Century Challenges Research Articles

The Change Project Approach: A response for reorienting teacher education to address Education 2030 in southern Africa – The case of Midlands State University, Zimbabwe

The change project approach could be applied to enhance teacher education for the purpose of confronting 21st Century challenges through education (Education 2030). The challenge for teacher education institutions is to prepare future teachers with the socio-ecological knowledge, skills, attitudes and values essential for sustainable living, by reorienting current unsustainable ways of thinking and doing. This can be achieved by integrating Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and in a number of teacher education programmes in southern Africa, teacher educators have begun to do this. This paper discusses the critical role of a change project approach in creating the social transformation processes and actions required to achieve the ambitions of Education 2030. Cases from the Midlands State University in Zimbabwe have demonstrated important efforts to reorient university curricula. The paper investigates and discusses the challenges associated with reimagining teacher education and key considerations that need to be addressed to achieve the goal of Agenda 2030. Keywords: Change project approach; social transformation; Education 2030; Education for Sustainable Development

Pedagogical Conditions of Media Education in Primary School

The media and its use in the educational process, which has global importance, are the twenty-first century's challenge. In the pedagogical process, media education is addressed to each child within the context of any subject, ensuring the academic subject's required objectives and successful instructional activity, as well as the final results. Media is a tool in the pedagogical process for early learning games, aesthetic education, language skills, and mathematics, religion or ethics. It is not enough to have the developed equipment to use the media. In elementary school, the classroom equipped with appropriate media is more attractive for the students; it will facilitate the educational, developing and upbringing process and make it more stimulating. For the development of imagination, creativity, and independent search skills in elementary school, the supervised use of media during the educational process is particularly important. The media equipment is selected in accordance with the secondary school's curriculum, with targets set and the experience evaluated regularly. The controlled use of technological equipment is necessary in this case. Students' cognitive and artistic skills might be harmed by excessive media use in elementary school. It is justified that today's primary school students are extremely informed due to the media, their thinking skills are more developed. Today, there is a need for parent-teacher support processes for the child, strict content control, and pedagogical guidance from computer & Internet prevention. The use of technologies in the educational process is one of the urgent problems of modern pedagogy. The introduction of media technology in primary school has both advantages and disadvantages. Media education helps students navigate the information. They contribute to the development of positive motivation for learning, activate the cognitive, research and creative activities of younger schoolchildren, but can harm their health and negatively affect their worldview. The fact is that the 21st century is the age of high technologies. Therefore, education, which provides a high level of general knowledge, should be replaced by education focused on the creative development of each student's personality. Therefore, today it is necessary to revise the content of higher education, methods and types of education, that is, to apply pedagogical innovation.

Diverse Perspectives on Trends Impacting the Future of Extension in Florida

In Extension, understanding trends has ramifications when working with external audiences, internal audiences, and even preparing future Extension professionals. This research sought to assess the applicability of several national trends to Florida so that the Florida Cooperative Extension Service (CES) could more accurately plan to meet the needs of Florida in the future. The Organizational Change model guided this discussion and provided a theory-driven strategy for addressing future challenges facing Extension. A basic qualitative study was used, and eight participants were interviewed. Participants were required to be Florida Extension personnel who were well regarded within the organization and had a working understanding of Extension’s issues. Data analysis was performed using the constant comparative method with open coding and themes were consolidated which ultimately resulted in five themes and 10 sub-themes. Findings indicated that the transformational factors challenging Extension included the external environment and mission and strategy. Conversely, the challenging transactional factors were structure, systems (policies and procedures), and task requirements and individual skills. Transformational factors were identified as the primary catalyst for change and Extension may focus efforts towards the four sub-themes that emerged from the external environment: (a) urbanization, (b) education with online technology, (c) conflicting messages, and (d) diverse audiences. Additionally, three sub-themes emerged from mission and strategy: (a) science-based information, (b) building partnerships, and (c) engaging stakeholders. The Florida CES has adapted to many 21st century challenges, but the need for change remains if Extension intends to keep its reputation as a premier educational organization.

