Students’ perceptions of tools with which they learn affect the outcomes of this learning. GenAI tools are new tools that have promise for students’ learning, especially higher education students. Examining students’ perceptions of GenAI tools as learning tools can help instructors better plan activities that utilize these tools in the higher education context. The present research considers four components of students’ perceptions of GenAI tools: efficiency, interaction, affect, and intention. To triangulate data, it combines the quantitative and the qualitative methodologies, by using a questionnaire and by conducting interviews. A total of 153 higher education students responded to the questionnaire, while 10 higher education students participated in the interview. The research results indicated that the means of affect, interaction, and efficiency were significantly medium, while the mean of intention was significantly high. The research findings showed that in efficiency, affect, and intention, male students had significantly higher perceptions of AI tools than female students, but in the interaction component, the two genders did not differ significantly. Moreover, the degree affected only the perception of interaction of higher education students, where the mean value of interaction was significantly different between B.A. and Ph.D. students in favor of Ph.D. students. Moreover, medium-technology-knowledge and high-technology-knowledge students differed significantly in their perceptions of working with AI tools in the interaction component only, where this difference was in favor of the high-technology-knowledge students. Furthermore, AI knowledge significantly affected efficiency, interaction, and affect of higher education students, where they were higher in favor of high-AI-knowledge students over low-AI-knowledge students, as well as in favor of medium-AI-knowledge students over low-AI-knowledge students.

Introduction: Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) transforms instructional practice through adaptive content generation, differentiated planning, and interactive learning environments. To effectively navigate these changes, professional development programs are needed to enable teachers to meet the challenges of instruction in GenAI contexts. Few qualitative studies to date have explored how Primary School Teachers (PSTs) develop their technological teaching competencies following GenAI intervention; this study addresses that gap by exploring how PSTs perceive the emergence of their I-TPACK competencies after their first encounter with GenAI, and their reflections on how a Gemini-based professional development (GPD) program contributes to shaping these competencies. Methods: Twenty primary school teachers with no prior GenAI experience participated in the study. They completed a GPD program designed to build competencies in planning, designing, and evaluating instruction through the use of the Gemini GenAI tool. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using deductive-inductive content analysis. Deductive analysis was guided by the I-TPACK model, while inductive analysis revealed an emergent category highlighting the interconnections among I-TPACK components. Results: PSTs perceived that GPD fundamentally reshaped their GenAI teaching competencies. Findings indicated multidimensional development in teachers' technological, pedagogical, content, and ethical GenAI competencies following the Gemini-based professional development program. PSTs perceived that technological competency (I-TK) served as an entry point for developing other competencies within I-TPACK, with ethical awareness embedded in instructional decision-making. Despite overall progress, challenges persisted in mastering advanced Gemini features, and assessment-related competencies remained under development. Discussion: These findings underscore the need for holistic, ethically grounded professional development that fosters digital fluency and sustains competency development. Future programs should differentiate support based on teachers' prior experience and provide structured access to recorded training. Further studies are required to validate these results in middle and high school contexts.

Depending on the channel of communication, people use a variety of skills; particularly, listening and speaking. People often see the need to listen, understand and speak to one another in order to communicate successfully. For this reason, English learners are in need of learning the speaking skill effectively to be able to communicate successfully in real-life English situations. The study adopts theoretical and practical approaches to investigating and evaluating the impact of Listening and Speaking classes on the speaking skill of the students at the English Departments of the College of Languages and the College of Basic Education at the University of Duhok. The paper deals with teaching speaking skill and offers some activities on the speaking skill in the light of communicative language teaching (CLT) to assist the learners in communicating more efficiently in everyday English. The study adopts a mixed methods approach to evaluate the learners’ attitudes towards their speaking skill by constructing a questionnaire for the students, and interviewing them. The study concludes that the integration of the listening and speaking skills helps to improve the students’ speaking skill.

New strategies, methods and projects for the learning of the mathematics and science disciplines are needed. One such project is the project for improving quality of mathematics and science (PIQMAS) education. In the present research, we consider the project implementation in Palestine. Specifically, we examine students’ engagement when implementing the project. To do that, we consider three components of engagement: the cognitive, the behavioral and the emotional. To collect the data, we used interviews and observations, which ensured the triangulation of data collection. We interviewed 13 science and mathematics teachers who carried out the project. We used deductive and inductive content analysis to analyze the interviews and observations transcripts. The research results indicated that the project impacted positively the three components of students’ engagement, which indicates the importance of incorporating new teaching methods, especially PIQMAS, in the teaching of science and mathematics. It is recommended to study different aspects of students’ learning in PIQMAS environment.