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In the context of the creation of a two-year Master of Science in Business Administration programme to offer a scientifically sound and practice-related management education in Switzerland, a curriculum for learning and teaching research methods had to be designed. Major pedagogic challenges were identified and addressed by curricular responses in terms of pluralism in knowledge production forms, a holistic approach to competence development and a learner-centred course design. The resulting design of the part of the curriculum on research methods is presented. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

To assess the outcomes and its response to the given challenges, the feedback from existing regular evaluations was used and additional surveys were conducted. Students’ perceptions and those of their teachers were combined to form a balanced view.

The results indicate that the new curriculum is an appropriate approach- it led to gains in research methods knowledge and skills and improvements in research-related social and reflexive competencies. The assessment of the outcomes of learning research methods in management education reveals an interesting research gap.

This paper assesses a newly developed research curriculum for management students implemented in a new master’s programme in Business Administration at a mid-size university of applied sciences in Switzerland. Three pedagogical challenges in teaching research methods were addressed to target the theory-practice gap in management education. The authors opted for a research methods curriculum that links management research and practice by encouraging pluralism in knowledge-production forms, a more holistic view of competence development in management education and a learning-centred course design.

The purpose of this paper is to give concrete ideas to the development of MPA programmes in the light of the changing public sector. Following the introduction of ideas and practices from New Public Management, public managers face new requirements. The paper aims to deal with some of them and argues that in order to be a competent manager in the public sector today, one needs to be able to self‐develop four types of competence‐in‐practice: methodological competencies; theoretical competencies; meta‐theoretical competencies; and contextual competencies.

The approach in the paper is explorative and normative. The paper explores the changes and challenges in the public sector based on the aforementioned four types of competence‐in‐practice. Following that the paper presents a normative model for curriculum design and exemplify the development and possible processes of learning‐centered MPA programmes.

The paper finds that learning‐centred MPA programmes are fruitful for the development of said the types of competence‐in‐practice.

With its particular focus on public sector management education this article may be relevant to curriculum developers, academics and practitioners interested in education and employability of public managers.

The paper shows that building on theories about learning, competencies, and curriculum development suggests a processual model for curriculum development that can inspire faculty members to develop learning‐centred MPA programmes where focus is learning and competence development.

There is an extensive body of contemporary educational literature concerning teachers' professional development (PD), but little attention has been paid to the PD of principals, despite their vital role in improving student learning outcomes. The available literature on principals' PD deals with content and quality while mostly ignoring whether and how PD activities have an impact on leadership practices. In our study, we wanted to examine the extent to which principals perform learning-centred leadership practices and whether and how their practices are influenced by the PD programmes they have engaged in during the past twelve months.

A total of 130 Turkish principals participated in the study. Using the SEM model, we examined the direct and indirect links between principals' PD and their self-perceived learning-centred leadership practices, with self-efficacy as the mediating variable.

We found a positive, statistically significant yet weak relationship between principals' PD and their leadership practices, with self-efficacy playing a considerable mediating role.

We argue that traditional types of PD activities can contribute to the leadership practices of principals, at least in countries where school principals are not adequately prepared for principalship positions. We suggest that such activities can contribute by providing newly appointed school principals with certain basic knowledge regarding effective leadership that many principals in developing countries are missing due to the lack of pre-service training. These activities can also strengthen principals' belief in their ability to overcome school problems and improve student learning. This, in turn, could motivate them to focus more on learning-centred leadership practices.

The purpose of this paper is to discover and develop the conceptual understanding of teaching and learning in entrepreneurship lecturers and how this is influencing the change in teaching experience.

The study was carried out among Estonian entrepreneurship lecturers who participated in a lecturer-training programme. A qualitative research method was adopted, focussing on thematic analysis. The framework for research and the analysis of results relied on the teaching and learning model, enabling the model to be tested in the context of entrepreneurship education.

The results show that the lecturers with learning-centred mind-sets tended to make changes in their teaching approaches and introduced changes in other teaching and learning components, such as the content (learning process) and outcomes of the learning subject. These inconsistent applications of changes justify the need for a systematic approach to entrepreneurship teaching and learning.

The results of the study contribute to a more systematic understanding of conceptions of teaching entrepreneurship among entrepreneurship lecturers, thereby allowing school management to understand the need for developing staff in addition to curricula. The study results are useful for informing training for entrepreneurship lecturers, designing entrepreneurship courses and choosing the appropriate methodology in such design.

This paper provides input for creating a conceptual teaching and learning model of entrepreneurship education that contributes to a more systematic understanding of the relationships between the components of teaching and learning when designing entrepreneurship education programmes. In the context of entrepreneurship education, the use of the teaching and learning model is required when considering the timeline between different components of the model. This means that it is important to first make decisions about the presage factors (including conceptual understanding of teachers), which provide the frame (context) for the teaching and learning process, as well as learning outcomes.

This chapter provides an interpretive account of how a large student cohort deals with a major inquiry-based learning (IBL) assessment task in a first-year Marketing Principles subject in undergraduate business studies. It offers a practical example of IBL in action in a discipline that has hitherto received little attention in the IBL literature, namely business, specifically marketing. The chapter positions IBL within the various contemporary pedagogies. The context of Hutchings and O’Rourke’s (2006) study of IBL in action is extended for first-year cohorts, technology-enhanced teaching and the marketing discipline. Further, Hutchings and O’Rourke’s four-part method for describing IBL in action is followed: (1) the enabling factors for the students’ work are described; (2) the process for which they decided on the task is discussed; (3) the method of work is considered, namely ongoing collaboration in a wiki and (4) the outcomes produced are discussed. The chapter reflects on the effects of the IBL task on student learning from both students’ and instructors’ points of view. Material from the students’ work and feedback after completion of the IBL task is used to illustrate the process and inform the interpretive account. The main lessons to be learnt for educators are summarised.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the blended learning preferences under which adult students study mathematics, electronics and industry certificate examinations like project management and e‐SAP (systems, applications and products).

