Journal of Education and Learning (EduLear. Vol. No. November 2025, pp. ISSN: 2089-9823 DOI: 10. 11591/edulearn. Student-scientist collaboration in the global learning and observations to benefit the environment program Marina Balainec1. Ines RadanoviN2 Postgraduate University Study Programme in Education Research in Natural and Technical Sciences. Faculty of Science. University of Split. Croatia Department of Biology. Faculty of Science. University of Zagreb. Zagreb. Croatia Article Info ABSTRACT Article history: The study aims to determine how one-year collaboration experience on a research project affects the recognition of collaboration benefits and the development of a studentAos interest in science. 141 students did research projects in 33 collaborative groups with two scientists within the global learning and observations to benefit the environment (GLOBE) program, after which they filled out the 5-point Likert-scale questionnaire. Results show no significant difference in student attitudes about collaboration between gender and educational level. Extremely affirmative students think that important things about collaboration are: the positive influence on their knowledge, improving project writing skills, gaining self-confidence, and growth of the quality of the project. Students who appreciate scientists recognize that they achieve a better understanding by collaborating with them. Students have positive attitudes about future work in the field of science, especially older It was established that developing research projects with scientists affects studentsAo choice of a scientific career. Students who feel under stress, think that they achieve less understanding during the research process. Boys are focused on the negative aspects of collaboration, while girls are more focused on collaborationAos effects on their knowledge. Future studies can investigate if interest in science remains over the years, the effect of collaboration on scientific literacy and expanding basic knowledge. Received May 20, 2024 Revised Nov 30, 2024 Accepted Mar 19, 2025 Keywords: Career in science Environmental education Project based learning Science role models Student-scientist partnership This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA license. Corresponding Author: Marina Balainec Postgraduate University Study Programme in Education Research in Natural and Technical Sciences Faculty of Science. University of Split Rucera BokoviN 33, 21000 Split. Croatia Email: marina. barisic13@gmail. INTRODUCTION For decades scientists and teachers have been looking for ways how to interest students in science . , . , because it has been identified as crucial in making decisions about science careers . , . Researches provide evidence of how inquiry teaching . , . , and engaging students in learning experiences that enable them to interact with scientists . , . , . , affect studentsAo interest in science. So, in the last decades, many educational programs and summer camps have enabled students to get to know scientists and to work with them e. : biotech in action (BIA) . Vattenhallen Science Center . , students at the university . Still, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) expresses the rising need for workers trained for careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) areas in the whole world . We were wondering why there are so many arguments about fostering student interest, but yet a need for students who are interested in STEM? the answer could be in the duration of educational programs in which Journal homepage: http://edulearn. ISSN: 2089-9823 students participate. Some research show that short-term engagement of students in such activities also has a short-term effect on studentsAo interest . , . We wanted to get insight into studentsAo attitudes about science and careers in science after engaging in a program that enables them to interact with scientists on projects that last for one school year. The program that enables such a unique experience is the global learning and observations to benefit the environment (GLOBE) program. It is an international scientific-educational program. Students through The GLOBE program are doing regular and continuous measurements and observations in the immediate environment of the school . By practicing GLOBE, students have a practical approach to the scientific method, acquire new knowledge about the integrity of the environment, and develop positive attitudes about science and selfawareness based on their active contribution . Scientists provide schools with professional guidance in the study and measurement of the environment, equipment and a sense of importance, and in return, they receive a large amount of data for their research . The value of the program stems from the fact that it represents a worldwide community of students, teachers, scientists, and citizens who work together to better understand, maintain and improve the earthAos environment at the local, regional and global levels . The great success of the GLOBE program in Croatia was contributed by the Croatian GLOBE Student Conference and Competition, where highly motivated students, from all over Croatia, present projects they did with the help of scientists during one school year, with great attention paid to scientific writing . There have been studies about the GLOBE program and its effect on studentsAo satisfaction with science education . , inquiry competence . , and choosing a career in science . Previous studies investigated the effect of students participating in short-term educational programs inquiry learning by GLOBE protocol . or big worldwide campaigns led by scientists as part of the GLOBE program . Our research brings a more intimate view of student-scientist collaboration in the GLOBE program, where a group of three students collaborated with two scientists on a research project designed by students. Students connect their results with the data