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The objective of this study is to propose a model for the implementation of a technological platform for participants to develop solutions to problems related to the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) megatrends, and taking advantage of artificial intelligence (AI) to develop their complex thinking through co-creation work.

The development of the model is based on a combination of participatory action research and user-centered design (UCD) methodologies, seeking to ensure that the platform is user-oriented and based on the experiences of the authors. The model itself is structured around the active and transformational learning (ATL) framework.

This study highlights the importance of addressing 4IR megatrends in education to prepare students for a technology-driven world. The proposed model, based on ATL and supported by AI, integrates essential competencies for tackling challenges and generating innovative solutions. The integration of AI into the platform fosters personalized learning, collaboration and reflection and enhances creativity by offering new insights and tools, whereas UCD ensures alignment with user needs and expectations.

This research presents an innovative educational model that combines ATL with AI to foster complex thinking and co-creation of solutions to problems related to 4IR megatrends. Integrating ATL ensures engagement with real-world problems and critical thinking while AI provides personalized content, tutoring, data analysis and creative support. The collaborative platform encourages diverse perspectives and collective intelligence, benefiting other researchers to better conceive learner-centered platforms promoting 21st-century skills and co-creation.

This study aims to evaluate a culture-based blended learning multilingual course created for adult learners in ten languages and the development of learners’ 21st-century skills during its implementation in six European countries – Croatia, Latvia, Slovenia, Romania, Poland and Czechia in the COVID-19 period.

A cross-sectional survey of 638 participants was conducted using a paper-based questionnaire. Data analysis was carried out applying Bereday’s four-step model comprising description, interpretation, juxtaposition and comparison to find out similarities and differences among various groups of learners.

Overall, learners have developed their 21st-century skills, but the improvement has not been the same for all target audiences. Learners with economic, social and cultural barriers were more positive in their evaluation than those with geographic and learning obstacles.

The research was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the face-to-face stage was replaced with online learning on virtual platforms, which impacted the research results. The results cannot be generalized to all adult learners as significant differences were discovered among various target groups of learners.

The course may be implemented for formal and non-formal adult education when face-to-face teaching/learning is restricted.

The findings indicate that the course is especially suitable for learners with economic, social and cultural obstacles to learning.

The article focuses on the use of blended learning in non-formal/informal adult education, which is a less widely researched area. The target course implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic shows a novel way of engaging adult learners in lifelong learning, including those with certain barriers to learning.

This chapter aims to explore representations of information literacy and media literacy in Singapore’s educational discourse as part of its 21st century skills framework. Currently, information literacy and media literacy co-exist in Singapore’s education discourse but there is no related work attempting to clarify these two concepts in Singapore or to bridge them to propose an overarching framework. In what ways are these two terminologies identical or different in the local education context? We try to answer this question through reviewing relevant official documents. We start with a review the literature on the global scale regarding information literacy and media literacy. Then, we focus on Singapore to explore how various governmental agencies defining information literacy and media literacy. This chapter, in other words, is a result from a pilot study to understand how information literacy and media literacy is defined and understood in Singapore’s education system.

This chapter explores the recent trend in libraries: that of the establishment of spaces specifically set aside for creative work. The rise of these dedicated creative spaces is owed to a confluence of factors that happen to be finding their expression together in recent years. This chapter examines the history of these spaces and explores the factors that gave rise to them and will fuel them moving forward.

A viewpoint piece, this chapter combines historical research and historical/comparative analyses to examine the ways by which libraries have supported creative work in the past and how they may continue to do so into the 21st century.

The key threads brought together include a societal recognition of the value of creativity and related skills and attributes; the philosophies, values, and missions of libraries in both their long-standing forms and in recent evolutions; the rise of participatory culture as a result of inexpensive technologies; improved means to build community and share results of efforts; and library experience and historical practice in matters related to creativity. The chapter concludes with advice for those interested in the establishment of such spaces, grounding those reflections in the author’s experiences in developing a new creative space at Virginia Commonwealth University.

While a number of pieces have been written that discuss the practicalities of developing certain kinds of creative spaces, very little has been written that situates these spaces in larger social and library professional contexts; this chapter begins to fill that gap.

