Search results

1 – 10 of over 141000
Book part
Publication date: 19 June 2019

Thomas Wing Yan Man

This chapter begins with a reflection on the call for investigating how entrepreneurial competencies are developed (Bird, 1995) in the context of university-based entrepreneurship…

Abstract

This chapter begins with a reflection on the call for investigating how entrepreneurial competencies are developed (Bird, 1995) in the context of university-based entrepreneurship centers. Through clarifying the nature of entrepreneurial competencies and applying a social constructivist perspective of learning, it is proposed that effective nurturing of entrepreneurial competencies for university students through entrepreneurship centers shall be based on five key characteristics; namely, active experimentation, authenticity, social interaction, sense of ownership, and scaffolding support. The chapter contributes to the literature through establishing a link between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial competencies in the context of university-based entrepreneurship centers, which have become an increasingly popular way for promoting entrepreneurial development. The practical implications on nurturing entrepreneurs through entrepreneurship centers are discussed, together with the directions for further research. This chapter is designed as a refection upon Bird’s original article articulating the concept of entrepreneurial competencies. In this chapter, the author outlines how entrepreneurial competencies can be developed through education programs, specifically via entrepreneurship centers.

Details

Seminal Ideas for the Next Twenty-Five Years of Advances
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78973-262-7

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 4 August 2021

Haein Shin, Radhika Iyengar and Nirupam Bajpai

This chapter takes the case of contextualizing a solar-powered Information and Communications Technology Center Model to train young women for employment in an informal education…

Abstract

This chapter takes the case of contextualizing a solar-powered Information and Communications Technology Center Model to train young women for employment in an informal education setting. One of the sites in which the Model has been actualized is in Mahabubnagar District of Telangana State, India. The Center provides employment-aligned training through computer, communications, business, personal and interpersonal development topics, while supplying steady energy source through solar panels to cover for the needs of sustained computer usage. The learning contents are delivered through a tailored curriculum founded on affective/humanistic education approach, facilitated through a teacher – better described as facilitator – for the personal, interpersonal and skills development of over 450 young women trainees. The objective of this chapter is to add a consideration in the teacher quality literature from the perspective of prioritizing affective education approach, both in the teacher as well as the learner. The chapter illustrates that teachers who can communicate the messaging and delivery of learning contents in a way that allow learners to feel understood and prioritized – with social, emotional, and attitude of learners considered – will be much more effective than an approach where teachers prioritize skills development and academic achievement.

Details

Building Teacher Quality in India: Examining Policy Frameworks and Implementation Outcomes
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80071-903-3

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 25 May 2023

Siraj Kariyilaparambu Kunjumuhammed, Bassam Khalil Hamdan Tabash and Vaidehi Pandurugan

This research aims to examine the educational philosophy of teachers in classrooms. Teachers' educational philosophy influences the power balance, course content function, student…

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Abstract

Purpose

This research aims to examine the educational philosophy of teachers in classrooms. Teachers' educational philosophy influences the power balance, course content function, student and teacher roles, responsibility for learning and assessment purposes and processes. The research also analyzes whether gender, qualification, specialization and experience significantly influence classroom educational philosophies.

Design/methodology/approach

The study utilized a quantitative research design, utilizing data from 193 teachers working in a public higher education institution in the Sultanate of Oman. The study utilized a survey method to solicit data from the respondents. Besides utilizing descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation, the study used analysis of variance (ANOVA) and t-test to test the hypotheses.

Findings

Analysis revealed an instructional strategy's preference, including elements of both teacher-centered and student-centered educational philosophies. Elements of progressivism, constructivism, reconstructivism and perennialism are more relevant in the teacher's instructional design. The results show no significant differences in teachers' pedagogical philosophy that exist based on gender, specialization and experience. However, teachers' age significantly influences their educational philosophy preferences.

Research limitations/implications

This research centers on a public higher education institution in the Sultanate of Oman, with a particular focus on the Department of Business Studies. This resarch delimits its discussion on teachers' chosen educational philosophy. Other possible factors may also impact student retention and effective teaching and learning.

Practical implications

This research offers valuable insights to academicians, higher education administrators, and policymakers. Specifically, this research emphasizes the significance of employing a blended approach, which incorporates both student-centered and teacher-centered educational philosophies, to enhance student engagement, retention, and effective teaching and learning.

Social implications

This research emphasizes the importance of educators' adoption of a blended educational philosophy in promoting student retention and engagement within higher education institutions. To achieve desirable outcomes, policymakers in higher education must ascertain which educational philosophy is most effective in the classroom. Additionally, ensuring congruence between preferred educational philosophy and teachers’  instructional practices is vital in facilitating effective teaching and learning.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first of its kind among teachers in higher education in the Sultanate of Oman. The outcome of this study helps detail the specific strategies teachers deploy and categorize into various educational philosophies.

