OAR@UM Community:

AI content detection in student text assignments, false positive rates, and academic integrity

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Title: AI content detection in student text assignments, false positive rates, and academic integrity Authors: Maghami, Mohammad Reza; Ho, Chin Kuan; Camilleri, Patrick Abstract: Universities increasingly use AI content detection tools to identify student assignments potentially produced by generative AI, yet concerns remain regarding their reliability and false-positive classification of human-written work. This systematic review examines the causes, consequences, and mitigation of false-positive AI detection in academic contexts. The review covers literature published between 2020 and 2026 and includes 90 eligible studies, comprising 81 Scopus-indexed publications and nine studies identified through Google Scholar. Bibliometric mapping using VOSviewer was combined with Structural Topic Modelling to examine keyword relationships, latent research themes, and temporal development, while qualitative synthesis identified major causes, impacts, and mitigation strategies. The findings reveal three broader themes concerning academic integrity and student assessment, plagiarism and responsible AI governance, and detection accuracy, reliability, and false positives. False-positive outcomes vary substantially across tools and evaluation settings, limiting direct quantitative comparison. Major contributing factors include algorithmic and language bias, limited contextual understanding, surface-level linguistic features, and insufficiently diverse training data. The evidence further highlights risks to assessment fairness, student confidence, and institutional decision-making. Effective responses therefore require transparent detection practices, human review, AI literacy, clear institutional policies, and accessible appeal procedures.

Designing a group reflective professional development programme for heads of school in the primary sector

Sun, 01 Jan 2023 00:00:00 GMT

Title: Designing a group reflective professional development programme for heads of school in the primary sector Abstract: This research aims to propose a Professional Development (PD) programme intended to enable Heads of School (HoS) in the primary sector in Malta, to develop and refine their reflective practice skills. This was achieved through a collaborative, design-based research methodology which involved the research participants in designing, developing, and evaluating a PD programme focusing on reflective practice. This research was carried out in three phases. The first phase focused on analysing the problem through individual semi-structured interviews with participants. In the second phase, a first draft of the PD programme was developed and shared with the participants for an initial evaluation. The third phase involved participants trialling one session from the designed PD programme and evaluating it through a focus group. Findings indicate that adopting a participant-centred approach which values the expertise of HoS, embeds reflection, and creates collaborative pathways during the design and development of a PD programme, increases trust, engagement, motivation, and ownership of the programme. In terms of the programme’s structure, findings suggest that a) aligning learning activities to HoS’ needs makes it both relevant and meaningful, b) drawing on HoS’ experiences as learning opportunities enables them to link theory with practice, c) creating safe collaborative spaces encourages HoS to network, support and learn from and with others, and d) complementing reflective PD with work on the self, has a positive effect on HoS’ well-being. The study contributes to knowledge through the publication of the PD programme, ‘Reflect – Restore – Recharge’. This PD programme exemplifies how a collaborative design-based research approach can lead to the creation of a practical solution that meets the actual needs of HoS in terms of reflective practice within professional development. Description: M.A.(Melit.)

Lecturers’ perceptions on the integration of Generative AI in higher education : demographic influences, opportunities and challenges