available on the GLOBE platform collected by students from all over the world through the same protocols, in research interpretation. This study contributes to understanding studentsAo attitudes about the benefits of intensive collaboration with scientists. It also reveals what it is in collaboration that encourages students to choose Science carrier. Study contributes to the literature on ways to support the implementation of inquiry learning in schools and studentsAo wishes about teacher role in collaboration with scientists. METHOD The study aims to evaluate and highlight the GLOBE program as a platform for student-scientist We wanted to get an insight into student attitudes about science and careers in science after a research project of students and scientists with a group collaboration. Based on the aim of the study, the following hypotheses were set: . collaboration experience affects the recognition of collaboration benefits and the development of studentsAo interest in science. developing research projects with scientists affects studentsAo choice of a scientific career. there is no significant difference in student attitudes towards collaboration with scientists between gender and educational level. Participants in this reflective study were 141 students . boys and 89 girl. who participated in the Croatian GLOBE Student Conference and Competition, of which 93 elementary school (E) students . ged 10 to . and 48 high school (H) students . ged 14 to . The ratio of elementary and high schools . in the Croatian GLOBE program, as well as the proportion of boys and girls, corresponds to the population that participates in the Croatian GLOBE Student Conference and Competition every year . Students who participated in the GLOBE Student Conference and Competition were selected based on their engagement in the GLOBE program at the regional level, so the sample is considered convenient and representative . Students in a group of three . , created and presented research projects based on data collected during work within the GLOBE program, with the support of two scientists who were their mentors during the Projects were interdisciplinary and included collaboration with scientists from the fields of hydrology . even project. , pedology . ix project. , physics . even project. , meteorology . even project. , botany . ive project. , and chemistry . even project. After the research paper presentation and conversation with professional scientific judges, students filled out a questionnaire, as in Table 1 regarding their attitudes towards collaboration with scientists. A 5-point Likert scale was used to determine student attitudes about collaboration between students and scientists so that the GLOBE program, could be evaluated and improved, where 1 indicates the attitude-I do not agree at all, and 5-I completely agree. The questionnaire was created using the online tool Google Forms and consists of 3 generalized questions . ender, education level, schoo. and 33 specific items related to the creation of the project during the collaboration with the scientists and participation in the competition of the created projects and (A4-A. The questionnaire was valid for analysis and showed high reliability and good J Edu & Learn. Vol. No. November 2025: 2065-2076 J Edu & Learn ISSN: 2089-9823 consistency (Cronbach Alpha=0. During the interpretation item mean, the answers were classified as positive (>3. , neutral . and negative (<2. Collaboration was done in a group of three students . and two scientists per group over one year. They worked together on a project students designed based on collected environmental measurement data. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of specific questions as in Table 1 made it possible to isolate the components described as the most significant characteristics that influence studentsAo successful participation in projects during collaboration with scientists. Table 1. Descriptive statistics and communalities of items A10 A11 A12 A13 A14 A15 A16 A17 A18 A19 A20 A21 A22 A23 A24 A25 A26 A27 A28 A29 A30 A31 A32 A33 A34 A35 A36 Extraction method: principal component analysis Questions that scientists have asked me were tough. When I was presenting my research. the atmosphere was nice. The communication with the scientists was serious and formal. The questions were clear. Presenting in front of scientists and students is stressful. Presenting helped me gain confidence and made me lose performance anxiety. I was proud of myself when I answered the questions asked by scientists. I think my project has gained in importance due to the evaluation of the scientists. I gained a positive opinion of the scientists based on talking to them. I felt frightened and insecure when talking to scientists. Due to the criticism of scientists. I no longer want to do research. During scientific research scientists talked mostly with my teacher not me. During scientific research scientists talked to me and gave me some great advice on how to make research better. We communicated mostly via e mail with scientists. I would love to have more contact with scientists while researching. From the communication with the scientists. I learnt about the process of investigation and During communication with scientists. I learnt more about science topics that I was During the communication with the scientists. I learnt more about the science topics that other students were researching. The collaboration with the scientists should be part of a regular class. Talking to scientists made me feel like a part of a scientific club. Scientists made me think critically about my research. While investigating and talking to scientists I have learnt to think in a scientific way. I gained a better insight into the work of a scientist. The scientist encouraged me to do new research. Investigations are interesting and should be part of a regular class. The criticism of the scientists was useful to me and encouraged me to be better at writing Project writing is an extensive and demanding process but could be carried out on a smaller scale and in regular classes. In addition to creating the project. I learned a lot about the scientific areas related to my Creating a project helped me understand the content that was not completely clear to me during the class. One day I want to become a scientist. The investigation is easier to do with the help of scientists. The collaboration with the scientists makes me feel important. Mean Communalities Preliminary analysis showed that all statements had loading scores greater than 0. 