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The study aims to investigate the effect of the dialogue embedded synectics model of teaching on the creative thinking of students.

The research design of the study was a nonequivalent control group design of quasi experimental research. This study collected data from 80 students in the seventh grade from two different government schools in Bathinda, Punjab, India, which were selected using a random method. The subjects of experimental group were taught by the investigator using the dialogue embedded synectics model of teaching and the subjects of control group were taught by their teacher using the traditional teaching method, i.e. the Herbartian method. The data collections were done using the creative thinking test developed by Baqer Mehdi (1995). The data analysis techniques used t-test.

Key finding indicates that the dialogue embedded synectics model of teaching is effective in enhancing the creative thinking of students as compared to the traditional method.

The present work is unique in terms of development of an innovative pedagogy, i.e. the dialogue embedded synectics model of teaching, which has the potential to encourage students' creative thinking, a key concern for society in the 21st century. Therefore, it is suggested to conduct similar type of studies on this innovative pedagogy and this model of teaching may be used by teachers for enhancing creative thinking of seventh class students.

The purpose of the article was to identify the core dimensions of strategic thinking and create a measure that provides a comprehensive operationalization of the construct.

The construct validity of the measure was assessed in two studies using four samples with a total of 985 participants. The measure was created using a multi-step process that included item development and content validation, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, convergent and discriminant validity, criterion validity and test-retest validity.

The exploratory factor analysis (EFA) supported the existence of the three dimensions of strategic thinking (visionary, synthetic and creative thinking) as conceptually proposed. The measure was reduced to nine items. The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) confirmed the three dimensions and revealed acceptable factor loadings and model fit. Convergent, discriminant and criterion validity were established, and the measure demonstrated acceptable test-retest reliability.

An individual's ability to think strategically is vital for making strategic decisions and relevant to upper echelon theory and strategic management. The definition and core dimensions of strategic thinking are unclear in the literature, creating confusion. This study added to the literature by defining the core dimensions of strategic thinking and developing the strategic thinking assessment (STA) to measure the construct.

The study integrated understanding by design-Internet of Things (UbD-IoT) education with design thinking and computational thinking to plan and design an IoT course. Cross-domain application examples were employed to train students in problem-understanding, deep thinking and logical design for IoT applications.

In this study, the UbD model was integrated with design thinking and computational thinking in the planning and design of an IoT course. The examples of cross-domain applications were used to train students to understand a problem by engaging themselves in deep thinking and helping them think and design logically for an IoT application.

The UbD-IoT learning design greatly decreased students' overall cognitive load. UbD-IoT learning has a significant impact on the performance of computational thinking in problem-solving and problem-understanding. The impact of UbD-IoT learning on logical thinking and program learning cognition in students needs to be verified.

The results of this study have shown that the UbD model is effective in reducing the cognitive load of a learning course and also strengthens T-competencies in the lateral skills of computational thinking, critical problem-solving, logical thinking and creative thinking.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of the external environment on the strategic thinking dimensions in Malaysia and Palestine on the banking sector.

This paper focuses on dynamism and complexity in political and economic external environments. This study uses qualitative methodology through a comparative case study method. Purposive sampling was used to collect data from in-depth semistructured interviews with 33 bank executives from Malaysia and 17 from Palestine.

The findings revealed that the banking sector in both Malaysia and Palestine shared five common strategic thinking dimensions, including vision, creativity, conceptual thinking, futurism and opportunity. However, a sixth dimension, intent-focused, was unique to Palestinian bank executives. This study indicates that Palestine’s financial strategic thinking environment is more dynamic and complex than Malaysia’s. Additionally, the study highlights the significant influence of both microenvironments (such as types of banks) and the macroenvironment (such as political and economic situations). These findings hold important implications for decision-makers in the banking sector of both countries.

As with many studies, this study has some limitations. First, the analysis examines only the turbulent and stable environment in the two countries by using a qualitative approach which enables the analysis of thoughts and actions and exposes the beliefs, perceptions, mental maps and structures of belief in their perceptions (Cavana et al., 2001). As such, the results are limited to a particular time, date and geographical location; thus, opinions and perceptions might be altered due to changes in the external political and economic environment. The second limitation of this work is that the case study might not be appropriate for generalization (Stake, 1978). Finally, the limited number of female participants in Palestine shows a high level of inequality compared to Malaysian participants.