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Title: Lecturers’ perceptions on the integration of Generative AI in higher education : demographic influences, opportunities and challenges Authors: Watted, Abeer; Attard Tonna, Michelle; Camilleri, Patrick Abstract: Aim/Purpose: This study examines lecturers’ perceptions of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) in higher education and how these perceptions vary with demographic characteristics, namely gender, age and teaching experience. It further investigates how such perceptions relate to lecturers’ frequency of GenAI use and stage of adoption, identifying the opportunities and challenges lecturers associate with the integration of GenAI in educational practice. Background: The rapid emergence of GenAI has introduced new possibilities and challenges for higher education, yet empirical research examining lecturers’ perspectives, particularly within diverse contexts, remains limited. While existing studies have largely focused on students’ use of GenAI or technical adoption models, less attention has been given to lecturers’ perceptions, demographic influences, and the ethical and pedagogical implications of GenAI integration Methodology: A mixed-methods research design was employed. Quantitative data were collected through an online survey administered to 98 lecturers from different higher education institutions spanning a range of disciplines (55% male, 45% fe-male; 44% aged 25-45, 30% aged 46-55, 26% aged 56+). Qualitative data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with a purposive subsample of ten lecturers. Quantitative analyses included independent-samples t-tests, one-way ANOVA, and Spearman rank-order correlations, while qualitative data were analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s six-phase thematic analysis. Contribution: Theoretically, the study extends technology-adoption research by integrating the Technology Acceptance Model with an interpretive technology-in-practice perspective, suggesting that lecturers’ perceptions of GenAI are socially situated and systematically shaped by gender, age, and teaching experience, and that these perceptions in turn are strongly associated with frequency of use and depth of adoption. Practically, the findings highlight the need for differentiated professional development, updated ethical guidelines, and redesigned assessment practices that foster critical AI literacy, supporting responsible and sustainable GenAI integration in higher education. Findings: Quantitative findings revealed significant demographic differences in lecturers’ perceptions. Female lecturers reported more positive perceptions than male lecturers on several pedagogical dimensions. A clear age-related gradient emerged, with lecturers aged 25-45 expressing the most favorable perceptions and those aged 56+ the least. Strong positive correlations were observed between perceptions and frequency of GenAI use, between perceptions and stage of adoption (rs = 0.67, p< 0.01) and between frequency of use and stage of adoption (rs= 0.74, p<0.01). Also, the thematic analysis of interview data identified three opportunity themes. These included: empowering lecturers in teaching and time management, enhancing pedagogical practices and student learning and improving accessibility to information and knowledge creation, alongside three challenging themes involving ethical and academic integrity concerns, technological limitations and dependency and threats to professional identity. Recommendations for Practitioners: Institutions should implement differentiated professional development and up-date ethical governance frameworks, with particular emphasis on redesigning assessment to foster critical GenAI literacy and authentic engagement. Recommendations for Researchers: Further studies should investigate how GenAI evolves from a technological tool into a sustained technology-in-practice within higher education systems. Impact on Society: The study underscores the importance of responsible GenAI integration to safeguard educational quality, equity, and human-centered academic values. Future Research: Future research should incorporate a larger, cross-cultural sample to explore how differing institutional, national, and policy environments moderate GenAI acceptance. Furthermore, while this investigation indicates an association be-tween positive perceptions and the frequency of GenAI use, a step for subsequent studies is to empirically validate the longitudinal relationship between initial positive attitudes and the deep, sustained integration of GenAI into core curricula and assessment practices.

Exploring teachers’ perspectives on mathematics anxiety : practices and support needs across Europe.

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Title: Exploring teachers’ perspectives on mathematics anxiety : practices and support needs across Europe. Authors: Palha, Sonia; Huhtasalo, Jenni; Jukić Matić, Ljerka; Strossmayer, Josip Juraj; Calleja, James; Leino, Mirka; Busuttil, Leonard; Gomes, Isabel Abstract: Mathematics anxiety (MA) is a widespread phenomenon that affects students’ engagement, well-being, performance, and future careers. This study explores how primary and secondary school teachers across five European countries notice and respond to students’ MA and are supported in this matter. Using a mixed-methods approach combining questionnaires and focus group interviews, data were collected from 154 teachers to explore teachers’ noticing of mathematics anxiety, the strategies they use to address it, and the support they receive and need. A key contribution of the study is the identification of three converging patterns across the five country cases: teachers recognized MA in highly similar ways, relied largely on intuitive and experience-based strategies, and reported a shared lack of systematic school-level support. The findings point to the need for further research on how teachers manage MA in classroom practice, including collaboration with parents and specialized staff, and on how teaching cultures shape the identification and alleviation of MA across countries. Further, our findings suggest the need for a comprehensive and context-sensitive professional development that supports teachers in recognizing and addressing MA across educational systems. Suggestions for practice are made that policymakers can address by developing measures for schools, teacher education and teaching professional development programs to adopt.