Humans in the 21st century face multiple challenges that require them to acquire certain skills in order to overcome them. Some tools, such as art and technology, create unique capabilities for education that can be used to address the challenges of the 21st century. The purpose of this article was to describe the approach of technological artistic education for developing 21st-century skills in students.

This study was a qualitative research conducted in a meta-synthesis approach. In the first step, reputable foreign scientific databases (such as ScienceDirect, Springer, Google Scholar, Eric, Taylor and Francis, etc.) and domestic databases were searched using specific keywords and terms such as cognitive flexibility theory, electronic and virtual learning environments, cognitive flexibility, principles and criteria of cognitive flexibility theory, etc., within the specified time range from 1992 to 2020. All relevant articles and texts were collected. In the end, 120 documents were found, of which 60 documents were relevant to the research questions. After careful reading of the texts, the necessary information was extracted according to the research questions. For data analysis, thematic analysis method was used, and inter-coder reliability was assessed using the agreement method between two coders.

Based on the findings, the conceptual model of artistic-technological education was presented to develop the necessary skills of individuals in the 21st century. The pattern consisted of five main sections (challenges of the 21st century, skills needed to face the challenges of the 21st century, tools required to cultivate 21st-century skills, methods of cultivating 21st-century skills, and art and technology-based activities for cultivating 21st-century skills), each of which also had sub-sections. According to this pattern, the challenges of the 21st century included technological challenges, the nature of work challenges, economic challenges, and social challenges. The skills needed to face the challenges of the 21st century included general skills and specialized skills. The tools required to cultivate 21st-century skills included artistic education tools and technological education tools. The methods of cultivating 21st-century skills included artistic education, technological education, and artistic-technological education. And the art and technology-based activities for cultivating 21st-century skills included artistic activities, technological activities, and combined artistic and technological activities (artistic-technological activities). In order to facilitate the implementation of the artistic-technological education model, two methods of combining art and technology in the formal and informal curriculum of schools and the integration of four-parts of art and technology in the curriculum of schools were suggested.

By utilizing the benefits of art and technology, individuals can be trained to overcome the challenges of the 21st century. Artistic education and technological education alone have the capability to cultivate 21st-century skills, but by combining the two and implementing artistic technological education, more desirable results can be achieved. Integrating technology and art in the formal and informal curriculum of schools can help learners improve their creative thinking, problem-solving, critical thinking, and personal and interpersonal skills in order to overcome the challenges of the 21st century. The conceptual model of artistic technological education, with the integration of art and technology in the formal and informal curriculum of schools, and can help learners improve their superior thinking skills and overcome the challenges of this century by equipping themselves with the necessary skills for the 21st century.

Drawing on the "representation" theory in the sociology of art and the explanatory model proposed by French sociologist Pierre Félix Bourdieu, this article seeks to investigate the process of reconstructing the concept of the 1980s in the lifestyle re-presented in the top-selling movies of the 21st century. The main question asked in this article is whether the representation of the lifestyle in the 1980s in 21st century movies is in line with the Islamic Republic's discourse or not. Content analysis of some of the films produced in the modern era shows that the cultural consumption and the way the 1980s lifestyle has been portrayed in the 21st century movies have been mainly inconsistent with revolutionary values. In fact, the 1980s has been painted as a "ridiculous", "shameful" and "bygone" era in today's cinema.

This article reports on a sociopsychological study designed to investigate the components of 21st century teachers’ professional competencies in the English as a foreign language (EFL) context in Iran. A total number of 30 members of the English language teaching (ELT) professional community including experienced university teacher educators, supervisors in the private sector, teacher trainers, and EFL teachers in the public and private sectors, participated in this study. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. For data analysis, qualitative content analysis was used. An independent coder who was an expert in this field was suggested to code one part of interview transcription randomly. An inter-coder agreement of 94.77% was gained. After analyzing the data, six main categories of professional competencies of a 21st century EFL teacher were identified: personality factors, interpersonal factors, professional factors, factors related to teaching materials, learner factors, and assessment factors. The findings contributed empirical evidence to an understanding of Iranian EFL teachers’ professional competencies in their teaching profession in the 21st century that can be utilized as a framework for the improvement of teacher education policy and the design and implementation of teacher-training programs.

