Exploring Business Skills: an innovative approach to promoting lifelong learning

Abstract

The article describes an innovative module designed for the HND Business Studies/Administration courses in the Nottingham Business School. Several features of particular interest, for example an explicit focus on skills development, incorporation of lifelong learning values and skills, vertical integration within an overall programme and horizontal integration with same level modules, non‐standard approaches to and methods of teaching and learning and student involvement in assessment are highlighted and examined in detail. The context which gave rise to the module is also explored as is the module development process. This provides some valuable and transferable insights. Early experiences of implementing the module are also included and form the basis for examining some of the operational implications of adopting innovative approaches. Although not primarily concerned with arguing a particular theoretical position, the article makes reference to appropriate literature to both support and assess the rationale of such a module.     

OECD Work on Technology and Education: innovative learning environments as an integrating framework

This article presents in summary a selection of the work conducted by OECD in the field of technology and education, which has been an on-going focus of OECD work since the 1980s. Recently, much of this has been under the heading of ‘New Millennium Learners’, but it has also included the widening of student achievement surveys towards digital literacy; reviews of e-learning in higher education, surveys on Open Education Resources (OER); technology as a source of innovation; and analyses of the digital resources market and educational technology patents. The article proposes the more holistic focus on ‘learning environments’ through which to analyse the very diverse ways in which technology can be integrated into education and as a design framework. This is drawn from a report of the OECD Innovative Learning Environments (ILE) project to be published in 2013, itself based on 40 case studies from different countries and regions. It suggests that contemporary learning environments should be: i) Innovating the ‘pedagogical core’; ii) Engaging the ‘Design/Redesign Leadership Circle’; iii) Widening connections and capacity through partnerships; and iv) Promoting 21st century effectiveness (based on the principles derived from the 2010 ILE learning research review). The article then applies this framework to show how technology shapes learning environments in many different ways. The article questions over-reliance on individuals navigating successfully to access non-formal learning opportunities and rejects the argument that learning institutions should simply adapt more adequately to available technologies. Instead, technology should be fully exploited in well-designed learning environments.     

Teaching and learning cultures in higher education: a mismatch in conceptions

ABSTRACT

Instructional approaches in higher education that foster learning based on internal values are required with the enrollment of wider and more diverse audiences. The current study explores this challenge with a focus on the relationship between students’ learning cultures and the way instructors’ view them. We interviewed 76 students and six instructors at an established academic institution. Data comprised of 210 students’ and 146 instructors’ utterances that were analyzed using mixed methods. Findings revealed a mismatch of instructors’ conceptions about the learning culture of the typical student, potentially leading to compromises in their teaching practices. We provide evidence that reciprocal relations exist between cultures of teaching and learning, contributing to the wicked challenges of rethinking the role of teachers in reinforcing passive learning cultures in undergraduate education. Adoption of internal-based values teaching approaches can help break this feedback loop.     

新工科理念下高等数学能力培养型教学改革研究

本文基于新工科理念下高等数学能力培养型教学改革需要解决的关键问题、措施和途径展开研究。围绕新工科对人才培养目标和能力要求,结合教学内容和自身的教学实践,探讨了教学改革中如何对学生获取知识的学习能力、解决问题的认知能力、创新创造的逻辑思维能力和再创造能力进行培养,并给出了新工科理念下实现能力培养的具体途径与措施。     

Students' conceptions of learning in an engineering context

Research on student learning in higher education has highlighted the central role that students' conceptions of learning play in influencing their approaches to learning. This article reports on a study of conceptions of learning among engineering students on a one-year foundation course. Students were interviewed about their conceptions of learning at three intervals during their academic year. The data was analysed using a phenomenographic perspective and from the data five qualitatively different conceptions of learning were identified. The resulting characterisation of these conceptions of learning is presented using excerpts from the interviews and some implications for student learning are discussed.     

Lifelong learning: concepts and conceptions

This article reviews a number of versions of the concept of Lifelong Learning and sets out the main lines of the conceptions of education articulated in them. It then goes on to suggest an alternative to attempts to produce essentialist definitions and proffers a pragmatic, problem solving approach. The article draws substantially on the book by the same authors The School, The Community and Lifelong Learning (London: Cassell, 1990).     

工科高校高等数学分层教学探讨

高等数学是工科高校的一门重要基础课,在学生所学课程中占的比重很大。目前,我国工科高校学习高等数学的学生规模庞大,但是学生数学基础参差不齐,不同专业学生对数学知识的需求不尽相同。因此,有必要探索高等数学新的教学模式,实施分层次教学。本文以因材施教、培养创新人才为原则,提出高等数学分层教学实施的具体措施。     

Teaching new product development in universities: an action learning approach

This paper reviews the concepts of new product development (NPD) and discusses the change of traditional lectures into an action learning approach of teaching NPD in universities. It explains the design and delivery of an action learning NPD course, drawing upon the experience from an engineering department at the University of the West Indies, Trinidad. The course stresses student participation, teamwork, group decision-making and learning process evaluation. Despite classroom lectures and tutorials, it incorporates group learning activities and a competitive management workshop into a NPD curriculum for undergraduates. The workshop has been implemented with encouraging results in student learning and development.     

