Learning models that can improve critical thinking, skills collaborate, communicate, and creative thinking are needed in the 21st-century education era. Critical and creative thinking are the two essential competencies of the four skills required in the 21st century. However, both are still difficult to achieve well by students due to a lack of thinking skills during mathematics learning. This study was conducted to determine the model of learning that is appropriate to develop students' critical and creative thinking skills. The study used three-class samples from eighth grade. The first class is given the problem-posing lesson; the second class is given contextual learning and third class as a control class. The results of the study indicate that improving students' critical and creative thinking skills are included in the moderate category for types using contextual learning and problem-posing. Also, it is found that contextual learning is more effective for improving critical thinking skills when compared with learning problem posing and expository learning. Meanwhile, learning problem posing is more useful to enhance creative thinking skills compared with contextual and expository learning.

In the last decade, learning from computer-supported collaborative technologies has been combined with social media (SM) and this has gotten a lot of attention. Also, there is a growing body of literature that suggests that SM is gaining a lot of attention because it has the perceived pedagogical affordances that could be used as a potential tool for teaching and learning. These perceived pedagogical affordances allow people to interact, communicate, collaborate and share resources among others. Most of the studies published on SM in education have focused on higher education (colleges and universities) with a relatively small body of literature on secondary education. Despite the wide use of SM in education, its benefits are still not clear across studies. We conducted a systematic literature review using the EBSCOhost database. Screening of abstracts and full texts resulted in the selection of 10 papers for the review. Seven approaches to using SM in learning in high schools have been identified: (1) interaction, (2) information dissemination, (3) communication, (4) collaboration, (5) teaching, learning, and resource sharing, (6) socialization, and (7) entertainment. Most of the articles claimed that the educational use of SM has a strong positive effect on social skills, but the evidence presented was rather weak. Subject-specific outcomes were not in focus in using SM in education. All studies followed a constructivist philosophical perspective. Based on this we provide a theory-based scenario for using SM in learning social skills and subject-specific outcomes.

Investigating critical incidents is one way to assist prospective teachers in expressing any developmental stage when accomplishing the teaching practice program. It is a significant component of reflective teaching in an educational framework related to continuing professional development (CPD), particularly self-directed learning. This study aims at exploring EFL prospective teachers’ field experience in cultivating their teaching competence through a critical incident analysis. A qualitative approach was applied. Three participants with different levels of English proficiency took part in this study by sharing their experiences through participating in and answering an interview and an opinionnaire. To analyze the data from the instruments, this study used descriptive analysis and coding techniques respectively. Results indicate that both negative and positive critical incidents contribute to the participants’ teaching development. The incidents support the learning process towards becoming a teacher and assist shaping their awareness of teacher identity. Further, the result of this study reveals that English proficiency level seems to take part in the strategy used for identifying critical incidents. This study implies that critical incidents provide a chance for prospective teachers to be more reflective. Thus, teacher education program stakeholders need to support critical incident analysis by giving relevant assignments while they are doing teaching practice, which in turn builds professional development in the context of prospective teachers.

Some evaluation has been carried out in Vocational High Schools (VHSs), but most of it focuses on the documents or passive data rather than the processes happening in VHSs. Thus, this research focuses on the evaluation of VHS performances where the process is initiated with identifying the constructs and developing the instruments of performance evaluation for VHSs with Technology and Engineering expertise programs. Based on the problems found in the field, before conducting the evaluation, the researcher needs to, at first, develop the instrument of evaluation through three stages of development. The first stage is analyzing the concepts related to the evaluation by examining the factors affecting VHS performances. In the second stage, instrument development and instrument analysis (content validation) are conducted with the help of experts. The third stage is performance evaluation in VHSs located in Yogyakarta. The evaluation employs a set of instruments developed by the researchers. This research has produced a set of instruments for performance evaluation, which can be used extensively in VHSs. Based on the evaluation, it is found that the aspects of general management and academic management of the VHSs being studied are considered “Good”.

