Problem-Based Learning Management System (PBLMS): A Mobile Learning Application to Facilitate Creative Thinking Skills (CTS) of Prospective Physics Teachers

Creative thinking is a 21st-century skill that lecturers should facilitate since the current challenge and conditions are getting more complex. These skills can be facilitated using technology through mobile learning using Problem-Based Learning Management System (PBLMS). This study aimed to obtain an overview of the improvement in the creative thinking skills of prospective physics teachers after participating in mobile learning using PBLMS. This is a quasi-experimental study with a non-equivalent control group design. The population of this study consisted of 80 first-year students at a university in Tasikmalaya. The sample consisted of 50 students who were selected using purposive sampling. They were 16 men and 34 women with an age range of 19–21 years. The data were collected using tests, observations, and interviews. The instruments used in this study included Creative Thinking Skill (CTS) tests, that is, the sheets of learning process observation, and interview guidance. The enhancement of CTS was processed using normalized gain and strengthened statistically by two mean difference tests. The group that took lectures using PBLMS had a higher score with an N-Gain of 0.72 (high category), while the group without PBLMS had an N-gain of 0.61 (medium category). Statistically, the two mean difference tests showed that the significance obtained was 0.003, so it can be concluded that there was a significant difference between the groups using PBLMS and without PBLMS. The research can provide an overview of the usefulness of PBLMS in supporting the achievement of learning objectives and other related skills

Educational Theory in the 21st Century

This open access book reviews the effects of the twenty-first century scientific-technological and social developments on the educational theory. The first part handles the subject, focusing on technology and educational philosophy. In the second part, the implications of new human and social conceptions towards the education paradigms are examined. In the chapters of the last part of the book, more practical dimensions of education are discussed. Transforming school designs, school management, learning-teaching approaches and teacher competencies are discussed in the context of broader social, cultural and technological changes

A COMPARISON BETWEEN MOTIVATIONS AND PERSONALITY TRAITS IN RELIGIOUS TOURISTS AND CRUISE SHIP TOURISTS

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the motivations and the personality traits that characterize tourists who choose religious travels versus cruises. Participating in the research were 683 Italian tourists (345 males and 338 females, age range 18–63 years); 483 who went to a pilgrimage travel and 200 who chose a cruise ship in the Mediterranean Sea. Both groups of tourists completed the Travel Motivation Scale and the Big Five Questionnaire. Results show that different motivations and personality traits characterize the different types of tourists and, further, that motivations for traveling are predicted by specific —some similar, other divergent— personality trait

Possibilities of using mobile phones in the educational process

M-learning offers countless opportunities to develop students' key 21st century competences, such as the development of problem-solving skills, cooperation, communication skills and creativity. The aim of our research is to learn about the opinions of secondary school teachers regarding mobile devices, as well as their attitudes towards their use. The one-sample T-test and Chi-square test were used to analyse the responses to the questions in the questionnaire, and the non-parametric Mann-Whitney test was used to compare the averages of the Likert scale after testing the normality of the responses. Based on our results, it can be said that teachers take advantage of the opportunities offered by mobile phones, and a significant proportion of those interviewed regularly include them in the teaching process, enriching the lessons with the use of innovative applications. According to the conclusions of our study, there is a positive, forward-looking trend in Hungary for the integration of m-learning into the learning-teaching process, in which further training aimed at developing the digital skills of teachers can be of particular importance

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse