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A new academic structure for senior secondary and higher education was introduced to Hong Kong in 2009/2010. This paper aims to: (1) compare the cohort from the old academic structure (Cohort 2010) and the cohort from the new academic structure (Cohort 2015) on the 14 categories of generic competencies; and (2) compare these attributes among students from different divisions in a tertiary institution in Hong Kong.

Self-Assessment of All-Round Development (SAARD) questionnaires were distributed to students who took the two-year sub-degree programmes offered by the College of Professional and Continuing Education, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2010 and 2015 on a self-administered basis. A total of 4,424 students have returned the questionnaires. Data were analyzed with t-test to compare between the two cohorts.

When comparing Cohort 2015 with Cohort 2010, significantly higher scores were observed on five areas such as global outlook and healthy lifestyle (p<0.05). Significantly lower scores were observed on the other five areas such as problem solving, critical thinking and leadership (p<0.05). Students from all divisions unanimously showed higher perceived rating on social and national responsibility but lower perceived rating on leadership (p<0.05).

The elimination of one public examination, the newly included components such as Other Learning Experiences (OLE) and the compulsory Liberal Studies were believed to contribute partially to the diverse responses of the two cohorts. The dramatic change of the curriculum has not changed the examination culture in Hong Kong which may hinder the development of generic skills among students.

The purpose of this paper is to use the two-way fixed effect (TWFE) methodology to estimate the impact of the reform, exploiting its staggered implementation across regions. The analysis is restricted to graduates from the short vocational track before and after the reform.

This paper studies the impact on the length of school-to-work transition of a reform that extended from two to three years the short vocational track in Italy in the early 2000s.

The study finds that the reform had a positive impact and reduced school-to-work transition by around five months (a 24% reduction). Moreover, the new short vocational track proved to be extremely effective for migrants and females, whose school-to-work transition was reduced by 1.4 years and 0.9 years, respectively. In implementing the new short vocational track, some regions adopted a quasi-market organization in which private training institutions competed with public schools. This model proved to be more effective in shortening school-to-work transitions, in particular for migrants.

This study makes an important contribution to the literature on the labor-market effect of vocational education by showing that lengthening the short vocational track, and changing the overall content of curricula, can speed up school-to-work transition.

In recent years there has been a large increase of Higher education options in the United Arab Emirates. Emirati school leavers must choose among newly established institutions that provide unproven qualifications, at the same time as their society undergoes a rapid transformation. Online surveys were administered to female Emirati students in the first (n = 407) and second (n = 188) semester of the Zayed University general education program, to investigate entering student awareness and perceptions of the seven majors available. Respondents indicated they were motivated by a desire to learn, and had selected their institution for its high academic standards. Half thought they had already decided their major, and while most felt they had made the decision themselves, they were influenced mostly by their immediate family members. Business was ranked highest for potential salary and job availability, and was second only to International Studies for potential social status. All other majors effectively compete with Business for students. Student awareness of Health Sciences and International Studies lagged behind other majors, indicating a need for promotion and/or rebranding. Respondents expressed a clear desire for the introduction of Engineering, Medicine and Law to the course offerings.

The aim of this paper is to discuss the decision made last year, by the Caledonian College of Engineering in Oman, to introduce compulsory modules in Personal Development Planning (PDP) at each level of study in the UK-awarded diploma and degree programmes. The primary objective of PDP is to improve the capacity of individuals to understand what and how they are learning, and to review, plan and take responsibility for their own learning. This paper describes how the main topic areas covered in PDP have been introduced to Omani engineering students; the learning/teaching methodology; how these modules are assessed and evaluated and how these areas relate to the needs of current and future employers. The challenges that have been faced during the implementation of these modules in terms of contextualisation (UK modules imported into an Omani environment) and external assessment are also discussed.

The purpose of this paper was to investigate the degree to which Entrepreneurship Education (EE) was being provided to secondary school students following changes to the Secondary School Curriculum in 2010 by the New Zealand Ministry of Education. Under these changes, secondary schools were charged with following an “entrepreneurial” approach to school instruction that would develop entrepreneurial behaviors in students.

The study used a qualitative methodology focused on gauging the reaction by teachers, students and their parents to this new teaching approach. The sample comprised ten secondary schools situated in Northland, New Zealand. A series of focus groups were used to solicit data among three levels under study in each school, i.e. teachers, students and parents. Individual semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from school principals to determine overall reactions to EE by the rest of the school.

Teachers reported benefits in terms of reduced direct teaching workload, increased participation from students and significantly improved scholastic results compared to targets set in the curriculum. Students reported positively on the greater degree of flexibility allowed under this teaching approach, while parents reported changes in attitude and more engagement in school activities and projects.

The continuing evolution of classroom education at secondary school level has long-term repercussions for student learning, engagement and retention as we move to the digital age. Similarly, there are also consequences for the evolving role of teaching, curriculum design and delivery.