This study explores the implication of uncertain environments at the national level on executives’ cognition and actions, links the micro- and macro-environment of the banking industry to a theoretical perspective and develops a conceptual circular model to show the effect of macro environments on bank performance. The findings offer practical contributions to the current literature, providing insights for executives to navigate a dynamic and complex banking industry.

This study fills the literature gap by exploring how strategic thinking dimensions triggered by macro- and micro-environments impact banking sector performance in Malaysia and Palestine.

Design thinking has become an omnipresent process to foster innovativeness in various fields. Due to its popularity in both practice and theory, the number of publications has been growing rapidly. The authors aim to develop a research framework that reflects the current state of research and allows for the identification of research gaps.

The authors conduct a systematic literature review based on 164 scholarly articles on design thinking.

This study proposes a framework, which identifies individual and organizational context factors, the stages of a typical design thinking process with its underlying principles and tools, and the individual as well as organizational outcomes of a design thinking project.

Whereas previous reviews focused on particular aspects of design thinking, such as its characteristics, the organizational culture as a context factor or its role on new product development, the authors provide a holistic overview of the current state of research.

An organization’s competitive advantage can be strengthened if they are able to identify highly creative individuals. In fact, organizational success in the 21st century may depend upon a firm’s ability to identify highly creative individuals who are able to develop novel and useful ideas, which are the outcome of creativity. The authors posit that Information Technology (IT) plays a significant role in creativity.

Applying the componential view of creativity, the authors propose the theoretically-derived concept of Individual IT Creativity (IITC). Utilizing a 5-phase methodology, the authors provide a theoretically-derived and rigorously-validated measure of IITC.

This study demonstrates that IITC is manifested in individuals who (1) possess IT expertise; (2) are motivated by IT tasks and (3) exhibit IT creativity-relevant processes. The authors then develop a scale to measure IITC and examine IITC within a broader nomological network.

This study facilitates the investigation of new streams of research into IITC, including new possible outcomes in addition to IT acceptance.

The challenges facing 21st-century society are becoming increasingly complex, requiring the development of new citizen competencies. This study aims to validate an educational model focused on developing complex thinking in higher education students. Current educational models lack future-ready competencies, necessitating the emergence of new models to guide future generations toward the common good.

This was an adaptation of the causal-layered analysis (CLA) applied to 415 participants from higher education institutions in Mexico, Panama and Spain. Sessions were designed to present the proposed educational model and explore participants’ perceptions of its significance and contributions to future education.

Key findings include the following: participants perceived complexity as difficult and challenging; causes of problems were linked to outdated educational models requiring replacement by those that develop students’ competencies; participants envisioned changes that would develop individuals capable of understanding and transforming society; and participants recognized the model’s transformative potential, offering a novel proposal for 21st-century education.

This research sought to gather opinions from different stakeholders using the CLA methodology, providing a deep understanding of participants’ perspectives on the proposed solution.

Literature suggests that less attention has been paid on teacher's and head of the school's outlook on when to introduce life skills education, which are the most important to be focused and developed first, and their opinion on effort already made to develop life skills among the students. Hence, the present study aims to focus on the teacher's and head of school's perspective with regard to the three most important life skills which need to be developed at the school level.

For the present study, a digital survey tool was developed (Google Form) and circulated across all the states to the Government and private school teachers and heads of school and access of the Google form was open from April 26 to May 7, 2022. A total of 770 school heads/teachers responded the survey spread over 17 different states. To address the objectives of the paper, descriptive and inferential analysis are carried out.

In the participant's view, self-awareness, effective communication and problem solving are found as the top most, second and third most important life skills to be focused respectively. Results reveal that the region, type of schools and gender of the respondents have no significant role to play in the choice of top three most important life schools to be focused the first. However, designation of the respondent's (teacher/head of the schools) and years of work experience in schools are found significantly associated with the choice of top three life skills. Study concludes that as various research studies have highlighted that all the life skills are inter-related so if the authors prioritize at least three identified top most first so others will be some and other way will start developing in parallel and can be taken up subsequently.