4 in at least one factor. Only the statement AuScientists should not be judging studentsAo reportsAy (A. did not meet this condition in any factor, so it was dropped from further analyzes. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy with a value of 0. 804 indicates that the degree of information among the variables overlaps greatly with a strong partial correlation. A significant statistical BartlettAos test of sphericity . <0. shows that the correlation matrix is indeed not an identity matrix. Hence, it is plausible to conduct factor analysis with meritorious interpretation . The communality values are generally high for all the variables as in Table 1, which indicates that variables are well represented by the factors. The ten components and their respective items that were obtained from the EFA procedure are presented in Table 2. Items with a factor loading greater than 0. 3 were used when defining the factors, because it indicates a moderate correlation between the item and the factor . The extraction method of principal component analysis (PCA) with variation maximization or VariMax rotation was implemented on the 32 items through 22 rotation iterations. All ten factors together explain the 71. 3% variability in the data. For further analysis, factor score coefficients are used with BartlettAos approach, where only the common factors have an impact on factor scores and unique factors across the set of variables are minimized, resulting in factor scores being highly correlated to their corresponding factor and not with other factors . The tenth factor includes only one item AuDuring scientific research scientists talked mostly with my teacher, not meAy Student-scientist collaboration in the global learning and observations to benefit A (Marina Balaine. A ISSN: 2089-9823 (A. so it was excluded from further analyses. The internal reliability specifies a particular set of itemsAo effectiveness levels in measuring the respective factor component for items with factor scores >0. 4 and the highest value of factor scores, as in Table 2. The threshold value of CronbachAos Alpha for the items to achieve internal reliability must be greater than 0. 7, so factors 4, 6, 8 and 9 were excluded from further analysis. For further study, factors 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7 can be used due to the good internal connection of the items. The studentsAo answers were tested with the Shapiro-Wilk test, which indicated that the data was not normally distributed . <0. Due to the absence of a normal distribution of data and due to small samples of unequal size concerning the level of education of the students, non-parametric tests were applied in the data The Kruskal-Wallis test was used due to the limited number of participants and unequal age distribution . hich we could not influenc. to determine the difference according to the level of education and gender of the students, within the statements extracted as a basis for the analysis of the results according to the research Selected questions related to studentsAo collaboration experience with scientists and their recognition of collaboration benefits were used to determine the influence of collaboration on interest in science with the application of the Mann-Whitney U test on the biology achievement in respiration test (BART) factor score . actor scores coefficient with BartlettAos approac. for analysis of well-connected factors 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7. To determine the differences in studentsAo collaboration experience with scientists, students were divided into groups of highly affirmative (Likert scale answers 4 and . and less interested/motivated (Likert scale answers 1, 2 and . Negative experiences in collaboration with Contributes to studentsAo Students personal Satisfaction during competition Scientific The impact on studentsAo Positive attitude towards scientists Student insecurity and stress Willingness to learn and explore The importance of collaboration with scientists CronbachAos Alpha if item deleted Corrected item-total Item/component Table 2. Factor score coefficients, reliability measures for items in factors and total variance explained with rotation sums of squared loading A21 A20 A27 A19 A23 A13 A29 A26 A35 A34 A31 A17 A14 A32 A18 A36 A28 A30 A22 A25 A24 A11 A12 A10 A33 A15 A16 CronbachAos Alpha % of variance Extraction method: principal component analysis, rotation method: Varimax with Kaiser normalization, rotation converged in 22 iterations. J Edu & Learn. Vol. No. November 2025: 2065-2076 J Edu & Learn ISSN: 2089-9823 Hierarchical clusters along with the Euclidian distance measure and the median linkage clustering method was used to determine the interrelationship of studentsAo opinions and extract the most significant factors that can be observed during the collaboration of students and scientists in the creation of student research and their choice of a scientific career. The median linkage method combines two clusters with equal weight in the centroid calculation, regardless of the number of cases, allowing small groups to have an equal effect on the characterization of larger clusters into which they are merged. At the same time, studentsAo opinions are connected in cluster groups named according to the features of the questions included in the cluster, to single out an influencing cluster. Decision tree . rowing method chi-squared automatic interaction detection (CHAID). alphasplit=0. alphamerge=0. 