The study is based on four case studies in mathematics, electronics and industry certificate examinations like project management and e‐SAP. Case studies are developed based on observations and feedback from students who have undergone different types of blended learning. The four different blended learning models used are: the complete e‐learning self‐study; the instructor‐led programme blended with self‐study e‐learning; the live e‐learning centred with other media added; and the simulation and laboratory‐centred model.

It is found that unmotivated adult learners may not necessarily like e‐learning courses that are unguided. The e‐learning self‐study model suits the highly motivated students who aim for industry‐based certifications like the project management or the e‐SAP certifications. Using simulation and virtual laboratory sessions does help to reduce the cost of setting up the full‐fledged laboratory and also make it more accessible to the students. In the blended learning model, the instructor and the subject matter expert are the two most important people in programme design and delivery, not the developer or the technologist.

This paper is useful to adult educators and those dealing with an open university type of education where there are less face‐to‐face interactions.

One of the most widely accepted goals of social studies education is to produce knowledgeable and caring citizens. It is, therefore, imperative that students have the opportunity to participate in public issues and have a meaningful voice within their community. Students must learn how to gather information, solve problems and make civic decisions (Saxe, D. W. (1997). The distinctive mission of social studies education. In E. W. Ross (Ed.), The social studies curriculum: Purposes, problems and possibilities (pp. 39–55). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press). Thus, educators and staff in higher education institutions should encourage their students to create their own questions, cultivate investigative strategies, formulate theories and apply new concepts to their own lives in a variety of methods (Fitzsimmons, P. F., & Goldhaber, J. (1997). Siphons, pumps, and missile launchers: Inquiry at the further and higher education [online]. Edinburgh: Scottish Funding Council). Inquiry-based instruction is a pedagogical strategy that places the educator in the role of a facilitator where students are pushed to think critically and construct meaningful knowledge. Inquiry-based learning (IBL) is a crucial practice for students to grasp and the earlier they are exposed to this style of learning, the better the educational results will be in regard to cognitive development. For instance, (Frederiksen, White, & Shimoda, 1999) found that students who take part in inquiry-based learning outperform those students in traditional classrooms on standardised assessments. This chapter explores a theoretical discussion of IBL and a subsequent theory of change focusing on the potential desired impact on the student learning experience in Irish higher education.

The core themes include the following:

1. How educators in the social sciences conceptualise, design and facilitate IBL?

2. The location and commencement of the development of an IBL ‘mind-set’.

3. Informal theories of change in the social sciences, and a discussion on disciplinary patterns and the discernation of differences.

4. What have educators learned about designing and facilitating IBL? The challenges of designing and facilitating IBL, in the social sciences.

5. Plans for further developing IBL practice in an international context.

How educators in the social sciences conceptualise, design and facilitate IBL?

The location and commencement of the development of an IBL ‘mind-set’.

Informal theories of change in the social sciences, and a discussion on disciplinary patterns and the discernation of differences.

What have educators learned about designing and facilitating IBL? The challenges of designing and facilitating IBL, in the social sciences.

Plans for further developing IBL practice in an international context.

The Internet is becoming increasingly important in our daily lives. So, too, is the ease of communication by means of television. The power of these two technological tools in education has been combined in so‐called ‘flexible learning’. This study investigates the experience of students in a master’s degree programme in taxation, which is presented by means of flexible learning. In general, students experience this mode of learning very positively and would advise others to enrol for the same course. They acknowledge that the benefits of flexible learning far exceed any possible drawbacks.

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether and how success has been sustained over time in schools which were identified as being successful five years ago.

Three schools were selected for a revisit, and the sample included two combined schools (grade 1‐10) and one upper secondary school (grade 11‐13). In two schools the same principals were still in post, and in the third school there had recently been a change in principalship. Interviews with the principal and a group of teachers at each school were the major source of new data. Questions that guided the study: What structural and cultural changes can be identified within the schools compared with five years ago? What factors might help sustain success over time?

The learning‐centred approach identified earlier had been sustained in the schools during the five years. All principals focused on multiple ways of influencing staff motivation, commitment and working conditions, teamwork was a vital characteristic, and they also reported on their struggle to sustain and promote equity and social justice. For the two schools with principals still in post one could hardly detect any change in preferred strategies, but for the third school with the new principal there was a significant change. Although his ethos was closely connected to that which existed at the school five years ago, his leadership approach and the agenda for school improvement were different. As such, the study provides an example of how principals have the power to set the tone and the agenda for school development even though leadership practice is an interactive process involving many people.

The paper provides knowledge about sustainable leadership in a context where new expectations are raised towards schools, and principals are in particular challenged to respond to new and sometimes contradicting expectations.

There are a number of factors that are essential to understanding the pedagogy, learning and knowledge requirements of developing virtual platforms for delivering effective course interaction using the World Wide Web (the web). The purpose of this paper is to focus on web‐based group work amongst undergraduate management students, during a two‐year study investigating the development of virtual groups as an important problem‐solving and learning‐enhancement process.

This study is based on the identification of successful groups undertaking undergraduate management courses, where group work is a compulsory component of the course assessment. Focus groups are used to collect a broad qualitative understanding of perceptions of students in relation to success factors. Lexical analysis is then used to analyse data.

Lexical analysis provides four clear clusters that the subjects consider are essential to group learning and performance. The outcomes of the findings link directly back to the design of learning activities and the future direction of the research.

Value is created as it advances use of the web from one of information dissemination to one of engagement and learning enhancement.