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1 – 10 of 667Pauline A.M. Bremner and Carol Air
This study adds to the existing body of knowledge on the benefits to learners of using an interdisciplinary design thinking (DT) pedagogical approach taking the form of a micro…
Abstract
Purpose
This study adds to the existing body of knowledge on the benefits to learners of using an interdisciplinary design thinking (DT) pedagogical approach taking the form of a micro credential with an extra curricula workshop.
Design/methodology/approach
The interpretivist research examined opinion via nine semi-structured interviews with learners who had participated in a workshop. The interviews focussed on demographic information, learning strategies, workshop interdisciplinary benefits and being taught via DT. The recorded interviews and transcriptions were analysed via NVivo and content analysis.
Findings
The results are themed into development opportunities, future learning, making meaning and sense and practical application of knowledge and skills reflection for the students. The DT pedagogy worked well for the students who confirmed university learning should be this way, adding to the debate on embedding engaging interdisciplinary methods to embed entrepreneurship and innovation in the curriculum.
Originality/value
The research is original as the use of DT has added value to the students' development and mindset. Developing graduates this way benefits the local and national economy, as the reach of graduates' transferability makes them fit for the future.
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Katrina E. Forbes-McKay, Pauline A.M. Bremner, Pamela Johnston and Carol Air
This study addresses gaps in the existing literature on students' understanding of Independent Learning (IL), whilst exploring the link between levels of IL, growth mindset…
Abstract
Purpose
This study addresses gaps in the existing literature on students' understanding of Independent Learning (IL), whilst exploring the link between levels of IL, growth mindset, motivated strategies for learning and academic performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Three hundred and eighty-six university students recruited via opportunistic sampling completed an online survey to measure: understanding and level of IL, Motivated Strategies for Learning (MSL) (Duncan and McKeachie, 2005) and growth mindset (Dweck, 2000). Interaction with the university Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and academic grades were also measured. A correlational design was implemented, and a Spearman Rho was calculated to explore the relationship between level of IL, MSL and growth mindset. A between-subjects design using independent measures t-test was employed to determine the significance of any difference in level of IL and VLE engagement according to academic grade.
Findings
Whilst most students: considered themselves an IL and understood what IL was, the majority erroneously believed it meant learning alone or without help. Level of IL, however, was positively associated with motivational beliefs (self-efficacy and mindset), cognitive strategies (rehearsal, elaboration, organisation and critical thinking), and metacognitive strategies (time management and self-regulation). Further, those with grades A-C scored significantly higher than those with grades D and below on cognitive strategies (elaboration and organisation). Those attaining higher grades also interacted with the VLE significantly more frequently and regularly than those attaining lower grades.
Originality/value
This study adds to the existing literature by highlighting the positive relationship between level of IL, MSL, mindset and academic achievement. It also addresses the under-explored potential for VLE engagement in predicting grades amongst on-campus courses. Given that cognitive strategies and VLE engagement differentiate the high and low achievers, interventions to develop such skills may enhance academic achievement.
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Alistair R. Anderson, Sohail Younis, Hina Hashim and Carol Air
The paper investigates an unusual form of social enterprising located in a poor region of Pakistan. The purpose of this paper is to examine a novel form of micro social…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper investigates an unusual form of social enterprising located in a poor region of Pakistan. The purpose of this paper is to examine a novel form of micro social enterprise. Their form and functions are considered, examining how they conform to what is expected of a social enterprise. The extreme cases are analysed to reflect on what constitutes the explanatory characteristics of a social enterprise.
Design/methodology/approach
Information on examples of micro social entrepreneurship was collected from the troubled context of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a very poor region of Pakistan. Using the constant comparison method, explanatory themes of structure and practice are drawn out.
