Crises are influencing the corporate sustainability. Long-term stakeholder value built in decades can be ruined by a middle scale crisis. In the new world of cyber-physical systems, scholars emphasize the decentralized, human–machine cooperation based disturbance handling. From information technology and communication (ICT) point of view the cyber-physical systems are ready for a sustainable, decentralized crisis management. The aim of the article is to present results of a research that has as objective to study the readiness of the human component of cyber-physical systems for a decentralized crisis management approach in industrial organizations. Two highly regulated industries—automotive and pharmaceutical industry- was selected; in all the studied organizations the continuous human-machine cooperation is a reality. The sample consisted of 151 respondents and a questionnaire-based survey was used. The study revealed the need for guidance and education for the personnel regarding the roles and competences of the different departments regarding the relationship with certain stakeholders. The study also reveals that apart from some explicitly regulated by law areas—fire safety, occupational health and safety, and some issues related to technological failures—the studied organizations are not prepared for unexpected situations. Also, our survey revealed that the members of the organization, others than top managers, are not prepared to handle ‘off the job-description’ situations.

In our research, we examined the development of complex problem-solving skills among 1st-year teachers training undergraduate students in engineering at Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania (N = 73). The research aimed to determine whether knowledge transfer works among students in interpreting life-like, specific problems. A worksheet was used as a measuring tool. In compiling it, we applied the concept that tasks include computer-transferable algorithms (such as cryptography process, parallel computing, and constraints), and their solution does not require any special IT knowledge, only structured and logical thinking. The research reports on the extent to which teacher training students have acquired knowledge and problem-solving strategies related to certain disciplines. The obtained data shed light on the fact that the lack of an interdisciplinary approach hinders the recognition of the connections between the different fields of education.   Keywords: Computational thinking; problem-solving skills; Teaching education.

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School closures induced by the COVID-19 crisis have led to the rethinking and reshaping of teacher training considering the norms of online and blended learning, and the pressure to embrace the possibilities offered by information and communications technology. We propose to examine the new perspectives and necessary changes related to three domains in which our institution – the Teacher Training Institute of Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Faculty of Technical and Human Sciences – offers training: foreign languages, social sciences, and engineering. Different areas of education have been affected in different ways by the pandemic. In language teaching, familiarity with pre-existing platforms and programs helped the transition to online education. In the field of social sciences, the transfer of theoretical information did not cause any particular problems, but the development of interpersonal relationships, interactivity, and communication became more difficult. In the domain of engineering, practical education has become nearly impossible, as in order to develop certain practical skills students need access to laboratories equipped with special tools, devices, and instruments. In our study, we will focus on ways of updating and developing our methodology courses based on new paradigms and good practices presented in the specialized literature, also reflecting on feedback received from our teacher trainees related to their difficulties and needs revealed by the shift to online teaching.

Developing problem-solving thinking became extremely important in a well-functioning school system. It must be an integral part of the educational programme as the development of competence in the training of students with the right skills is possible through the processing of a specific curriculum. The purpose of our present survey was to examine the problem-solving skills of the 1st year students of Sapientia University. In our study, we report on the achievements of humanities and science students in solving complex tasks requiring computational thinking. The result data suggest that there is a close correlation between the level of problem-solving skills and the level of reading comprehension and writing skills. For each task, the number of those who tried to solve the task was high, but much more less could reach from recognising to understand and solve the problem. Keywords: Problem-solving, computational thinking, reading comprehension.