Educational Psychology Is Evolving to Accommodate Technology, Multiple Disciplines, and Twenty-First-Century Skills

Perpetuating the Gaps: 21st-Century Skills in Students With Learning Disabilities and Their Typically Developing Peers

This study examined whether there are differences between students with learning disabilities (LD) and their typically developing peers with regard to their 21st-century skills according to their self-report and whether the differences between the two groups are greater in postsecondary education than in high school-an aim that had not been examined in depth in previous research. Findings suggest that overall (beyond type of learner), in most skills, postsecondary education students reported higher scores than high school students on questionnaires designed for self-assessment of 21st-century skills. Second, students with LD exhibited lower scores in most 21st-century skills than their peers. Third, a comparison of the gaps in 21st-century skills between students with LD and their peers in each of the examined educational settings (i.e., high school vs postsecondary education) revealed that some of the gaps expand over the years, resulting in differences in additional skills. Results are discussed in the context of educational environment and its role in cultivating 21st-century skills and preparing students for integration into the labor market.

Creativity, Critical Thinking, Communication, and Collaboration: Assessment, Certification, and Promotion of 21st Century Skills for the Future of Work and Education

This article addresses educational challenges posed by the future of work, examining “21st century skills”, their conception, assessment, and valorization. It focuses in particular on key soft skill competencies known as the “4Cs”: creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and communication. In a section on each C, we provide an overview of assessment at the level of individual performance, before focusing on the less common assessment of systemic support for the development of the 4Cs that can be measured at the institutional level (i.e., in schools, universities, professional training programs, etc.). We then present the process of official assessment and certification known as “labelization”, suggesting it as a solution both for establishing a publicly trusted assessment of the 4Cs and for promoting their cultural valorization. Next, two variations of the “International Institute for Competency Development’s 21st Century Skills Framework” are presented. The first of these comprehensive systems allows for the assessment and labelization of the extent to which development of the 4Cs is supported by a formal educational program or institution. The second assesses informal educational or training experiences, such as playing a game. We discuss the overlap between the 4Cs and the challenges of teaching and institutionalizing them, both of which may be assisted by adopting a dynamic interactionist model of the 4Cs—playfully entitled “Crea-Critical-Collab-ication”—for pedagogical and policy-promotion purposes. We conclude by briefly discussing opportunities presented by future research and new technologies such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality.

Adapt, Explore, or Keep Going? The Role of Adaptability, Curiosity, and Perseverance in a Network of Study-Related Factors and Scholastic Success

Soft skills are the key characteristics for students' success and wellbeing in the 21st century, but they were only rarely studied contemporarily or integrated into comprehensive models of self-regulated learning. This makes it difficult to understand the role that specific skills have above and beyond the others and how they work together to favor students' achievement and life satisfaction. For this reason, in a sample of 585 students (10-18 years old), we applied an exploratory network analysis and studied three crucial soft skills (i.e., adaptability, curiosity, and perseverance) and their contemporary network of inter-relationships with a host of functional study-related factors, including self-regulated learning strategies, motivation, emotions, cognitive abilities, academic achievement, and life and school satisfaction. Results show that the three soft skills play a positive role within the school context through their association with the majority of the study-related factors that mediate their relationships with academic achievement. Importantly, the results differentiated adaptability (which mainly relates with wellbeing and emotional variables), perseverance (which relates with the cognitive and behavioral aspect of learning), and curiosity (which bridges the connection between the other skills and relates with emotional and behavioral variables) in the school context. Overall, these findings contribute to the deepening of the theoretical framework on soft skills and their role as part of a successful learning profile, and inform us about the possible effectiveness of intervention on soft skills for students' achievement and wellbeing.

Influence of deep learning-based journal reading guidance system on students’ national cognition and cultural acceptance

The purpose is to explore new cultivation modes of college students’ national cognition and cultural acceptance. Deep learning (DL) technology and Educational Psychology theory are introduced, and the influence of art journal reading on college students’ national cognition and cultural acceptance is analyzed under Educational Psychology. Firstly, the background of Educational Psychology, national cognition and cultural acceptance, and learning system are discussed following a literature review. The DL technology is introduced to construct the journal reading guidance system. The system can provide users with art journals and record the user habits like reading duration and preferences. Secondly, hypotheses are proposed, and a questionnaire survey is designed, with 12 specific indicators to investigate and collect research data. Finally, the collected data are analyzed. The results show that women’s cognition of Chinese traditional culture, Chinese excellent revolutionary culture, and Chinese national identity is higher than that of men. By comparison, men’s cognition of Chinese advanced socialist culture is higher than women’s. After using the journal reading guidance system, the cognition of female college students on traditional Chinese culture is improved by 16.3%. Before and after reading art journals, the overall national cognition and cultural acceptance of Minority students are higher than that of Han students. The overall cognition of Literature and History students is higher than that of Science and Engineering students in traditional Chinese culture and China’s excellent revolutionary culture and lower in advanced Chinese socialist culture and Chinese national identity. The overall cognition of college students’ party members to the advanced socialist culture is higher than league members. As students read more art journals through the guidance system, their overall national cognition and cultural acceptance have increased. Therefore, reading art journals can promote college students’ national cognition and cultural acceptance. A national cognition and cultural acceptance promotion system that conforms to the current situation of college students is constructed. The finding provides a reference for developing complex emotion recognition technology in human-computer interaction.

Educational Psychology-Empowered Creative Practice Strategy and Educational Countermeasures for Cinematography Major

This work aims to improve Cinematography Majors' creative orientation and practical skills and improve related teaching quality. Firstly, this work analyzes the theoretical knowledge and main working principles of Educational Psychology (EPSY). Then, it reviews the current situation and characteristics of the Cinematography teaching through a Questionnaire Survey (QS). Consequently, an EPSY-based teaching effect evaluation model is proposed for Cinematography Majors. The results show that genders have great differences in Cinematography Majors' theoretical knowledge and creative orientation. Girls' theoretical knowledge learning effect is better than boys, with about 84% qualification rate at best. Boys' creative orientation learning effect is better than girls, with the highest qualification rate of about 84%. Meanwhile, students' theoretical knowledge differs greatly from grade to grade and the learning effect increase with the grade. Nevertheless, students' overall creative orientation is not satisfactory. Lastly, students' theoretical knowledge differs greatly given different artistic backgrounds, but the difference in creative orientations is small. Thus, the school can carry out targeted teaching for students according to different genders, grades, and artistic backgrounds, to comprehensively improve the teaching effect of Cinematography. The finding provides technical support and educational countermeasures for improving the teaching effect of Cinematography and the reform of Cinematography teaching.