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1 – 10 of 52Teaching presentation skills is by no means an easy task. To teach such skills effectively, a teacher must help the students to learn how to (1) design and organize the…
Abstract
Teaching presentation skills is by no means an easy task. To teach such skills effectively, a teacher must help the students to learn how to (1) design and organize the presentation contenteffectively; (2) strengthen their verbal and nonverbal communication skills;and (3) master the use of visual aids. Often, the traditional face-to-face classroom setting falls short when the lecturer has to teach more than 100 students how to observe small details of body language and vocal skills. In this case, a blended learning mode — a hybrid of face-to-face and online learning — may be a better option than a pure face-to-face learning mode (Fang, Chow & Soo, 2012).
The purpose of this paperis to demonstrate how blended learning can be implemented to teach university students' presentation skills. In the spring term of 2013, ENGL A122F: Presentation Skills, a five-credit course for full-time undergraduate students, was first delivered via a blended learning approach at the Open University of Hong Kong. Attempting to combine the best features of the online and face-to-face modes of teaching, the blended delivery course incorporated video and interactive web-based components into the course outline.
In this paper, I share my experience of how presentation skills can be taught through video lectures and assessed through the online learning environment (OLE), alongside traditional teacher-led lectures and tutorials. Also, I discuss how the blended learning approach, compared with the traditional face-to-face teaching mode, can not only facilitate propositional knowing, but also help learners to achieveexperiential knowing, and presentational knowing (Heron & Reason, 2006). Last but not least, the paper reflects on students'feedback, as well as the challengeswhen implementing the blended learning mode.
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Anne Pässilä, Allan Owens, Paula Kuusipalo-Määttä, Tuija Oikarinen and Raquel Benmergui
In exploring the impact of reflective and work applied approaches, the authors are curious how vivid new insights and collective “Eureka” momentums occur. These momentums can be…
Abstract
Purpose
In exploring the impact of reflective and work applied approaches, the authors are curious how vivid new insights and collective “Eureka” momentums occur. These momentums can be forces for work communities to gain competitive advantages. However, the authors know little of how learning is actively involved in the processing of creating new insights and how such a turning to learning mode (Pässilä and Owens, 2016) can be facilitated. In the light of cultural studies and art education, the purpose of this paper is to explore how the method of dramatising characters (DC) in a specific innovation culture can be facilitated. In this viewpoint, the authors are suggesting one approach for this type of turning to learning which the authors call Beyond Text, outlining its theoretical underpinnings, its co-creative development and its application.
Design/methodology/approach
In this Beyond Text context, the authors are introducing the method of DC and the method of iStory both of which are the authors’ own design based on the theory of the four existing categories of a research-based theatre.
Findings
The findings of this viewpoint paper are that both iStory as well as DC methods are useful and practical learning facilitation processes and platforms that can be adopted for use in organisations for promoting reflexivity. Especially they can act as a bridge between various forms of knowing and consummate the other knowledge types (experiential, practical and propositional) in a way that advances practice-based innovation.
Originality/value
The originality and value of iStory and DC is that they can be utilised as dialogical evaluation methods when traditional evaluation strategies and pre-determined indicators are unusable.
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Lyndsay M.C. Hayhurst, Holly Thorpe and Megan Chawansky
The purpose of this study is to share how the learning impact of a remote workshop was improved through action research practices, especially action inquiry and critical…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to share how the learning impact of a remote workshop was improved through action research practices, especially action inquiry and critical reflexivity.
Design/methodology/approach
Research design detailed herein consists of one complete cycle of action and reflection. Methods used include: journaling into four territories of experience, free-form journaling, individual and joint reflection using four parts of speech and extended ways of knowing.
Findings
Action inquiry and critical reflexivity have shown themselves to be a potent means of improving the learning outcomes of remote Playing Lean workshops. Drawing on early insight, the author suggests several venues for further inquiry.
Originality/value
This paper contributes a novel combination of action research practices that can be used for improving other learning initiatives as well, and an example of how to question the veracity of qualitative findings.
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Bob Doherty, Yaadwinder Sidhu, Tony Heron, Chris West, Alice Seaton, Jane Gulec, Patricia Prado and Paulina Flores Martinez
In this article, we offer a contribution to the emerging debate on the role of citizen participation in food system policy making. A key driver is a recognition that solutions to…
Abstract
In this article, we offer a contribution to the emerging debate on the role of citizen participation in food system policy making. A key driver is a recognition that solutions to complex challenges in the food system need the active participation of citizens to drive positive change. To achieve this, it is crucial to give citizens the agency in processes of designing policy interventions. This requires authentic and reflective engagement with citizens who are affected by collective decisions. One such participatory approach is citizen assemblies, which have been used to deliberate a number of key issues, including climate change by the UK Parliament's House of Commons. Here, we have undertaken analysis of a citizen food assembly organized in the City of York (United Kingdom). This assembly was a way of hearing about a range of local food initiatives in Yorkshire, whose aim is to both relocalise food supply and production, and tackle food waste. These innovative community-based business models, known as “food hubs”, are increasing the diversity of food supply, particularly in disadvantaged communities. Among other things, the assembly found that the process of design and sortation of the assembly is aided by the involvement of local stakeholders in the planning of the assembly. It also identified the potential for public procurement at the city level, to drive a more sustainable sourcing of food provision in the region. Furthermore, this citizen assembly has resulted in a galvanizing of individual agency with participants proactively seeking opportunities to create prosocial and environmental change in the food system.