STEAM education- metacognition – Specific Learning Disabilities

Students with Specific Learning Disabilities, tend to have low academic performance because of the cognitive disorders and deficits of their working memory, as well as executing fuctions like these of processing - organizing and recalling information. Development of the Metacognitive skills, like those that presented by Drigas & Mitsea (2020), as 8 pillars of Metacognition, such as self-Awareness, self-Monitoring and Self-Regulation, helping these students recognize their weaknesses and introduce strategies and tactics will assist them to compensate their cognitive deficits, by becoming more flexible and adapt to any changes coming up, better. STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) education involves students in the education process, via a multifaceted and multi-sensory approach of to develop Meta-cognitive Skills, control the way they learn while building up the necessary knowledge, in order to secure equal academic and career opportunities. As a result, their independence and self-esteem being boosted preparing them to come up against 21st century challenges.

A conceptual framework for a multi-criteria decision support tool to select technologies for resource recovery from urban wastewater

In the context of circular economy, wastewater can be used to address some of the 21st century's challenges regarding the transition to renewable resources for water, energy, and nutrients. Despite all the research, development, and experience with resource recovery from urban wastewater, its implementation is still limited. The transition from treatment to resource recovery is complex due to the difficulty of selecting unit processes from a large number of candidate processes considering the operational limitations of each process, and sustainability objectives. Presently, a multi-criteria decision support tool that deals with the difficulty of unit process selection for resource recovery from wastewater has not been developed. Therefore, this paper presents the conceptual framework of a decision support tool to find the optimum treatment train consisting of compatible unit processes which can recover water, energy and/or nutrients from a specified influent composition. The framework presents the relationship between the user input, the knowledge library of technologies and a weighted multi-objective nonlinear programming model to aid process selection. The model presented here shows, not only how the processes are selected, but also the four-dimensional sustainability impact of the generated treatment train while considering the weight provided by the user. Thus, this study presents a reproducible framework which can support private and public decision-makers in transparent evidence-based decision making and eventually the systematic implementation of resource recovery from urban wastewater.

Ministry and Economic Prosperity, the 21st Century Challenges and Motivations into Ministry

Ministry and Economic Prosperity, the 21st Century Challenges and Motivations into Ministry

The Importance of Boosting Students’ Intercultural Competence in Moroccan EFL Classes

Because intercultural communicative competence has a tremendous influence on the cultural component of language teaching/ learning, this article is a concise literature review of intercultural competence. In fact, curricula designers have put a strong emphasis on the definitions and implementations of intercultural communication to provide tasks that enhance learners’ cross-cultural competences. It is worth mentioning that intercultural competence is not a new concept in the field of language teaching and learning, but it is renewed by certain studies and surveys. People nowadays must be interculturally competent to able to deal with the 21 st -century challenges that lead to a lot of cultural misunderstandings. However, one may suggest that learners can interact communicatively despite the language skills they may lack. As such, this article is seeking to answer questions such as how can Moroccan EFL classes boost learners’ intercultural competences? Keywords : Intercultural Communication, Intercultural Competence, Intercultural Communicative Competence DOI: 10.7176/JEP/12-22-02 Publication date: August 31 st 2021

Pesantren As Indonesian Traditional Education Institution in Preparing the Alumni to Face The Twenty-First Century Challenges

Pesantren is an Indonesian traditional education institution based on Islamic values or often calledtraditional pesantren. It initially focuses on learning that is only limited to morality and politeness values,which make pesantren considered backward in the academic side and science by Indonesian society.However, at the beginning of the twentieth century, there was a term 'modern' pesantren which combinedmoral, academic and scientific values as the learning focus, such as communication, collaboration, criticalthinking, creativity and innovative skills that make its graduates ready to face twenty-first-centurychallenges. This paper tries to portray on how pesantren, both traditional and modern pesantren, preparesand navigates their students to master the twenty-first-century skills namely communication,collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity to tackle future challenges. The researchers conductedinterviews with nine students of Faculty of Islamic Studies, Universitas Islam Indonesia who previouslyspent their high school years in either traditional or modern pesantren. We are finding that pesantrenalthough the types, traditional and modern will strive the world's dynamic, since pesantren's core valueshave successfully shaped attitudes and disciplines of it is alumni, and the involvement in religiousteaching in pesantren is essential and undebatable because it is the foundation of all knowledge taught.This research will provide valuable information regarding pesantren responding to modernity as Islamiceducation is supposed to consider the improvement of the learning process within preparing it is alumni toface the twenty-first-century challenges without forgetting it is identity.

