed responses to evolving policy and practice contexts. Framing inclusive school improvement through an ecological lens acknowledges complex interdependencies and enhances understanding of systemic effectiveness.

The framework offers a replicable model for international contexts seeking to build leadership capacity for inclusion.

Chorus: Amplifying Student Voice through Creative, Sustainable STEAM Engagement explores how inclusive, interdisciplinary learning ecosystems can be designed around creativity, collaboration, and research-informed practice. The project examines how student voice can be meaningfully embedded within STEAM education by positioning learners not only as participants, but as co-creators of knowledge, resources, and learning experiences. Drawing on two national initiatives, Harmonic and Chorus, the session demonstrates how narrative, co-design, and principles of Universal Design for Learning can be translated into scalable, classroom-ready practice. Central to the model are partnerships across different tiers of education, where learners collaborate to design creative resources and skills-based videos that scaffold flexible, interdisciplinary STEAM workshops.

The co-designed outputs generated through these partnerships are subsequently adapted and shared with primary classrooms, culminating in a mixed-media STEAM anthology that communicates complex ideas through story, illustration, and creativity. This process foregrounds peer-to-peer learning and supports continuity across educational levels. The presentation reflects on how creative STEAM engagement can amplify student voice, foster collaborative learning cultures, and bridge research, practice, and policy. It offers insights for educators, researchers, and practitioners interested in participatory design, inclusive education, and SDG-focused STEAM learning, which integrates science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics to explore real-world challenges linked to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, supporting creative problem-solving, student voice, and social responsibility.

Introduction: Handwriting is a basic academic skill, and students with learning disabilities often struggle with handwriting legibility due to limitations of working memory and cognitive processing. This study developed and investigated the effectiveness of the Cognitive Load-Managed Handwriting Program (CLM–Handwriting) to develop handwriting legibility among students with LDs. CLM–Handwriting is grounded in the principles of the Cognitive Load Theory (CLT). It is especially designed to target the cognitive needs of students with LDs.

Methodology: A quasi-experimental design was employed, where a sample of 40 students with LDs was divided into two groups. The experimental group (n = 20) received the CLM–Handwriting intervention for a period of 10 weeks (30 sessions), while the control group (n = 20) received traditional classroom instructions. The Handwriting Legibility and Motor Control Scale (HLMCS) (ICC = 0.83; α = 0.80) was used to collect pre-test and post-test data.

Data Analysis: Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical tests. Data analysis revealed that baseline performance of both groups was similar (p = 0.97). The control group didn not show significant improvement at the post-test (p = 0.79) while the experimental group demonstrated a significant improvement in their score (t(19) = −4.33, p < .001, d = 0.97). Post-test between-group analysis also confirmed that the experimental group performed significantly better than the control group (t(38) = −2.97, p < .001, d = 0.94). Analysis of covariance further confirmed that the improvement in the scores of the experimental group was significant even after controlling for the pre-test score (F(1,37) = 19.4, p < .001).

Conclusion: The data analysis overall confirms the effectiveness of CLM–Handwriting on handwriting legibility among students with LDs. The findings of this study suggest the need to apply cognitive load-aware strategies in accessible and inclusive classrooms.

Gateway engineering courses pose a substantial challenge for first-year students and are often characterized by high failure rates and considerable cognitive load. Although the literature highlights the benefits of active learning in STEM courses, most studies have focused primarily on achievement outcomes and have less frequently examined process-oriented indicators such as ongoing performance and examination behavior. This study examined the impact of active learning in a core physics course in engineering on academic achievement, ongoing performance, failure rates, and examination patterns, and assessed the unique contribution of the instructional model to predicting the final course grade within a high-stakes gateway context.

A comparative quasi-experimental design was conducted between two independent groups (N = 105): a traditional instruction group (n = 61) and an active learning group (n = 44), which included in-class problem solving, structured scaffolding, simulations, preparatory tasks, and continuous digital communication designed to support conceptual understanding and sustained engagement. Both groups followed the same syllabus and completed identical assignments and examinations. Data included final grade, mean assignment grades, assignment submission rate, course failure, and attendance at the second examination session. Analyses comprised Mann–Whitney tests, chi-square tests, Z-tests for independent proportions, and hierarchical regression models.

Significant differences were found in final grades, mean assignment grades, and submission rates in favor of the active learning group. Lower failure rates and lower attendance at the second examination session were also observed. Hierarchical regression indicated a significant and unique contribution of the instructional intervention to the prediction of final grades beyond assignment performance. The findings suggest that active learning in cognitively demanding core engineering courses is associated with improved achievement, reduced failure, and altered examination behavior, offering an integrative empirical perspective for evaluating structural pedagogical reform in STEM higher education contexts.

