Why is Openness in Education important, and why is it critically needed at this moment? As manifested in our guiding question, the significance of Openness in Education and its immediate necessity form the heart of this collaborative editorial piece. This rather straightforward, yet nuanced query has sparked this collective endeavour by using individual testimonies, which may also be taken as living narratives, to reveal the value of Openness in Education as a praxis. Such testimonies serve as rich, personal narratives, critical introspections, and experience-based accounts that function as sources of data. The data gleaned from these narratives points to the understanding of Openness in Education as a complex, multilayered concept intricately woven into an array of values. These range from aspects such as sharing, access, flexibility, affordability, enlightenment, barrier-removal, empowerment, care, individual agency, trust, innovation, sustainability, collaboration, co-creation, social justice, equity, transparency, inclusivity, decolonization, democratisation, participation, liberty, and respect for diversity. This editorial, as a product of collective endeavour, invites its readers to independently engage with individual narratives, fostering the creation of unique interpretations. This call stems from the distinctive character of each narrative as they voice individual researchers’ perspectives from around the globe, articulating their insights within their unique situational contexts.

The current study aims at investigating the effect of social support on the academic resilience of undergraduate students. Students experience multiple academic challenges due to their transition to higher education. These challenges pave way for social support to significantly reduce stressful academic experiences to foster persistence among the learners. The support experiences by students focuses on informational support, esteem support, motivational support, and venting support. These support experiences facilitate students in resolving academic issues while preparing for their assignments, quizzes and exams. The current research used causal comparative research to study the above-mentioned constructs. The multistage stratified sampling technique was used to draw the sample (n=600) of undergraduate students from Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU). The findings of the study revealed that social support significantly influence academic resilience (p= .000) and its sub constructs perseverance (p= .000), reflective and adaptive-help seeking (p= .000), and negative affect and emotional response (p= .000). Furthermore, esteem support, motivational support, and venting support significantly influence academic resilience (p= .000) of students. It can be concluded that students experience high levels of social support in sorting their academic problems and receiving emotional assistance. It can be further suggested that interactive learning strategies should be adopted for thorough understanding of concepts and ensuring hands-on experiences for students to instill soft/digital skills.

This research aims to investigate the influence of some supervision related background variables on the supervisees’ supervision experiences during their research at postgraduate level. We conducted a survey from (N= 422) supervisees using Supervisor-Supervisee. Relationship Questionnaire (SSRQ, 65 items) scored on six point scale. The items of SSRQ were developed on six supervision aspects to find the supervision related experiences in addition to the selected background variables. The subscale wise content validity and reliability of the SSRQ was ensured. Inferential statistics were applied to achieve the main objectives of the research. The findings of the research highlighted the importance of supervisors’ expertise and research skills in the supervisees’ area of research. The supervisees who were not given choice for the selection of the supervisor have reported negative supervision experiences. Giving choice to the selection of a supervisor can improve the supervision experiences of supervisees and can minimize the potential personality and research interest related anomalies. Supervisees from the social sciences disciplines reported the problem of workload management during the supervision process. On the basis of findings it is suggested that supervision allotment procedure, alignment between supervisors’ area of specialization and supervisee research topic and discipline specific supervision trainings may be initiated.

This research collected evidence about the workplace environment-related experiences reported by female employees at Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU), Islamabad. A total of 100 female faculty members and administrative staff were included in the sample of the study. A survey questionnaire was used to collect data. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse data from a questionnaire collected from university female employees including faculty members and administrative departments of AIOU. The findings of the study reported overall positive experiences of female employees regarding gender parity, civility and the overall workplace environment at AIOU. An Independent sample t-test was conducted and on the subscale of gender parity, a significant difference was found (p=.020) in the experiences of teaching and non-teaching females was observed and females from non-teaching departments reported positive experiences regarding gender parity at the workplace. In addition to this, there was no significant difference in the workplace experiences of married and non-married female employees at the university level. Similarly, no significant difference in workplace experiences of female employees from four different age groups was found in this research. Based on the findings, it may be recommended that females be given more awareness regarding their rights in the workplace.

Problem-solving occupies a significant place in the field of mathematics and math education. The main objective of the current study was to examine the effective problem-solving techniques used by the students in mathematics at primary level in private sector schools of Islamabad. This research was quantitative in nature. A cross-sectional survey design and survey questionnaire was used. The six-point rating scale was used to collect responses from the students. The validity of questionnaire was ensured by Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) whereas, the reliability of tools was checked through Cronbach’s alpha using SPSS. In order to conduct the current research, data was collected from the (n = 400) students of 16 campuses of Roots Millennium School. Students were selected through cluster random sampling technique. It was found through descriptive analysis that the students use metacognitive problem solving techniques more frequently as compared to heuristic techniques at primary level. Moreover, it was also investigated that the higher and lower achievers used different strategies under heuristic and metacognitive problem solving techniques. Higher achievers used more than one strategy sometimes related to heuristic techniques and sometimes used both. The results revealed that the male students preferred heuristic visualization of word problem strategy more frequently than female students.

In 21st century, the development and assessment of critical and innovative thinking skills is at the core of higher education level programs. For academic institutions, charged with equipping graduates to compete in today’s knowledge economy with growing recognition that individuals need a wide array of skills in order to meet the needs of the modern workplace. In this context, our existing assessment procedures are unable for developing measuring these above mentioned skills and traits with traditional assessment procedures. In this context, a panel survey study was designed to examine the development of critical and innovative thinking skills through an intervention of authentic assessment tasks using learning management system (LMS). A cohort of MPhil students (N=38) was pretested and went through an intervention of two semesters in which ten different tasks were given to students for developing critical and innovative thinking skills. At the end of course assessment tasks were evaluated against a rubric to find the evidence of critical and innovative thinking skills in completing tasks and a post-test of skills was taken. Internal validity threats were controlled during intervention and reliability of scale was ensured (α=.965). The findings of the study highlighted a significant positive change in the development of students ability to draw conclusions (p= .004), decision making (p=.013) and Implementing new ideas (p=.000). The space for creativity and implementing new ideas in given assignment tasks helped students to enhance critical and innovative thinking skills using learning management system at Allama Iqbal Open University.