Introduction:
Experiential learning in STEM education strengthens students’ ability to connect theoretical scientific concepts with real‑world challenges. This module used whole vegetable plants to explore sustainability through applied scientific reasoning.

Methods:
In a university-level food‑science course, students were provided with whole plants (e.g., broccoli, cauliflower, corn, and Brussels sprouts) and developed recipes using all edible components to minimize waste. Structured prompts guided analysis of plant morphology, agricultural inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, and the typical mass of waste produced during commercial trimming and household preparation. Students then developed and cooked one or more recipes that used as much of the plant as possible. Learning was assessed through recipe‑development reasoning, recipe preparation, and peer/instructor feedback during tastings.

Results:
Students successfully developed and prepared dishes that incorporated plant components that are not traditionally used in household cooking and demonstrated creative strategies to reduce food waste. They clearly articulated common sources of waste in plant processing and explained how agricultural inputs influence environmental outcomes. Class presentations showed increased confidence in using scientific reasoning to make resource‑efficient culinary decisions, even without prior culinary training. During in‑class tastings, students engaged in evidence‑based discussion about ingredient functionality, preparation choices, and the overall feasibility of their dishes.

Conclusions:
This module illustrates that culinary exploration using nearly the entire plant can effectively support experiential STEM learning in sustainability. The activity enabled students to apply scientific reasoning, evaluate real‑world sources of food waste, and make resource‑efficient decisions during recipe development. This experiential module offers a scalable approach that can be adapted to different resource contexts for integrating sustainability concepts into secondary through university-level STEM curricula.

Introduction
Digital technologies have become a central part of teaching practice. Educators are expected to design attractive, up-to-date, and accessible learning materials using a wide range of digital tools. These include presentation software, graphic design platforms, video-editing applications, interactive quiz tools, authoring software, and learning management systems. While these resources offer many possibilities, teachers often face practical and pedagogical challenges when creating their own materials. This study explores the current use of digital tools for developing mathematics teaching resources in secondary education in Spain and examines the main difficulties teachers encounter in this process.

Methods
The study combined a review of commonly used digital tools with qualitative data collected from teachers. First, widely adopted software for creating presentations, visual content, videos, and interactive activities was analyzed in terms of usability, pedagogical value, and accessibility. Then, interviews and questionnaires were conducted with mathematics teachers working in a public secondary school located in the city of Elche (Spain), specifically in compulsory secondary education (ESO), with a focus on the final two years (ages 14–16), in order to identify common barriers in material design. Based on defined educational and technical criteria, one digital tool was selected and applied to develop a complete instructional unit for a mathematics course at this level.

Results
The findings show that digital tools increase flexibility, creativity, and student engagement in the analyzed educational context. However, teachers frequently report limited time, uneven digital skills, and uncertainty about how to align materials with learning objectives. The practical implementation demonstrated that careful selection of a tool and clear instructional planning significantly improve both efficiency and coherence in material design.

Conclusions
Choosing appropriate digital tools and applying clear design criteria can help teachers create effective and accessible learning materials in secondary mathematics education. Practical guidance and targeted support are key to improving the quality of digital instructional resources.

The transition from secondary education to STEM-related higher education is often hindered by students’ perceptions of science as abstract, inaccessible, or disconnected from everyday experience. This contribution presents Beyond the Magic, an educational outreach project aimed at upper-secondary students, designed to promote early interest in scientific careers through short, live, and participatory science demonstrations conducted under controlled conditions and incorporating appropriate safety measures for educational settings. The project is structured around a series of carefully designed experimental demonstrations that initially provoke surprise and cognitive conflict. Students are actively involved in predicting outcomes, observing phenomena, and collaboratively constructing explanations guided by facilitators. The experiences address foundational concepts in chemistry and physics—such as reaction kinetics, gas behavior, surface tension, protein chemistry, and phase interactions—linking observable effects to underlying scientific principles. Classroom implementation revealed high levels of student engagement, with learners participating actively, posing spontaneous questions, and extending discussions beyond the planned content. These emergent inquiries suggest that the experiential format not only captures students’ attention but also stimulates scientific curiosity and deeper conceptual exploration. From a pedagogical perspective, this work highlights the role of affective engagement and inquiry-based experimentation as key mechanisms for lowering barriers to STEM learning. By transforming initial wonder into structured understanding, the project supports the development of scientific reasoning and contributes to building positive STEM identities during the critical transition between secondary and higher education.

