Identifying Students’ Problems on Critical Thinking as a Way to Foster Higher Order Thinking Skills

Students in the old days were not taught to think for themselves in a logical, systematic, and coherent way. They simply regurgitated lectures and text materials back to the teachers. Integrating the traditional method of teaching with the critical thinking model would be the better alternative for teachers to prepare students to solve problems in the future. The samples of this study are the whole graduated students from English Department Students at University of PGRI Yogyakarta, starting from 2018-2021. It is descriptive qualitative research, focusing on the assessment matrix in the assessment of thesis examination by giving in-depth highlight on trends. From the data analyses, it is inferred that gender would give less impact to the successfulness of developing Critical Thinking. On the other hand, the autonomous learning would never give the same good results from one condition to another. It is revealed from the finding that learning with peers impacts better than the autonomous learning and learning with teachers.

Refining the Content of the AGEC Accreditation Handbook

The AGEC Accreditation Handbook and Self-Evaluation Guide has been revised several times since the first drafts were produced in 2016 and 2017. The Handbook contains information for accreditation applicants, AGEC reviewers, and members of the Board of Governors responsible for administering AGEC policies and procedures. It includes the accreditation standards, eligibility for accreditation, timelines, and self-study and site visit guidelines. It is the central document for the AGEC accreditation process. Handbook revisions, drawn from the experience of accrediting programs, have been for the purposes of clarifying expectations and simplifying the application process. This presentation highlights modifications included in the 2020 Handbook, which simplify the self-study outline and site visit guidelines, and the 2021 modifications, which clarify the “Mapping Course Matrix” (displaying AGHE competencies covered in program courses) and add an “Assessment Matrix” for measuring acquisition of the competencies and improving the program as needed.

Incorporating Future Climate Scenarios in Oil Industry’s Risk Assessment: A Greek Refinery Case Study

The impacts of climate change are anticipated to become stronger in the future, leading to higher costs and more severe accidents in the oil industry’s facilities and surrounding communities. Motivated by this, the main objective of this paper is to develop, for the oil industry, a risk assessment methodology that considers future climate projections. In the context of an action research effort, carried out in a refinery in Greece, we adapted the organization’s extant risk management approach based on the Risk Assessment Matrix (RAM) and suggested a risk quantification process that incorporates future climate projections. The Climate Risk Assessment Matrix (CRAM) was developed to be used to assess the exposure of the facility’s assets, including human resources, to future climate risks. To evaluate CRAM, a comparison with RAM for the specific organization for the period 1980–2004 was made. Next, the application of CRAM for the period 2025–2049 indicated that, even though the resilience of the operations of the company to extreme conditions seems adequate at present, increased attention should be paid in the future to the resilience of refinery processes, the cooling system, and human resources. Beyond the specific case, the paper provides lessons for similar organizations and infrastructures located elsewhere.

Business process nature assessment matrix – a novel approach to the assessment of business process nature

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to give an in-depth understanding of the nature of business processes (BPs) from the perspective of their dynamism and knowledge intensity that will allow for their correct classification and provide practical and useful implications for their more relevant and effective management. A simple and low labor-intensive BP nature assessment approach is proposed that will allow for objective assessment and internal benchmarking of all BPs in a specific context of execution based on their nature.Design/methodology/approachThe research is divided into two parts. The first comprises a systematic literature review (SLR) based on the resources of the ProQuest, Springer Nature and ScienceDirect full-text databases and the second includes illustrative case studies.FindingsBuilding on the SLR, the authors identified and reviewed 3,385 articles and defined a set of criteria by which the nature of BPs can be assessed. Further, the authors proposed a BP nature assessment matrix together with complementary questionnaires for the evaluation of process dynamism and knowledge intensity. To demonstrate the logic of this approach, two illustrative case studies were presented.Originality/valueThe article contributes to the theoretical reflection on the nature of BPs in the knowledge economy. From the practical point of view, a novel approach to the assessment of the nature of BPs is offered. The approach is open and as experience is accumulated it will develop according to the data and recommendations collected.

Environmental assessment platform for cities racing to net zero

The UK was the first major economy to pass a Climate Change Act in 2008, which was revised in 2019 to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. In 2019, Southampton City Council (SCC) declared a climate emergency setting ambitious targets for the city to become carbon neutral under the banner Green City Charter (GCC), which was signed by 70 city-based organisations. There is, however, no specific methodology to quantify progress towards the targets. Here we present the outcomes from developing the GCC Tracker in collaboration with local authorities and stakeholders. The approach is based on the Analytical Hierarchy Process, with expertise agreed weights to measure the success or otherwise of carbon environmental commitments. The outcome is the Green City Tracker encompassing an assessment matrix that provides ratings and quantifies annual progress for achieving committed targets. The Tracker was applied to 10 institutions and the results show their ratings as a function of each sub-criteria and as an overarching rating. The approach highlighted the importance of generating a universally applicable and time/resource efficient processes in order to incentivise organisation participation. The Tracker was widely accepted by regional local authorities with a plan to widely adapt it to other cities declared targets.

Hydrogen Infrastructure Project Risks in The Netherlands

This study aims to assess the potential risks of setting up a hydrogen infrastructure in the Netherlands. An integrated risk assessment framework, capable of analyzing projects, identifying risks and comparing projects, is used to identify and analyze the main risks in the upcoming Dutch hydrogen infrastructure project. A time multiplier is added to the framework to develop parameters. The impact of the different risk categories provided by the integrated framework is calculated using the discounted cash flow (DCF) model. Despite resource risks having the highest impact, scope risks are shown to be the most prominent in the hydrogen infrastructure project. To present the DCF model results, a risk assessment matrix is constructed. Compared to the conventional Risk Assessment Matrix (RAM) used to present project risks, this matrix presents additional information in terms of the internal rate of return and risk specifics.

Health Risk Assessment of Physical and Chemical Hazards in the Painting Area of a Manufacturing Company

Introduction: The work process of the Painting Area in a Manufacturing Company can pose a risk to physical and chemical health hazards for workers. Hazard analysis and identification, exposure assessment, and risk assessment are, therefore, needed to protect the health of workers from these health hazards, which can later be used as a basis to determine appropriate controls so as not to have a negative impact on workers’ health. The purpose of this study was to analyze the hazards and their impacts on workers’ health through hazard identification measures, exposure assessments, risk assessments and control recommendations. Methods: Health Risk Assessment of physical and chemical hazards in the Painting Area was undertaken using a semi-quantitative method by calculating a risk assessment matrix using the guidelines from IPIECA & OGP in 2016. Results: Physical hazards were found in the form of lighting hazards, vibrations (arm vibration and whole body vibration), noise and heat pressure. Meanwhile, chemical hazards were found in the form of thinner vapor, solvent, NaNO3, H2SO4, NaOH, H3NSO4 and indoor air quality (CO, NO2, SO2, H2S). The results of the risk assessment matrix obtained 4 levels of risk hazards, consisting of 11.1% in the first priority, 50% in the second priority, 25.9% in the third priority and 12.9% in the condition that did not require immediate action. Conclusion: Physical and chemical health hazards were at 4 levels based on the calculation of risk control priorities. A hierarchy of risk control could be used to reduce the risk of health hazards.Keywords: health risk assessment, ipieca & ogp 2016, painting area, risk assessment matrix