https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/1054 2026-09-14T17:38:47Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/149051 Title: The role of generative AI in secondary school business education: insights from teachers' perceptions Authors: Busuttil, Leonard; Mizzi, Emanuel Abstract: Background/Introduction/Purpose: Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has entered classrooms more quickly than the evidence base needed to guide its use, and that evidence base remains concentrated in higher education. Comparatively little is known about secondary school business education, a curricular area that brings together accounting, business studies, economics, financial literacy, marketing, and retail, and in which teachers move between subjects whose epistemological and procedural demands differ considerably. Existing studies also tend to treat business education as a single homogeneous domain, or to examine one of its subjects in isolation. This study addresses that gap by examining how secondary school business education teachers appraise the pedagogical value, the risks, and the subject-specific limits of GenAI tools such as ChatGPT. The study focuses on teachers' professional judgment rather than student outcomes, since teachers mediate the introduction, adaptation, or refusal of such tools in actual classrooms. Methods/Design: The study adopts an exploratory qualitative design. Eighteen teachers of students aged 13 to 18, purposively recruited and spanning less than one year to more than twenty-one years of teaching experience, took part in a structured in-person workshop held in February 2024. The workshop comprised an introductory input session, a hands-on phase in which participants prompted ChatGPT with examination questions and teaching resources drawn from their own subjects, and facilitated group discussions documented on a shared Padlet. Data comprised the Padlet outputs, an anonymous thirteen-item exit questionnaire, and field notes. Analysis followed reflexive thematic analysis, proceeding inductively while sensitised by the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework. Results/Findings: Four themes were generated. Teachers valued GenAI for pedagogical enhancement and efficiency, particularly in lesson preparation, differentiation, and generating examples. They raised substantial concerns about academic integrity, the erosion of independent thinking, and unequal access to the technology. They also identified pronounced subject-specific differences: GenAI was seen as effective for theoretical explanation in accounting but weak in computation, formatting, and the application of accounting standards; and, in economics, as offering global rather than locally relevant examples, no current data, and unreliable graphs. Across all themes, teachers identified professional development and systemic support as preconditions for responsible use. Conclusions/Discussion/Implications: The pedagogical value of GenAI is not uniform across business education but tracks the epistemological and procedural demands of each subject, indicating that its integration is not pedagogically neutral. The findings carry implications for teacher professional development, assessment design, including Assessment as Learning, and school-level policy on the responsible use of AI. Further research can examine longer-term effects on learning and directly compare subjects and educational levels. 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/149024 Title: Educators’ guide for pedagogy and assessment : using a learning outcomes approach : ethics Authors: Chircop, Louise; Galea, Simone; Giordmaina, Joseph; Zammit, Lucianne Abstract: This document, which is aimed at policy makers, educators and teachers in the classroom, presents the Learning and Assessment Programme (LAP) for Ethics.; The LAP comprises:; • The Learning Outcomes Framework (LOF) - this encompasses a set of subject learning outcomes (SLOs) that set out what a learner is expected to know, understand or be able to do as a result of a process of learning. These learning outcomes are designed to be used in a range of delivery contexts and taught using different methods. They state the end result rather than describe the learning process or the learning activities.; • Notes on Pedagogy and Assessment - the learning outcomes are written in a way that informs pedagogy and, in conjunction with the assessment strategies related to each outcome, set a clear assessment expectation. This document sets down good practice teaching and assessment guidelines which educators may wish to take on board and adapt to meet the needs of their learners. 2015-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/149016 Title: Before they can name ecological grief : a brief research report of young children’s climate emotions in a small island state Authors: Spiteri, Jane Abstract: Climate emotions research is expanding rapidly, yet children under eight remain less visible than adolescents and adults within the field despite evidence that climate concern may emerge early in life. Such an omission is especially consequential in small island states that are more vulnerable to climate change. This Brief Research Report presents a secondary qualitative analysis of empirical studies conducted in Malta with young children, parents and early childhood educators. Re-examining these datasets through the lens of climate emotions, the analysis shows that young children express early forms of climate worry and ecological loss through concrete, place-based concerns about heat, pollution, animals, the sea and damaged environments, even without adult terminology. Parents and educators recognise climate risks but often struggle to communicate them in emotionally safe ways. The findings conceptualise climate emotions in early childhood as an emergent, relational and co-constructed experience shaped by place attachment, intergenerational communication and opportunities for care-based action. The report further suggests that children’s climate emotions are socially mediated through family, educational and peer contexts. Finally, it argues that conservation social science must integrate young children’s emotional responses to ecological loss, particularly in small island contexts where the impacts of climate change are more pronounced and encountered intimately and daily. 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/149014 Title: Access to healthcare services for migrant and left-behind children : a scoping review Authors: Spiteri, Jane; Ramos, Anne Carolina; Catarina, Pinheiro Mota; Egemen, İpek; Viorela, Ducu; Bárbara, Bäckström Abstract: Migrant and left-behind children experience health vulnerability that are shaped by climate change, including by climate change, including illness, displacement, and family separation, but also by the organisation of healthcare systems. This scoping review maps the evidence on healthcare services for migrant and left-behind children, with attention to health needs, service provision, barriers and facilitators to access, and gaps in care. Following PRISMA-ScR reporting guidance, searches were conducted in Web of Science/MEDLINE and Scopus for peer-reviewed English-language publications from the database inception to May 2026. After duplicate removal and two-stage screening, 35 publications were included. The evidence shows that migrant and left-behind children require a continuum of preventive, primary, specialist, developmental, nutritional, dental, mental health, and emergency care. However, access is frequently constrained by legal exclusion, documentation requirements, cost, language barriers, limited health system navigation, discrimination, mobility, disrupted continuity of care, and under-resourced services. Left-behind children remain especially under-represented, with limited evidence on preventive, mental health, and chronic care access. Facilitators include inclusive entitlements, community outreach, school provision, interpreters, bilingual professionals, culturally responsive care, health literacy support, and cross-sector coordination. The review argues that healthcare inequity for children affected by migration is produced not only by service absence, but by systems that fail to adapt to children’s legal, linguistic, relational, and transnational realities. Rights-based child health policy should therefore move from episodic and discretionary provision towards universal entitlements, continuous care pathways, and integrated support that is culturally responsive, developmentally appropriate, and accountable to the lived experiences of migrant and left-behind children. 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z