Connecting Modernities

Editors’ introductory chapter delineates common threads among the volume’s cross-disciplinary contributions and connects these to the history of research on modernity as well as the most compelling issues confronting us today. The introduction discusses how the pandemic carries on the possibility (threat?) of a tabula rasa condition, a civilizational detour based on a foundation of global awareness of nature and society. The authors support the need for global problem-solving strategies, new global ethics, and a global resource management paradigm solidly cognizant of the commons and redistribution. The introduction explores the main hiatuses in today’s modernity and provides an update to the necessary assertion of a global modernity in the midst of political, ecological, and health crises.

Analysis of Student Creativity in Developing Science Learning Media during the COVID-19 Pandemic

This study aims to ascertain (1) the inventiveness of university students in developing digital media for science education. (2) provides an overview of elementary science media applications that students can develop, and (3) discusses the obstacles students encountered while developing digital media for elementary science learning during COVID-19. This study took place at Yogyakarta State University and Makassar State University. The sample size for this study is 142 students, including 71 UNM students and 71 UNY students. The approach is descriptive with a quantitative component. Thus, the results demonstrated students' creativity in developing science media during the COVID-19 pandemic, as measured by five characteristics: fluency, flexibility, originality, elaboration, and sensitivity. Students can create media by using applications such as PowerPoint, Articulate Storyline, Flipbook Maker, Wondershare Filmora, and a variety of other supporting platforms (websites). However, students face obstacles in four areas when developing media, including fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration, namely (1) students continue to struggle with integrating science learning media into elementary school through the use of appropriate approaches/models/learning methods, (2) determining the variety of problem-solving strategies available to users of science learning media in elementary school, and (3) determining the variety of problem-solving strategies available to users of science learning media in elementary school. (3) difficulty identifying science learning media for elementary schools located in areas without internet access due to the COVID-19 pandemic and others.

Analyzing novices' fun and programming behaviours while playing a serious blocks-based game

Blocks-based environments have been used to promote programming learning mostly in elementary and middle schools. In many countries, isolated initiatives have been launched to promote programming learning among children, but until now there is no evidence of widespread use of this type of environment in Brazil and Portugal. Consequently, it is common that many students reach higher education with little or no programming knowledge and skills. NoBug’s SnackBar is a game designed to help promote programming learning. This study examined students' behavior and attitudes when playing the game on their initiative. It used a sample of 33 undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory programming course. The variables studied were students' performance and engagement, satisfaction, and problem-solving strategies. The main findings were (1) better performing students had a high level of perceived learning, (2) all the students had similar perceptions about their fun while playing, (3) the leader board was the most used game element not directly related to learning and (4) the top-ranked students access previous solutions to help them solve a new mission, while the others often use a trial-and-error approach.

Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategy Use between Field-Dependent and Field-Independent EFL Learners

This paper aimed to study the metacognitive awareness of reading strategies between field-dependent (FD)and field-independent (FI) Turkish EFL university students who are learning English as a foreign language. To this end, 270 students from Istanbul (Cerrahpasa) University were chosen.First, Group Embedded Figure Test was used to appoint the participants into either FD or FI groups.After this, participants’ metacognitive awareness of reading strategy was assessed by using MARSI-R (Metacognitive Awareness of reading Strategies Inventory-Revised). Recently revised by Mokhtari et al., the MARSI-R instrument contains 15 items and measures three large sets of strategies including: Global Reading Strategies (GRS), Problem-Solving Strategies (PSS) and Support Reading Strategies (SRS).The results showed that the students reported using the 3 categories of strategies almost at a high-frequency level and they were aware of their metacognitive strategies. And statistically significant difference was found between FI and FD students regarding their use of GRS and SRS, hence, the use of students’ metacognitive reading strategies was affected by their different FI/FD cognitive styles.

The Habsburg and Transylvanian Aims Related to the Campaign of the Ottomans against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1634)

In 1634 the Ottoman Emperor, Murad IV (r. 1623–1640), decided to lead a campaign against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He wanted to request military support from the Prince of Transylvania, György Rákóczi I (r. 1630–1648), but the prince tried to avoid it, because at that time he had been struggling with his political enemies, who endangered his rule in Transylvania. In the same year, the Habsburgs sent an ambassador (Johann Rudolf von Puchheim) to Constantinople, who tried to dissuade the Sublime Porte from leading a military campaign against the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The idea of that mediation came from the former Vizier of Buda and at that time, the commander of the Ottoman army, Pasha Murteza, because he did not want this war either. Prince Rákóczi, Puchheim, Trzebiński (Aleksander, the Polish envoy) and Murteza all wanted to stall for time in relation to that campaign. In this article, the author investigates the aims and the problem-solving strategies of the Habsburg, the Transylvanian, the Polish and also the Ottoman elite in that situation. The war against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth did not take place in the end, because Murad IV began a campaign against the Safavid Empire.

Challenges in Implementing Evidence-Based Dementia Care Programs in Community-Based Settings: ADS Plus

The Adult Day Service Plus Program (ADS Plus) augments the usual care provided by ADS programs by integrating education, referrals, and problem-solving strategies for family caregivers of persons with dementia. Utilizing a mixed-methods, hybrid effectiveness design, we were in the process of conducting a national evaluation of ADS Plus across xx geographically and culturally diverse programs across the U.S. when the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the shutdown of almost all of the programs participating in ADS Plus. Qualitative and quantitative data collected during the evaluation suggested that a more robust incorporation of implementation domains and measures (e.g., organizational readiness to change) may have helped avoid some of the challenges related to staff training, fidelity, and other critical intervention delivery aspects. Incorporating implementation science frameworks and measures as early as possible in intervention design may have helped to overcome some of the challenges experienced in ADS Plus.