Credit mobility has been acknowledged not only to broaden personal and intellectual horizons but also to have positive effects on the skills development and employability of undergraduate students. Academics, policymakers and organizations representing the labour market have presented a broad number of skills-related explorations proposing different frameworks to help develop students' skills. However, the identification of explicit skills is still a difficult endeavour. This study aims to revise main conceptual skills frameworks applicable in the European higher education area (EHEA), determine the skills relevant in European credit mobility and categorize skills among the examined schemes in order to create a normative model of the skills students should obtain in exchange programmes.

The approach used to identify related literature was a search in three main databases such as Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar for scientific and relevant articles after 1990 using the following combination of keywords: “skill frameworks” AND “higher education” OR “skill frameworks” AND “mobility exchange programs”. It produced 391 articles but only 32 deal with skill frameworks in European higher education. After the review of these existing literature (summaries, tables and conclusions), we found out that most articles focused on specific skills (transferable, employable, etc.) in the EHEA, but merely 16 academic publications offered a complete depiction of skills frameworks applicable in credit mobility programs. Most current accounts about skills outlines, specifically the ones related to employability, come from grey literature, namely comprehensive records and reports.

Data seem to confirm that there is scarce agreement on a common taxonomy of skills. However, considering the results, which summarize relevant educational, institutional and occupational perspectives, it can be noticed that there is consensus on the classification of only four skills: ICT, literacy and numeracy, which are considered basic, key or core skills in most researched papers together with problem solving, which is generally regarded as a cognitive skill. The general tendency is that policymakers and academia focus on some particular domains: basic/key, core/global foundation/fundamental skills, transferable, transversal and other skills. Studies analysing the workforce skill requirements have projected mainly cognitive and learning skills, whereas mobility programmes concede relevance to employability, management, career and life skills.

Measuring skills involves limitations as records vary depending on continuous emerging data from institutions, occupations and education. The key frameworks surveyed have provided a representative classification and depiction of the current skills from specific perspectives which are also believed to have their shortcomings. In combination, however, it is believed that the results presented can help provide a theoretical basis for assessing skills in credit mobility and Erasmus programmes within the EHEA. The resulting framework presents a founded basis for skills appraisal which expects to be meaningful for various stakeholders and helps determine how mobility policies can help improve the attainment of skills in the EHEA.

Research has suggested that education systems will have to adapt to the changing needs of the labour markets' reshaping roles to balance technology and human intellect. The workforce seems to realize that cognitive skills such as problem solving, organization and decision-making are needed in today's society; advanced basic learning skills such as numeracy and literacy are essential. Findings appoint to new areas for exploration in skills development in order to prepare European higher education students for current trends in the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the fusion between digital, physical and biological spheres.

Data seem to confirm that a sole degree does not guarantee success, but the maturity of certain skills and the commitment to lifelong learning. This can be strengthened by taking part in EHEA credit student mobility that has proved to improve not only basic and linguistic skills but also self-development and respect for several aspects such as diversity and (inter)cultural awareness. Taking into account the perceptive and interpersonal abilities mentioned in reports on future skills, it seems that education will need further support for updated teaching practices and assessment of the skills that are expected to have greater demand, namely STEM. Institutions will need to update and promote the teaching of new skills based on a new collective and moral consciousness as recently indicated in OECD's (2018) Global Competence in order to make future citizens understand and act on issues of universal significance in today's interconnected world.

For several decades, government, education and industry have proposed different outlines for what graduates should know and be able to do. Limited academic studies have been found, however, with updated concrete data on which skills should preferably be developed or whether and how students can further improve these skills as part of EHEA credit student mobility. This study has synthesized works and identified domains which featured the importance of generic core, cognitive and employability skills. The revision of skill frameworks has underscored existing literature and reports on future skills which anticipate that, in order to confront the expanding and prevalent role of technology, graduates will need to focus on developing unique human skills such as effective communication and creative innovation, critical thinking and collective ethical values.

Deliberate practice (DP) is an innovative training method for improving psychotherapy skills acquisition and expertise in the twenty-first century. I introduce the reader to the principles and processes of DP and the rationale for its use. The concept of DP is not new, indeed it is used to support the improvement of performance in diverse areas, from sport to music. However, its application to psychotherapy is still in its infancy. Firstly, I provide the rationale for including DP as a method of therapist training based on research that illustrates that many of the current criteria that we use to identify expertise have little to no added impact on client outcomes. Additionally, some of the limitations of current traditional training regimes are outlined, along with the emerging evidence base for DP as a training method that can help improve the acquisition of therapeutic skills and expertise.

