Education 4.0 (EDUC4) was driven by the onset of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) to meet labor market requirements resulting from learning that is customized, flexible, accessible, and skills-based. As the concept of EDUC4 develops popularity in the education and innovation research domains, various challenges about its implementation have emerged, especially in developing economies. Thus, there is a need to investigate the existing barriers to EDUC4 implementation. Using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement, a systematic literature review of journal articles in the Scopus database was conducted. Of the 299 journal articles generated from the initial search on Scopus, 30 met the inclusion criteria and were included in the review. The content analysis yielded 12 barriers which include cybersecurity threat, costly, skills gap of human capital, apprehensive stakeholders, lack of training resources, lack of collaboration, knowledge gap for the customization of curriculum design, insufficient available technologies, health issues, time constraint for material preparation, complexity of learning platforms, and insufficient foundation of basic education. They were then associated with seven themes for better operationalization in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs): (1) human resources, (2) infrastructure, (3) financial, (4) linkages, (5) educational management, (6) learners, and (7) health and environment. Finally, a theoretical predictive model was constructed to present the causal relationships in modeling the problems associated with implementing EDUC4. The insights generated from this work offer both theoretical and practical perspectives for stakeholders of HEIs in the implementation of EDUC4 in developing economies.

This study explored how teachers' peer support climate (PSC) and supervisory support climate (SSC) were related to teacher self-efficacy (TSE), teacher job satisfaction (TJS), teacher emotional exhaustion (TEE), and motivation to quit the teaching profession (MQTP) among teachers in the Philippines. Participants were 457 teachers in the Central Visayas Region. Structural equation modeling (SEM) indicated that MQTP varies as to self-efficacy, emotional exhaustion, and job satisfaction. Responses among all constructs do not vary among novice and experienced teachers except on TJS. The findings of the research advocate the proposed model. The model can guide future researchers in developing countries like the Philippines to explain teachers’ attrition caused by social support, efficacy factors, burnout, and job satisfaction.

Technological transitions in the education sector of developing economies are faced with a range of barriers, involving resource scarcity, socio-cultural concerns, and issues related to management and policy. The popularity of Industry 4.0 has prompted Education 4.0 (EDUC4), an approach to learning that involves transformation using advanced technologies. While a recent work reported a comprehensive list of barriers to EDUC4 implementation, particularly in developing economies, further analysis to identify those priority barriers remains a gap. Thus, this work addresses this gap by introducing a novel methodological extension of the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method following the integration of Fermatean fuzzy sets (FFS). The FFS, compared to other fuzzy environments, could capture higher levels of uncertainties that are associated when eliciting judgments necessary for the DEMATEL. Such integration is aided by the maximum mean de-entropy (MMDE) algorithm, which analytically determines the threshold value crucial for constructing the prominence-relation map of the DEMATEL. Following its application in evaluating the implementation of EDUC4 in Philippine universities, the critical barriers are the lack of training resources, costs, insufficiency of available technologies, skills gap of human resources, knowledge gap, and the complexity of the learning platforms. Among this set, barriers related to cost and lack of training resources are deemed the most prominent ones. The statistical test on the impact of addressing the two prominent barriers shows that addressing the barrier related to costs yields statistically more favorable results regarding the mitigation of other EDUC4 implementation barriers. Although these insights may contain idiosyncrasies, they can serve as starting points of discussion in other relevant developing economies. These methodological and practical contributions advance the development of analytical tools under uncertainty that can handle pressing problems such as the EDUC4 implementation.

The study used the intervention mixed methods design to evaluate the technological, pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK) of mathematics preservice teachers while doing their lesson planning and teaching with interactive whiteboards (IWBs). The method has the following parts: (1) qualitative data collection to establish the priority competencies for the intervention, (2) conducting a single-subject experimental design to equip the preservice teachers with technology-enhanced lessons and (3) final qualitative data collection on experiences in planning and teaching with IWBs. The results revealed that the TPACK framework reflects improvements in lesson planning and teaching demonstration skills of the preservice teachers. While the preservice teachers quickly responded to digitise their lesson activities, the formulation of lesson objectives is left behind. Thus, in lesson planning and teaching with IWBs, the pedagogical skills must align with the technological skills they expect to employ. Although the Philippine basic education is not fully implementing IWB technologies in the classroom, policymakers may want this technology to become part of the system.   Keywords: Interactive whiteboard, mathematics teaching, TPACK, preservice teachers, educational technology.

From a developing country perspective, this study explains the factors affecting online learning amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper empirically tests the proposed extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (e-UTAUT) model in the students' intention and use behavior toward the online learning system. Understanding the acceptance of online learning technology is crucial, especially among developing countries caught off-guard by the abrupt transition of face-to-face classes to pure online learning. The enjoyment, interactivity, flexibility, and quality of online learning systems were added as antecedent variables to the UTAUT model. Eight hundred eighty valid responses from selected college students in the Visayas regions, Philippines, were collected. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to verify the research hypotheses. The results supported the proposed model with acceptable fit measures and substantial explanatory power. The extended constructs provide different views on online learning based on the significant cluster of antecedents to explain technology acceptance through behavioral intentions and actual system usage. The paper implies that despite the challenges of connectivity in developing countries, the variations still conform with emerging literature about the topic. Insights for higher education institutions and policy directions are recommended.