Experiential learning can usher in a powerful blend of techniques that can transform the way we learn holistically. Experiential learning makes learning more engaging and relevant with projects, simulations, community-based activities, virtual trips, online teaching–learning activities, etc., coupled with access to information and tools. This qualitative study unlocks the potential of experiential learning towards enhancing holistic education by exploring how students and teachers perceive, interpret, and experience holistic education in their unique ways. Drawing upon the theories of transformative learning and skills acquisition, the research explores the perceptions, lived experiences, and interpretations of teachers (sample size, 25) and undergraduate students (sample size, 100) of the social science discipline (comprising subjects like Sociology, Political Science, and Education). The study context includes five randomly selected Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) of Kolkata, the capital city of the state of West Bengal in India, that practice and advocate for experience-based learning approaches. Data collection methods include in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and document analysis of student work samples. The study follows ethical considerations from its planning to execution through informed consents and voluntary participation of the teachers and students. Data analysis includes transcription of interviews and focus group discussions verbatim, and coding by identifying themes and patterns using coding techniques. Interpretation involves careful analysis of the interview transcripts to identify key themes, patterns, and structures in the participants' descriptions of their experiences. The analysis of the coded data (qualitative) encourages one to develop insights and draw conclusions, thereby realizing and understanding how experiential learning contributes to the development of cognitive, social–emotional, and personal–ethical dimensions of holistic education. The present study intends to inform educators and institutional leaders about the potential of experiential learning to foster critical thinking skills, problem solving skills, analytical skills, decision-making skills, team building, and collaborative skills to thrive in a dynamic society.

Interactive learning centres grounded in Piagetian constructivism are increasingly positioned as a pedagogical approach that merges purposeful play with structured mathematical learning. However, robust evidence of their impact in Gulf-region primary contexts remains limited. This study examined the effectiveness of Piagetian learning centres in strengthening Grade 2 students’ foundational mathematics skills in a government school in the United Arab Emirates. A comparative mixed-methods design was employed across eight Grade 2 classes, where 94 students participated in Piagetian constructivist mathematics learning-centre activities, while 91 students received conventional teacher-led instruction. Students completed pre- and post-assessments targeting key basic mathematics competencies, including verbal counting, one-to-one counting, counting a subset, subitising, numeral comparison, set comparison, number order, numeral identification, set-to-numerals, story problems, and number combinations. To contextualise learning outcomes, qualitative evidence was triangulated through classroom observations, teacher interviews, and a perception survey completed by seven teachers. Results indicated statistically significant gains favouring the learning-centre approach across most assessed skill domains, alongside teacher-reported increases in student engagement, motivation, and hands-on mathematical reasoning. Implementation constraints were also identified, notably limited classroom space, resource availability, and time demands. These findings suggest that Piagetian learning centres can serve as a scalable, learner-centred approach to improving early mathematical proficiency in UAE classrooms, provided that systemic supports are developed to strengthen feasibility and sustainability.

Practicum programs provide pre-service teachers with the skills and competencies to navigate the teaching experience effectively. The insights gained from three pre-service teachers participating in a practicum program aimed at instructing very young learners within the Ecuadorian context are invaluable for understanding the iterative process that student teachers engage in and informing necessary adjustments to educational programs. This study involved six-semester students enrolled in the Pedagogy of National and Foreign Languages at an Ecuadorian public university and sought to explore their experiences during the practicum. Data were collected through document analysis, a written narrative with a visual component, and semi-structured interviews. The collected data were analyzed thematically using grounded theory. The findings revealed a cyclical process experienced by the pre-service teachers, beginning with their initial emotions and teaching beliefs and culminating in a sense of fulfillment regarding their experiences, consisting of six specific stages. Special emphasis was placed on psychological factors, such as managing emotions before and during the teaching experience, highlighting the need to incorporate this emerging issue into teacher development within higher education programs. The study also emphasizes the importance of linking theory and practice as a continuous process to better prepare future English teachers for real-world classroom environments.

STEM education research has traditionally relied on classroom experiments, student surveys, and performance analytics to understand how learners reason through complex problems. However, these approaches require large student cohorts, raise ethical constraints, and offer limited control over cognitive variability. This study introduces a novel methodology that replaces traditional data collection with synthetic students created using large language model agents orchestrated through a Python-based simulation pipeline. Five learning personas (novice, intermediate, competent, overconfident incorrect, and expert) were defined and used to generate 1,250 reasoning traces in response to a curated set of 50 mixed-difficulty problems with five runs each.

Python automation enabled controlled persona behavior, prompt engineering, iterative sampling, and structured extraction of reasoning steps, misconceptions, confidence estimates, and final answers. Through systematic analysis of these traces, we developed the Universal STEM Misconception Taxonomy, which captures cross-disciplinary cognitive errors such as incorrect rule generalization, symbolic–verbal disconnects, inverse reasoning, premature formula application, dimensional inconsistency, and flawed causal assumptions in physical systems. The synthetic students reproduced well documented STEM misconceptions and exhibited stable, persona-specific error signatures that could be computationally analyzed at scale. The expert persona served as an internal benchmark for validity, enabling automated difficulty profiling and reasoning quality assessment.

