An Exploratory Examination of Student-Led, Asynchronous Collaborative Online Discussions in Fostering Higher-Order Cognitive Skills and Ethical Leadership Learning

Previous studies have contextualized student-led, asynchronous online discussions as collaborative learning experiences that positively impact students’ learning and foster higher order cognitive skills. From a leadership education perspective, student-led discussions have come to the fore as a helpful resource for deepening learning because of their focus on collaboration and shared leadership. While literature on student-led online discussions, leadership learning, and cognitive skill is plentiful, there is no single study that explores all these elements together or fully points to how practicing meaning-making in online, asynchronous leadership courses can inform larger cognitive processes. Thus, the purpose of this conceptual content analysis-based study was to examine 35 undergraduate students’ collaborative discussion board posts at the beginning, middle, and end of an online, asynchronous Ethics and Leadership class to assess not only if and to what extent students expressed cognitive skills, in general, but also if and to what extent they understood ethical leadership via these types of discussions. Further, from an exploratory lens, this study examined if there was a relationship between expression of higher order cognitive skills and more complex ethical leadership understanding. Results indicate that, while students achieved higher order cognitive skills and more holistic ethical leadership understanding overall, robustness of student engagement could be situational in nature and expressions of cognitive skills and ethical leadership understanding tapered as the course progressed. Additional findings and implications are discussed.

Pengembangan Bahan Ajar Tematik Berbasis Nilai-Nilai Keislaman Kelas VI Madrasah Ibtidaiyah

Development of thematic teaching materials based on Islamic values, especially those related to the contents of the verses of the Alqur'an and / or hadith as the basis of all science. In the available books, there are no thematic teaching materials that are integrated with the Al-Quran and Hadith, as well as Islamic values ??that are able to implement the core competencies of the 2013 curriculum, namely the competence of spiritual attitudes in thematic learning. The formulation of this research is: (1) producing thematic teaching materials based on Islamic values ??theme 7 (Leadership) class 6 Madrasah Ibtidaiyah Negeri 2 Jember. (2) to determine the effectiveness of thematic teaching materials based on Islamic values ??in learning. This study uses a research and development research type, the Borg and Gall model which is divided into 10 steps, namely: (1) research and data collection (2) planning, (3) product draft development, (4) initial field trials, ( 5) revising the results of trials, (6) field trials, (7) improving products from field tests, (8) conducting field trials, (9) improving product results, and (10) disseminating and implementing. The testing technique was carried out by comparing the pre-test and post-test values. The data was calculated using the t-test and processed using the SPSS application to determine the effectiveness of teaching materials. The results of this study indicate: the validation test produces an average of 88.79% with the criteria that the book is very suitable for use in learning. In terms of attractiveness, this book is very interesting to use for students, this is based on the results of the questionnaire data given to students with an average of 88.24% with very attractive qualifications. Meanwhile, from the results of the pre-test and post-test based on the t count which shows that it is greater than the t table, it means that the book is effective for use in learning. Keywords: Teaching Materials; Thematic Learning; Islamic Value Pengembangan bahan ajar tematik berbasis nilai keislaman, terutama yang terkait dengan isi ayat Alqur'an dan/atau hadits sebagai dasar dari semua sains. Dalam buku yang telah tersedia tidak ada bahan ajar tematik yang terintegrasi dengan Al-Quran, dan Hadits, serta nilai-nilai Islam yang mampu mengimplementasikan kompetensi inti dari kurikulum 2013 yaitu kompetensi sikap spiritual dalam pembelajaran tematik. Perumusan penelitian ini yaitu: (1) menghasilkan bahan ajar tematik berbasis nilai keislaman tema 7 (Kepemimpinan) kelas 6 Madrasah Ibtidaiyah Negeri 2 Jember. (2) mengetahui efektifitas bahan ajar tematik berbasis nilai-nilai keislaman dalam pembelajaran. Penelitian ini menggunakan jenis penelitian pengembangan Research and Development, model Borg and Gall yang terbagi menjadi 10 langkah, yaitu: (1) penelitian dan pengumpulan data (2) perencanaan, (3) pengembangan draf produk, (4) uji coba lapangan awal, (5) merevisi hasil uji coba, (6) uji coba lapangan, (7) penyempurnaan produk hasil uji lapangan, (8) uji pelaksanaan lapangan, (9) penyempurnaan produk hasil, dan (10) diseminasi dan implementasi. Teknik uji coba dilakukan dengan membandingkan nilai pre-test dan post-test. Data dihitung dengan uji-t dan diolah menggunakan aplikasi SPSS untuk mengetahui efektifitas bahan ajar. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan: uji validasi tersebut rata-rata menghasilkan 88,79 % dengan kriteria bahwa buku tersebut sangat layak untuk digunakan dalam pembelajaran. Dari segi kemenarikan, buku ini sangat menarik untuk digunakan pada siswa, hal ini berdasarkan dari hasil data angket yang diberikan kepada siswa dengan rata-rata 88,24% dengan kualifikasi sangat menarik. Sedangkan dari hasil pre-test dan pos-test berdasarkan uji t hitung yang menunjukan lebih besar dari t tabel, berarti buku tersebut efektif untuk digunakan dalam pembelajaran. Kata Kunci: Bahan Ajar; Pembelajaran Tematik; Nilai Keislaman