Findings
These enterprising social agents were engaged in opening up an opportunity space for those disadvantaged by the context. Driven by a strong sense of community responsibility, they drew upon limited, but culturally available resources. Relevance, embeddedness and informality were identified as structural characteristics, and bricolage and effectuation, frugality and social responsibility emerged as practices. Not only did context shape what they did and how they did it, but the purpose of these enterprises was also to help reshape context. From this analysis, it is argued that conceptual concerns should be directed towards behaviours; it should be asked how are enterprises agents of social change, and how are they enterprising?
Research limitations/implications
It is argued that a robust indicator for social enterprise is not what they are, but what they do. Consequently, for understanding and theorising, it is suggested that the focus remain on enterprising. This study was limited to unusual cases which may be atypical and ungeneralisable. Nonetheless, the concept – enterprising – may have theoretical applications.
Social implications
In reviewing the analysis and findings, it is noted that the proposals in the paper may comprise the early stages of a theory of social entrepreneurship practice. There may be considerable explanatory power in examining the interplays between the agency of social enterprises and the structures that are constituted in the formal and informal institutions with whom they interact.
Originality/value
Descriptively, the account draws attention to a possibly neglected phenomenon. Moreover, the extreme cases draw out the significance of a localised practice. Conceptually, there may be value in prioritising practice in social enterprise rather than form and structure.
Cathrine Le Maistre and Anthony Paré
This article reports on a longitudinal study of school‐to‐work transitions in four professions: education, social work, physiotherapy, and occupational therapy. Each of these…
Abstract
This article reports on a longitudinal study of school‐to‐work transitions in four professions: education, social work, physiotherapy, and occupational therapy. Each of these professions is characterized by the need for an undergraduate degree for certification; extensive, supervised internships before graduation; and, to a greater or lesser extent, supervision for beginning professionals after graduation. Students in their last years of university, beginning professionals in their first years of practice, and the experienced practitioners who supervise both these groups were interviewed. The article draws on theory and data to help explain why the move from classroom to workplace is often so difficult, and make recommendations to stakeholders in the training and induction of new practitioners in these professions. The recommendations may be extrapolated to other workplaces.
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Richard F. Kosobud, Houston H. Stokes, Carol D. Tallarico and Brian L. Scott
This study develops the economic rationale for the inclusion of new environmental financial assets, tradable pollution rights, in a well‐diversified portfolio. These new assets…
Abstract
This study develops the economic rationale for the inclusion of new environmental financial assets, tradable pollution rights, in a well‐diversified portfolio. These new assets are generated and their valuation determined in the market‐incentive environmental regulatory approach called emissions trading, especially the cap‐and‐trade variant. This approach has been gaining wide acceptance and approval. A leading example is the sulfur dioxide market where tradable allowances are assets that may be held by private investors. Transactions in this market have reached volumes indicative of a high degree of liquidity. Comparable tradable rights in other pollutants are under active development. We explain the design and workings of these markets and demonstrate empirically, on the basis of time series data, that sulfur dioxide allowances have rates of return and yield distributions that make them candidates for inclusion in asset portfolios. We conjecture that other tradable pollution rights will exhibit similar properties when sufficient data are available. Financial analysts and accountants are likely to play an increasing role in advising investors about the role of these assets in a well‐diversified portfolio.
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Technical education in the twentieth century played an important role in the cultural life of Australia in ways are that routinely overlooked or forgotten. As all education is…
Abstract
Purpose
Technical education in the twentieth century played an important role in the cultural life of Australia in ways are that routinely overlooked or forgotten. As all education is central to the cultural life of any nation this article traces the relationship between technical education and the national social imaginary. Specifically, the article focuses on the connection between art and technical education and does so by considering changing cultural representations of Australia.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing upon materials, that include school archives, an unpublished autobiography monograph, art catalogues and documentary film, the article details the lives and works of two artists, from different eras of twentieth century Australia. Utilising social memory as theorised by Connerton (1989, 2009, 2011), the article reflects on the lives of two Australian artists as examples of, and a way into appreciating, the enduring relationship between technical education and art.
