A review of twenty-first century higher education

This article is predominantly concerned with the global challenges associated with managing an academic workforce in an era characterised by increased demand for higher education. In scrutinising global trends in higher education and academic workforce management, the article will address two research questions. First, what are the global trends that most affect education in the twenty-first century? Second, what are the transformations that have taken place in the academic workforce amid these trends? Last, the article calls for a need for researchers to profoundly explore the management of the academic workforce cross-nationally between developed and developing economies, with a particular focus on Australia, Malaysia and Singapore.     

Forum Comparative perspectives on higher education for the twenty-first century

It is commonplace to note that we are moving toward a global economy. The world is increasingly interdependent in terms of trade, culture and communication. There is one institution that has always been global and that continues to be a powerful force in the world after a half-millennium. This institution is the university. With its roots in medieval Europe, the modern university is at the center of an international knowledge system that encompasses technology, communications and culture. The university remains the primary center of learning and the main repository of accumulated wisdom. While it may be the case that the university has reached the end of a period of unprecedented growth and expansion, it remains a powerful institution. In the knowledge-based society of the twenty-first century, the university will remain at the very center of economic and cultural development.The contemporary university suffers from a lack of self-confidence and has lost some of the support from society it enjoyed in the past half-century or so. However, it is not, as many critics, within and outside of the academy would have us believe, suffering from a deep malaise that will cause either collapse or necessitate major structural and intellectual renovation. The present and very likely the near-term future, will not be a period of great expansion or of great prosperity for higher education. The coming period will also not see the demise of the university.The university is not flourishing as it did in the golden age of the middle decades of the twentieth century in North America and Europe. Yet, the university is far from collapse. It continues to play a necessary role in modern society—as an institution that educates, performs research, provides opportunities for social mobility and certifies expertise and professional competence. Universities have been transformed in less than a century from small, elitist institutions fulfilling a limited educational mission to one of the main engines of the knowledge-based society.     

Higher education professionals for the twenty-first century

This paper originated as a Plenary Presentation at the AUA Conference at the University of Keele in April 2004     

Education for future-oriented citizenship: implications for the education of twenty-first century competencies

Globalization and the knowledge economy have opened up worldwide agendas for national development. Following this is the emphasis on the social dimension, otherwise known as social capital. Much of social capital includes “soft skills” and “twenty-first century skills”, which broadly cover critical, creative and inventive thinking; information, interactive and communication skills; civic literacy, global awareness and cross-cultural skills. Proactively, the Singapore government is preparing for Curriculum 2015, a new curriculum that would develop student attributes, embedded in the “confident person”, “self-directed learner”, “active contributor”, and “concerned citizen”. Significantly, a new curricular initiative, Character and Citizenship Education, emphasizes the integrative nature of citizenship and twenty-first century competencies and has been implemented in all schools in Singapore from 2011. This future-oriented approach to citizenship education emphasizes the significance of individual initiatives and the intellectual capital of citizens. This paper analyses features of this particular approach to citizenship education, and its strengths and significance, which may be viewed as an integrative “total curriculum approach” with a “whole-society” perspective. In addition, the challenges of teaching twenty-first century skills will also be highlighted. This departs from the conventional paradigm of socialization, but to help students develop attributes for a future society to come.     

The relevance of nomadic forager studies to moral foundations theory: moral education and global ethics in the twenty-first century

Moral foundations theory (MFT) proposes the existence of innate psychological systems, which would have been subjected to selective forces over the course of evolution. One approach for evaluating MFT, therefore, is to consider the proposed psychological foundations in relation to the reconstructed Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness. This study draws upon ethnographic data on nomadic forager societies to evaluate MFT. Moral foundations theory receives support only regarding the Caring/harm and Fairness/cheating foundations but not regarding the proposed Loyalty/betrayal and Authority/subversion foundations. These latter two proposed foundations would seem to reflect the historical classic assumptions of modernity, involving self-interest, competition, individualism, hierarchy, authority and so forth. Studying the ethical dimensions of nomadic forager societies can highlight our biases about the foundations of morality, some of which may be steeped in particularist Western political and social traditions. Some recent developments from cosmopolitanism are discussed as an alternative evolving worldview that parallels nomadic forager ethos.     