New Urbanism is increasingly applied to revitalize diverse urban neighborhoods. New Urbanism relies on an ideal of “community” that makes its suitability for these contexts questionable. This article examines the use of New Urbanism with new movements in 21st century and relation of both. The 21st century has been a time of rapid change across nearly every dimension, from science and healthcare to technology and communication. Art, of course, is no exception. With massive changes in how we consume art to how we create it, from how artists make a living to how we even categorize art in the first place, we are left to contend with issues that at one time did not exist, or at least existed differently.21st-century art is a burgeoning field of practice, research, and publication, making it an incredibly dynamic field of study. Many important topics have been resonating in the new century and inspiring new thinking and scholarly debate, such as the surge of bio art in response to scientific research in the life sciences, and the critical theory known as relational aesthetics that developed in response to an increase in art that invites viewers’ participation and interaction.The article presents rate of adaptation between a 21st century art architecture movements and New Urbanism. Recommendations suggest alternative planning and design strategies to support urban and architecture.

The main goal of education is learning and change in behavior which has been revolutionized in the 21st century due to the rapid and widespread changes in science. The traditional approach to education does no longer meet the learners’ needs, necessitating new changes in educational curricula. This study was designed to determine the factors influencing learning in the 21st century and find out the students’ viewpoints on this issue. This is a descriptive study aiming at determining the students’ views on new approaches to learning in the 21st century. To do so, a researcher-made questionnaire was designed. It contained 30 questions in 3 sections including demographic data, background questions and two open questions about their suggestions and criticisms. The reliability and validity of the questionnaire was pilot-tested and measured, which proved to be describable. 150 students participating in university summer schools in Shiraz were enrolled. The questionnaires were sent to the students in person and through electronic mails. The students were asked to return the completed questionnaires to the given email address. The data were analyzed in SPSS, version 14, using descriptive statistics of frequency, mean, percentage and standard deviation, one sample t-test. p<0. 05 was considered as statistically significant. 150 questionnaires were appropriately filled out and given to the researchers. The results indicated that, according to the students, 6 factors including the use of computer in teaching, enhancement of virtual learning, the use of mobile in relations, enjoyment of electronic learning contexts, the learning focus on attitudes and the facilitating role of the lectures were the most influential factors in learning. On the other hand, the government’s responsibility and responsiveness, creativity and risk taking, increase in the social relationship among the learners, focus on practical skills, and management were considered as the least influential factors in learning in the 21st century. It seems that the students philosophically tend to approve constructivism and cooperative learning which is learner-centered as compared to conventional education which is teacher-contended. According to experts, this type of viewpoint is in the same line with new approaches to teaching and education in the present era. Moreover, it impacts the reforms, complementation and expansion of methodology greatly.

In this study, changes of aridity index (AI), reference evapotranspiration (ET0) and precipitation were investigated in six stations located in the west and northwest of Iran over 1966-2010, 2011-2040, 2041-2070 and 2071-2100 periods. The outputs of HadCM3 under A2 and B2 emission scenarios were downscaled using statistical downscaling approach by Statistical downscaling model (SDSM). Mann-Kendall trend test was applied to assess the significance of trends of aridity index, reference evapotranspiration and precipitation in 1966-2010. The results of Mann-Kendall test revealed that there was a significant decreasing trend in AI and precipitation at the level of 95% over 1966-2010 in most of the surveyed stations. The negative trends of AI during winter, spring, summer and autumn were significant at five, four, zero and two of six surveyed stations, respectively. This indicates that reduced wintertime aridity index plays an important role in downward trend of annual aridity index in the studied area. The results also showed that AI, averaged across all stations, would decline by 8.0, 14.7 and 34.3% under A2 and 12.6, 12.5 and 20.1% under B2 over the early, middle and late 21st century relative to the baseline period (1966-2010), respectively, indicating a drier climate in northwest and west of country over the 21st century. On seasonal scale, the greatest decrease of AI is expected in summertime under A2 and springtime under B2 over the 21st century. AI, averaged over all stations, will most likely approach 0.2 indicating a severe reduction of aridity index in the studied area under A2. In some regions such as Tabriz, increased ET0 and decline of precipitation will cause a shift from semi-arid to arid climatic condition over the 21st century.

