Social Constructivism: An Andragogical Praxis for Critical Thinking Instruction and Evaluation with Graduate Social Work Students

Critical thinking skills are requisite for graduate social work students to transition competently into professional practice. This mixed methods study was conducted to explore current instruction and evaluation methods for critical thinking skill development. The extent to which faculty perceived changes in student outcomes since the 2015 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards change related to critical thinking skills, was also studied. This study was designed to link critical thinking and social work education in the context of social constructivism as an andragogical praxis for the development of critical thinking skills. The quantitative findings were interpreted to identify multiple approaches for the instruction and assessment of critical thinking skills in graduate social work programs across the country. The qualitative themes of social work instructors’ perception of changes in student outcomes related to critical thinking skills were mixed

Exploratory factor analysis-instrument for self-assessment of computation thinking skills and collaboration skills

This study focuses on developing and validating instruments to assess the computational thinking skills (CTS) and collaboration skills (CS) of undergraduate students in Indonesia. Employing a quantitative research approach with the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) technique, the research process unfolded in three validation steps. First, face validity was established through expert judgment. Second, discriminant validity was examined using product-moment correlations and Cronbach’s alpha. Finally, EFA were employed to assess the factorial structure. The instrument development process followed five phases: drafting the instrument, face validity assessment by experts, data collection involving 242 undergraduate students as samples, discriminant validity analysis (product moment and Cronbach’s alpha), and EFA analysis to group items and construct dimensions. This study identified six dimensions for CTS (algorithmic thinking, cooperative thinking, problem reformulation, creativity, critical thinking, and systematic testing) and three dimensions for CS (knowledge sharing, planning, and responsibility). These findings support validating the CTS and CS self-assessment scale, making it a valuable tool for evaluating undergraduate student learning and researching computational thinking and CS in Indonesia. Researchers and educators are encouraged to utilize the CTS and CS instrument for self-assessment purposes and further exploration of these competencies among undergraduate students

Reflections and Considerations on Running Creative Visualization Learning Activities

This paper draws together nine strategies for creative visualization activities. Teaching visualization often involves running learning activities where students perform tasks that directly support one or more topics that the teacher wishes to address in the lesson. As a group of educators and researchers in visualization, we reflect on our learning experiences. Our activities and experiences range from dividing the tasks into smaller parts, considering different learning materials, to encouraging debate. With this paper, our hope is that we can encourage, inspire, and guide other educators with visualization activities. Our reflections provide an initial starting point of methods and strategies to craft creative visualisation learning activities, and provide a foundation for developing best practices in visualization education.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures. Accepted at 4th IEEE Workshop on Visualization Guidelines in Research, Design, and Education (VisGuides 2022), at IEEE VIS 202

Reflections and Considerations on Running Creative Visualization Learning Activities

This paper draws together nine strategies for creative visualization activities. Teaching visualization often involves running learning activities where students perform tasks that directly support one or more topics that the teacher wishes to address in the lesson. As a group of educators and researchers in visualization, we reflect on our learning experiences. Our activities and experiences range from dividing the tasks into smaller parts, considering different learning materials, to encouraging debate. With this paper, our hope is that we can encourage, inspire, and guide other educators with visualization activities. Our reflections provide an initial starting point of methods and strategies to craft creative visualisation learning activities, and provide a foundation for developing best practices in visualization education

Computer Science To Go (CS2Go): Developing a course to introduce and teach Computer Science and Computational Thinking to secondary school students

Computer Science To Go (CS2Go) is a course designed to teach Transition Year Students about Computer Science and Computational Thinking. This project has been conducted over two years and this thesis charts the development of the course from the initial research stage, through the lesson creation sections to the testing and evaluation of the course material. Over 80 hours of engaging, informative and challenging material has been developed for use in the classroom. Alongside the lesson plans, assessment and monitoring tools have been created, including a novel tool to assess students Computational Thinking skills. The content was tested in two major studies after an initial pilot study. This initial pilot study proved useful in constructing the full CS2Go course. Overall the course has been well received with teachers and students engaging well with the content. A web portal has also been created to allow for easy dissemination of all the CS2Go material. The further development of this web portal will turn CS2Go into a one-stop shop for teachers and educators hoping to find CS teaching material

The Effect of Security Education and Expertise on Security Assessments: the Case of Software Vulnerabilities

In spite of the growing importance of software security and the industry demand for more cyber security expertise in the workforce, the effect of security education and experience on the ability to assess complex software security problems has only been recently investigated. As proxy for the full range of software security skills, we considered the problem of assessing the severity of software vulnerabilities by means of a structured analysis methodology widely used in industry (i.e. the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (\CVSS) v3), and designed a study to compare how accurately individuals with background in information technology but different professional experience and education in cyber security are able to assess the severity of software vulnerabilities. Our results provide some structural insights into the complex relationship between education or experience of assessors and the quality of their assessments. In particular we find that individual characteristics matter more than professional experience or formal education; apparently it is the \emph{combination} of skills that one owns (including the actual knowledge of the system under study), rather than the specialization or the years of experience, to influence more the assessment quality. Similarly, we find that the overall advantage given by professional expertise significantly depends on the composition of the individual security skills as well as on the available information.Comment: Presented at the Workshop on the Economics of Information Security (WEIS 2018), Innsbruck, Austria, June 201

Graduate Catalog, 2012-2013

https://scholar.valpo.edu/gradcatalogs/1039/thumbnail.jp

Critical thinking skills of chemistry students by integrating design thinking with STEAM-PjBL

This project seeks to foster students’ critical thinking abilities through the incorporation of Design Thinking with STEAM-PjBL in a chemistry redox process. 41 grade 10 students from a high school in Rangkasbitung, Banten, Indonesia participated in this study. Learning was facilitated by using a variety of online platforms, including Edmodo, Google Jamboard, and Zoom Meetings. Interviews, observations, journal reflection procedures, and researcher notes were used to gather qualitative data. The five steps of Design Thinking: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test, were used to facilitate learning (Plattner, 2010). Critical thinking skills were assessed through the indicators of Framing The Problem, Solution Finding, Self-Regulation, and Reflection, developed by Ucson and Rizona (2018). Based on the categories of Information Search, Creative Interpretation and Reasoning, Reflection, and Self-Regulation, the results demonstrate the development of students’ critical thinking abilities to the advanced level. Design Thinking provides a way to more easily and actively create project-based solutions in solving contextual problems related to redox reaction of water pollution in the Ciujung River due to the use of detergent waste. Understanding the relationship of chemical concepts to daily life challenges the application of this approach. To challenge students’ learning and help them acquire 21st-century abilities, STEAM-PjBL may be integrated with Design ThinkingPeer Reviewe