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During oral exams at the German distance learning university, we noticed that students fear that they will be faced with questions that they have not anticipated. In our opinion, this is mainly because students have no chance to train and thereby gather positive experiences with exam situations as they are distributed all over Germany and thus it is difficult for them to meet each other. In this paper, we present a design space of 23 learning gadgets, i.e. tools that support collaborative learning, to allow collaborative exam preparation in peer‐based distributed student groups. We discuss this design space according to eight dimensions of the concept of FLOW (Csikszentmihalyi, 1991) that constitutes enjoyable situations. Two of the learning gadgets were implemented and integrated in the CURE environment, a web‐based collaborative learning platform that was developed to support different collaborative learning scenarios, e.g. collaborative exercises or virtual seminars. We discuss these learning gadgets in more detail and show how they promise an enjoyable collaborative exam preparation.

The International English Language Teaching System (IELTS) examination in Academic English includes two writing tasks: summarizing information from a graph or chart, and writing a short essay to support a position on an issue of opinion. The aim of this small-scale exploratory survey was to find out from teachers and students their attitudes towards the usefulness of, and preparation for, the two IELTS writing tasks. ‘Usefulness’ and ‘impact/washback’ are components of test validity, thus eliciting responses (via questionnaires) from 2 major stakeholders (teachers n=17, students n=36) in this high-stakes benchmark exam would provide information about perceptions of validity. The results indicate that both IELTS task one and task two are perceived by teachers and students as having a positive effect on class-based writing skills and bearing a reasonable relationship with skills needed at faculty level. Lack of usefulness was reported mainly by students in the Sharia and Law and Business faculties.

Purpose – The chapter explores the newly launched Teacher Certification Examinations (TCEs) in one of the post-Soviet countries, Georgia, and describes the experiences and perceptions of Georgian teachers going through the process of teacher certification. The qualitative study develops an in-depth understanding of the perceived strength and weaknesses of TCE in Georgia.Methodology – This case study was carried out in the spring of 2012 in 17 Georgian schools. School teachers and school principals from public and private schools were interviewed. A convenience sampling technique was used to recruit all participants. In addition to data obtained from research participants, various policy documents, laws on general education, minister's decrees, and statistical databases are analyzed and incorporated into the study.Findings – The data analyses showed that while the certification policy, in some way, increased teachers’ social status and prestige in the society, it failed to meet teachers’ expectations regarding remuneration policy and professional development opportunities. The TCE, without an adequate compensation policy as well as other types of incentives to increase teacher motivation, creates only a technical threshold for teachers to obtain a teacher certificate to secure jobs, rather than being a catalyst for a genuine professional development opportunity.Value – The study is the first attempt to empirically examine the teacher certification process in Georgia, thus it fills a knowledge gap that exists in the field. The Georgian TCE is the first TCE in south Caucasus; thus, the study of the implementation and outcomes of the Georgian reform provides a unique opportunity for the region and for the rest of the developing world to learn from the successes and failures of the reform process.

University students often view economics as one of the most challenging subjects. In this paper, we explore whether the same attitude is shared by students at an offshore campus. The analysis is based on a survey of onshore and offshore students in an Australian university. The focus of the paper is on identifying similarities/differences in student attitudes towards economics, their degree of motivation, satisfaction with the content and the delivery of lectures and tutorials, major challenges, and student profile characteristics. A non‐parametric test indicates significant differences between the two cohorts, in terms of their age, enrolment status, paid work commitments, prior study of economics, their motivation and approach to studying the subject, and satisfaction with both the content and the delivery of the lectures/tutorials. The findings in this study are helpful in developing strategies for enhancing student learning in culturally diverse cohorts.

The purpose of this paper is to report research findings on the perspectives of overseas trained psychiatrists (OTPs) on the “The Overseas Trained Specialist Up-Skilling Programme” (OTSUP), initiated in Queensland, Australia to assist OTP's to prepare for the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrist (RANZCP) Fellowship examination. Ascertaining and utilisation of OTP's views about the programme will enable improvements to be made to the programme and better implementation.

An exploratory qualitative design was utilised for the study in order to provide insights on the quality and effectiveness of the OTSUP.

Centred around two main themes. The first theme included participant's knowledge about the up-skilling programme with its subthemes of “finding out about the programme”; “perceived aims of the programme”; and “educational events supporting the programme”. The second theme revolved around participants’ perceived benefits of the up-skilling programme with its four subthemes such as, first, individualised support, second, the opportunity to improve practical and communication skills through OTSUP educational events, third, access to peer support and fourth, provision of specific information on the RANZCP examination process.

Limitations as this was a qualitative study, the findings can only be applicable to a similar context. Nevertheless, the findings do provide support for an educational initiative that assisted the OTS to better prepare for the RANZCP examination. To gain further insight into challenges faced by OTS with successfully passing the examination in less frequent attempts, programmes such as the OTSUP need to be improved and sustained.

The findings provide valuable insight into how OTPs view the up-skilling programme. Moreover, the findings pave the way forward in how the programme can be improved in the future to assist OTPs prepare for the RANZCP examination.