The present study aims at investigating some English speaking problems found by the students of English language education department at State Islamic Institute of Kudus and exploring some implications for speaking curriculum development of English language education department. This study used a descriptive qualitative approach and the data were taken from semi-structured interviews, observation and focus group discussion (FGD). The results of the analysis reveal that the problems encountered by the students in English language education department in speaking English cover the lack of appropriate vocabulary, the lack of grammar mastery, the lack of correct pronunciation, the lack of input of English outside the class, the lack of confidence and the lack of English speaking curriculum development. There have been some implications for developing English speaking curriculum. First, the curriculum of speaking should be well designed. Second, lecturers should design English speaking curriculum integrated by technology and social media that makes students to enrich some culture, knowledge and experience around the world. Third, lecturers should facilitate the English speaking curriculum with the English speaking community so that the students will have more chance to speak English inside and outside the class.

This research aims to test (1) the effectiveness between problem posing learning model with Indonesian realistic mathematical education approach and problem posing learning model on written mathematical communication skills, (2) the effectiveness between field-independent and field-dependent cognitive styles on written mathematical communication skills, (3) the effectiveness between problem posing learning model with Indonesian realistic mathematical education approach and problem posing learning model on the written mathematical communication skills from each cognitive style, and (4) the effectiveness between field-independent and field-dependent cognitive styles on written mathematical communication skills from each learning model. This quantitative research employed a quasi-experimental method. The research sample consisted of 240 fifth-grade elementary school students in Jebres District, Surakarta, Indonesia. Data collection techniques included tests of written mathematical communication skills and cognitive styles. The data were analyzed using prerequisite (normality, homogeneity, and balance), hypothesis, and multiple-comparison tests. The findings prove that (1) PP model with Indonesian realistic mathematical education approach is more effective than the PP and direct instruction models, (2) field-independent cognitive style is better than field dependent, (3) PP with Indonesian realistic mathematical education is as effective as the PP model, but more effective than the direct instruction model, and the PP model is more effective than the direct instruction model in each cognitive style, and (4) in the PP learning model with Indonesian realistic mathematical education approach, field-independent cognitive style is same skill as with field-dependent, but field-independent is better than field-dependent cognitive style in the PP and direct instruction learning models.

This research has the purpose to explore implementation contextual character education in Senior High School in Buli village, East Halmahera Regency, Eastern Indonesia, and Remote Indigenous Community (RIC) role in addressing student behavior to improve education quality in that area. Sources of data from this qualitative research are teachers, students, village leader, and religious leaders Focus of the research: (1) socioeconomic conditions in families who live in the remote areas regarding adolescent character; (2) the influence of mobile phones and the internet; (3) the role of customary leader in the control of norms in adolescents; (4) good habits in schools as an effort to implement the character education program of adolescents in schools. The results of this study are: (1) the economic condition of the family causes the child does not get the quality of attention and quality of time. Parents are preoccupied with working to sustain life, so schools are considered a burden because of school fees; (2) social media causes everyone to access all information in their own way and the lack of social control causes the use of social media to influence the pattern of relations and communication patterns; (3) the role of RIC can be optimal if supported by members who have better education, and awareness to promote education in their village; (4) good habituation can arise if the school implements positive discipline and commitment to carry out character education in accordance with local wisdom and local culture.

