Background Positive results can be obtained through game-based learning, but children with physical disabilities have fewer opportunities to participate in enjoyable physical activity. Because intelligent serious games can provide personalized learning opportunities, motivate the learner, teach 21st-century skills, and provide an environment for authentic and relevant assessment, they may be used to help children and adolescents with different kinds of learning disabilities to develop social and cognitive competences. Objective The aim of the study was to produce and evaluate a suite of intelligent serious games based on accessible learning objectives for improving key skills, personal development, and work sustainability among children with learning difficulties. Methods We conducted this research between 2016 and 2018, with pupils aged 11 to 12 years with learning disabilities who were integrated into the mainstream educational system. We used a 4-step methodology to develop learner creativity and social competences: (1) needs analysis, (2) development of learning content, (3) development of intelligent serious games, and (4) a usability evaluation focusing on the research questions and hypothesis. This was based on an initial teachers’ evaluation, using a survey, of students using 2 of the games, where the main goal was to determine user motivation and initiative and to improve the games and the evaluation process. The initial evaluation was followed by a pilot evaluation, which was performed for all proposed games, in all partner countries. Results In an initial evaluation with 51 participants from Slovenia consisting of a pretest, followed by intelligent serious game intervention and concluding with a posttest, we observed statistically significant improvement in social and cognitive competences measured by tests. Based on these findings and observations, we improved the games and evaluation process. In the pilot test, conducted in all participating countries on a sample of 93 participants, the mean score on the teachers’ observation form on the pretest (before students began using the intelligent serious games) was 3.9. In the posttest, after students had used intelligent serious games, the mean score was 4.1. Conclusions We focused on developing and evaluating intelligent serious games for persons with learning disabilities, particularly for students with disabilities who are integrated into the mainstream educational system. Such games provide an opportunity for personalized learning and should be tailored to ensure that every learner can achieve the highest standard possible. However, we recommend that the games be adapted based on the students’ needs and capabilities and a specially developed curriculum. The collected feedback showed that (1) children with learning disabilities need appropriately developed intelligent serious games, and (2) intelligent serious games, and the pertaining didactic methodology, should be based on an interoperable curriculum, so that teachers and trainers can use them. The student survey confirmed improvements in all aspects.

Contemporary society of the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) increasingly requires the education system (i.e., the school) to train competent, creative and proactive professionals who will be able to solve real life problems. If society is to achieve this, some key paradigm changes must occur in education. The school must first prepare a competence-based curriculum and, secondly, school practice should move away from subject-based teaching, towards an interdisciplinary STEM teaching approach. Obviously, to support this, modern learning environments and ICT solutions and tools have to be used. However, since the interdisciplinary STEM approach has already been implemented and integrated, it can be said that a new, integrated science discipline (STEM) has already emerged, together with a transdisciplinary approach to STEM learning and teaching. In the present research, a concrete case of designing, developing and producing a solar chimney was used to demonstrate an integrated approach to learning and teaching, while emphasizing especially the advantages of such an interdisciplinary (transdisciplinary) approach to teaching Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematic content. The empirical research shows that such an approach produces incomparably better results, especially on higher cognitive levels, in comparison to traditional approaches to learning and teaching. Keywords: industry 4.0, interdisciplinarity, solar chimney, STEM, transdisciplinarity.

Information and communications technology (ICT) shapes life and work in every educational system. Where to place ICT in the pedagogical process and how it affects students' psychosocial and cognitive abilities are questions that do not have one definitive answer. The research addresses the intense introduction of ICT that accords with educational trends and the requirements of today’s society, but sometimes neglects social competences and any potential psychosocial effects. A need for new and effective methods in upbringing and education to offer everyone, equal opportunities become more and more important in the “world of the 21st century”. The research also proved that innovative didactic methods of teaching (4.0) using a transdisciplinary model and supported by state-of-the-art information and communications technology as well as cooperative learning, have a positive psychosocial effect on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) students. Students who experience innovative didactic teaching supported by ICT reach higher taxonomic, cognitive and social standards of competence and are thus better prepared for the challenges of future society. Keywords: cognitive competences, education system, ICT, psychosocial influence, social competences.

