Where social and professional networking meet: The virtual association chapter

Online Capella University wanted to sponsor an International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) chapter. Using social networking platforms, a new type of chapter was designed. The virtual chapter breaks new ground on more than the chapter's platform; it is also the first university‐sponsored chapter and has a unique approach to accomplishing chapter work. Service orientation, technological innovation, and alignment to the society's strategy helped the ISPI Capella University Virtual Chapter become a Chapter of Excellence.     

Counseling and advisory service for adult learners: An Open University perspective

The nature of counselling and advisory services which the Open University offers its students and applicants is dictated by the fact that its students are learning at a distance, are adults, and are not engaged in full-time study. In addition, a policy of open entry means that while some students come from a background of higher education, others have few or no previous qualifications. These factors require the University to try to provide an individual service to its applicants and students whenever possible. In pursuit of this aim students are allocated to Tutor-Counsellors, part-time staff who are locally based and who have a continuing responsibility for the progress of individual students from their initial registration until graduation. These Tutor-Counsellors play a considerable part in determining the extent, nature, and timing of the resources with which the university can support an individual student. Tuition for higher level specialist courses is normally provided by tutors at a greater distance, with the Tutor-Counsellors continuing to provide local generalist support. The Open University has set up a regional infra-structure of full-time academic and administrative staff for the support, briefing, supervision, and organization of this local network of part-time staff.     

Sustainability and peace in Costa Rica: the case of University of Costa Rica

This article describes initiatives at the University of Costa Rica, which, in combination with national programs, have strengthened the country's commitment to sustainable development over the past 15 years. It discusses the University's role in defining a national perspective on sustainability starting in 1987, as well as the evolution of the University's Programa Institucional de Sostenibilidad y Paz (PRINSOPAZ) from being University focused to joining with the Earth Council to promote the Earth Charter both nationally and internationally.     

Grass roots: Natural resources education through videoconferencing

Abstract

This article briefly reviews and compares three offerings of graduate degrees via the Internet—two Master's programs in the field of Management and one Master's program in the area of Library and Information Science. Three different management degrees offered by the University of Phoenix, the Master of Arts in Management offered by The Graduate School of America, and the Master of Science in Library and Information Science offered by the University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign are described according to each program's online and printed prospectus. Based on this information, the three programs are compared and evaluated. The article concludes with a “Consumer's Guide” that formulates some key questions that any potential student of these types of programs should ask before enrolling in such a program.     

Baseball and Rhetorics of Purity: The National Pastime and American Identity During the War on Terror

VALUES AT WORK: EMPLOYEE PARTICIPATION MEETS MARKET PRESSURE AT MONDRAGÓN. By George Cheney. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1999; pp. xviii+190. $35.00.

THE HERO AND THE PERENNIAL JOURNEY HOME IN AMERICAN FILMS. By Susan Mackey‐Kallis. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001; pp. 248. $24.95.

JOYOUS GREETINGS: THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S MOVEMENT 1830–1860. By Bonnie S. Anderson. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000; pp. xii + 288. $ 15.95

STANDING ON THE PREMISES OF GOD: THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT'S FIGHT TO REDEFINE AMERICA'S PUBLIC SCHOOLS. By Fritz Detwiler. New York: New York University Press, 1999; pp. 235. $35.00     

Hawthorne Elementary School: The University Perspective

This article reflects a faculty member's perspective of how Trinity University and Hawthome Elementary School planned and worked together to evolve into a successful partnership. Trinity's teacher education reform agenda focused on two goals: preparing future teachers for a full academic year in the real world of the elementary school and pursuing a teacher-selected school reform project. Both the Hawthorne culture and the inner-city professor's role as a teacher changed when we organized a shared vision and shared responsibility for teacher preparation and school reform.     

Engagement versus participation: A difference that matters

The kind of engagement that transforms a person is more than mere participation. It is risk‐taking, spontaneous, socially supported, heart‐pounding co‐creation. Some campuses, the University of Maryland Baltimore County for one, are taking small steps to foster this kind of engagement. They've found that it's good, hard work.     

