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High-entropy MN–Prussian blue analogues enable long-term cycling in aqueous sodium-ion batteries through synergistic redox and Ion diffusion enhancements
No full textManganese-based Prussian blue analogues (Mn–PBA) have garnered significant attention due to their exceptionally high specific capacity in aqueous sodium-ion batteries (ASIBs). However, the dissolution of Mn2+ ions during the charge/discharge process leads to structural degradation, adversely affecting cycle life and limiting practical applications. In this work, a high-entropy strategy is employed to overcome this limitation. The resulting high-entropy Mn–PBA (HE–Mn–PBA), synthesized via a simple co-precipitation method, benefits from entropy stabilization and synergistic effects among multiple metal components, enabling excellent structural integrity during prolonged cycling. As a cathode material, HE–Mn–PBA achieves nearly 100 % capacity retention (116.07 mAh g−1) after 200 cycles at 1 A g−1, along with stable performance over 10,000 cycles. In situ Raman spectroscopy confirms the formation of enhanced and reversible redox-active centers, while kinetic analyses reveal significantly improved Na+ diffusion kinetics. Furthermore, a full cell assembled with a polyimide anode delivers a high energy density of 56.11 Wh kg−1. This high-entropy engineering approach offers a promising pathway to address the stability challenges of Mn-based materials in ASIBs.Accepted versionRI 1/21 EAHRI 3/23 EA
AI, representation, and critical digital literacy: Navigating visual bias in the digital age
No full textThe open access publication is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2025.103896The rapid development and widespread availability of affordable AI-powered tools have necessitated a rethinking of what it means to be critically literate in the digital world. The proliferation of consumer-friendly AI tools has surfaced concerns for everyday users including the reliability of AI-generated information, questions of techno-agency, ethical considerations and biases encoded in large-language models. Our notion of critical digital literacy needs to address these new concerns. This paper reports on a small-scale study designed to foster Singapore university students’ critical digital literacies, with a focus on raising awareness to visual bias in AI-generated images. Seventeen students, enrolled in an undergraduate course on digital and media literacy, participated in the study. The research was guided by the question: How do students critically engage with text-to-image AI tools with regards to visual bias? The main data source was a report by each student based on their interactions with the AI tool to explore images generated on social groups chosen by each student. Results indicated that promisingly, most students were able to identify biases in terms of the stereotypical portrayals of groups based on demographic categories. However, their reports revealed varying depths of critical engagement in terms of the reasons they identified for the existence of bias, the impact of bias and the solutions suggested to counter stereotypes. The paper concludes by arguing that visual literacy, along with an understanding of the basic mechanisms of machine learning, are crucial components in critically navigating image-generating AI technology
Investigating the effects of an LLM-based Socratic conversational agent on students’ academic performance and reflective thinking in higher education
No full textThe rapid advancement of GenAI has created unprecedented opportunities to enhance student learning through large language models (LLMs). While LLM-based conversational agents have demonstrated potential in improving accessibility and instructional support, evidence of their impact on higher-order thinking remains limited, especially within the context of Chinese higher education. This study introduces the Socratic Intelligent Conversational Agent (S-ICA), which integrates Socratic questioning strategies with semantic generation mechanisms to promote student learning and reflective thinking in disciplinary contexts. A total of 94 university students from China participated in the study, with random assignment to an experimental group (EG) using the S-ICA and a control group (CG) using a non-Socratic conversational agent (nS-ICA). The results showed that the EG outperformed the CG in both academic achievement and reflective thinking, particularly in the dimensions of “reflection” and “critical reflection”. Cognitive network analysis revealed that the EG students activated more advanced reflective pathways, linking understanding, reflection, and critical reflection processes. Although no significant differences were found in learning motivation between the groups, interviews with students indicated that the S-ICA facilitated more effective learning and deeper reflective engagement. These findings contribute to research on integrating classical pedagogical strategies into GenAI-based systems, offering insights into how such technologies can foster higher-order thinking and guide the design of future collaborative human–AI learning systems
Designing learning with digital play: A multimodal perspective
No full textIn this book, Lim and Toh explore digital play and children's instinctive way of exploring the world to bring together research on digital play and learning, and unite game-based learning with multimodality and social semiotics. Digital play opens up immersive and interactive worlds where children can engage with complex problems, craft stories, and experiment with ideas in ways that often go beyond what's in physical play alone. The book's chapters explore the varied ways in which digital play can promote learning. The authors argue that it is timely for us to reflect on the value of digital play for learning; that it can foster literacy development as well as promote growth in the affective domain. They propose considerations, frameworks and approaches in digital play to inform the design of students' learning experiences and examine ways in which digital play can be integrated into teaching and learning. This book covers a topic which is both relevant and urgent in today's digital age. Of interest to anyone involved in designing learning with digital play, this volume will be of particular value to students and scholars in education, curriculum design, pedagogy, as well as multimodality