The purpose of this study was to identify the challenges of the higher education system in the 21st century and the need for curriculum orientations according to these challenges. In the present study, a qualitative approach and a combination method (research synthesis) were used. The statistical society included the related and available theoretical and research theories, which were proposed since the beginning of the 21st century (2001-2016) at the national and international levels, and the studies that were conducted before the beginning of the 21st century. The data were collected at two stages through targeted sampling and theoretical saturation criterion. The data analysis was done through content analysis using a comprehensive (quantitative, qualitative) approach. The quantitative phase was conducted through descriptive method and analyzing the format of the content. And in the content analysis the data grid network was analyzed. In addition, the Peer review and expert survey were used for the purpose of comparing the validity of the data, the review and adaptation of the data with the information sources and for estimating the reliability of the data and the proposed model. Finally, the findings revealed eight components of the environmental crisis, quality, lifelong learning, information and communication technology, mass education, privatization, globalization and internationalization. The findings also showed the challenges of higher education curriculum in the 21st century in four dimensions: 1) access dimension; 2) responsiveness dimension; 3) technological dimension, and 4) dynamic curriculum dimension.

Known as what educational contexts do not teach, null curriculum has been considered one of the most significant types of curricula due to its absence, being left out or overlooked. This non-existent curriculum brings an important theoretical tool to the field of curriculum development for the idea that something which is not offered to students has an educational significance and effect. To follow the purpose of the study which is teachers' perspectives on the null curriculum at the BA level, 300 university instructors were selected to participate in this study. To answer the research questions various statistical methods (one-way ANOVA, independent sample t-test, Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Scheffe’s test) have been utilized. Results of this quantitative study revealed that among the sub-constructs of the 21st century, critical thinking, collaboration skills, creativity and innovation skills, self-direction skills, technological literacy, global and local connection skills, economic and financial literacy, business and entrepreneurial literacy and media literacy should be considered as aspects of the null curriculum in TEFL curriculum in BA level in Iran, and they should be added to the present curriculum; however, communication skills are not regarded as aspects of null. In addition, Iranian EFL university instructors’ ratings on different components of 21st-century skills as one aspect of the null curriculum significantly differed. Finally, a model was proposed to describe the relationship between the ratings of the components of 21st-century skills as one aspect of the null curriculum by Iranian EFL university instructors. The findings of the present study can help to a better understanding of the ELT curriculum, aspects of the null curriculum, and 21st-century skills in the Iranian context.