Strengthening Student Engagement: How Student Hone Their Soft Skill Along Online Learning During Covid-19 Pandemic?

The objective of this research is to know how student hone their soft skill along online learning during Covid-19 pandemic. It is a descriptive research, applied through interview and questionnaire survey among 15 students taken Leadership Class, Academic Year of 2020-2021. This study has discovered by providing group discussion session, lecturer has generated enthusiasm for learning and student’s interaction during online learning. To enhance students’ soft skill along online learning, it is found by optimizing the usage of media and method of learning; up to date SLP, integrated the LMS with Whatsapp function through Collaborative Learning. Students are schooled by submitting mind mapping sub-subject task, class discussion, FGD team discussion, PPT submission and oral presentation in specific time limit every meeting. It is provided from up to date case studies in every meeting that help students in providing the practitioner's view, hone critical thinking, presentation and public speaking skills.

Pathways to Increasing Adolescent Physical Activity and Wellbeing: A Mediation Analysis of Intervention Components Designed Using a Participatory Approach

We assessed which intervention components were associated with change in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and wellbeing through proposed psychosocial mediators. Eight schools (n = 1319; 13–14 years) ran GoActive, where older mentors and in-class-peer-leaders encouraged classes to conduct two new activities/week; students gained points and rewards for activity. We assessed exposures: participant-perceived engagement with components (post-intervention): older mentorship, peer leadership, class sessions, competition, rewards, points entered online; potential mediators (change from baseline): social support, self-efficacy, group cohesion, friendship quality, self-esteem; and outcomes (change from baseline): accelerometer-assessed MVPA (min/day), wellbeing (Warwick-Edinburgh). Mediation was assessed using linear regression models stratified by gender (adjusted for age, ethnicity, language, school, BMI z-score, baseline values), assessing associations between (1) exposures and mediators, (2) exposures and outcomes (without mediators) and (3) exposure and mediator with outcome using bootstrap resampling. No evidence was found to support the use of these components to increase physical activity. Among boys, higher perceived teacher and mentor support were associated with improved wellbeing via various mediators. Among girls, higher perceived mentor support and perception of competition and rewards were positively associated with wellbeing via self-efficacy, self-esteem and social support. If implemented well, mentorship could increase wellbeing among adolescents. Teacher support and class-based activity sessions may be important for boys’ wellbeing, whereas rewards and competition warrant consideration among girls.

Bringing heterogeneity to the CMS software framework

The advent of computing resources with co-processors, for example Graphics Processing Units (GPU) or Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA), for use cases like the CMS High-Level Trigger (HLT) or data processing at leadership-class supercomputers imposes challenges for the current data processing frameworks. These challenges include developing a model for algorithms to offload their computations on the co-processors as well as keeping the traditional CPU busy doing other work. The CMS data processing framework, CMSSW, implements multithreading using the Intel Threading Building Blocks (TBB) library, that utilizes tasks as concurrent units of work. In this paper we will discuss a generic mechanism to interact effectively with non-CPU resources that has been implemented in CMSSW. In addition, configuring such a heterogeneous system is challenging. In CMSSW an application is configured with a configuration file written in the Python language. The algorithm types are part of the configuration. The challenge therefore is to unify the CPU and co-processor settings while allowing their implementations to be separate. We will explain how we solved these challenges while minimizing the necessary changes to the CMSSW framework. We will also discuss on a concrete example how algorithms would offload work to NVIDIA GPUs using directly the CUDA API.

Who Rules the World? A Portrait of the Global Leadership Class

It goes without saying that “leaders rule.” And it stands to reason that the background characteristics of leaders affect the way they rule. Who are the leaders of the world? We generate a composite portrait of the global political elite with data from the Global Leadership Project (GLP), the first dataset offering biographical information on a wide array of leaders in most countries of the world. We offer comparisons across office, regions, regime types, and level of development. And we enlist the variables in the dataset in a latent class model to arrive at an empirical typology of political leaders around the world.