Abstract: The social studies curriculum has been the subject of fierce debate globally, but in societies with more diverse ethnicities and ideologies, it has been the most contested topic. An apostolic vision seeks to establish a theocracy or monotheistic society, which contradicts the concept of a modern nation-state. In contrast, a curriculum that emphasizes diversity and multiculturalism is considered dynamic and strives to meet criteria of significance and relevance; in a globalizing world, a focus on national scales alone is insufficient. The social studies curriculum can be seen as having two distinct goals: either to promote peace and tolerance or to obstruct them by promoting violence, prejudice, and hatred or related concepts. Recent research has focused on the formation of social identity through social studies curricula. Using one of the leading models that supports social identity formation and promotes peace and tolerance through a history curriculum, this seminar paves the way for an analysis of a social studies curriculum. It investigates the role of social history education in fostering or hindering concepts such as peace, tolerance, violence, and prejudice.

Abstract: Within the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as the primary topic of discussion worldwide. AI can also have an influence on digital transformation of higher education. Higher education faces an era of rapid socio-economic development and must meet a challenge of preparing a talent pool for the AI revolution. That is, preparing students with necessary skill sets to become competitive in the AI era. The pedagogical implications of the impact of emerging technologies on the way students learn and the way higher education is changing include, but are not limited by, application of AI and educational technologies to complement essential activities in higher education, changes in our traditional elements of teaching and learning, and some of the challenges faced by higher education institutions and students in adopting these technologies for teaching, learning, to name a few. In this seminar, we would like to discuss the findings of research in Higher Education Institutions and reveal how organizations react to transformative adaptation of higher education to the age of artificial intelligence.

Abstract: 

TRIZ is a Russian acronym for ‘Teoriya Resheniya Izobretatelskikh Zadatch’ that is known in English as the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving. It is a problem-solving, analysis, and forecasting tool derived from the study of patterns of invention in the global patent literature.

TRIZ was devised by the Soviet inventor Genrich Altshuller and his colleagues in 1946, and can be viewed as a way of Lateral Thinking. It has the following premises at its bedrock:

• The given problem (or a similar one) has already been solved by someone someday
• Never accept contradictions, but resolve them
• Use the inherent defect as a resource to find the solution

Sara has founded a TRIZ-based primary school for the first time in Iran. During this seminar, Sara will talk about how TRIZ can improve problem-solving skills in primary school students based on her real experience.

Abstract: Women sports fans have been substantially understudied compared to their male counterparts. While a growing number of studies seek to redress this, there remains a stark absence of quantitative approaches that would allow investigations regarding patterns of women’s sporting consumption and historical trends in the potential growth of this fandom. This study seeks to redress these issues by testing the ‘feminization’ thesis of increased women’s sporting fandom over the past three decades. In addition, we consider whether women’s fandom has become increasingly ‘omnivorous’ over this time period and the nature of this consumption today.

Abstract: Narcissism has received considerable research attention as an individual difference variable. The current study broadened the scope of the literature on narcissism by examining differences in scores on narcissism between countries, whether country-level variables could account for those differences, and if there was a cross-level interaction between country-level political corruption and gender. Drawing on a large sample of Internet users from 53 different countries (N = 31,391, 35% female, Mage = 28.64, SD = 10.98), multilevel modelling was used to examine whether there was significant between-country variability on grandiose narcissism. Political corruption, social progress, economic prosperity, and individualism were included as between-country predictors. Most of the variance in narcissism scores occurred at the individual level. Within countries, younger individuals, as well as men, were more narcissistic. Between countries, those with better social progress (e.g., meeting basic human needs) had lower aggregate narcissism scores. The other predictors correlated strongly with social progress and did not account for unique variance. Overall, these results suggest that while some variance in narcissism scores occurs between countries, more variance occurs at the individual level. As such, it is less meaningful to call countries “narcissistic,” and more meaningful to apply this label to individuals