The impacts of potential climate change on the surface climate variables can be appraised through the projections of the global circulation onto the target variables, considering that the observed climate shifts are commonly associated with the changing patterns of the general circulations (Fraedrich et al, 2001). Since a combination of climate variables are utilized to develop climate classification schemes, they are useful for validating the outputs of the general circulation models (GCMs). The Köppen climate classification (Köppen, 1936), as the widely used climate classification method, is well suited for simultaneously validating the temperature and precipitation model outputs, considering that it takes into account both precipitation and the near-surface air temperature as the major input variables, as well as their annual cycles and linkage with the natural vegetation patterns (Kalvova et al, 2003). Therefore, such a climate classification allows for an outlook on the possible future shifts in the climate zones under a changing climate. Many researchers applied the Köppen climate classification to the general circulation model outputs in order to assess the shifts in the climate zones caused by the foreseen climate changes, represented by the GCMs (Fraedrich et al, 2001; Diaz and Eischeid, 2007; De Castro et al, 2007; Ruble and Kottek, 2010; Chen and Chen, 2013; Chan et al, 2016; Engelbrecht and Engelbrecht, 2016). The present work aimed at investigating the shifts in the Iranian climate zones induced by the possible climate changes in the 21st century. Monthly total precipitation of the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) and the mean monthly temperature of the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia, both having 0.5 degree spatial resolution, were used for computing present time (1951-2000 time period) Köppen-Geiger climate classification for Iran. Following Rubel and Kottek (2010), the global temperature and precipitation projections corresponding to the period 2001 to 2100 were also taken from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research dataset, TYNSC2.03 (Mitchell et al., 2004), to compute Köppen-Geiger climate classification for the 21st century. The TYNSC2.03 consists of a total of 20 GCM runs, combining 4 possible future worlds of emission scenarios (A2, B1, B2, A1F1) described by SRES (ARNELL et al., 2004) with 5 state-of-the-art climate models, namely the Hadley Centre Coupled Model Version 3 (HadCM3), the National Center for Atmospheric Research-Parallel Climate Model (NCARPCM), the Second Generation Coupled Global Climate Model (CGCM2), the Industrial Research Organization-Climate Model Version 2 (CSIRO2) and the European Centre Model Hamburg Version 4 (ECHam4). The Köppen-Geiger climate types of the present time were computed on the basis of the GPCC precipitation and CRU temperature datasets for 1951-2000 and 1976-2000 time periods. The 21st century Köppen-Geiger climate types were further computed for 1901-1925, 1926-1950, 1951-975 and 1976-2100 time sections of the TYNSC2.03 datasets.
The comparison of the climate classifications of 1951-2000 and 1976-2000 time periods highlighted certain signals of change in the Iranian climate zones in the latter half of the 20th century. The most obvious changes were the tendency of northwestern Iran to a drier climate and the extensive retreatment of BWk climate type in the central and eastern Iran in favor of BWh climate type in the last quartile of the 20th century. Shifts and changes in the climate zones of Iran were more profoundly observed in the climate classification maps of the 21st century, particularly in the final quarter of the century. Except for A2 and A1F1 pessimistic scenarios which showed the maximum climate shifts in Iran, all the scenarios considered in this study more or less agree in displaying moderate changes in the climate zones of Iran. In general, based on the pessimistic scenarios, northwestern Iran is extremely susceptible to an extensive climate shift in the future. Nevertheless, all the scenarios indicate that northwestern Iran tends to have a much drier and warmer climate in the second half of the 21st century. Moreover, the Csb climate type, currently the main climate type of most parts of the Zagros mountainous areas of western Iran, will be replaced by Bsk and Bsh climate types at the end of the 21st century. Obviously, the BWk climate type will disappear from the country at the end of the century due to the widespread invasion of the BWh climate type in the central and eastern Iran, indicating an anticipated widespread desertification in almost all parts of the country, particularly in the northwest of Iran, under a changing climate.

Globalization is one of the concepts which has been entered in social science, politics and economic spheres in 21st century and seriously has influenced on Governmental frameworks, geographic borders of countries, cultural norms and etc. However, according to all of certain beliefs and views about globalization and credence that know globalization as an open window to the third millennium, certainly and emphatically the cited subject has been born and propagated since 18th century. Mainly, new discussions such as Globalization of Education, Global Higher Education and Global Labor Force has been added on the concept of globalization in 21st century, especially in recent decade.
This research is practical in terms of target and a descriptive- survey in methodology. Statistical society includes all of the specialists and experts in the field of higher education.
Obtained results by applying t-test by accuracy of 99% and 62 degree of freedom (df:62) show that status of having multilingual universities with flexible structures and appropriate connections with foreign prestigious universities is in low level, though status of components like empowerment faculties, existence of modern technologies and altered lesson plans are in desirable situation.