Conflict between Centrality and Localism and its Impact on Knowledge Construction and Legitimation in Peripheral Universities: The case of the University of Cyprus

This paper investigates the problem of knowledge production and legitimation at the University of Cyprus. The problem is examined against the background of extant theory on the relationships between universities of the 'center' and those of the 'periphery' and, more specifically, of the theory about the conflict between centrality and localism, as this is experienced by peripheral universities that aspire for centrality. The theory about the specific factors affecting higher education policy in small states also forms part of the theoretical framework of the paper. The University of Cyprus is proposed as a case study, as it differs in several important ways from the widely studied Asian and African universities.     

In practice: Engaging men in violence prevention

The University of South Carolina offers an innovative academic course about men's roles in violence prevention. Learn how Changing Carolina has successfully changed students' views on men, violence, and prevention.     

Context Matters: Improving Schooling for Native Hawaiian Children Special Issue: Partnering for Equity

This case study examines an initiative at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa's College of Education with the mission of improving schooling for children, mostly Native Hawaiian, of the Wai‘anae Coast of O'ahu. The study reports how the initiative recruits, supports, and prepares new teachers for the particularities of this specific location as well as the generalizability of local practice to theory regarding the preparation of new teachers for indigenous minority populations.     

Supercomplexity and the university: Ronald Barnett and the social philosophy of Higher Education

Ronald Barnett's modern classic Realizing the University in an Age of Supercomplexity (published December 1999), has had a crucial impact internationally on the field of Higher Education research and development since the book was published now nearly 20 years ago. Bridging an academic oeuvre across almost 30 years with close to 30 published volumes, Realizing the University in an Age of Supercomplexity plays an important role in the development and transformation of Barnett's social theory of Higher Education into a social philosophy of Higher Education. In the book Barnett performs an important move from a focus on knowledge and epistemology to a focus on being and ontology in relation to Higher Education practices. Barnett shifts his fundamental perspective and view on the relation between universities and the wider society from one of caution and worry to a perspective of hope and vision that fully embraces the future of Higher Education. This way, Realizing the University in an Age of Supercomplexity has not only paved the way for Barnett's own development of a social philosophy of Higher Education, but also contributed invaluably to the rise and maturing of philosophy of Higher Education as a research field in its own right.     

Accountability in Partnership or Partnership in Accountability: Initial teacher education in Northern Ireland

This paper analyses accountability and partnership in Initial Teacher Education for the primary school sector in Northern Ireland. In considering teacher education, the paper focuses on three higher education institutions: Stranmillis University College, St Mary's University College and the University of Ulster. Of the three institutions, the Roman Catholic Church maintains St Mary's University College while the other institutions have no religious affiliations. The paper focuses on the reform of teacher education within the British Isles and sets Northern Ireland into a context of a system of teacher education which has developed new patterns of accountability. Three sources of evidence are used to analyse accountability; firstly the perception of schools that are partners in Initial Teacher Education; secondly, the views of the Education and Training Inspectorate who are responsible for accrediting teacher education in Northern Ireland; and thirdly, the views of the three university schools of education. The paper will demonstrate how teacher education in Northern Ireland is simultaneously similar to, and different from, teacher education in the rest of the developed world. It will illuminate the dimensions of accountability in the primary school sector and show how in Northern Ireland this is heavily segregated by religious denomination.     

The experience of pregnancy: a hermeneutical/phenomenological study

The aim of this study was to describe women''s experience of pregnancy. The setting was the Alternative Birth Center at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Göteborg, Sweden, from 1996 to 1997. Anonymous diaries were written by 12 women and analyzed using a hermeneutical/phenomenological approach. The essential structure and interpretation of women''s experience of pregnancy can be expressed as “transition to the unknown,” which includes three themes: (1) meeting one''s life situation, (2) meeting something inevitable, and (3) preparing for the unknown.The essential structure and interpretation of women''s experience of pregnancy can be expressed as “transition to the unknown” …     

Seeking synergy: Theory and practice of education and research in public relations and communication management in Estonia

The Bachelor's degree programme in public relations was initiated at the University of Tartu in 1996. Public relations is taught in the context of organizational and marketing communication, political communication, and knowledge management. This new speciality has broadened the scope of academic research in the field of communications beyond traditional media research. Today, approximately 100 students are enrolled at the Bachelor's degree level, and twenty students at the Master's degree level in the public relations field. The Department of Journalism and Communication is the only center in Estonia for research in communication, public relations, and journalism. Research in public relations is strongly integrated with practice. All the lecturers in the field of public relations at the University of Tartu have had continuous practical experience in different business fields. In addition, the university's image is a guarantee of professional quality.     