Early childhood education and care around the world: An early start that prevails on reading literacy
No full textThis chapter delves into the interplay between family, socioeconomic status (SES) and Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC), and educational outcomes in reading literacy, highlighting the importance of high-quality early education. In previous studies, SES, encompassing economic and social indicators like parental income, education, occupation, and the availability of educational resources, is recognized as a pivotal factor shaping a child's educational journey. Further previous studies have also highlighted the importance of high-quality early education on children’s later educational outcome. Using data from the PIRLS 2021 (The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study) and PISA 2018 (Programme for International Student Assessment), this research investigates the effect of early childhood education on reading literacy achievement among 4th graders and 15-year-old students around the world. Further, we also investigated if the ECEC and SES effects on reading literacy at later ages is conditional on countries' human development. Here we use the human development index by UNESCO. According to the results, there was a clear variation between the effects of early childhood education and care on later reading literacy outcome in the measured countries around the world. These differences in the effect underscores the importance of rethinking policies and practices, especially in those countries where the effect of early education seemed to be negative. There were also statistically significant interactions between ECEC duration and ESCS when estimating reading literacy by regression on the plausible values for reading literacy for both PIRLS and PISA. This interaction was dependent on the human development index. The findings of this study are essential for policymakers as they highlight the nuanced relationship between early education, socioeconomic status, and human development across different age groups and regions.Accepted versio
Professional growth of STEM teachers: Viewing from Entrepreneurial Frame
No full textThis paper examines professional growth of a STEM teacher from the entrepreneurial frame. Using a personal narrative together with a STEM/science lesson package developed by the participant teacher, we unpack a teacher’s professional growth by interpreting her beliefs and actions using characteristics of entrepreneurial thinking. Our analysis and interpretations revealed that risk-taking forms of behaviour manifest as willingness to take calculated risks to make ‘cold’ calls to different organisations to request sharing or learning opportunities. The motivation to succeed stems from a belief that STEM education can improve the lives of students and that all students can learn. Passion for the discipline of STEM and personal beliefs to uplift students propel the teacher to persevere in her professional development despite busy schedules and conflicting demands of school and home. This study and its findings bring a fresh perspective to the idea of teacher agency from an entrepreneurial lens positioning teachers as self-empowered as compared to individuals who depended on the system to provide enablers for professional growth in the teaching profession. While self-empowerment to enact a curriculum is catalytic, teachers’ capacity for change is circumscribed by teachers’ capacity to act and accumulate practical knowledge. These entrepreneurial actions of successful STEM teachers could be used to facilitate teacher reflection on their professional journey. As the narrative approach sought to present an in-depth examination of the relationship between entrepreneurial thinking and teacher professional growth, the generalisability power of the assertions made is limited. The entrepreneurial thinking framework together with narratives from successful teachers enable teachers to locate where they are in their personal professional development and where they can aspire to move towards in their personal goal settings. Future research can examine teachers’ levels of entrepreneurial thinking and compare them against narratives of their professional growth to distil the behaviours that could lead to growth of entrepreneurial thinking. Curriculum leaders can also use the ideas of entrepreneurial thinking for professional growth to counsel and coach their team.Accepted versio
Systemic racialisation: Singaporean multiculturalism and its discontents
No full textAn often overlooked or underemphasised perspective in discourses on race, racialisation and racism is that of a systemic racialisation of people into “races”. While structures of racism are well studied and developed under the theory of systemic racism, structures and institutions of racialisation receive much lesser attention. However, systemic racialisation can provide conducive avenues for racialised groups to be socially and politically hierarchised, leading to racism despite systemic racism being not necessarily prevalent. Examining Singapore’s well-regulated and efficient state-espoused multiculturalism, this paper describes and deconstructs the postcolonial society’s systemic racialisation in its multiracial model of multiracialism and seemingly successful racial harmony to surface two main discontents, namely that of 1) ethnoracialisation, and 2) conflict avoidance and disempowered dialogue. The paper further illustrates how these two key problems in the Singaporean multiculturalism contributes to normalising racism
Innovative pedagogy in Chinese language education: Perspectives from Singapore’s multicultural context.