Impact Culture: Transforming How Universities Tackle Twenty First Century Challenges

New ways of doing research are needed to tackle the deep interconnected nature of twenty first century challenges, like climate change, obesity, and entrenched social and economic inequalities. While the impact agenda has been shaping research culture, this has largely been driven by economic imperatives, leading to a range of negative unintended consequences. Alternative approaches are needed to engage researchers in the pursuit of global challenges, but little is known about the role of impact in research cultures, how more or less healthy “impact cultures” might be characterized, or the factors that shape these cultures. We therefore develop a definition, conceptual framework, and typology to explain how different types of impact culture develop and how these cultures may be transformed to empower researchers to co-produce research and action that can tackle societal challenges with relevant stakeholders and publics. A new way of thinking about impact culture is needed to support more societally relevant research. We propose that healthy impact cultures are: (i) based on rigorous, ethical, and action-oriented research; (ii) underpinned by the individual and shared purpose, identities, and values of researchers who create meaning together as they generate impact from their work; (iii) facilitate multiple impact sub-cultures to develop among complementary communities of researchers and stakeholders, which are porous and dynamic, enabling these communities to work together where their needs and interests intersect, as they build trust and connection and attend to the role of social norms and power; and (iv) enabled with sufficient capacity, including skills, resources, leadership, strategic, and learning capacity. Based on this framework we identify four types of culture: corporate impact culture; research “and impact” culture; individualistic impact culture; and co-productive impact culture. We conclude by arguing for a bottom-up transformation of research culture, moving away from the top-down strategies and plans of corporate impact cultures, toward change driven by researchers and stakeholders themselves in more co-productive and participatory impact cultures that can address twenty first century challenges.

A Proposed Indigenous Municipal Waste Based RE Generation Plant Design for South Asian Coastal Mega Cities

Waste holds an adequate amount of energy to serve as a viable renewable energy source. Moreover, it is poised to create healthy revenue and handsome economy for country as waste may serve as energy, wealth and gold. We are converting our waste into wealth. By transforming it into useful resource, Sindh solid waste management board (SSWMB) estimates that Karachi will generate 16,000 tons of garbage daily by 2020. Currently, Karachi metropolis produces approximately 12,000 tons of garbage every day. Through proper management of the solid waste, the existing huge garbage may well be converted into an efficient source of income as well as energy generation. By doing so, Karachi may be relatively safe, disease free and environmentally clean city. Solid waste management in metropolis has emerged as a 21st century challenge. The Solid waste is increasing problem day by day. It is creating environmental hazards and social problems due to increase in waste, health Issues and lack of management. So it is high time to convert this problem in to a viable mechanism coupled with the solution by applying the instruments of proper management for the solid waste. The Solid waste ejection is the most common problem in third world countries.

Theoretical considerations for the development of urban black adolescent females

ABSTRACT We explore the theoretical frameworks of ecological systems theory, intersectionality, and multi-dimensionality to examine the dynamics of the environment as it relates to the development of Black adolescent females who grow up in urban settings. Frameworks such as intersectionality and multi-dimensionality specifically urge attention to multiple identities and social categories related to race, sex, and class that impact the everyday life for people of color. We argue negotiations regarding multiple identities are unique for Black adolescent females. It is important to explore these frameworks as developmental processes are impacted by navigating systems and power dynamics that may stifle the developmental process for Black adolescent females. This review specifically addresses barriers and milestones unique to urban Black adolescent female development that targets 21st century challenges. Implications for social workers at each ecological domain are discussed.