This study is based on digital data collected from the teachers and headmasters based on the survey link circulated through different communication channels. Also, sample is not uniform due to varied response rate across the states and therefore number of respondents participated in the survey varies significantly from one state to another state. The findings emerged from this study cannot be generalized at state level. Even generalization at national level needs to be done carefully as samples are not representative. However, this research demonstrates an interesting fact and will help teachers to prioritize top three skills to be implemented first followed by others.

This will help the teachers and heads of schools to use the top three skills that they need to insist by all means at the school level. This will also help the policy makers to keep note of the perception of the teaching community on life skills.

This paper will bring focus on the importance of life skills to the education fraternity.

Less or no attempt has been made to understand teachers/head of school's perspective on initiation of life skills and which are the most important skills to be prioritized first. Hence, the study comes with an original concept.

The importance of multidimensional and engaging instruction for sustainable development goals (SDGs) in higher education cannot be overstated. Such instructions should motivate students not only to memorize and contemplate these goals but also to actively participate in addressing SDG-related challenges. Consequently, this study aims to develop practical and appropriate instructional approaches to education for sustainable development (ESD) in higher education to enhance students’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviors concerning sustainability.

By using a quasi-experimental design, this ESD study was conducted at a university in central Taiwan. A total of 121 students from diverse academic backgrounds participated in the 16-week experiment, which was divided into three groups. Lecturing, thematic teaching and design-thinking strategies were applied to these respective groups.

The thematic-teaching and design-thinking groups displaying improved cognitive performance. However, the quantity results revealed that the design-thinking group surpassed the other two groups in sustainability knowledge, attitudes, behaviors and mind map tasks. The qualitative findings further indicated that design thinking – through multiple practical problem-solving activities – guided college students to think independently and sustainably, as well as enabled them to internalize the value of sustainable development. By implementing these effective approaches, the core goals of ESD-related personal and societal transformations may be realized.

This study proposed a goal-oriented ESD instructional model for educators, demonstrating the efficacy of design thinking in cultivating higher-order thinking and affection for ESD in students. Additionally, this study introduced an innovative evaluation approach – mind mapping – to the ESD domain, which may compensate for the limitations of the survey method.

This study provides empirical evidence for the effectiveness of design thinking and thematic-based pedagogies in sustainable development higher education. Additionally, it also offers a practical ESD instructional model with reference value for scholars and multi-domain instructors. Moreover, the study highlights that by examining organizational governance from the perspectives of design thinking and higher-order affection, sustainable and economic development need not be mutually exclusive concepts. Instead, pursuing SDGs can be viewed as investment opportunities for organizations rather than mere costs.

Education 4.0 is one of the major transformations in the field of education to improve the quality of teaching and learning processes and prepare students as 21st-century learners. This study aims to examine the effect of Educations 4.0 on creative and collaborative learning of students.

In this correlational research study, a quantitative data collection tool such as a questionnaire is used. This research is conducted on university students (N = 365), and purposive sampling technique is used to achieve the purpose. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 27.0 is used to analyze the data.

The findings of the study reveal that there is a strong positive relationship between education 4.0 and the two major 21st-century skills, i.e. collaboration and creativity. The value of correlation coefficient value of the variables is 0.597, which indicates positive and strong relationship; hence, null hypothesis is rejected and an alternative hypothesis is accepted.

The results of the current study are beneficial for the school managers to enhance students' two significant 21st-century skills, i.e. “Creativity” and “Collaboration.” Also, the school managers can make efforts to develop teachers' competence to adapt the technological advancements for improving students' creativity and collaboration to benefit their learning.

This is a unique study because there are only a few recent studies that show a connection between Education 4.0 and 21st-century skills. Also, there is no other study that presents the direct association of Education 4.0 and students' creativity and collaboration specifically in the context of Pakistan.