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The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which teaching staff cooperated with librarians in collection development, specifically in relation to electronic resources, and to identify barriers they encountered while performing collection development activities.

A mixed methods approach was adopted for the study. Quantitative and qualitative techniques of data collection and analysis were used to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the research topic. Data were gathered through a self-administered questionnaire and interviews. A total of 149 faculty members completed the questionnaire, yielding a response rate of 51.2%, while 16 library staff members were interviewed to obtain qualitative data.

The majority of the teaching staff who participated in the study affirmed that they had cooperated with subject librarians in collection development. A high percentage (62.4%) of the faculty members had collaborated with subject librarians in collection development activities. Only 37.6% of the faculty members had not participated in collection development activities with subject librarians to acquire library electronic resources. According to faculty members, some of the main challenges affecting collection development at the University of Namibia were a lack of catalogues for electronic resources and a lack of lists of titles from vendors. Moreover, librarians were not always available to assist faculty members. It is recommended that faculty members be part of the process of selecting materials and that a good relationship be fostered between librarians and faculty members to bring value to collection development activities.

Collection development in respect of electronic resources is a complex process to be undertaken by a single entity and, therefore, requires the collaboration of all stakeholders involved. In the case of institutions of higher learning, these stakeholders include faculty, librarians and vendors. The emergence of a variety of e-resources demands a meticulous strategy on the part of libraries to ensure they can offer a wide range of up-to-date and accurate resources that meet the evolving needs of their users. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, studies that are similar to this one have not been conducted in Namibia before. This case study presents useful findings and lessons on faculty–librarian cooperation for effective collection development, not only at the University of Namibia library but also at other academic libraries in economies with similar characteristics.

Regional policy instruments are typically driven by economic rationales, from either a firm or industrial perspective. Yet too often, these rationales are taken as ex ante to the contexts within which firms and industries compete. Recent regional development research has urged a better link be developed between the individual, the firm, and their context, so as to understand the role of regions in supporting effective competitiveness of organizations. In this article, recent research themes are explored that may shed light on the nature of this relationship and that can be developed into an investigative methodology that could aid policy practitioners in generating policy instruments that reflect differing societal constructions of SME reality.

The paper aims to explore the effect of problem-based learning (PBL) embedding degree and education level on individual perception, as well as the moderating effect of nationality.

The paper first conceptualizes PBL embedding degree which means the extent of applying PBL. It takes an empirical study on an international MBA class in one of the first-class universities in China. An investigation is taken with the designed “PBL-based Cognitive Perception Scale” and an Ordered Probit Model is constructed.

The findings of this study are as follows: PBL embedding degree has a significant effect on the cognitive perception of student, which varies in different dimensions; the educational level of international student positively affects the cognitive perception toward PBL; and nationality may moderate the relationship between the PBL embedding degree and individual perception.

The paper replenishes the investigation and application of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning. By conceptualizing PBL embedding degree, the paper extends the research perspectives of PBL and proposes a subjective method on the evaluation of PBL. The paper also may provide a guidance for PBL curriculum design with sustainable development of education.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the potential for implementing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into the civil engineering bachelor degree in the School of Civil Engineering at Universitat Politècnica de València (Spain).

All the 2019/2020 course syllabi were analyzed to diagnose at which extent each subject within the program curriculum contributes to achieving the different SDGs.

The results show a promising starting point as 75% of the courses address or have potential to address targets covering the 2030 Agenda. This paper also presents actions launched by the School of Civil Engineering to boost the SDGs into the civil engineering curriculum.

This paper presents a rigorous and systematic method that can be carried out in different bachelor degrees to find the subjects that have the potential to incorporate the SDGs into their program. This paper also presents actions launched by the Civil Engineering School to boost the SDGs into the civil engineering curriculum.

This study aims to assess the socio-cognitive transformation and subject knowledge development of international students studying in China's universities with diverse learning environment.

The data was collected through on-line survey and quantitative approach was adopted on a Likert scale to assess students' cognitive and social development as a responsible mind-set, ethical awareness, understanding cultural diversity and subject knowledge development. The assessment scale consisted of 25 statements to cover the foundational indicators that represent socio-cognitive transformation. The questionnaire was pilot tested for internal consistency by calculating Cronbach’s alpha. Furthermore, exploratory factor analysis was applied to ensure the traits of the construct intended to measure. A total of 316 participants responded to the survey. With descriptive statistics, X² of association and Friedman’s two-way analysis of variance by rank was applied to test the hypothesis.

This study argues that diverse learning environment has positive impact on learners’ socio-cognitive transformation. It enhances students' capability to understand cultural values to accept diversity and awareness about global community issues and also subject knowledge skill development.

In the current century, study abroad programs have increased the mobility of international students, and the role of higher education institutions has become immense, multifaceted and dynamic. Universities are taking a position to play a considerable role in creating learning opportunities for awareness of societal issues and transform social behavior. Studying abroad programs is a growing concept in response to learners' cogitative and socialized transformation. There is an absence of research conducted to explore the impact of a diverse cultural environment on the socio-cognitive transformation of international students. Therefore, the current study focused on exploring the cognitive and societal development of international students studying in China.

This paper aims to examine and discuss learning conditions for teachers, in the context of choice and decentralisation reforms.

This article is based on analyses of 30 interviews with Swedish upper secondary teachers focusing on their experiences of their conditions for learning.

This paper shows how teachers at upper secondary level identify their subjects as the most important to learn more within. Secondly, we also show that spatial and temporal aspects of organisation of work seem to influence the conditions for subject learning, where the interviewees in many ways contrast their own view to how they describe their work being organised.

Our findings may have currency for other professional groups with similar governance-contexts, and teachers in other similar governance-contexts.

These findings indicate the need to further develop workplace learning strategies founded upon the understanding of schools as workplaces, taking occupational values into account. Furthermore, these strategies should be seen as a core Human Resource Management issue, as they can potentially enhance the work environment, thus increasing the profession’s attractiveness.

We show that spatial and temporal aspects of organisation of work seem to influence the conditions for the sought after subject learning, and that the teachers and the school management seem to identify with different and clashing ideals in terms of what, when, how and with whom to learn.

This study aims to provide a comprehensive review and bibliometric analysis of the literature in the field of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education over the past 15 years, with a specific focus on global distribution and research trends.

This study collected 1,718 documents from the Web of Science (WOS) database and analyzed their timeline distribution, geographical distribution, research topics, subject areas, learning stages and citation burst using a bibliometric approach with VOSviewer and Citespace.

Results indicated that: overall, STEM education has increasingly gained scholarly attention and is developing diversely by emphasizing interdisciplinary, cross-domain and regional collaboration. In terms of global collaboration, a collaborative network with the USA in the center is gradually expanding to a global scope. In terms of research themes, four key topics can be outlined including educational equity, pedagogy, empirical effects and career development. Social, cultural and economic factors influence the way STEM education is implemented across different countries. The developed Western countries highlighted educational equity and disciplinary integration, while the developing countries tend to focus more on pedagogical practices. As for research trends, eastern countries are emphasizing humanistic leadership and cultural integration in STEM education; in terms of teachers’ professional development, teachers’ abilities of interdisciplinary integration, technology adoption and pedagogy application are of the greatest importance. With regards to pedagogy, the main focus is for developing students’ higher-order abilities. In terms of education equity, issues of gender and ethnicity were still the hottest topics, while the unbalanced development of STEM education across regions needs further research.

This study provides a global landscape of STEM education along the timeline, which illustrates the yearly progressive development of STEM education and indicates the future trends.