Educating science teachers in the twenty-first century: implications for pre-service teacher education

Abstract

This study examines the verbal interactions among a group of pre-service teachers as they engaged in scientific discussions in a medicinal chemistry course. These discussions were part of the course that encompassed an explicit instruction of scientific argumentation structures as well as an applied component, whereby the pre-service teachers learned the content of medicinal chemistry through cases developed using the strategy of competing theories. By adopting a case study approach using sociocultural framework of learning, we examined the interactions between the pre-service teachers using video data. We describe 12 possible forms of interactions during discussions – (1) seeking clarification, (2) figuring out loud, (3) sharing information, (4) agreement, (5) asking questions, (6) providing explanations, (7) raising strategic and procedural issues, (8) stating claims, (9) disagreement, (10) sharing perspectives, (11) offering alternatives, and (12) persuasion. The pre-service teachers engaged in figuring out aloud and seeking clarifications frequently, and used persuasion least in their discussions. To clarify their ideas and thoughts, pre-service teachers commonly rebut their counterparts and used warrants to support their own assertions. A similar pattern was also observed when figuring their thoughts out loud. Our findings suggest that pre-service teachers were able to carry out rebuttals in the argumentation process. However, the quality and function of their rebuttals can be improved by deepening their understanding of the subject matter knowledge and the science argumentation structure. Implications are discussed.     

21世纪我国高师教育面临的挑战及对策

面对21世纪日趋激烈的国际竞争和国内改革,我国高师教育遇到了前所未有的挑战。应对挑战,必须从时代高度重新认识高师教育,纠正对高师教育“学术性”理解中长期存在的误区;加强教师教育的一体化建设,实现职前培养和职后培训的融合、衔接,构建教师终身教育体系;强化在职教师现代教育技术培训,努力提高教师技术素质;加大高师教育改革力度,迎接新的挑战。     

Global policy agencies and visions for twenty-first century lifelong education

The Community University (CU) movement in Taiwan arose from calls for education reform and social change in the country since the last decade. In 1998 the first CU, Wenshan CU, operated by local activists and grass‐roots groups, was established in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, as an outgrowth of a popular rally for education reform in 1994. Within five years, the movement blossomed into more than 66 independent CUs spreading all over Taiwan, with locally hinted diversities (as of 2003). Since then, social activists from areas including community building, environmental action, labour, aboriginal and feminist movements, culture and the arts etc., have found their niches in CUs. As a critical review, this paper first highlights contexts, rationales and methodologies of CUs. To further discussion, contributions and issues embedded in methodologies and difficulties from practice are also analysed. Finally, conclusions and suggestions are provided to help find a way out of the current constraints for CUs.     

Prevention in the twenty-first century: promoting health and well-being in education and psychology

This paper explores the science of prevention, with special attention to prevention research and applications in education and psychology, and the importance of prevention in Asian countries. One example that will be highlighted is the recently adopted Korean government policy on Internet addiction which addresses the problem from prevention to treatment. In addition, the paper provides background by summarizing the history of prevention and definitions of prevention. Research and conceptual papers that have been published in the Asian Pacific Education Review serve as examples of important topics to address from a prevention perspective. The topics are school bullying, school achievement, career development, and educator professional development and educational reform. The paper also discusses prevention best practices by summarizing the recently adopted American Psychological Association Guidelines for Prevention in Psychology, emphasizing that the Guidelines are applicable for professions beyond psychology and they also apply in different parts of the world. Finally, the paper discusses prevention in the future, especially noting that advances in science, technology, and population demographics will increase the importance of prevention in the twenty-first century.