Background: Motivation is an important factor in the learning process and supporting students' motivation in mathematics is a significant challenge for educators.Educational technologies, such as digital games, offer potential for engagement in mathematics learning activities.Objectives: To contrast the general decrement in student motivation in mathematics, a multilevel meta-analysis was carried out to synthesize the results of studies concerning the impact of digital games on K-12 student motivation in mathematics.Methods: Standardized measure of effect size (dppc2) for pre-post-control group designs was used, and different sources of dependency among the effects were taken into account. Moreover, through meta-regressions, we examined whether specific characteristics of the participants, interventions and outcomes were associated with effect size differences throughout the studies.Results and Conclusions: A total of 20 primary studies (43 effect sizes) meeting eligibility criteria was included. Results showed a significant overall effect (dppc2 = 0.27; 95%CI = [0.14; 0.41]) and a great heterogeneity between studies. Moderator analyses showed differences in effect size associated to the duration of intervention and motivational construct in terms of expectancy and value.Implications: Overall, the findings indicate that digital games are effective tools compared to conventional teaching practices. The results are promising and could be useful for the design of digital educational interventions aimed at promoting motivation in mathematics.

Purpose: This article examines the state of progress of evidence-based educational policies in Europe and identifies organizations for the generation and dissemination of evidence. Further, it discusses some of the most relevant challenges facing the development of evidence-informed education policies in Europe. Design/Approach/Methods: This article analyzes official documents by the European Commission (EC) and other organizations. Literature in the field of evidence-based education worldwide is examined to identify the primary challenges and issues related to the development of a culture of evidence in Europe’s education sector. Findings: The EC has recently prioritized evidence-informed policy and practice in education, increasingly encouraging member states to utilize evidence in the policy decision-making process. According to official documents, this process began in 2006 and has since enjoyed remarkable progress through several initiatives intended to spread a culture of evidence in education. However, several challenges and issues remain regarding the promotion of evidence-informed policymaking. Originality/Value: Having prioritized evidence-informed policy and practice, the EC strongly encourages the adoption of evidence in the policymaking process. This article provides a point of reference regarding the initiatives already undertaken and the challenges facing evidence-based educational policies and policymaking in Europe.

The purpose of this systematic review was to investigate the learning, social, and psychological outcomes of students with moderate, severe, and complex disabilities (MSCD) in inclusive settings. The review discusses barriers to conducting rigorous research in this field. Whilst an initial literature search located 1,338 records, only 18 were finally included due to the eligibility criteria. Studies were placed in categories based on the topics investigated. Regarding learning outcomes of students with MSCD, findings were moderately in favour of school inclusion for both academic achievement and adaptive skills. Regarding social outcomes, results showed that inclusive settings offer more access to instructional time and peer interaction, although they reported marginalisation during class activities and social isolation within the peer group. Finally, in terms of psychological outcomes, inclusive settings appeared to reduce the frequency of challenging behaviours. The paper also addresses conceptual barriers regarding the definition of inclusion and its consequences on research and practice as well as research design barriers resulting from the quality of research in this field. Based on review results, this paper outlines epistemological propositions for developing standards of quality for both research and practice in the field.

If we ask ourselves whether technology improves learning, then evidence-based research provides us with a substantial body of knowledge, mainly derived from systematic comparisons of experimental designs. In the first part of the paper, the state-of-the-art regarding the evidence on the effectiveness of educational technology, e-learning/blended learning, digital reading, and interactive whiteboards at school (K-12), is introduced underlining the contrast between these data and the rhetoric that accompanies discussion about technological innovation in schools. The second part highlights that evaluation merely based on evidence, although necessary, is not a sufficient condition for decision-making on technological innovation in schools. The introduction of technology has different implications: it requires a careful consideration of untapped potential and involves evidence-based information with other evaluation criteria, related to reasons of utility or ethical issues and values.

Knowledge representation is a central issue for Artificial Intelligence and the Semantic Web. In particular, the problem of representing n-ary relations in RDF-based languages such as RDFS or OWL by no means is an obvious one. With respect to previous attempts, we show why the solutions proposed by the well known W3C Working Group Note on n-ary relations are not satisfactory on several scores. We then present our abstract model for representing n-ary relations as directed labeled graphs, and we show how this model gives rise to a new ontological pattern (parametric pattern) for the representation of such relations in the Semantic Web. To this end, we define PROL (Parametric Relational Ontology Language). PROL is an ontological language designed to express any n-ary fact as a parametric pattern, which turns out to be a special RDF graph. The vocabulary of PROL is defined by a simple RDFS ontology. We argue that the parametric pattern may be particularly beneficial in the context of the Semantic Web, in virtue of its high expressive power, technical simplicity, and faithful meaning rendition. Examples are also provided.