Agency, Cyberspace, and Social Contract

The social contract has been about rights and responsibilities in human societies. Facebook and its role in manufacturing and sustaining a global social contract, a new "we" is clearly one of the research areas that needs more attention. A new "we" is coming of age in the new age of connectivity and communication with a new outlook toward responsibility and rights at individual and collective levels. Facebook purports to build a new world based on connection and communication which is based on progress and prosperity. However, a fundamental factor and feature of Facebook that needs attention and more research is that people and users are becoming increasingly lonely, separated and independent from each other in this process while connecting and communicating with one another. This new social contract and "we" thus have the new features of the relationship between the human agency and his/her social structures. Cyberspace is the product of human agency and clearly creates and sustains a specific social structure. This research seeks to study the relationship between human agency, changing technical tools of communication and connection and emerging and evolving social structures and social contracts. Bandura's "social cognitive theory" (2006) rejects a conflict and dichotomy between agency and social structure. As agency helps to build new social structures after destroying the old ones these new structures create and sustain a new social contract and "we" with a new sense of responsibility, obligations, and rights

Cognitive Socio-political Language Learning Theory, Multiple Input-output Hypothesis and Competitive Team-based Learning

The practical results of innovative methods/approaches to teaching like Cooperative Learning (CL), which have been formulated based on constructivists' theories, are falling short of expectation in the present world circumstances. This is because they cannot reflect the realities of the real world and as a consequence have contributed to uncivilised and even maimed societies. As their ancestors, thereby, these so-called innovative interactive methods and approaches are doomed to failure. This article, as such, gives a brief but to the point introduction to the author's seminal  holistic approach to teaching namely Competitive Team-Based Learning (CTBL), which has been put forward as a significant alternative to the present methods and approaches. Most importantly, the author sheds light on his approach's theoretical foundations, which consider language as a liberating agent, and distinguishes it from other innovative methods/approaches like Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). The results of some researches on the effectiveness of Dr Hosseini's didactic catalyst/weapon (i.e., CTBL) have also found a place in this article for the benefit of researchers/educators, who have also been provided with some significant suggestions. Teachers' accountabilities in classes run through CTBL have also been explicated

MY LIBERATING APPROACH EDU-POLITICAL THEORIES

The practical results of current innovative methods and approaches which have been formulated based on Imperialism' theoretician theories are falling short of expectation in the present complicated competitive world’s circumstances: They are contributing to uncivilized detrimental-to-peace peasant societies. The present article, as such, gives a brief but to the point introduction to this researcher’s (Hosseini, 2000, 2020) seminal holistic revolutionary liberating didactic approach known as Competitive Team-Based Learning (CTBL) as a significant alternative to the present doomed-to-failure colonial educational approaches. Most importantly, it sheds light on this researcher's edu-political theories namely Cognitive Socio-Political Language Learning Theory and Multiple Input-Output Hypothesis based upon which he formulated CTBL. The article then seeks to throw into relief CTBL's distinguishing features and characteristics which make it a catalyst for transformation and change and elaborates howabouts of its contribution to the decline of the present Imperialist’s methods and approaches. The findings of some researchers on the effectiveness of CTBL as well as some significant suggestions to researchers, educators and educational policy makers have also found a place at the end of this article. CTBL is this researcher’s proactive sophisticated reaction to the social / political circumstances he and his family members along with the other marginalized/deprived communities are suffering from. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0720/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p&gt

Competitive Team-Based Learning and Teachers’ and Students’ Resposiblities

The present article brings to the fore teachers’ as well as students’ responsibilities in my innovative approach to teaching, Competitive Team Based Learning (CTBL), situations. Some of ver high significant guidelines and hints have been provided for more effective (language) learning and teaching via CTBL. These noteworthy guidelines and hints would be of immense help to educators, for more effective (language) teaching via my instructional approach. The paper also elaborates the initial process I went through in the course of developing my seminal approach based on my own edu-political theories. (Hosseini, 2023) This would, I hope, give teachers a sence of how they can contribute to the development and to the quality of their teaching

