Since 1999, China’s higher education has experienced significant growth, with the government dramatically increasing college enrollment rates, thereby enhancing the overall quality of education. However, most existing studies have primarily focused on the quantity of education, with little attention having been given to the impact of higher education quality (HEQ) on economic growth. This study aims to explore how higher education quality (HEQ) contributes to regional economic growth through scientific and technological innovation (STI) and human capital accumulation. Using panel data from 31 Chinese provinces from the period 1999 to 2022, panel regression models and instrumental variable methods were employed to analyze both the direct and indirect impacts of higher education quality (HEQ) on economic growth. The results confirm that improving higher education quality (HEQ) is crucial for sustaining China’s economic growth. More specifically, higher education promotes regional economic expansion both directly, by enhancing labor productivity, and indirectly, by facilitating scientific and technological innovation. Furthermore, the study suggests that the balanced distribution of educational resources across regions should be prioritized to support coordinated regional development. This research provides insights for policymakers on how balanced regional economic development can be achieved through educational and technological policies. This work also lays a foundation for future studies.

STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) education has recently been encouraged and attracted much national attention. This qualitative study aimed to conduct a thematic analysis of college student STEAM open responses to provide an examination of college students’ perceptions of their STEAM experiences into the STEAM field. Based on transformative learning theory, a thematic analysis of 756 written responses to seven prompts by 108 college student participants revealed three primary themes: (1) exciting and challenging difficulties, and transdisciplinary learning in STEAM; (2) STEAM learning of gradual process, problem-oriented instruction, and creative problem solving; and (3) metacognition development in STEAM. The findings revealed that undergraduates’ STEAM perceptions provide strong support for STEAM implementation to enhance teaching effectiveness in higher education.

Latin America is increasingly contributing to scientific research on leadership, although less than other regions. What are the predominant paradigms on leadership within the scientific community in Mexico? The article reviews doctoral dissertations on leadership from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the Anahuac University of Mexico (UA) defended before 2021. The findings highlight that 1) the number of doctoral dissertations has grown from 2016 onwards, especially in educational leadership. 2) In both universities a “functionalist” paradigm prevails, based on the transformational leadership model. 3) Two other leadership paradigms are present, referred to in this article as ‘political’ and ‘humanistic’. 4) These three paradigms have their characteristics and preferences in terms of research methodology, language, and reference authors. 5) The use of a paradigm is associated with the type of faculty rather than the type of university (public or private): in business faculties the functionalist paradigm predominates, in education faculties the humanist paradigm, and in political science or communication faculties the political paradigm. In conclusion, it is recommended to confirm the exploratory result obtained and to promote the dialogue between leadership paradigms.

The present study aims at exploring the extent to which the quality standards of educational activities in Arabic language syllabi is practiced. For this goal, the research adopted the descriptive approach. For the objective of the study, the researcher resorted to the mixed method; quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis. The mixed data collection methods comprised list of quality standards for educational activities, observation card, and semi-structured interviews. The research sample included 28 Arabic language teachers in government schools for boys in Abha city and 4 language teacher supervisors and 4 School Accreditation Evaluation Specialist. The respondents of the sample were distributed as follows: 10 teachers from the upper grades of primary school, 10 Arabic language teachers from intermediate school and 8 teachers from secondary school. The study tools include a list of quality standards of educational activities and a classroom observation card. An observation card was designed to reveal the extent of practicing the quality standards of educational activities in Arabic language courses. Regarding the list of quality standards, the research identified 25 quality standards for educational activities in Arabic language syllabi. Ultimately, the study concluded that the degree of practicing the quality standards of educational activities ranged from 2.28 to 1.18, which means that the degree of practicing them is between average and low. Moreover, the extent of practicing the quality standards of educational activities in Arabic language syllabi as a whole was 1.59, which means that they are practiced at a weak level. Accordingly, the researcher suggested some recommendations and future studies.

This study focuses on the competency structure factors of elementary school English teachers under China’s new curriculum standards, aiming to reveal the core competencies that teachers should possess in the context of education in the new era. Through the comprehensive application of qualitative interviews and quantitative questionnaire survey methods, this study provides an in-depth analysis of the competency structure of primary English teachers. It was found that the competency structure of elementary school English teachers is mainly composed of six dimensions: professionalism, personality traits, teaching ability, student views, teaching organization strategy and research ability. These dimensions work together to influence teachers’ teaching effectiveness and students’ learning effectiveness. The study also found that there were significant differences in the competency characteristics of elementary school English teachers across gender, teaching experience and educational qualifications. In general, this study provides a theoretical basis and practical guidance for the professional development of elementary school English teachers, which can help to improve the quality of teachers’ teaching and promote the comprehensive development of students.

Environmental Education (EE) programs are of crucial importance. EE are aimed at global citizenship to generate new knowledge and new, more participatory and conscious ways of acting in the environment. This study, therefore, wants to verify the effectiveness of a training intervention that is based on education on climate change issues and on the active participation of subjects in the dimension of the small psychological group. At the intervention 309 students took part, equally distributed by gender (52.1% males), 64.4% enrolled in primary school, 35.6% enrolled in lower secondary school. A quantitative protocol was administered to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention. The study shows an increase in pro-environmental behaviors and their stability even after 15–30 days. The intervention seems to be effective in triggering pro-environmental behaviors and maintaining them in the following weeks. The results of this study highlight the need to develop environmental education pro-grams in schools to increase levels of knowledge and awareness on the issue of climate change.