The value of this research lies in a closer examination of the effects traditional teaching practices have had on secondary students entering the digital age. Furthermore, it investigates an alternative teaching approach through EE and the impact it has on student learning, retention and engagement.

Student transitions from secondary to tertiary education have attracted global attention as universities and colleges of higher education seek to improve student retention. Over the course of one academic year, I documented the transitional experiences of first-year male Emirati students at a college of higher education in a rural location of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In this paper I describe four categories of cultural border crossing experiences – smooth, managed, difficult, and impossible – with easier and smoother crossing experiences associated with close congruency (related to the students’ self-perceived attitude and scholastic preparedness as broadly reflected in their competence in their second language, English) between the predominantly Arabic life-world associated with Emirati families and government schooling and the dominant Western/English language culture in institutes of higher education. Additionally, I describe and evaluate students’ cultural border crossing experiences with some Foundation program faculty, finding that those teachers who developed a classroom culture based on Kleinfeld’s (1975) notion of ‘warm demandingness’ and caring rapport-building appeared to have the most positive impact upon the students. Implications from this research have the potential to positively impact both the student and faculty classroom experience in the Gulf tertiary classroom, in addition to improving overall student retention rates.

Research has shown that pre-service and in-service teachers who exhibit science anxiety are less likely to teach it effectively. It is therefore critical to gauge the science anxiety levels of student teachers early while there are still possibilities, perhaps, to prevent serious issues occurring later on as a result. This study takes place in the United Arab Emirates, where Emirati science teachers are already in the vast minority. Since this is the case and teacher attrition rates are high, it is important to offer as much support to student teachers as possible. We surveyed 113 student elementary school teachers to explore their science anxiety levels. Whilst some studies have shown that science anxiety can decrease as students take science content courses, thereby theoretically gaining confidence in science knowledge, this effect was not observed in our study except for a few aspects and only in those who had studied in the ‘science track’ at school. We also found that students educated in arts tracks in high schools had significantly higher science anxiety levels compared with those who followed science tracks.

و ةمدخلا لبق ام يملعم نأ ثوحبلا ترهظأ دق نورهظي نيذلا و ةمدخلا يف نيملعملا نم ً اقلق مولعلا ةدام مه ميلعتل ًﻻامتحإ لقأ قلقلا تايوتسم سايق ةيمهﻷا نمف كلذلو .ةيلاعفب مولعلا ةدام نم مولعلا ةدام ﻻ نيح يف ركبم تقو يف ةمدخلا لبق ام يملعمل ي مبر لامتحا كانه لاز ةيبرعلا تارامﻹا ةلود يف ةساردلا هذه يرجتو .كلذل ةجيتن قحﻻ تقو يف لكاشم يأ ثودح عنمل ا ميدقت مهملا نمف ،ةعفترم نيملعملا صقانت تﻻدعمو لاحلا وه اذه نأ امبو .ةيلقأ مه نييتارامﻹا مولعلا يملعم ثيح ،ةدحتملا مب انمق .ةمدخلا لبق ام يملعمل معدلا نم نكمم ردق ربكأ ﺢس 113 نم مهقلق تايوتسم فاشكتسﻻ ةمدخلا لبق ام يملعم نم مولعلا ةدام قلقلا نأ تاساردلا ضعب ترهظأ نيح يف . نم مولعلا ةدام ضفخني نأ نكمي ىوتحملا تاقاسم ةبلطلاا لامكتسا عم ُي مل ،ةيملعلا ةفرعملا يف ةقثلا باستكا يلاتلابو ،يملعلا َحﻼ ساب انتسارد يف ريثأتلا اذه ظ نيذلا كئلوﻷ طقفو بناوجلا ضعب ءانثت يف ةيبدﻷا و ةينفلا تاراسملا اوذختا نيذلا ةمدخلا لبق ام يملعم نأ اضيأ اندجوو .ةسردملا يف ةيملعلا تاراسملا اوذختا قلقلا تايوتسم مهيدل ناك ةيوناثلا سرادملا نم مولعلا ةدام .ةيملعلا تاراسملا اوعبتا نيذلا كئلوأ نم ريثكب ىلعأ

The purpose of this paper is to examine conflicting institutional demands on individual frontline employees in hybrid public sector organisations. Specifically, it examines the competing accountability pressures professional and commercial logics exerted on academics at a business school, how individual lecturers responded to such pressures, and what drove these responses.

The paper draws on a case study of an English business school and is informed by the literatures on institutional logics and hybrid organisations.

The paper shows that the co-existence of professional and commercial logics at the case organisation exerted competing accountability pressures on lecturers. It moreover shows that sometimes deliberately and purposefully, sometimes ad hoc or even coincidentally, lecturers drew on a wide range of responses to these conflicting pressures, including compliance, defiance, combination and compartmentalisation.

The paper sheds light on individual level responses to competing institutional logics and associated accountability pressures, as well as on their drivers. It also highlights the drawbacks of user, customer or citizen accountability mechanisms, showing that a strong emphasis on them in knowledge-intensive public organisations can have severe dysfunctional effects.