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Abstract:This study investigates how cooperative learning facilitates students in learning critical thinking in reading and to find out the benefits and challenges during the implementation of cooperative learning in one vocational school in Cimahi. A case study is utilized by using instruments of classroom observations, questionnaires, semi structured interview and students' written tests. The findings show that the implementation of cooperative learning facilitates students develop their critical thinking and enhance critical thinking dispositions in reading. Three features which contribute to the development of students' critical thinking in reading are: the encouragement of student-student interaction; the provision of group purposes; and the provision of stimulus to the students' development of thought and ideas. The aforementioned features promote benefits which involved higher motivation and involvement, increased opportunity for language use, and developed interpersonal relationship. Nevertheless, these benefits are constrained by the availability of time, students' English proficiency, and students' contribution to the groupwork. It is recommended that further researchers conduct the similar study in a longer period to make sure that the key elements of cooperative learning are well-structured.

This study aims to describe the impact of online mentoring activities in implementing the RADEC (Read, Answer, Discuss, Explain, and Create) learning model on the competence of elementary school teachers in training students’ critical thinking skills. The method was a pre-experiment with a one-group pretest-posttest design involving 25 elementary school teachers in Indonesia. The teachers received online mentoring in implementing RADEC learning model. The research instrument was a questionnaire to measure teachers’ knowledge and skills in training critical thinking. The data processing technique was carried out by calculating the mean and the percentage of each item to obtain a description of the teachers’ knowledge and skills in training students’ critical thinking before and after treatment. The data were analyzed inferentially with a paired sample t-test using SPSS version 22 software to see the impact of the treatment on teachers’ competence in training critical thinking. Based on the results of the paired-sample t-test, for both the knowledge and skills aspects, the probability value (sig) was 0.00 <0.05. This result means that there was a significant difference in the knowledge and skills of teachers in training students’ critical thinking skills before and after mentoring activities. The study results indicate that the online mentoring in implementing the RADEC learning model improved teachers’ competence in training elementary school students’ critical thinking skills.

Trying to keep abreast to recent development in ESL pedagogy, Indonesian Government in this case Ministry of National Education has for the past two decades been trying to reform English instruction at the junior and senior high schools across the country. This article describes the issues surrounding the reform initiative and the response the system has made to address the issues. The existing, problematic conditions are delineated and possible ways for improvement are then put forth.

The fourth Industrial Revolution (IR 4.0) marked by artificial intelligence and cyber-physical systems has transformed the landscape of education including English literacy instruction. Some literacy educators claim that the success of students’ today as millennial kids (Gen-Zs) and future employees has been linked to digital literacy. This term is defined as the skills associated with using digital technology to enable users to locate, organize, understand, evaluate and create information and using those skills to solve problems in technology-rich environments. This study attempts to investigate the extent to which multimodal pedagogy helps improve students’ digital literacy skills in an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) setting in a vocational higher education. A theoretical multimodal semiotic approach along with multiliteracies pedagogy is served as the overarching guideline in the overall instructional procedures grounded specifically from the principles of learner-centeredness, constructivist learning, and social interaction. A qualitative case study approach was adopted to provide an in-depth explication and analysis of students’ literacy development. Data collection included classroom observations and students’ digital artefacts. In the course of the study, the students were engaged in the creation of two digital projects of different genres: digital information report in the form of text-image creation and digital persuasive talk in the form digital video production. The key findings of this study suggest that multimodal pedagogy is an effective instructional method for digital literacy learning in that several aspects of digital literacy had proven to be significantly improved.

Due to the global proliferation of information technologies and communication channels, today's students are increasingly engaged with multimodal, multimedia along with printed-based literacy practices and are significantly exposed to new information and mass communication on daily basis. As a result, there has been a significant increase in research publications on multimodal-based teaching practices and the impacts of such instructional practices on students' learning. This study attempts to synthesize and critically analyze the existing empirical research on multimodal pedagogy in EFL classroom contexts. The descriptive statistics characterizing the studies reviewed (e.g., the research designs, participant characteristics, settings) were presented along with the qualitative content analysis results containing the emerging themes which sequentially arranged according to its prevalence. The research articles reviewed in this study were based on the following inclusive criteria: (1) peer-reviewed studies, (2) studies concerned with multimodal pedagogy in EFL contexts, and (3) published within the last 6 years. The search for these articles was conducted electronically using search engine databases (e.g., ERIC, Google Scholars) and some reputable journal websites (e.g., tanfonline.com, link.springer.com). Across the corpus of 40 studies, findings revealed that the most preferred study design for multimodal research was case studies conducted in school settings involving both teachers and students as participants. This analytical review also revealed five prevalent themes of findings informing the possibilities and complexities of pedagogical benefits and constraints of multimodal pedagogy. The results of this study could hopefully provide insights on what has been done thus far and showcase implications for research and practice.

This paper presents a description of a technology-based English learning in an Indonesian context project completed by rural high school students. It employed a descriptive qualitative research method in a class consisting of 35 students. The data were collected from videotaped observations, interviews with participant representatives, and questionnaires administered to all participants. The project-based instruction (PBL) was implemented in five sessions, with videos uploaded to YouTube as the final product. The paper revealed that the students completed the project satisfactorily and showed their positive attitudes towards the assigned project. Moreover, they claimed that learning using PBL was challenging, motivating, engaging, enhancing their English, and increasing their creativity. During the videomaking phase, some problems were encountered; however, they considered them as challenges to become better at using English. To conclude, it is advisable for EFL teachers to implement PBL integrating ICT. Additionally, at the end of the research, some recommendations for future similar studies are proposed.

The lack of a model for promoting productive learning environments and a clear major value of choice to guide practice has resulted in the needs for this research. Values are important aspects of learning, yet they are not used to their fullest potential in educational practices in Indonesia. The primary objective for this study was to propose an appropriate model with application of local wisdom value in elementary school, and synthesized strategies for challenging the value for sustainable use in schools. This paper discusses and describe possible guidelines targeting the design of learning local wisdom value’s-based learning model with creative learning environments that influence student literacy skills. This research was an Educational Design Research. To develop the local wisdom value’s-based learning model we need, the following five steps will be taken 1) putting several available models side by side (literature research), 2) comparing and contrasting the models (plenary study), 3) deciding most essential model components (ethnography analysing), 4) creating theoretical model and prototype (setting by Focus Group Discussion/FGD), 5) testing the prototype models with limited empirical verification sample (setting by workshop). At present, this research has been in the stage of compiling a prototype of the local wisdom value’s-based literacy learning model. The next stage will be consolidated through a workshop. The outcomes of the focus group interview and future workshop activities will be synthesized into five design guidelines providing orientation for the design of a local wisdom value’s-based literacy learning model. The results of this research recommend that the learning with the local wisdom value can be used as an approach to learning literacy. The model also promotes a positive classroom climate, a community of learners, developing learner responsibility, and maximizing opportunities for learning.