This paper poses some research questions against which it studies the execution and efficacy of Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) in neuro-inclusive schools in Kathmandu Metropolitan area with reference to different individual needs, such as autism, ADHD, cerebral palsy and deaf–blindness. The research is informed by the neurodiversity paradigm and shaped through the Piaget, Bruner, and Vygotsky cognitive developmental theories, and the study is applied under ethnographic approaches and qualitative case studies in four neuro-inclusive schools. The results indicate different degrees of knowledge and use of IEPs in institutions. While certain schools evolve hybrid forms of Korean and Nepali structure, others face challenges such as ineffective instruction of teachers, absence of resources, and poor maintenance of parental interest. According to teachers, IEPs provide a wonderful background in helping them achieve their learning outcomes, but the constraints are usually confined to space limits, teacher shortages and the intricacy of addressing various learners' needs on the same platform (classroom). Notwithstanding these difficulties, there exists evidence of better self-regulation and developing social skills, especially in students with mild cases of autism, with the adaptive, activity-based IEPs playing a role. To improve inclusive education processes, the study reinforces the importance of lifelong professional learning, cross-culturally sensitive parent collaborations, and culturally contextual education-related resources. It finds that the flexible, developmentally-based and child-centered approach, rooted in the developmental theories, is critical to the sound implementation of the IEP in the neurodiverse ecology of learning settings.

Introduction
Topology is rarely included in secondary mathematics curricula, yet it offers strong potential to foster abstract reasoning and spatial thinking. Its visual and conceptual nature makes it particularly suitable for exploratory learning. This study presents an educational proposal that introduces basic topological ideas in Secondary Education through practical and game-based experiences. By using interactive digital environments, students are encouraged to discover properties of shapes and spaces in an intuitive and meaningful way.

Methods
The study began with a review of research on the introduction of advanced mathematical topics at non-university levels, with special attention to topology. A second review examined the educational value of digital games in mathematics teaching. Based on these findings, a set of learning situations was designed around interactive geometry and topology games available on the platform Geometry Games. The proposal integrates principles of game-based learning and inquiry-based learning: students explore virtual environments, formulate conjectures, test ideas, and discuss their conclusions. Activities were structured to connect topological concepts with everyday contexts and real-world applications.

Results
The implementation suggests that interactive digital games can make abstract concepts more accessible and engaging. Students showed increased motivation and were able to identify topological properties such as continuity and transformation through guided exploration. The activities also supported the development of logical reasoning, spatial awareness, and problem-solving skills.

Conclusions
Introducing topology through structured game-based experiences is both feasible and pedagogically valuable in Secondary Education. While careful guidance is needed to ensure conceptual clarity, this approach opens new possibilities for bringing advanced mathematics closer to younger learners in a meaningful and motivating way.

Learning and social participation of children with autism spectrum disorder can be greatly impacted by the ongoing difficulties that they often face in social communication, joint attention, and sustained engagement. To address these difficulties, in recent years, play-based and technology-assisted interventions have become popular. In this study, the use of puppets and social robots as mediating tools for enhancing communication skills and engagement in children with autism spectrum disorder is examined. This study consolidates findings from empirical research, focusing on outcomes related to social initiation, verbal and nonverbal communication, joint attention, emotional expression, and engagement during intervention sessions.

The results of this study show that puppet-based interventions provide a versatile, affordable, and emotionally expressive medium that fosters symbolic play, imagination, and reciprocal interaction. On the other hand, social robot-based interventions are predictable and consistent and grab the attention of children with autism spectrum disorder. This study contributes to the existing literature by offering a comparative perspective and provides practical implications for educators, therapists, and researchers seeking evidence-informed approaches to supporting communication development in children with autism spectrum disorder. However, this study also identifies methodological shortcomings in a number of studies, including a lack of long-term outcome measures, inconsistent intervention designs, and small sample sizes.

Introduction

Achieving Scientific Literacy (SL) requires STEM education to move beyond the mere acquisition of conceptual knowledge and to foster critical thinking and informed decision-making (Ah-Namand & Osman, 2018; EC, 2015). Currently, science content is widespread in both formal and informal environments, including Science Education (SE) and Science Communication (SC) on social media (WHO, 2020). However, there is still a lack of integration between SE and SC in research and school practice (Everhart, 2009; Lewenstein & Baram-Tsabari, 2022). This study aims to address this gap by combining SE and SC in an educational research study designed to foster students’ SL. The objective is to utilise the benefits of SC, particularly its increased engagement and edutainment function.

Methods

The research adopted a phenomenological approach to investigate the experiences and meanings constructed by the involved students and teachers (Mortari, 2007). Data were collected through various qualitative methods and analysed using content analysis (White & Marsh, 2006) and the crystallisation technique (Ellingson, 2009).

Results

The presentation will briefly describe an educational project conducted in six schools with 11- and 14-year-old students, and focus on findings related to students' prior knowledge of SC on social media. Specifically, the analysis of classroom discussions shows that students associate SC with planning and content creation and, above all, with communication skills and audience engagement. The activity has two purposes: educating students about the opportunities and risks of social media and gathering data on their existing beliefs.

Conclusions

Given the growing popularity of social media among young people (Karahan & Roehrig, 2015) and their perceptions of SC on social media, this study emphasises the importance of linking SE and SC in educational settings. Such integration can improve students’ ability to consciously and responsibly access scientific information online, promoting the development of SL.