Using unplugged coding activities to promote computational thinking (CT) among secondary learners has become increasing popular. Benefits of using unplugged coding activities involve the cost-effective implementation, the ability to promote computer science concepts and self-efficacy in learning computer programming, and the engaging nature of active learning through collaboration. However, there is insufficient information regarding qualitative investigation on how learners develop their CT skills while working on unplugged coding tasks. This study therefore developed unplugged coding activities using flowcharts for high school students to learn computer science concepts, and to promote their CT skills. The activities consisted of five missions encompassing the concepts of sequence, repetition, input & variable, condition, and loop with condition. The data collection was carried out with 120 high students whose participation was video recorded and observed. A thematic analysis revealed that patterns of CT development started from initially developed, to partially developed and fully developed stages, respectively. The various stages were derived from different abilities to apply the computer science concepts to complete the missions with different expressions of CT skills. In addition, the study proposed a 3S self-directed learning approach for fostering the CT development, composing of self-check (in pairs), self-debug (in pairs), and scaffolding. It is therefore suggested to use the 3S model integrated with the unplugged coding activities for developing CT among high school learners.

The study aims to investigate the evaluation model of professional leadership and the characteristics of successful principals at an Indonesian secondary school. It is to further realize the effective learning and to produce instruments that meet the validity and reliability tests. It also aims to discover the correlation and the significance of the independent variables on the dependent variables, and the percentage of influence on the indicators in shaping the model of principals’ leadership. Quantitative data were obtained by distributing questionnaires to 100 students. The number of respondents was determined using a simple random sampling technique. The research findings showed that there was a significant correlation among the principals’ leadership, characters, and effective learning. It indicated that leadership evaluation influenced the school leadership and the principals’ characters on effective learning. The results of the measurement on formative relationships showed that the indicators of behaviour and actions of school principals who manage the teachers to conduct learning activity seriously in the classroom became a determining factor in shaping the effective learning paradigm in secondary schools.

This study was intended to display the role of eco-school program (Adiwiyata) towards environtmental literacy (EL) of high school students by analyzing, (a) EL of students in Adiwiyata and non-Adiwiyata high schools, and (b) EL of students in Grade X and XI, Adiwiya and non-Adiwiyata high schools in Malang-East Java, Indonesia. The survey involved 275 students. The respondents were from four state high school i.e. SMAN 1, SMAN 3, SMAN 4, and SMAN 7. Data were taken via MSELS questionnaire that was modified and filled online. Aspects of EL include ecological knowledge, environmental affect, cognitive skills, and behavior. The results of multivariate analysis showed that the level of students’ EL was significantly influenced by school type and grade. However, the interaction both of them had no significant effect on their EL. Univariate results on school type factor informed that significant differences occured in all aspects of EL, where the lower identified level of students in Adiwiyata schools compared to Non-Adiwiyata was only in the environmental affect. On the other hand, the significant influence of grade level only occurred in cognitive skills aspect. Broadly speaking, all data analyzes concluded that the application of the Adiwiyata program was able to bring a positive impact on the level of students’ EL. There was also a tendency that the higher the student's grade, the better their EL level.

The purposes of the current study were to develop students' spatial orientation skills using Virtual Mathematics Kits (VMK) and to evaluate VMK as a form of digital media in terms of spatial orientation. This study involved 42 lower-class and 47 higher-class elementary school students as the intervention group and 36 lower-class and 41 higher-class students as the control group. The intervention group was administered spatial orientation activities for 10 weeks. These activities were performed using a VMK to facilitate solving spatial problems. In the end of activities, spatial orientation instruments administered to compare spatial orientation ability on each group. The findings of this study, spatial orientation activities using a VMK improved students' spatial orientation skills. More specific, VMK provides more significant effect on higher-class students. Finally, VMK allows students to explore many ideas and perspectives to solve various spatial problems. VMK can be used as a digital media that helps students to develop spatial reasoning.

This study determined the challenging learning experiences of engineering students while completing their degree program as factor that might influence to their changing attitude towards achieving higher academic performance. Mixed method of research was utilised in the study considering the total population of 75 graduating students for quantitative and 12 students for qualitative part of the study using focus group discussion. Results showed that engineering students have significantly higher level of positive attitude towards academic performance during their junior level but significantly lower after taking professional courses. Attaining high academic performance still really matters for the engineering students during their junior level but continuously changing their perspective due to encountered challenging experiences while taking the professional courses. Performance in General Engineering courses describes the attitude of the students towards academic performance in personal aspect while professional courses define their attitude in professional aspect. The finding of the qualitative research revealed that there are three themes emerged in the challenging experiences of the engineering students and these are: Abandoned Social Freedom, Survival of the Fittest and Future Oriented Mindset which contributed to the changing perspectives of the engineering students.