05 adjust=Bonferron. was applied to determine the most important connection between the opinion that scientists encouraged students to do new research. Each pair of predictor categories is evaluated to determine which is least significantly different from the dependent variable, and because of these pooling steps, a Bonferroni-adjusted p-value is calculated . We need to emphasize that the results of the study relate just to those students who participated in the Croatian GLOBE Student Conference and Competition. Results cannot be generalized to the whole population of GLOBE students. All statistical analyzes were made with the SPSS software package . RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Students accept scientistsAo assessments well of research projects (A. , with only 7. 8% of students being against them. According to the mean values as in Table 1, almost all studentsAo answers are positive. The only negative values are related to statements with a negative connotation. The A5 AuQuestions that scientists have asked me were toughAy and A15 AuDue to the criticism of scientists. I no longer want to do researchAy, these are also positive answers. Neutral responses were observed only with statements A9 AuPresenting in front of scientists and students is stressfulAy and A14 AuI felt frightened and insecure when talking to scientistsAy as in Table 1. Based on such results, it can be concluded that students have a positive attitude about collaboration with scientists. The criticisms of scientists did not discourage students from doing research as in Table 1. Negative experiences in collaboration with scientists as in Table 2 are mostly because their teachers in most cases . 9% of students agre. took over the communication with the scientist during the creation of the project (A. Many other studies also show positive impact of student-scientist collaboration on studentsAo attitude about scientists and science . Students mostly agree that they would like more direct contact with scientists and that it would be good if such collaborations and research could be part of regular classes. Also, they mostly agree on how they learned about the research process and scientific concepts regarding regular class and other students research. Studies show that the GLOBE program is implemented in regular classes only with a small group of students and even 50% of teachers say they have difficulties implementing the GLOBE program in the school curriculum . contrast, research on the utilization of GLOBE protocols in teaching . has shown that these protocols can be effectively integrated into the curricula of regular subjects, and teachers have successfully utilized GLOBE environmental measurement protocols in standard science classes. To determine the differences in studentsAo collaboration experience with scientists, students were divided into groups of highly affirmative and less interested/motivated. Most differences were observed in the categories transition between the answers-I mostly disagree-I neither agree nor disagree-I mostly agree-as in Table 3 . ee in appendi. Claim A13 AuI gained a positive opinion of the scientists based on talking to themAy stands out from the others because of the established significant differences between all pairs of responses as in Table 3, due to the linear studentsAo responses growth towards the higher agreement, which is not present in other claims. The opinion of whether research is easier to carry out with the support of scientists (A. was used to analyze affirmative opinions about collaboration with scientists against negative and neutral opinions. Extremely affirmative students point out the positive influence on science knowledge (A33 N2. =19. p<0. and research knowledge (A22 N2. =11. p<0. , as important. The positive attitude towards scientists is related to the feeling that they have improved project writing skills (A30 N2. =6. p<0. and gained self-confidence (A10 N2. =4. p<0. Also, an important determinant of a positive student attitude towards scientists was the opinion about the growth of the quality (A17 N2. =6. p<0. and importance (A12 N2. =6. p<0. of the project. Many studies agree with our findings showing how collaboration with scientists positively affect students self-confidence and interest in science . , and science and research knowledge . , . , . Study of author Cincera and Maskova . showed that practicing the GLOBE program does not affect research skills. Such results can be partially attributed to differences in program implementation and insufficient support for teachers in program implementation. Some participants of the GLOBE program are focused on data collection, while others are dedicated to research work . EFA of specific questions as in Table 2 isolates five components described as the most significant characteristics that influence studentsAo successful participation in projects during collaboration with scientists. The importance of collaboration with scientists (F. includes most statements, with positive answers ranging from 73% to 82. The students mostly agreed that they gained a positive opinion of the scientists based on Student-scientist collaboration in the global learning and observations to benefit A (Marina Balaine. A ISSN: 2089-9823 talking to them (A. , that scientists encouraged them to think critically about research (A. and that they gained a better insight into the work of a scientist (A. Willingness to learn and explore (F. is characterized by awareness that scientists advised on how to make research better (A17, 61. 8% of positive opinion. Positive attitude towards scientists (F. is described by the encouragement for new research (A28, 87. 9% positive answer. and sense of importance (A36, 84. 