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Bob Doherty, Jonathan Ensor, Tony Heron and Patricia Prado
In this article, we offer a contribution to the ongoing study of food by advancing a conceptual framework and interdisciplinary research agenda – what we term “food system…
Abstract
In this article, we offer a contribution to the ongoing study of food by advancing a conceptual framework and interdisciplinary research agenda – what we term “food system resilience”. In recent years, the concept of resilience has been extensively used in a variety of fields, but not always consistently or holistically. Here we aim to theorise systematically resilience as an analytical concept as it applies to food systems research. To do this, we engage with and seek to extend current understandings of resilience across different disciplines. Accordingly, we begin by exploring the different ways in which the concept of resilience is understood and used in current academic and practitioner literatures – both as a general concept and as applied specifically to food systems research. We show that the social-ecological perspective, rooted in an appreciation of the complexity of systems, carries significant analytical potential. We first underline what we mean by the food system and relate our understanding of this term to those commonly found in the extant food studies literature. We then apply our conception to the specific case of the UK. Here we distinguish between four subsystems at which our “resilient food systems” can be applied. These are, namely, the agro-food system; the value chain; the retail-consumption nexus; and the governance and regulatory framework. On the basis of this conceptualisation we provide an interdisciplinary research agenda, using the case of the UK to illustrate the sorts of research questions and innovative methodologies that our food systems resilience approach is designed to promote.
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Claudia Shwetzer, Alex Maritz and Quan Nguyen
The purpose of this paper is to add a holistic and dynamic approach to the emerging body of knowledge of entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs). It aims to synthesise research and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to add a holistic and dynamic approach to the emerging body of knowledge of entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs). It aims to synthesise research and related neoteric EE concepts by proposing a conceptual framework for the study of the composition and interactions of such systems.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors provide an emergent enquiry perspective by introducing a systematic literature review to inform the development of a conceptual framework, based upon theoretical underpinnings of institutional and network theory.
Findings
This paper highlights neoteric holistic and dynamic approaches to recent scholarship of EEs, including antecedents, related concepts, shortcomings, features, actors, components and resources, recommendations for application, network and institutional perspectives, pathways for future research, and ultimately, a conceptual framework merging aspects of entrepreneurial activity, value creation, EE elements, relational interactions and institutional inferences.
Research limitations/implications
Primary limitations are associated with holistic and dynamic approaches adopted in this study, highlighting that EE heterogeneity is unlikely conducive to a “one-size-fits-all” scenario; further empirical research on the dynamics of EEs is suggested to circumvent such implications while adding to the emerging and growing body of knowledge and application of EEs.
Practical implications
The findings and conceptual framework provide a theoretical platform to base applications to practice in developing nascent and emerging EEs.
Originality/value
A first of its kind study adds a holistic and dynamic emergent enquiry approach with institutional and network underpinnings to EE frameworks.
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Samir Trabelsi and Amna Chalwati
This paper examines the relationship between poison pills, real earnings management and initial public offering (IPO) failure.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines the relationship between poison pills, real earnings management and initial public offering (IPO) failure.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors sampled 2,997 IPO firms that went public during 1993-2015.
Findings
The authors find that IPO firms manipulate earnings upward using real earnings management. The authors also find that IPO firms exhibiting a higher level of real earnings management have a higher probability of IPO failure. In addition, the authors find that weak shareholders' governance is positively associated with IPO failure.
Practical implications
These results suggest that poor governance structures in failed firms open the door to manipulating real activities and increasing operational risk.
Originality/value
The study findings are of most significant interest to potential investors and other stakeholders affiliated with a firm going public, an auditor, an underwriter, the lawyers who consult with the firm and employees or executives who might consider joining that firm.
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This paper presents an interpretation of freehand drawings produced by supply chain management undergraduates in response to the question: “What is sustainability?” Having to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper presents an interpretation of freehand drawings produced by supply chain management undergraduates in response to the question: “What is sustainability?” Having to explain sustainability pictorially forced students to distill what the essence of sustainability meant to them and provided insights into how they perceived sustainability and their roles in achieving sustainability in the context of supply chain management.
Design/methodology/approach
Students were asked to draw and answer the question “What is sustainability?” These drawings were discussed/interpreted in class. All drawings were initially examined quantitatively, before a sample of four were selected for presentation here.
Findings
Freehand drawing can be used as part of a critical pedagogy to create a visual representation to bypass cognitive verbal processing routes. This allows students to produce clear, more critical and inclusive images of their understanding of a topic regardless of their vocabulary.
Practical implications
The authors offer this as a model for educators seeking alternative methods for engaging with sustainability and for creating a learning environment where students can develop their capacity for critical self-reflection.
Originality/value
This study shows how a collaborative learning experience facilitates learners demonstrating their level of understanding of sustainability.
Peer review
The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-11-2022-0718
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Olatoyese Zaccheus Oni, AbdulLateef Olanrewaju, Soo Cheen Khor and Bolatito Folasade Akinbile
Because of the sort of working environment and the nature of construction jobs, a high rate of poor mental health has been recorded in the construction industry. The aim of this…
Abstract
Purpose
Because of the sort of working environment and the nature of construction jobs, a high rate of poor mental health has been recorded in the construction industry. The aim of this study is to compare construction workers' mental health before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey questionnaire was developed and administered online to building environment professionals working on construction sites. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation. An independent sample t-test was also conducted to determine whether there was a significant difference in the mean before and during the COVID-19 infection.
Findings
The results show that mental health challenges were more prevalent during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to before the pandemic. The result of the independent sample t-test revealed that there exists a significant difference in all the mean before and during COVID-19 except sleeping too much or too little; having low or no energy and lack of emotion that shows no significant difference.
Originality/value
This study is the first to compare the mental health of construction workers before and during COVID-19 in Nigeria. The significance of this study was that it would provide an insight for construction managers and other decision-makers on the most critical mental health challenges on construction sites, which will help in an attempt to improve the mental well-being of construction workers.