The ability to think critically and creatively is essential for students to be able to face the challenges of the industrial revolution 4.0. Lectures must be designed to enhance students’ critical and creative thinking skills. This study aims to examine the implementation of problem-based learning in learning management information systems courses to improve students critical and creative thinking skills. The research design carried out was classroom action research. The subject in this study was students of Economics Education, Faculty of Economics, Universitas Negeri Semarang. The research was conducted in April-May 2019. The procedure for implementing class action research are two cycles (plan, action, observation, and reflection). The research data was taken by observation and interview methods. The data analysis method used is descriptive quantitative and qualitative methods. The results showed that two class action research cycles were well implemented. The application of the problem-based learning method can improve students’ critical and creative thinking skills. Students are able to solve a given case by doing the right analysis and being able to provide alternative solutions. Students consider the learning process to be more exciting and challenging. Students can express their opinions well in front of the class. The implication of this research is that lecturers can apply PBL with various combinations of learning strategies to improve students' critical and creative thinking skills.

This study aims to investigate students’ attitudes towards e- book use, and its relationship to self-efficacy and academic motivation in Omani higher education institutions. The sample of the study, which was chosen based on the stratification random method, consisted of 200 students from both genders and different colleges and academic years. To achieve the aims of the study, a descriptive correlational approach was adopted using attitudes, academic motivation and self-efficacy scales developed by the researchers, and administered to the study sample after assessing their psychometric properties. Findings show generally a positive significant correlation between students’ attitudes towards e-book use, self-efficacy, and academic motivation.

Previous research suggests that non-cognitive factors play an important role in promoting success at school and beyond, aligning with the multifaceted goals of education. Enhancing students’ attitudes to learning in school is expected to have positive impacts on various schooling outcomes. To date, very few studies have focused on measuring and understanding students’ attitude to the arts. This study aims to address a gap in current research in this area by introducing instruments designed to measure attitude to dance, drama, music and visual arts. Confirmatory factor analysis and measurement invariance analyses are employed to examine the factorial validity and measurement equivalence of the scales of attitude to the arts disciplines for different ethnic groups in New Zealand. Findings support the utility of the scales as valid measures of attitude to dance, drama, music and visual arts. Noticeable differences are reported among New Zealand European, Maori, Pasifika and Asian students regarding their attitudes to dance, drama, music and visual arts.

The current offer of training courses for university teachers is due, among other needs, to the implementation of an educational model based on student learning, promoting the use of active methodologies for their motivation and academic performance. An exploratory-descriptive and ideographic study is presented where the main technique is the analysis of content. To this end, 15 Spanish universities with the greatest prestige were analyzed according to the parameters of the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) in relation to the topics related to active methodologies and the profile of university teachers. The results show the different teacher training courses that have been carried out during the 2019/2020 academic year. We find that there are more universities that present more training of this type than others, and who this type of training is aimed at: new teachers and teachers with professional experience. The conclusions are related to the importance of the courses for the professional development of university teachers, since they should not be anchored in the same methodology, but should be open to new challenges and always taking into account the students, enhancing their motivation and academic performance.