Introducing design thinking online to large business education courses for twenty-first century learning

Design thinking can be broadly defined as a set of creative skills to understand and problem-solve ambiguous and complex problems, and a practice that places humans at the heart of the design process. Such collaborative ways of design thinking and design-doing are much needed to address twenty-first century challenges such as climate change. Design thinking methodology is well known for teaching and learning in design disciplines, and to a lesser extent, as an innovative problem-solving framework for business education. Typically design thinking has been taught and practised in physical settings and to a lesser extent online. While design thinking is also increasingly practised online, this is challenging at scale in higher education contexts. This case study analyses design thinking activities with educational technologies in a large undergraduate cohort of first-year business students. Eleven students and three teachers were interviewed to ascertain their level of engagement with design thinking with digital tools and to identify common themes that enabled or inhibited such practice. Student artefacts of design thinking are explored and compared to the interview data. Findings indicate that students may develop novice design thinking skills, process knowledge and mindsets in online and remote delivery modes, despite limited experience, technical and time constraints. Broader learning design implications of design thinking constraints in digital practice are discussed to assist educators. It is suggested that higher education adopt and support design thinking, as a subject and practice, more widely.

Sustainable energy corps: Building a global collaboration to accelerate transition to a low carbon world

Climate change is a critical 21st century challenge. Major initiatives are underway across the globe but the key metric of success the reduction of greenhouse gas concentration (GHG) in the atmosphere is not improving. A new model for engaging, educating, and securing support from the world community is needed. We propose the formation of a new Sustainable Energy Corps, designed to engage students, communities, professionals, universities, companies, government, and other stakeholders. The focus is on measurement and reduction of GHG concentration in the atmosphere. Translating the “adopt-a-highway” model the world would be divided into local regions connected globally using contemporary data and content platforms. A proposed approach for building a global integrated approach is presented.

Immersive Education for Chronic Condition Self-Management

Chronic conditions represent a significant twenty first century challenge. Education and self-management training are the mainstay of clinical intervention for such conditions since care is dependent on health literacy and self-management. This intervention not only imparts the necessary understanding and skills for self-management, but also helps people to overcome personal barriers to positive behavioral change, such as low self-efficacy. Moreover, education maximizes dignity, by enabling shared decision-making. A plethora of research supports the role of education and self-management training in the management of chronic conditions, whilst at the same time highlighting that not all approaches lead to meaningful behavioral change. Immersive virtual reality (VR) offers a unique set of features and tools for delivering these interventions. For example, the immersive nature focuses attention and promotes engagement; the ability to simulate authentic and interactive real-world scenarios can be used to promote the benefits of active learning; and the ability to facilitate embodiment of avatars with distinct appearance and capability can be used to bias new perceptions and behaviors in-line with the avatar's characteristics. Moreover, the ability to use VR independent of a clinician renders a potential solution to instances where significant barriers to healthcare access exist. This short perspective paper will discuss how VR may be used to host education and self-management interventions in the domain of chronic condition management. Further, it will outline considerations for developers and conclude with a call for the co-creation of new VR-based education and self-management interventions.

Agriculture, biology, and environment: Twenty first century challenges and opportunities

AbstractThe 6th International Conference on Agricultural and Biological Sciences (ABS 2020), was planned to be held in the People's Republic of China. Due to the COVID‐19 pandemic, ABS 2020, “Agricultural and Biological Sciences: Plant, Soil, Animal, and Environment”, was the first online conference in Agricultural and Biological Sciences history. Each paper addressed a slightly different topic and provided identifiable challenges and research key questions in agriculture, agronomy, food production and security, and environmental hazards. The role of Agricultural and Biological Sciences of China is the generation of research knowledge that influence everyday activities. There were 41 manuscripts submitted, of which 25 were accepted for publication. The research domains varied and included the role of specific plant on soil C‐cycling, haploid induction, and natural doubling of Zea mays L.; plant species and soil rhizosphere microflora; forest tree biomass succession and dynamics relevant to C‐sequestration; making sandy land agriculture friendly; plantation age on C, N, and P stoichiometry; codon uses pattern of Gnetum luofuoense C.Y. Cheng using transcriptome data; suitability of plant landscape unit and natural parks; regeneration protocol of Jatropha curcas L., etc. The purpose of this special section is to generate an improved communication among international scientists that we hope will lead to enhanced food security.