Methods Analysis: Comparing Competitive Team-Based Learning with other Instructional Methods and Approaches

Having introduced Competetive Team Based Learning (CTBL), my innovative approach to teaching, this paper presents a cogent and critical analysis and comparison of CTBL with other popular methods /approaches in the arena of Education in general and Language Teaching in particular, in terms of their distinguishing features and characteristics. Among such methods and approaches are Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), Collaborative Learning (ColL), Interactive Learning (IntL), and Cooperative Learning (CL) methods which are appreciated particularly in the U.S. and in the West. A synthesis of the distinguishing drawbacks of the comparison methods and approaches is part of the article. The chapter also explicates how CTBL, my educational innovation, that has been formulated based on my edu-political theories (Hosseini, 2023) is, in the last analysis, an approach to human security and prosperity and world peace. I hope this chapter would contribute to making a sound decision on implementing CTBL in the arena of (Language) Education for the ultimate goal of peace making and more compassionate civilizations building

Short-term scheduling of hybrid thermal, pumped-storage, and wind plants using firefly optimization algorithm

This paper presents a novel method based on an enhanced firefly algorithm (EFA) to solve scheduling hybrid thermal, pumped-storage, and wind plants. Since the scheduling problem is inherently discrete, basic EFA and binary encoding/decoding techniques are used in the proposed EFA approach. Optimal power values of thermal and pumped-storage units are determined separately in the presence of uncertainty caused by wind speed. The proposed method is applied to a real plant, including four pumped-storage units, 34 thermal units with different characteristics, and one wind turbine plant. In addition, dynamic constraints of upstream and downstream sources and constraints regarding thermal and wind units are also considered for finding the optimal solution. In addition, the proposed EFA is successfully applied to a real plant, and the results are compared with those of the three available methods. The results show that the proposed method has converted to a more optimal cost than the other methods

Concentration dependent tautomerism in green [Cu(HL1)(L2)] and brown [Cu(L1)(HL2)] with H2L1 = (E)-N’-(2-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzylidene)- benzoylhydrazone and HL2 = pyridine-4-carboxylic (isonicotinic) acid

The in situ formed hydrazone Schiff base ligand (E)-N’-(2-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzylidene)-benzoylhydrazone (H2L1) reacts with copper(II) acetate in ethanol in the presence of pyridine-4-carboxylic acid (isonicotinic acid, HL2) to green-[Cu(HL1)(L2)]・H2O・C2H5OH (1) and brown-[Cu(L1)(HL2)] (2) complexes which crystallize as concomitant tautomers where either the mono-anion (HL1)- or di-anion (L1)2- of the Schiff base and simultaneously the pyridine-carboxylate (L2)- or the acid (HL2) (both through the pyridine nitrogen atom) function as ligands. The square-planar molecular copper(II) complexes differ in only a localized proton position either on the amide nitrogen of the hydrazone Schiff base in 1 or on the carboxyl group of the isonicotin ligand in 2. The proportion of the tautomeric forms in the crystalline solid-state can be controlled over a wide range from 1:2 = 95 : 5 to ~2 : 98 by increasing the solution concentration. UV/Vis spectral studies show both tautomers to be kinetically stable (inert), that is, with no apparent tautomerization, in acetonitrile solution. The UB3LYP/6-31+G* level optimized structures of the two complexes are in close agreement with experimental findings. The solid-state structures feature 1D hydrogen-bonded chain from charge-assisted O(-) … H–N and O–H … (-)N hydrogen bonding in 1 and 2, respectively. In 1 pyridine-4-carboxylate also assumes a metal-bridging action by coordinating a weakly bound carboxylate group as a fifth ligand to a Cu axial site. Neighboring chains in 1 and 2 are connected by strong π-stacking interactions involving also the five- and six-membered, presumably metalloaromatic Cu-chelate rings