Findings
The two artists, William Wallace Anderson and Carol Jerrems both products of, and teachers in, technical schools produced their own art that offered different insights into changes in Australia's national imaginary. By exploring their lives and work, the connections between technical education and art represent a social memory made material in the works of the artists and their representations of Australia's changing national imaginary.
Originality/value
This article features two artist teachers from technical schools as examples of the centrality of art to technical education. Through the teacher-artists lives and works the article highlights a shift in the Australian cultural imaginary at the same time as remembering the centrality of art to technical education. Through the twentieth century the relationship between art and technical education persisted, revealing the sensibilities of the times.
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Thomas O'Neal, Hokey Min, Daniel Cherobini and Seong-Jong Joo
The authors employed the three different versions (Charnes–Cooper–Rhodes, Banker–Charnes–Cooper and slack-based measure of efficiency) of data envelopment analysis (DEA) to…
Abstract
Purpose
The authors employed the three different versions (Charnes–Cooper–Rhodes, Banker–Charnes–Cooper and slack-based measure of efficiency) of data envelopment analysis (DEA) to evaluate the comparative efficiency/inefficiency of aircraft maintenance performance during the previous 41 months in United States Air Force (USAF). As a complimentary tool, the authors also adopted Tobit regression analysis to identify factors affecting efficiencies and inefficiencies.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper aims to measure the relative efficiency of maintenance performances for a type of USAF aircraft in an effort to enhance aviation safety and combat readiness.
Findings
Through this study, the authors have two noteworthy findings. These are (1) an increased number of “cannibalization” (extracting necessary parts from the existing aircraft) practices tended to reduce maintenance efficiency; (2) The number of mission-capable aircraft turned out to be the most important factor for maintenance performance efficiency.
Originality/value
This paper is one of the first studies on aircraft maintenance that considered popular but neglected cannibalization practices as a new variable for assessing the maintenance efficiency. In addition, this paper is one of the few studies that performed a post-ad hoc analysis as a follow-up to DEA analysis.
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Within the HRM literature, health and safety occupies a somewhat rhetorical role. Examines HRM and the management of health and safety in the airline industry. Argues that in…
Abstract
Within the HRM literature, health and safety occupies a somewhat rhetorical role. Examines HRM and the management of health and safety in the airline industry. Argues that in response to increasing competitive conditions, airlines have adopted a short‐termist, cost‐rational approach to HRM and health and safety, evidenced by a range of strategies aimed at securing reductions in operating costs and short‐term productivity gains, where profit is prioritised over employee health and safety. Concludes that HRM may have provided a smokescreen for irresponsible health and safety management in the airline industry, while a two‐tier assault on health and safety has taken place.
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Thomas Grigalunas, Simona Trandafrr, Meifeng Luo, James Opaluch and Suk-Jae Kwon
This paper analyzes two external costs often associated with port development, cost to fisheries from marine dredge disposal and damages from air pollution, using estimates of…
Abstract
This paper analyzes two external costs often associated with port development, cost to fisheries from marine dredge disposal and damages from air pollution, using estimates of development and operation for a proposed (but since cancelled) container port as a case study. For dredge disposal, a bio-economic model was used to assess short- and long-term and indirect (joodweb) damages to fisheries from marine disposal of clean sediments. In the case of air pollution, estimates of annual activity levels and emission coefficients are used to estimate incremental annual emissions of three key pollutants (NOx, HC and CO) for trucks, trains, yard vehicles, and vessels. These estimates allow for phasing in of strict new air pollution regulations. For both external costs, sensitivity analyses are used to reflect uncertainty. Estimates of shadow values in year 2002 dollars amount from $0.094 per cubic yard to $0.169 per cubic yard of clean dredged material for the selected disposal site and from $0.0584 per mile (jor current control standards) to $ 0. 0023 per mile (after phasing in of new regulations) for air pollution from heavy trucks.
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Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Tenn. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are…
Abstract
Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Tenn. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.