Details

Arab Gulf Journal of Scientific Research, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1985-9899

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 1 December 2015

Caroline Brandt and Nicholas Dimmitt

Many universities run Writing Centers to provide support for students wishing to improve their academic literacy. These centers are ideal venues for peer tutoring, which may…

Abstract

Many universities run Writing Centers to provide support for students wishing to improve their academic literacy. These centers are ideal venues for peer tutoring, which may benefit both student-tutors (through tutoring skills development), and those tutored (through opportunities to discuss writing with a supportive peer). In the context of a university in the GCC region, peer tutors, prior to working, must complete required Communication courses. The syllabuses reflect student-centered and collaborative post-process writing approaches, where scaffolding is emphasized over direction, and word-by-word instructor correction of student writing is de-emphasized. Peer tutors also undergo preparation aimed at equipping them with an understanding of the rationale for these approaches and the skills needed to adapt them to tutoring. Given these experiences, the researchers set out to determine whether tutors are able to articulate such understandings and apply them to tutoring. Interconnected interpretative methods were deployed, including tutoring observation, consultation-conversation analysis and semi-structured interviews with tutors. Results indicate that tutors have significant recent experience of non-directive writing classes and may be aware of the rationale and benefits of such approaches. However, in their tutoring, content appears to be transferred from their most recent experiences but their style relies on instruction predominated by telling, explaining, demonstrating and directing, reflecting formative experience at school. The relationship between tutors’ experience, preparation, articulation and practice is explored, and recommendations are made to enhance Writing Center practices, in line with the concept of a constructively-aligned instruction system where all components address the same agenda and support each other.

Details

Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: Gulf Perspectives, vol. 12 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2077-5504

Article
Publication date: 12 January 2015

Joachim Schopfel, Julien Roche and Gilles Hubert

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the debate on the development of academic libraries, by the introduction of the concepts of co-working and innovation to the learning

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the debate on the development of academic libraries, by the introduction of the concepts of co-working and innovation to the learning centres.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper builds on published case studies and French initiatives.

Findings

The proposal of this paper is that the academic library can meet its social responsibility on the campus and in society by drawing on the model of the co-working spaces and communities, by the support of innovation and the transfer of knowledge to the world of work. Moreover, the proposal is to include these new functions into the concept of learning centre, i.e. to develop the work-related aspects of the learning centre.

Research limitations/implications

Future research on academic libraries should focus on social responsibility and their contribution not only to students’ academic success but also to students’ employability and to the transfer of technology.

Practical implications

The paper contributes to the development and marketing of new academic library services and to its strategic positioning on the campus.

Originality/value

Co-working and innovation are relatively new but promising concepts for academic libraries. Except for some recent case studies, conceptual papers are still missing that combine empirical experience with a theoretical approach.

Details

New Library World, vol. 116 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 12 November 2012

Minghua Li and Henry Levin

This chapter is a narrative account of a Ford Foundation sponsored project from mid-2005 through 2008 for investigating into the causes and engineering a solution to the migrant…

Abstract

This chapter is a narrative account of a Ford Foundation sponsored project from mid-2005 through 2008 for investigating into the causes and engineering a solution to the migrant workers education access problems in manufacturing areas in Shanghai, China. The project team was comprised of faculty members and students from East China Normal University, consulted by two professors from Columbia University. This chapter describes how the team arrived at a solution to the problem by investigating the problems, socializing with the migrant workers, and doing experiments that helped us to make adjustments on the proposed solution from time to time. Unlike the popular understanding of the educational needs of the migrant workers that the workers just need some short-term training for a job, our finding is that the workers need degree and certificate programs too. They need further education for personal and career development, not just a job that can feed them. The workers are Internet fans too, most of those who want further education would prefer a blended learning. We ran quite a few courses and a learning center to observe the learning behavior of the workers, which allowed us to actually interact with the workers and see how they respond to our experimental stimuli. While most of the migrant workers show an interest in learning, we did not observe much active learning involvement of the migrant workers. We identified seven factors that limit access to learning engagement: (1) inadequate transportation means; (2) very long work days and weeks and irregular shifts; (3) difficult living conditions; (4) restricted computer and Internet access; (5) inaccessibility of information; (6) unsupportive social environment; (7) lack of educational infrastructure. As a solution to the identified problem, we propose a learning center based community college network in all the manufacturing areas. A learning center serves as a social learning incubator to nurture the learning practices of the academically less prepared learner, the migrant workers.

Details

Community Colleges Worldwide: Investigating the Global Phenomenon
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78190-230-1

Book part
Publication date: 23 September 2020

Hope J. Hartman

A holistic approach has been applied to teaching the whole student, yet rarely emphasized in faculty development in higher education. Similarly, learner-centered instruction has…

Abstract

A holistic approach has been applied to teaching the whole student, yet rarely emphasized in faculty development in higher education. Similarly, learner-centered instruction has become more prevalent in higher education as a way of teaching students, but less so as a concept for faculty pedagogy. This chapter examines the psychological underpinnings of holistic, learner-centered instruction and describes strategies and materials for applying these principles to faculty development so that higher education environments are humanized for culturally diverse faculty and students. Conceptual frameworks underlying the approaches emphasize humanistic theories and the needs of adult learners. Topics addressed include: motivation, cooperative learning, culturally responsive teaching, active learning, metacognition, teaching for transfer, nonverbal communication and instructional technology. Faculty development efforts described include both interdisciplinary activities and a special project with the School of Engineering. While modeling holistic, learner-centered teaching in faculty development, university instructors are engaged in their own learning of effective pedagogy and their experiences and knowledge can be used subsequently to enhance student success in their courses.