4% positive answer. For satisfaction with communication during competition (F. , the most important thing is that questions were clear . 6% positive answer. Student insecurity and stress (F. includes presenting in front of scientists and students (A9, 48. 2% of positive Mann-Whitney U test BART factor was carried out with grouping variable A33 AuCreating a project helped me understand the content that was not completely clear to me during the classAy comparing students according to highly affirmative answers shows significant differences in three factors. The 62% of students point out (UF3=1002. p<0. student insecurity and stress, which indicates that students under stress achieve less understanding and are less able to connect new knowledge during the research process, with related contents that are studied as part of regular classes. The influence of F1 the importance of collaboration with scientists (UF5=1142. p<0. and F5 positive attitude towards scientists (UF1=1259. p<0. emphasizes that students who appreciate scientists and notice the importance of collaboration recognize that during this collaboration they achieve a better understanding. Similar results showed study . , where it was concluded that it was the collaboration with scientists that contributed to the students feeling like part of the scientific community and study . where it was concluded that students believe that their research is important because it contributes to a better understanding of the environment. Students point out scientific and professional development as a collaboration advantage see in Figure 1. Figure 1. Dendrogram of studentsAo opinions based on answers to the claims of the survey questionnaire (A4AeA. using median linkage . escaled distance cluster combin. A dendrogram using the median language method as in Figure 1 contrasts a small part of studentsAo negative attitudes about collaboration with scientists . argest distance coefficient 412. with the majority of positive attitudes about collaboration with scientists. A fairly homogenous cluster . mallest distance coefficient . within the branch of positive attitudes are students who express interest in science careers. Statement J Edu & Learn. Vol. No. November 2025: 2065-2076 J Edu & Learn ISSN: 2089-9823 A25 AuScientists made me think critically about my researchAy is the median of the expressed opinions as in Figure 1, and it was used as the basis for further connection and the views that highlight the cluster importance of collaboration with scientists. Students perceive collaboration advantages based upon clasters scientistsAo contributions to the scientific development of students and student development encouraged by collaboration, which influences the positive opinion of students about collaboration with scientists, as in Figure 1. Similar results showed by Zhang et al. where high school students that took part in week-long online biotechnology program felt they developed in scientific and professional way and they showed better understanding of biotechnology field and interest in science career. The statement A28 the scientist encouraged me to do new research, achieved the highest mean value of student answers (M=4. SD=0. and was used as a dependent variable for the application of the CHAID decision tree . lphasplit=0. alphamerge=0. 05 adjust=Bonferron. In this way, studentsAo interest in future work, in STEM (A34 N2. =12. p<0. , was the most significant factor regarding studentsAo interest in conducting new research, as in Figure 2. Figure 2. Classification tree for all statements of the questionnaire . rowing method CHAID. alphasplit=0. alphamerge=0. 05 adjust=Bonferroni. dependent variable: the scientist encouraged me to do new researc. The root node was also a terminal, containing all students split into two child nodes, one containing studentAos that are not interested in future scientific work and the other who want to work in the STEM field as in Figure 2. The 79. 3% of students, who think that scientists encouraged them to do new research, want to become scientists in the field of natural sciences as in Figure 2. It is noticeable that a higher percentage of high school students . 54%) agree that one day they want to be scientists in the field of natural sciences than elementary school students . 28%). The risk as a proportion of cases misclassified by the proposed classification is 0. 359 (SE=0. The model classified 100% of students who want to be scientists correctly. In accordance with the described results of this research, the research Winklerova et al. also showed that participation in the GLOBE program influenced the choice of a professional career for many GLOBE students. It is noticeable that a higher percentage of high school students agree that one day they want to be scientists in the field of natural sciences than elementary school students. The result points to how student interest in a career in science can be maintained and even increased over the years, among other things, by directly involving students in research. Numerous studies show the exact opposite . In research Ozogul et al. students showed an interest in doing science, but this interest decreases with time and age. Student-scientist collaboration in the global learning and observations to benefit A (Marina Balaine. A ISSN: 2089-9823 Such results highlight the even greater importance of the GLOBE program, where there is a long-term form of collaboration of several months or even several years . The Kruskal-Wallis test did not determine the existence of differences between the factors about the gender of the students. Despite this, boys are more inclined to think that scientists ask difficult questions (A5 N2. =4. p<0. and that research presentation is stressful (A9 N2. =6. p<0. In contrast to such a different opinion focused on the negative aspects of collaboration, girls are more focused on the effects of student-scientist collaboration. Thus, compared to boys, girls value more the contribution of collaboration with