Managing Global Smart Cities in an Era of 21st Century Challenges

Globalization, integration and liberalism are concepts that have been used since ancient history and have influenced urban governance to this day. The aim of the article is to find out, based on the historical development of globalization, Friedmann’s urban concept and Sassen’s global theory of cities—how world cities reflect the new challenges of 21st century globalization. In the recent past, building of the global urban network has been influenced by factors such as the growth of populism, neoliberalism, migration, the existence of exploitative centers, urbanization and changes in the demographic curve. Similar to the year 2020, also in 2021 cities must face a single global challenge posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. In this article the authors used methods of comparative analysis of global Smart Cities such as New York, London and Tokyo. The discussion section includes a summary of results of the analysis, and a design of a new general model for managing global challenges in cities is introduced. The results of the article point towards the role and influence of cultural differences of global cities and this also relates to the approach to managing the new challenges of current times. New York and London are culturally closer and also showed similar results, whereas Tokyo differs across all analyzed elements. The main result of the article are the answers to the research questions and the design of a new general model which involves various elements of globalization management and which is based on the world best practices.

ASSESING CONTENT VALIDITY ON THE CRITICAL THINKING TEST IN CRITICAL LISTENING CLASS

Critical thinking is a skill that should be developed to enable students cope with 21st century challenges. Critical Listening class is one of the compulsory subjects in English Language Education Study Program of Mercu Buana University Yogyakarta which goal is to enhance students critical thinking whenever they listen to particular information. However, the instrument to measure the students’ critical listening skill has not been developed yet. Therefore, this study aims at developing an instrument to develop students’ critical listening skill. The study was started by developing the conceptual definition and operational definition of critical thinking and critical listening. Afterwards, a set of instrument containing of 40 items were developed. Identifying instrument content validity is the first step the focus of this study. The instrument items were then validated by 3 experts. The result of this study showed that 30 items on the instrument was considered valid as they had I-CVI ranged from 0,8-1. The other 10 items were deemed to be invalid since the I-CVI is lower than 0,78. The result of this study encouraged the researcher to revise the instrument and improve the validity of the items.

Advances in the Treatment of Anal Fistula: A Mini-Review of Recent Five-Year Clinical Studies.

Anal fistula, with its complicated pathogenesis, has been considered as a clinical challenge for centuries. The risk of frequent recurrence and incontinence constitutes a considerable threat in the long-term treatment of anal fistula. In this work, we narratively reviewed the scientific literature of new techniques that have been used for anal fistula treatment over the recent 5 years, objectively evaluated the pros and cons of each technique on the basis of clinical outcomes, and tried to disclose the effective strategies for anal fistula treatment. Up to date, surgery is the main method used for treating anal fistula, but there is no simple technique that can completely heal complex anal fistula. In the course of surgery treatment, the healing outcome, and the protection of anal function should be weighed comprehensively. Among the innovative techniques that have emerged in recent years, combined techniques based on drainage Seton and LIFT-plug seem to be the relatively effective therapies, but their effectiveness requires more multi-center prospective randomized controlled trials with large sample size and long-term follow-up to be validated.

Sustainable City Planning: A Data-Driven Approach for Mitigating Urban Heat

Urban areas are expected to triple by 2030 in order to accommodate 60% of the global population. Anthropogenic landscape modifications expand coverage of impervious surfaces inducing the urban heat island (UHI) effect, a critical twenty first century challenge associated with increased economic expenditure, energy consumption, and adverse health impacts. Yet, omission of UHI measures from global climate models and metropolitan planning methodologies precludes effective sustainable development governance. We present an approach that integrates Earth observation and climate data with three-dimensional urban models to determine optimal tree placement (per square meter) within proposed urban developments to enable more effective localized UHI mitigation. Such data-driven planning decisions will enhance the future sustainability of our cities to align with current global urban development agendas.

Ethical challenges of information society in the twenty first century

The paper presents information society in the twenty first century, it traced the origin of information society to 1960 and how it has survived to the present dispensation. It gave an introductory background, looked at information ethics, ethical concern, and the twenty first century challenges of information society and finally made some recommendations such as government building a strong policy and framework to keep cyber criminals and internet fraudsters in check among others.