This study investigated the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) tools into secondary school chemistry education in Zimbabwe, assessing their impact on student engagement and academic performance. Grounded in Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory and Cognitive Load Theory, the research employed a mixed-methods approach within a pragmatic framework. Quantitative data were collected through pre-test and post-test assessments and structured surveys, comparing an experimental group using AI tools with a control group employing traditional methods. Qualitative data from student and teacher interviews and classroom observations were analysed thematically. ANCOVA analysis revealed a statistically significant difference in post-test scores between the experimental and control groups, F (1, 117) = 188.86, p < .005, η² = 0.617, demonstrating a large effect size of AI integration on academic performance. Students in the experimental group exhibited a mean improvement of 20%, controlling for pre-test differences. Additionally, interaction effects between AI use and gender (F (1,115) = 0.17, p = .684) as well as prior chemistry knowledge (F (1,115) = 0.05, p = .829) were not statistically significant. Furthermore, 85% of the experimental group reported higher engagement levels, confirming AI’s role in fostering motivation and conceptual understanding. AI tools facilitated personalized learning paths, interactive simulations, and real-time feedback, optimizing cognitive efficiency and deep learning. Despite these advantages, significant challenges emerged, including limited internet access, insufficient technological resources, lack of teacher training, and curriculum integration difficulties. These barriers highlight the need for strategic investments in digital infrastructure, professional development for educators, and curriculum revisions to fully integrate AI into chemistry education. The findings underscore AI’s transformative potential in STEM education within developing nations. Addressing infrastructural and pedagogical challenges is critical to maximizing AI's impact, ensuring equitable access, and fostering long-term sustainability in educational innovation.

The article investigates the impact of assessment data analysis on promoting deeper learning in Canadian high schools, specifically focusing on teachers’ flexibility in data-driven evaluation. The research contributes to the discourse on assessment practices by emphasizing the importance of authentic assessments, competency-based learning, and grading methodologies. Selected high school teachers drawn into this further study formed a fraction of the initial set of participants. Classroom practices of assessments concentrate on: (a) Freedom to facilitate deeper learning in instructing, assessing, and sustaining interest. The others are: (b) Teacher’s emphasis on competency-based (standard-based) learning to make learning appealing to students in educational spaces, and (c) Testing, collecting test score data, analyzing, and reporting students grades to present parents and school districts/boards with accurate progressive data reflective of diversity in learning. In this qualitative focus group case-study discussion, participants indicated time expended in performing critical analysis of data to grade students is burdensome, but the joy of such practice far outweighs the inherent difficulties, knowing that student success is founded on flexibility, freedom in decision-making, and being reflective as educators.

Global concern surrounds students' mathematics learning, development, and achievement. Scholarly discussions have explored various factors influencing students' mathematics performance. However, more information is needed to understand the impact of mathematics teaching styles on student outcomes in developing contexts like Nepal. This study examines the moderators of mathematics teaching styles and their influence on students' performance. To achieve this, the Teachers' Teaching Style Questionnaire (TTSQ) collected quantitative data from 469 grade nine students across 14 high schools in Kathmandu, Lalitpur, and Bhaktapur districts of Nepal. Confirmatory factor analysis, path analysis, and moderation analysis were performed to examine the effects of teaching styles on student achievement in mathematics. Key findings indicate that teaching styles, such as consideration and openness, are not significant predictors of student achievement, but rigid teaching styles can predict student achievement in mathematics. However, impact of the rigid teaching style was negative on student achievement. School type influenced the relationship between performance and considerate teaching, favoring private schools. School location influenced the relationship between considerate teaching and student performance in mathematics, favoring rural schools. Likewise, urban schools had a negative effect on the relationship between teacher openness and student performance, but rural schools had a positive effect on their relationship. Furthermore, low and high-ability students moderated the relationship between considerate teaching and student achievement, with the negative effect of low ability on considerate teaching and student performance and the positive influence of high ability on considerate teaching and student achievement. Student ability influenced the relationship between teacher openness and student performance, with a negative moderations of low and moderate ability students. The study concludes by emphasizing the importance of teacher training in teaching styles for high schools in Nepal and similar contexts.

This study investigates an integrative instructional model combining Concrete-Pictorial-Abstract (CPA), Task Analysis (TA), and the 3R strategies (relaxation, repetition, and routine) in teaching mathematics to students with learning disabilities (LD). LD is a neurological disorder that affects the capacity to acquire skills in reading, writing, and mathematics, presenting persistent challenges that traditional teaching approaches may not fully address. Through an ethnographic approach involving participatory observation of a teacher and three LD students over a semester, this study examines how the CPA model—progressing from concrete objects to pictorial aids and then to abstract concepts—can be customised to individual needs. Findings highlight that CPA is most effective when adapted to the diverse learning styles of LD students. While one student thrives with tactile tools to reinforce understanding, another becomes distracted, viewing the concrete aids as play items, and a third displays a preference for abstract reasoning without needing pictorial or tangible support. The TA framework, used to deconstruct complex tasks, enables students to engage in incremental learning steps, while the 3R approach helps foster a supportive learning environment by incorporating relaxation, routine, and reinforcement of concepts. By accommodating individual learning preferences, teachers can support diverse cognitive processes and promote meaningful progress in mathematical understanding. The study calls for educators to move beyond conventional one-size-fits-all strategies, advocating for personalised and adaptive approaches that can better meet the unique needs of LD students in mathematics education.

Comparison of mathematics textbooks between Indonesia and Singapore is one way to assess the educational process. This article provides insight into how mathematical concepts are taught and applied in problem-solving in each country. The study provides knowledge about how mathematical concepts are constructed by teachers and students and implemented in problem-solving between countries. This study aims to compare task designs in high school mathematics textbooks between Indonesia and Singapore based on the type of task, technique, technology, and theory used, with a focus on cubes and cuboids. The comparative analysis of the two books uses praxeological theory, the main construction of Didactic Anthropology Theory, with reference to epistemological model (REM) model analysis. The research results show that there are differences in the approaches, methods, and habits used in task design in the two countries. The techniques, technology and theories found in the two task designs show that Indonesian mathematics textbooks use more verification and drawing up conclusions which are influenced by perceptual techniques. Meanwhile, the task of designing Singapore's mathematics textbooks involves more direct investigations into forming students' knowledge through physical and operational techniques. The techniques, technology, and theories used in both designs influence the number of learning obstacles. Epistemological constraints occur in Indonesian textbooks and only a few in Singapore textbooks. These findings provide insight into how to build mathematical knowledge for students through good assignment design based on a country's educational character.