No full textThis book reflects on the Chinese education context in Singapore, addressing the challenges of the Chinese language education system, exploring innovative and efficient language teaching approaches and proposing new directions for Chinese education in Singapore. It explores Chinese education in the Singapore bilingual context in terms of language policy, sociolinguistics, cultural integration and pedagogical practice, as well as providing a blueprint of Singapore’s Chinese education for the future. It presents chapters from Singaporean scholars who are mostly from the department of Asian Language and Culture and the Office of Education Research in the National Institute of Education at Nanyang Technological University. This book examines the following topics: the sociolinguistic landscape beyond China and the positioning of Chinese in Singapore; pedagogical practices and methodologies in Singapore’s bilingual education context; and Chinese textbooks and teaching materials in Singapore. This book serves as a useful reference for readers interested in language policy and Chinese education internationally, for educators who encounter similar challenges in language education, and for policy makers who aim to fine tune current policies to be more comprehensive and effective
Enhancing student metacognitive thinking and content learning in Chinese and science classrooms with generative AI chatbots
No full textThe open access version is available at https://doi.org/10.22318/icls2025.618813This study explores the practical application of a chatbot driven in Chinese and Science classes, focusing on cultivating students' metacognitive thinking and guiding students' subject learning. The chatbot embedded prompts are designed to stimulate students' inquiry skills, guide subjective learning, and metacognitive thinking. At the same time, teachers have designed supplementary prompts to provide scaffolding support for students' interactions. This two-tiered design approach ensures that Fairbot can both serve as an effective learning assistant and align with subject-specific teaching frameworks. The study involved 94 fifth-grade primary school students and two teachers, and the data sources included classroom observations, teacher reflections and student feedback. The findings show that Fairbot demonstrates its potential in supporting reflective thinking, teaching guidance, and text comprehension. This study highlights the potential of AI tools in classroom while pointing out the importance of integrating AI capabilities with instructional strategies through collaborative instructional design
Achieving superior anti-corrosion performance with spherical organic additives and synergistic barrier-passivation mechanisms
No full textDeveloping effective additive materials for high-performance anti-corrosion coatings remains a significant challenge. While organic materials are increasingly recognized for their inherent properties, versatility, and ease of processing, their use as filler additives for corrosion protection is still in the early stages. In this study, we present a novel spherical organic material, termed NTAB, which exhibits enhanced electrochemical activity, superior molecular stability, and optimized electronic properties. NTAB is synthesized through a simple condensation reaction. The resulting NTAB organic material serves as an active filler in epoxy resin (EP), forming an anti-corrosion NTAB/EP coating. This coating demonstrates outstanding anti-corrosion performance, with an exceptionally low corrosion rate of 9.9 × 10−6 mm per annum and a corrosion inhibition efficiency of 99.70%. Notably, the NTAB/EP coating achieves an impressive |Z|0.01 Hz value of 8.94 × 109 Ω cm2 after an extended immersion period of 154 days in a 3.5 wt% NaCl solution, significantly outperforming previously reported anti-corrosion coatings. Real-world evaluations in seawater environments further confirm the coating's durability, with no visible corrosion even near scratches. This remarkable longevity is attributed to the synergistic effects of the NTAB organic material, combining efficient physical barrier properties with chemical passivation, offering valuable insights for the development of anti-corrosion coatings in harsh environments.Accepted versionRP 5/23 EA