Communicating with parents of children with special needs in Saudi Arabia: parents' and teachers' perceptions of using email for regular and ongoing communication

The purpose of this study, by Snaa Dubis from Salman Bin Abdu Aziz University, Saudi Arabia, and Robert Morris University, USA, and Carianne Bernadowski from Robert Morris University, was to investigate parents' and special education teachers' perceptions of using email as a component of parental involvement in the academic and/or behavioural performance at school of pupils with special needs. Survey research was utilised to measure parents' and teachers' perceptions of using email in Riyadh City in Saudi Arabia. The survey was distributed to 261 participants: 104 parents of preschool or primary school pupils with special needs and 157 special education teachers. The results indicated that in terms of attitudes and beliefs about using email, the majority of parents (78%, n = 81) and teachers (77%, n = 121) had a positive attitude toward using email to increase involvement and engagement between parents and teachers. Although email communication in the USA and Western Europe is quite widespread, the prospect of using technology for parental involvement is a new concept to many Saudi parents. Results indicate that both Saudi and non‐Saudi parents and teachers would be willing to use email as the primary tool for communication between home and school.     

Simulated consulting: A win-win experience in transport engineering education

Students undertaking a final year elective subject in transportation planning at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, worked on a practical project for which there was an interested outside 'client'. From the students' perspective, this was essentially a 'simulated' consulting project which focused on transport planning issues faced by an inner metropolitan municipality in Melbourne. The overall experience, from everybody's perspective, proved to be so positive that the model for the project will be used in the course in future years. This paper has been written to inform engineering educators of how the project was implemented and to highlight some of the educational issues which this type of experience raised. Of particular interest to educators are issues associated with the functioning of some of the student groups and the opportunities provided by projects of this nature to establish strong links with industry.     

Responsive Instruction for Young Children: A Study of how teachers can help easily distracted children become more attentive

In a research and development project called ‘orthopedagogisch project Afstemming’, conducted at the Utrecht University, a programme for teachers in kindergarten is designed and evaluated. It's goal is enhancing children's motivation and attention for work and play by means of responsive Instruction.     

Beginning Teachers Using Information Technology: the Open University model

ABSTRACT

The United Kingdom's Open University launched a part‐time distance taught course for pre‐service teachers in 1994. This paper describes the rationale for such a course which is usually full time and face to face in traditional university settings; how and why the issue of developing competence in IT was addressed through the home loan of a computer; and how the use of computer conferencing enhances students’ experience by enabling them to communicate with each other, members of The Open University course team and part‐time tutors.     

Yang Bailao Need Not Feel Discomfited: "The White-Haired Girl" Revival Team Discuss Yang Bailao

Director Yu Fu: I heard two Beijing University students sobbing in the theatre

Wan Shanhong who plays Xi'er: The young people's opinions are understandable, since they haven't had an opportunity to familiarize themselves with "The White-Haired Girl"     

Evaluation of Corporate Training Programs: Perspectives and Issues for Further Research

Performance improvement interventions, including training, are investments that can yield identifiable payoffs for an organization in the form of better job performance. Evaluation is vital to continuous improvement of human performance in the workplace. Without measures of effectiveness, organizations do not know whether dollars are being spent wisely and, consequently, whether to continue, modify, or improve performance interventions. There are several approaches for the evaluation of training programs. Few adequately cover the broader perspective of performance improvement. Various schemes and terms are used to describe facets for evaluating training programs. However, sometimes different terms describe the same event. At other times, quite different training evaluation activities are discussed by different authors using the same terms. The present article reviews six overall evaluation perspectives of corporate training programs: Kirkpatrick's four‐level approach; the CIRO approach; Hamblin's five‐level approach; Florida State University approach; Indiana University approach; and Phillips' five‐level approach. And four research areas for further study are recommended: overall evaluation models, causal relationships between evaluation categories, systematic research on how to evaluate the various categories, and appropriate uses of the results of evaluations.