This work demonstrates that synthetic learners combined with reproducible Python workflows offer an ethical, scalable, and cost-effective paradigm for STEM education research. The methodology removes the need for human participant recruitment while enabling high-fidelity modeling of diverse problem solving behaviors. The proposed framework supports new applications in STEM education, including curriculum diagnostics, automated distractor generation, pre-testing of instructional materials, and the development of learning analytics. The pipeline is fully platform-independent and can be extended to any STEM discipline, positioning synthetic cognition as a transformative approach for the next generation of STEM education research.

School-age football represents a key tool for the comprehensive development of young people, as it combines physical, technical, tactical, and psychosocial aspects. However, various studies show that coaches tend to use traditional methodologies that limit meaningful, contextualised, and player-centred learning. In this regard, it is emphasized that realistic tasks should be designed, with opposition and a playful approach, to foster decision-making, group cohesion, and participant motivation. Likewise, it is important to delve deeper into research that analyzes coaches from different categories within the same sports club, in order to better understand the methodological and pedagogical coherence of the training process. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the self-defined profile and mode of action of four school-age football coaches from the same sports club. A quantitative and descriptive approach was adopted to determine the coaches’ self-defined profile, (i) Coach Orientation Questionnaire; (ii) Coach Knowledge and Skills Questionnaire; (iii) Coach Decision Questionnaire; and (iv) Coach Planning Style Questionnaire, and the Integral System for Training Task Analysis (SIATE, acronym in Spanish) to analyze 169 tasks. For this purpose, descriptive statistical analyses and studies of associations between the examined variables were performed. The results indicate that the coaches mainly identify with traditional and technological profiles, display predominantly democratic leadership styles, and use flexible planning. Likewise, the tasks designed are mainly based on real game situations, with numerical equality, high player participation, and an integration of technical–tactical components. In conclusion, it is recommended to reinforce ongoing coach training, promoting a balance among practical experience, academic foundation, and pedagogical leadership to optimise the comprehensive development of school-age football.

Mathematical anxiety is a psychological construct characterized by feelings of tension, apprehension, or fear that interfere with mathematical performance. It affects learners across all educational stages and has been shown to influence both motivation and academic achievement. This study examines whether sex and age account for differences in levels of mathematical anxiety among Spanish primary school students. A quantitative, correlational design was employed with a convenience sample of 185 students in Grades 3 to 6 of primary education (aged 9-12 years). Mathematical anxiety was assessed using the validated Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS), which is a standard instrument frequently used in the specialized literature. The findings indicate that, on average, students exhibit a moderate level of mathematical anxiety, with no significant differences between sexes. However, age showed a positive and statistically significant correlation with mathematical anxiety. Specifically, anxiety levels decreased until approximately age 10, after which they increased progressively with age. The relationship between age and mathematical anxiety was best captured by a quadratic model. These results suggest the need for targeted interventions to prevent and mitigate mathematical anxiety, with particular emphasis from the age of 10 onwards. Moreover, sex-related differences in the perception of mathematics may become more pronounced in later stages, coinciding with the onset of adolescence.

The EduSpaces are a network of educational laboratories located at the Free University of Bozen‑Bolzano (Italy), characterized by plural disciplinary perspectives and multilingual orientations. Their activities integrate research, teaching, and third‑mission initiatives, with the shared objective of fostering a continuous exchange between theoretical reflection and educational practice. The network originated within a collaborative project involving four partner institutions (2016–2019) and has expanded since 2022, currently comprising nine laboratories operating across pedagogical, disciplinary, historical‑documentary, cognitive, psychological, artistic, environmental, linguistic, digital‑media, and children’s literature fields.

The EduSpaces are conceived as both physical and conceptual learning environments. Their design is informed by educational research that emphasizes the role of the lived body in learning processes and critically addresses mind–body dualisms. On this theoretical basis, the present contribution investigates the educational and formative potential of the EduSpaces through the framework of Embodied Education.

Within the contemporary educational landscape—marked by global challenges that call into question the purposes of education and by the fragmentation of knowledge into separate disciplinary domains—the EduSpaces initiative proposes an alternative understanding of education as a multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary process. At the same time, it foregrounds the situated nature of learning, emphasizing the socio‑territorial contexts in which educational practices take place. From this perspective, embodied learning processes are understood as emerging through interactions with place, community, and context‑dependent meaning‑making within higher education settings.