Environmental learning in the 21st century requires a high level of thinking ability, especially to solve environmental problems when COVID-19 pandemic. This was to develop a new level of thinking, namely Higher Order Thinking Skills of Environmental Problem (HOTSEP) which is a revision of Anderson's Taxonomy. The purpose of this study was to measure students HOTSEP in the context of environmental problems related to COVID-19. The research method used in this research was descriptive. The sample used 277 university students from several cities in Indonesia. The instrument used HOTSEP which has 3 categories of thinking level start from develop innovation about environment (C6), solve environmental problem (C5), criticize environmental problem (C4). The results showed that students HOTSEP were still in the very low category (33.64). This study concludes that the HOTSEP of students was still low and needs to be improved to the understanding of COVID-19 concept in environmental learning. Suggestion for further research was HOTSEP need to implement in school or university for several environmental learning topics in many subjects/courses start from Natural Science, Social Science, Engineering, and others relevant subject. HOTSEP can be measured not only in school or university, HOTSEP can be implement in community and public.

The development of information technology rapidly has an impact on the changing paradigm of education. On the other hand, education holds an important responsibility to create students who have a good and strong character. This research aims to: 1) describe the concept and framework of interactive multimedia courseware; 2) test the feasibility of interactive multimedia courseware by experts and practitioners; 3) test student responses to the use of interactive multimedia courseware. This research and development involved experts, teachers, and students. The data were collected using expert validation sheets, teacher questionnaires, and student questionnaires. They were then analyzed using the descriptive statistics analysis based on mean and percentage. This research yielded interactive multimedia courseware called IMONEC (Interactive Multimedia courseware integrated with Bandura’s Observational learning model and National historical Event to strengthen students' Character) that integrates three important components: the principles of interactive multimedia learning; Bandura's observational learning model; and the noble values and messages of national historical events to strengthen students' characters. The framework of the interactive multimedia courseware consists of the title, user instruction, home, core competency and basic competency, concept map of material, learning material, and quizzes. The results of the expert validation, teacher questionnaire, and student questionnaire showed that the interactive multimedia courseware is feasible for use in learning and effective in strengthening students’ characters.

This study aims to analyze students’ creative thinking skills in answering the problem-solving questions. This study employs qualitative design, involving 110 fifth graders in Malang Municipality and Regency as the subjects. The obtained data were analyzed using the descriptive-explorative approach. The findings reveal that the high-achievers in Mathematics showed good skills in the aspects of fluency and flexibility, but were still struggling in the novelty aspect.  The average-achievers showed good skills in flexibility aspects but were lacking in the fluency and novelty aspects. They showed an understanding of Mathematics problems but found it difficult to decide the solving strategies, and thus their answers were lacking in structure and less systematic. When solving a problem, the calculation made seemed rushing, was less careful, and frequented with trial and error strategy. The low-achievers showed difficulties in understanding the problems. Their answers were not systematic, not well-structured, and not detailed. This indicates that the low-achievers had not shown creative thinking skills in fluency, flexibility, and novelty aspects.

New Inquiry-Based Learning (NIBL) was developed to improve students’ multiple higher-order thinking skills (MHOTS), such as thinking critically, analytically, creatively, and practically (CACP). This study aimed to examine the increase of students’ MHOTS ability, their perceptions of the NIBL model, and the contribution of the NIBL model to the learning outcomes.  A quasi-experiment of the nonequivalent control group design was implemented in this study. Research subjects were university students majoring in chemistry education and enrolling in the Organic Chemistry course. The experiment and the control groups consisted of 34 and 32 students, respectively. The collected data were analyzed by using t-test and ANCOVA procedures. N-Gain scores were calculated to measure the differences in the increase in learning outcomes. Eta square values measured the contribution of NIBL. The results of this study revealed that there were differences in the learning outcomes of the experiment and control group. The CACP thinking skills and the mastery of organic chemistry concepts of the experiment group increased significantly. The N-Gain scores of practical thinking skills aspect were on medium category, and for critical, analytical, and creative thinking, as well as for mastery of organic chemistry concepts were on high categories. For the control group, the N-Gain scores of all categories were on low or medium categories. The NIBL model effectively improved the prospective chemistry teachers’ M-HOTS in terms of CACP thinking skills and contributed significantly to the increase in the students’ mastery of organic chemistry concepts.