This pilot study aims to examine the prevalence of test anxiety and its interplay with attitudes, confidence, efficacy, academic performance and socio-demographic factors within the domain of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses.

The authors employed a quantitative, cross-sectional design with 549 sixth-grade students from public lower secondary schools in Prishtina, Kosovo, using the Student Attitudes Toward STEM Survey (S-STEM) for middle/high schools and the test anxiety questionnaire.

Over 70% of Kosovo's sixth-grade students reported moderate to severe test anxiety. The age of students was found to be inversely related to academic performance in STEM. The father's employment was associated with favorable STEM attitudes, confidence, efficacy and academic performance. Having a personal study environment was connected with favorable STEM attitudes, confidence and efficacy in STEM, whereas access to technology was associated with positive academic performance. Test anxiety, academic performance and personal study space predicted students' attitudes, confidence and efficacy in STEM and 21st-century learning.

Educational institutions should prioritize student well-being. By addressing test anxiety, these institutions can create supportive learning environments that improve attitudes, confidence and efficacy in STEM fields. These efforts are crucial for STEM career development and student success in the 21st-century workforce.

The current study findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the factors influencing STEM student engagement and performance, highlighting the importance of addressing test anxiety for positive learning outcomes while emphasizing the need to consider socio-economic and contextual factors in education.

The role of women in the architecture and design industry is aligned with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, which aims to increase the participation of women in the Saudi construction sector. Saudi female graduates from architectural and design schools are currently working in most of the mega projects underway in Riyadh; however, they face certain challenges at the beginning of their working lives due to the gap between the skills acquired during an architectural and design education and those needed for employability.

This study evaluates the employability skills of Saudi female cooperative education (COOP) students and graduates from architectural schools in Riyadh. A quantitative approach is taken, and two questionnaires are administered: one for female COOP students and graduates from the college of architecture and design in one of the private universities in Riyadh and the other for employers from different architectural firms and governmental organizations in Riyadh. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the research data.

The research findings suggest that practical experiences and on-site observation activities should be provided, and sustainability solutions and applications should be incorporated into the curriculum to bring architecture education closer to the architectural profession and highlight the role of universities in supporting graduates' skills development.

It is worth mentioning that the results of this study were based on the survey distributed to architecture and interior female students in a private university in Saudi Arabia. The number of students surveyed in this study is not large enough to generalize the survey results to the entire population of architecture and interior design students in the kingdom and in the world. The study will be extended to include more participants from male and female students in other universities in Saudi Arabia to investigate the gaps in employability skills in the field of architecture and interior design in the Kingdom.

The study has practical and policy implications for further development and upcoming challenges as the labor market seems to improve and innovate every day. The study suggests providing practical experiences and onsite observation activities and incorporating sustainability solutions and applications into the curriculum.

The originality of this study is that it focuses on the importance of some employability skills, such as research and budgeting aspects, Sustainability solutions and applications for students that have not been mentioned in the previous studies.

This chapter is a theoretical exploration of the relevance, challenges, and points of consideration to be taken into account as India prepares for the next stage of educational development. By providing context for the current challenges faced by India and aligning the framework of ESS2020 with government goals, this chapter seeks to inform the debate on ESS2020, especially in light of the significant gap in secondary education in India. Though the case itself focuses on India, in part due to its size, relative importance in the global economy and the relatively open nature of its government and media, there is much that would be relevant to other countries that have succeeded in addressing the first stages of educational development and that are poised to tackle the next steps. This chapter utilizes media reports, government documents, and in-country research to highlight how ES 2020 applies, falls short, or altogether misses the Indian context.

In recent years there has been a constant growth in digital portfolio use in tertiary education. Portfolios are used by educational institutions for assessment, as a showcase of both student and institution work, and with an increasing trend also as a tool for higher employability of graduates and support of lifelong learning. This chapter introduces concepts of portfolio, digital portfolio, language portfolio, autonomy, and self-assessment. It approaches both positivist and constructivist paradigms of digital portfolio and presents examples of ePortfolio implementation at the University of Pardubice. Selected examples of good practice with respect to autonomous learning, experiential learning, and international cooperation are also given.