In a case study conducted in a biology class in Slovenia, six grade students participated in a biology project Writing Versus Typing in a Biology Class. The final task in this project was to write a chapter for a biology textbook with the title Urtica dioica. The task was performed twice: firstly, the text was written by the hand and secondly it was typed on the computer keyboard. Handwritten and keyboard typed scientific texts, textbook chapters, were compared with the special focus on the lexical, syntactic, and semantic level of the text. The purpose of this research was to find out the effect of replacing handwriting with typing in the process of teaching/learning science subjects, where the understanding of texts is of crucial importance. A closer look at the students’ text products in the typing modality reveals that students, while typing, seem to be cognitively overloaded. One of the consequences of this is a lower level of cognitive achievement in their typed text: students show less knowledge, less terminological accuracy, and, above all, a lesser understanding of the interconnection between the items of information provided. Keywords: biology science class; embodied cognition, handwriting, keyboard writing.

For successful work in the classroom, it is important to create a positive climate and to involve students actively in the process of learning. The presented research focused on how the students perceived the classroom climate, and on their interest in the contents of the subject Science, Engineering and Technology (STE). 92 primary school sixth- and seventh-grade students had been included in research. Two groups are established, one from a class using mainly frontal teaching methods (control group) and another, expert group from a class using an innovative teaching/learning methods mainly as problem and research-based learning and participatory learning supported with information communication technology. To measure the classroom climate and the students' interest, a survey with 54 statements was used. The results confirmed changes in the perception of classroom climate and in the popularity of contents taught in STE, in relation to the teaching methods used. It was established that innovative teaching/learning methods increase the students′ interest, and help to improve classroom climate. Keywords: classroom climate, students interest, innovative didactical methods, lower secondary education.

The presented research focused on developing and testing an innovative interdisciplinary STEM didactic model. The developed didactic model was introduced in the field of eco-farming. To the participants, it offers the possibility for non-formal training, which can take place anywhere and anytime. Participants require some knowledge of STEM subjects (especially chemistry and biology) as well as knowledge of ecology, technology, and engineering, in order to provide answers and solutions to environmental challenges while using knowledge of mathematics (especially combinatorics and statistics) to search for optimal solutions (in our case, a lean business plan). The model was tested in non-formal education settings, based on an interdisciplinary approach and modern technologies, such as monitoring the effectiveness of training using electroencephalography (EEG) and mobile applications. In the presented didactic model, special emphasis was placed on an interdisciplinary STEM approach to environmental protection, ecology, connatural forms of production and sustainable development. The presented research confirms the hypotheses that non-formal education is becoming an increasingly important form of education and training, and that the use of the interdisciplinary didactic model, contemporary technologies, and mobile applications, increases the time and intensity of concentration in learning and thus improves learning effectiveness. Keywords: eco-farming, electroencephalography, environment protection, mobile learning, non-formal education, sustainable development

The quality of education is increasingly being measured less by the knowledge gained during schooling and more by the level of competence possessed by students at doing a particular job after completing their education. Target and process-planned curricula are being replaced more and more by competence-oriented curricula, especially in science and technology education, where competences, generally defined as the capability or the ability of an individual doing a job properly, are placed at the forefront. If competence is the desired criterion for educational quality, it can be easily established that suitable instruments and methods of measurement are needed for this kind of quality evaluation, which, however, are not yet available. Suitable instrumentation was developed in this study. Its use was demonstrated in the example of elementary education in Slovenia. Key words: generic competences, students’ skills, methods of teaching, triangulation.

The exponential development of learning environments supported by information and communication technology (ICT), coupled with new insights from the fields of cognitive and neuroscience and artificial intelligence (AI), is a huge challenge for both the educational system and youths and their social competences. This article defines the impact of an effective use of contemporary education technologies on young people's engagement and their interest in collaborating with their peers and teachers on the level of interpersonal relationships. It investigates the teachers' and parents' perspective on youth and their cooperation when using ICT in the pedagogical process. The study confirms that innovative didactic approaches to teaching, supported by ICT, exert a positive influence on the collaboration between students, as well as between students and their teachers, and that youths, teachers and parents are all equally aware of that. Parents and teachers have a unified position in support of the idea that an effective use of ICT makes a positive contribution to collaboration between students, and thereby directly affects an increase in their social competences. ICT is becoming one of the important variables that affect the development of young people's social competences. The 2-year study was conducted in the framework of a national project.