METACOGNITIVE READING STRATEGIES APPLICATION AMONG HIGH AND LOW PROFICIENT READERS AT PRE-UNIVERSITY LEVEL

In higher education, reading of academic texts is considered as an essential access to scientific knowledge. Therefore, in this survey study will utilize the inventory of Survey on Reading Strategies Questionnaire (SOR) developed by Mokhtari and Sheory. It is explored to identify the two types of readers: high (HPR) and low (LPR) proficient readers at Form Sixth Cenre of Government School in Sabah, Malaysia. There are three major reading strategies: GLOB (Global), SUPP (Support) and PROB (Problem Solving) strategies. This quantitative approach is done by operating the descriptive (mean and standard of deviation) and inferential (Magnitude of effect) statistics. 250 participants from pre-university students randomly selected to respond to the questionnaire The questionnaire finding revealed that PROB strategy was favoured by both readers. To strengthen scrupulous answer, Effect size had given a better interpretation of the finding. The questionnaire provided all reading strategies to be negative effect to the high proficient readers (HPR) yet large positive effect to the low proficient readers (LPR).

STRATEGI COPING DALAM MENGELOLA DAMPAK PSIKOLOGIS PANDEMI PADA MASYARAKAT PERKOTAAN

This community service activity (abdimas) is carried out in an effort to provide knowledge sharing on the ongoing pandemic conditions. Community service activities were carried out in the form of counseling with a webinar format with 44 participants, but 14 people filled out the seminar evaluation form completely. Currently, the pandemic conditions are causing economic changes and they are psychologically affected, one of which is stress. The audience form the webinar’s session need information to cope with the psychological conditions, including efforts to be able to carry out problem solving strategies called coping. However, in unfavorable conditions like today, of course, there are many risks if abdimas activities are carried out face-to-face, so that activities are carried out virtually, and broadcast by streaming on YouTube channels. From the results of this abdimas activity, participants felt the benefits and delivered positive evaluations. Kegiatan pengabdian kepada masyarakat (abdimas) ini dilakukan dalam upaya untuk memberikan knowledge sharing atas kondisi pandemi yang masih terus berlangsung. Kegiatan abdimas dilakukan dalam bentuk penyuluhan dengan format webinar dengan peserta berjumlah 44 orang, namun yang mengisi form evaluasi seminar secara lengkap berjumlah 14 orang. Peserta webinar merupakan masyarakat perkotaan yang berasal dari wilayah Cibubur, Jakarta Timur. Saat ini kondisi pandemi menyebabkan perubahan secara ekonomi dan mereka terdampak secara psikologis, salah satunya yaitu stres. Peserta abdimas memiliki kebutuhan akan dukungan informasi sehubungan dengan penguatan kondisi psikologis yang tengah mereka alami, meliputi upaya untuk dapat melakukan strategi penyelesaian masalah yang disebut coping. Namun demikian, dalam kondisi yang kurang kondusif seperti saat ini tentu terdapat banyak risiko jika dilaksanakan kegiatan abdimas dilakukan secara tatap muka, sehingga kegiatan dilakukan secara virtual, dan ditayangkan secara streaming di kanal youtube. Dari hasil kegiatan abdimas ini, peserta merasakan kebermanfaatan kegiatan abdimas dan menyampaikan evaluasi positif sebagai bentuk feedback atas kegiatan abdimas.

Critical Thinking in Algerian Secondary School EFL Classes: Expectations and Reality

The Algerian educational system is competency-based; therefore, it focuses on developing learners’ competencies and skills through a learner-centered methodology that fosters autonomy. To help teachers apply such methodology, the English syllabus designers recommend using Project-Based Learning, active learning, and problem-solving strategies to help learners develop 21st-century skills and communicate effectively, collaborate, and think critically and creatively. However, those methods and strategies are absent in classrooms, and therefore critical thinking is not promoted. In this context, two questions are raised to affirm this hypothesis. (1) To what extent do teachers respect the syllabus designers’ recommendations? (2) Why do teachers avoid using the recommended methods and strategies? To investigate those questions and achieve the aim of this research, the researcher carried out an in-depth quantitative analysis of 30 anonymous classroom observation reports written by a certified English teacher trainer. To address the qualitative aspect of the research, the researcher held a semi-structured interview with the same teacher trainer. The reports that were examined contained 150 comments on teachers’ classroom practices and assessment methodologies. The results showed that English teachers partially respect the syllabus designers’ recommendations. Besides, the teachers’ methods, classroom practices, and assessment approaches are mainly based on direct instruction and language content acquisition rather than on reflective and problem-solving learning; therefore, they are not conducive to implementing and developing learners’ critical thinking. The conclusion drawn from the data analysis of the current research is that teachers’ hesitance to use the recommended pedagogical approach and methods is due to some hindrances faced by teachers, namely classrooms overcrowdedness, the content-based baccalaureate exam and lack of time due to the lengthy English programs.