scientists when expanding knowledge on the topic of their research (A21 N2. =6. p<0. They agree that research should be part of regular classes (A29 N2. =8. p<0. and that they have clarified the parts that were not completely clear to them during the previous study (A33 N2. =3. p<0. Numerous studies show that girls show less interest in science . which may be a reflection of social stereotypes, peer influence, stereotypes about scientists . and the biases of their teachers who are more inclined to praise boys . However, more girls than boys participate in the GLOBE program in Croatia, which shows that they are more interested in science research. This can be a result of the greater number of female teachers who lead the GLOBE program in Croatia, as well as the greater representation of female scientists who collaborate with GLOBE schools . Teachers represent role models for young girls and thus encourage them to engage in science . Although most studies talk about the dominance of the male gender in science, this is equalizing over time, especially in the fields of biology and chemistry . which are widely represented in the GLOBE program . To analyze studentsAo attitudes about scientists and their perception of themselves during collaboration with scientists, studentsAo answers were grouped according to their level of education. The only established difference is according to age in the factor student insecurity and stress (F3 N2. =4. p<0. due to the more pronounced discomfort of high school students . ean rank 80. compared to elementary school students . ean rank 66. It should be emphasized that a higher percentage of students between ages 14-17 . 31%) declare that collaboration with scientists gave them a sense of importance (A. and the importance of the project (A. than do students between ages 10-13 . 08%-the importance of the project. importance of themselves-82. 05%). A significant difference according to the age of the students, that is, the level of education, with the Kruskal-Wallis test was observed only with the recognition of the importance of scientists (A35 N2. =4. p<0. , where it is significant that high school students better recognize the importance of collaboration with scientists. Other results also showed that stress is a big weight for learning . There is no sense of pressure and competitiveness in the GLOBE program, students agree on having the feeling of a pleasant and collaborative atmosphere and teamwork . -5 student. while conducting research, especially between older students who are more independent. Scientists monitor the studentAos work and provide support through all phases of research. All this could also be a key factor in having positive attitudes towards scientists and engaging in science for gifted students and students show a certain interest in science. Collaboration between students and scientists, as demonstrated in the GLOBE program, serves as an effective model for teaching highly motivated and gifted students, potentially increasing their interest in science. However, this study has its limitations. It focuses on unique face-to-face collaboration, which means that the sample was convenient, and the results cannot be generalized. Future research could explore not only studentsAo attitudes but also the impact of collaboration on knowledge and scientific literacy. It would be valuable to investigate whether interest in science persisted over the years. CONCLUSION The study revealed studentsAo positive attitudes about face-to-face collaboration with scientists for one Students point out scientific and professional development as collaboration advantages. Students think that collaboration with scientists and research should be part of regular classes. Younger students accept criticism better than older students, but older students are more interested in a career in science. Boys are focused on the negative aspects of collaboration, while girls are more focused on the positive effects of student-scientist collaboration on their knowledge. Students think that guiding and supporting them in all phases of research increases not only their motivation, science skills and literacy but also their understanding of concepts. Collaboration between students and scientists, as demonstrated in GLOBE, is an effective model for teaching highly motivated and gifted students, aiming to increase the number of students pursuing careers in science. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We express our gratitude to the Ministry of Science. Education, and Youth of the Republic of Croatia for allowing this research and to the students who participated. J Edu & Learn. Vol. No. November 2025: 2065-2076 J Edu & Learn ISSN: 2089-9823 FUNDING INFORMATION Authors state no funding involved. AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS STATEMENT This journal uses the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT) to recognize individual author contributions, reduce authorship disputes, and facilitate collaboration. Name of Author Marina Balainec Ines RadanoviN C : Conceptualization M : Methodology So : Software Va : Validation Fo : Formal analysis E I : Investigation R : Resources D : Data Curation O : Writing - Original Draft E : Writing - Review & Editing E Vi : Visualization Su : Supervision P : Project administration Fu : Funding acquisition CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATEMENT Authors state no conflict of interest. INFORMED CONSENT We have obtained informed consent from all individuals included in this study. ETHICAL APPROVAL The research related to human use has been complied with all the relevant national regulations and institutional policies in accordance with the tenets of the Helsinki Declaration and has been approved by the Ministry of Science. Education, and Youth of the Republic of Croatia. DATA AVAILABILITY The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, [MB], upon reasonable request. REFERENCES