A holistic, learner-centered approach enables higher education faculty to create stimulating, nurturing, safe and respectful classroom environments which promote student engagement, content mastery, cognitive skill development, intrinsic motivation and attitudes which foster thinking and learning. Consequently, this chapter provides faculty, administrators and policymakers with tools that can be used to help students, especially at graduate and post-graduate levels, learn academic material and become enlightened global citizens with enhanced thinking abilities and affect to meet current and future personal, professional and societal needs.

Details

Developing and Supporting Multiculturalism and Leadership Development: International Perspectives on Humanizing Higher Education
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83909-460-6

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 18 March 2020

Raghu Pucha, Kata Dosa, Sunni Newton, Meltem Alemdar, Ruthie Yow and Jennifer Hirsch

In January 2016, Georgia Tech launched a campus-wide academic initiative (“Center for Serve-Learn-Sustain”) aimed at preparing undergraduate students in all majors to use their…

Abstract

In January 2016, Georgia Tech launched a campus-wide academic initiative (“Center for Serve-Learn-Sustain”) aimed at preparing undergraduate students in all majors to use their disciplinary knowledge and skills to contribute to the major societal challenge of creating sustainable communities. The initiative calls for faculty members from all six Georgia Tech colleges to develop courses and co-curricular opportunities that will help students learn about sustainability and community engagement and hone their skills by engaging in real-world projects with nonprofit, community, government, and business partners. Affiliated courses address various aspects of the Center’s sustainable communities framework, which presents sustainability as an integrated system connecting environment, economy, and society. This chapter reports on one engineering instructor’s ongoing efforts that bring sustainability into the engineering classroom through sociotechnical project-based learning. This cornerstone design course is one of more than 100 Center-affiliated courses currently offered; the full set of Center-affiliated courses enrolls over 5,000 students per year across all six colleges. The sustainability activities introduced in the freshman design course pertain particularly to the Center’s vision that all graduates of the institute, a majority of whom will graduate with engineering degrees, are able to contribute to the creation of sustainable communities and to understand the impact of their professional practice on the communities in which they work. A situated knowledge and learning pedagogical theory is used in the Center-affiliated course, where concept, activity, and context are involved in student learning to produce useable robust knowledge. The sociotechnical project-based teaching model with contextualized design problems is used to engage students throughout the course by utilizing computer-aided-design problems that incorporate sustainability within both individual and team projects. In this chapter, the authors present the pedagogical approaches to learning, strategies, and challenges for implementation and assessment of intervention activities, and data analyses of both student reflection data and pre- and post-survey data.

Article
Publication date: 1 September 1997

Sheldon Ellis

At any given time 86 per cent of Buckman Laboratories’ 1,300 employees are out of the office working with customers located in 102 countries. This diverse and dispersed workforce…

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Abstract

At any given time 86 per cent of Buckman Laboratories’ 1,300 employees are out of the office working with customers located in 102 countries. This diverse and dispersed workforce presents special problems for the creation and management of the company’s intellectual capital. Faced with these challenges and the need to bring new knowledge and skills to its employees in a cost effective manner, Buckman Laboratories has created an online, multi‐lingual learning centre.

Article
Publication date: 7 March 2008

Manila S. Austin and Debra A. Harkins

The purpose of this paper is to measure the effectiveness and practical utility of an organizational learning intervention for an organization that was not progressive, was not…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to measure the effectiveness and practical utility of an organizational learning intervention for an organization that was not progressive, was not specifically chartered as a learning organization, and was situated in an urban, culturally diverse, and under‐privileged community.

Design/methodology/approach

In this empirical case study, employees were surveyed pre‐ and post‐intervention on measures of organizational learning, school climate and morale. Archival data on turnover rates were also collected for the years bracketing the intervention (2003‐2005).

Findings

Analyses show the center reduced turnover and improved in organizational learning, morale, and to a lesser degree, organizational climate. Analyses demonstrate relationships between change in organizational climate dimensions (e.g. supportive leadership, appraisal and recognition, goal congruence) and change toward organizational learning.

Originality/value

This research suggests that organizational learning – and the post‐bureaucratic practices that characterize it – can be useful even in the most challenging of settings. Unlike previous research, this study specifically addresses organizational learning's utility for under‐privileged populations; it also examines how the more traditional measure of organizational climate is related to post‐industrial notions of learning and business performance. It should be of value to academics and practitioners wishing to apply organizational learning to less‐advantaged and change‐averse organizations.

Details

The Learning Organization, vol. 15 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-6474

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 141000