This paper reports on the introduction of a scheme based on the principles of Supplemental Instruction into the accounting curriculum at the University of New South Wales, Australia. Supplemental Instruction is argued to have a number of benefits which complement the traditional faculty facilitated lectures, tutorials and seminars. The scheme was introduced into the first course in accounting with a view to improving student performance, reducing withdrawal rates, and encouraging the development of communication and interpersonal skills. Qualitative and quantitative data was collected in order to understand how students perceived the scheme, and what effect the scheme had on student performance. The results suggest that the scheme has had a positive impact on student performance. In providing this account, we hope to assist accounting academics identify subjects where Supplemental Instruction might be of benefit to students, and the issues to consider when tailoring the program to the specific needs of the subject.

Since Sarasvathy’s (2001) research on decision-making logics of expert entrepreneurs, effectuation has become a cornerstone in entrepreneurship education. Effectuation is not only subjectified in entrepreneurship education, but has also become conceptualized as a method in the learning process. The purpose of this paper is to explore how students, who are novice entrepreneurs, react to working effectually and which barriers they face when applying effectual decision-making logics in a university course.

A student-centered process course in entrepreneurship with 142 students provides a unique opportunity to explore the phenomena. Participant/teacher observations, written and oral work from the students and finally formal and informal written evaluations of the course by the students provide comprehensive data.

The authors find that students experience three barriers to using effectuation. These are: noviceness, regarding the project as a “school project,” perceived lack of legitimacy of both the instructors and the process.

The contribution of this study is threefold: first, to contribute to the understanding of the applicability of effectuation for novice entrepreneurs in the classroom; second, to articulate the factors that hinder entrepreneurial learning when effectuation is used in a process course; and third, to shed light on the importance of contextual factors for individual learning.

During the past decade, fast-paced changes created a new environment organisations need to adapt to in an agile way. To support their transformation, organisations are rethinking their approach to learning. They are moving away from traditional instructor-centred, standardised classroom-based learning settings. Instead, learning needs to be tailored to the individuals’ needs, available anywhere at any time and needs to enable learners to build their network. The development of digital tools, specifically network technology and social collaboration platforms, has enabled these new learning concepts.

The use of these new learning concepts in organisations also has implications for higher education. The present case study, therefore, investigates how universities can best prepare future employees and leaders for these new working environments, both on a content level and a methodological level. It also investigates if these new learning concepts can support universities in dealing with a changing environment.

The investigated case is a traditional face-to-face leadership lecture for a heterogeneous group of students. It was reconceptualised as a personalised and social collaborative learning setting, delivered through a social collaboration platform as the primary learning environment. Initial evaluation results indicate positive motivational effects, experience sharing and changes in perception of the student − lecturer relationship. The findings also supported previous challenges of computer-supported collaborative learning settings, such as the perception of a higher cognitive load. The implications of these results for the future teaching and business models of higher education are discussed. In addition, the potential of these computer-supported social collaborative learning settings is outlined.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the separate and combined effects of three individual characteristics on training gains achieved in a leadership development program designed to enhance participants' emotional intelligence (EI). The overall purpose was to test heretofore untested propositions advanced by various theorists concerning the impact of openness to experience (OE), self‐efficacy (SE), and receptivity to feedback (RF) on training outcomes.

This empirical study utilized a sample of 135 fully‐employed business students in a treatment/control group research design.

The findings suggest that leadership development professionals will likely derive differential EI training gains depending upon participants' status across several variables. Receptivity to feedback was directly associated with EI training gains while the SE‐RF and SE‐OE interactions were predictors of EI training gains.

The results hold implications for organizations that seek to enhance the EI of leaders both effectively and efficiently. The application of these findings to a range of leadership development practices and to training efforts that focus on other competencies are discussed.

The paper connects EI to one of the major challenges facing leaders and leadership development professionals in the future: managing change and offers recommendations regarding research on other factors that are likely to optimize results achieved through efforts to develop the EI of leaders.

This is the first study to investigate the impact of these three individual characteristics on training gains achieved. The paper's findings suggest that some individuals are better candidates for EI training and presents a method to identify them.

This paper aims to explore the outcomes experienced by young people leaving care in Ireland today through the theoretical lens of social capital.

This paper presents selected qualitative data and its analysis that was gathered through a series of in-depth semi-structured interviews with three key informants (care leavers). In gathering interview data, the Biographic-Narrative Interpretive Method (BNIM) was selected, as it allowed the research participants a great deal of autonomy in recounting significant events from their own lives.

In drawing upon the lived experience of these care leavers, this work will discuss how their in-care and post-care experiences shaped their exposure to and development of sources of social capital, which in turn proved to be a significant factor in shaping their in-care and post-care outcomes.

Care leavers remain systemically disadvantaged in comparison to young people who have not been in care. Research has shown that children in care and care leavers are often disadvantaged educationally and experience higher rates of homelessness, unemployment and social isolation. This paper discusses the role of “social capital”, i.e. relationships that provide access to social and material resources and opportunities, in shaping care leavers exposure to and experience of these disadvantages.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this work is the first in the Irish context to draw on the concept of social capital to explore its role in shaping the in-care and post-care experiences of care leavers in Ireland.