数学教育中的美育

结合教学经验 ,论述了数学教育中培养学生的数学审美能力的几个措施 ,指出通过对学生进行数学审美教育 ,能提高学生的审美鉴定能力和审美想象能力 ,增长其创造能力     

Mathematics and Computers for Teaching Engineering

This paper reflects on the present situation of mathematics teaching for engineers in Spain and the future needs of engineers in this field. One of the parts that will increase in importance is probably Numerical Analysis, obviously for computer users. The most important characteristics for teaching this are described, with reference, in particular, to Engineering students, the motivation for learning, and the importance of practical developments     

Mathematics Teaching and Democratic Education

The following text introduces a Comenius Project carried out by teachers of Mathematics from four European countries. The starting point was the idea that the mathematical education has deep political connotations. In the process of the project, it was discussed in which ways teachers could be influenced and stimulated so that they contributed actively to the development of a new culture of mathematical education, consciously democratic.     

创新教育与数学教学

创新教育与发明创造有着紧密联系,创新教育能培养创造性思维,创造性思维不断的积累 和发展,才有可能产生由量变到质变的飞跃,才能达到真正发明创造的高度。     

高职院校教学模式改革:基于极限学习过程的创新实践

教学改革是高职院校质量工程的核心问题。尽管我国高职院校从未停止过教学模式改革的探索,但是,目前高职的教学理念、教学目标、教学内容、教学方式、教学评价等方面仍存在诸多问题。针对当前高职院校教学中的现实问题,基于极限学习过程理念,设计了"问题导向""学习中心"和"以学定教"的改革方案。在实践上,通过"三维整合"的学习过程重构、"六化同步"的教学过程优化和"多元协同"的保障支撑,推进改革探索。经过多年的实践,高职院校XLP教学模式改革取得了显著成效,积累了可以推广的实践经验。     

工科数学教学改革与创新能力的培养

数学是一门培养学生逻辑思维的学科 ,用数学思想方法培养学生创新素质有其现实意义。要改革传统教学模式 ,把工科数学教学与培养学生的创新能力结合起来 ,使之达到培养创新人才的目的     

Mathematics and Virtual Culture: an Evolutionary Perspective on Technology and Mathematics Education

This paper suggests that from a cognitive-evolutionary perspective, computational media are qualitatively different from many of the technologies that have promised educational change in the past and failed to deliver. Recent theories of human cognitive evolution suggest that human cognition has evolved through four distinct stages: episodic, mimetic, mythic, and theoretical. This progression was driven by three cognitive advances: the ability to ‘represent’ events, the development of symbolic reference, and the creation of external symbolic representations. In this paper, we suggest that we are developing a new cognitive culture: a ‘virtual’ culture dependent on the externalization of symbolic processing. We suggest here that the ability to externalize the manipulation of formal systems changes the very nature of cognitive activity. These changes will have important consequences for mathematics education in coming decades. In particular, we argue that mathematics education in a virtual culture should strive to give students generative fluency to learn varieties of representational systems, provide opportunities to create and modify representational forms, develop skill in making and exploring virtual environments, and emphasize mathematics as a fundamental way of making sense of the world, reserving most exact computation and formal proof for those who will need those specialized skills. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

《工程数学》课程实验教学探索与思考

《工程数学》课程是继《高等数学》之后的又一门十分重要的大学公共基础课,但是传统的教学方法很难激发学生真正的学习兴趣,因此《工程数学》课程的教学方式需要进行多方面的改革探索,例如,在课程教学中适当添加数学实验环节,使学生真正做到"学有所思,学有所用",从而能够激发学生对于本课程的学习兴趣,充分发挥学生学习的潜能,进一步提高大学生的综合素质与实践创新能力。     

工科院校高等数学教学的研究思考

本文探讨工科院校大学生数学教学中需要引起重视的几点问题,即如何学以致用,打好基础,以及因材施教.     

数学教学中的思想品德教育与素质教育

实施、推行素质教育,既是提高全民族素质,实施科教兴国战略的基础工程,也是教育事业内在发展规律的客观要求。数学教学,除了向学生传授数学知识外,还应重视对学生的思想品德教育与素质教育。对素质教育与思想品德教育的内涵与外延作了界定,并针对数学教学的现状,简述了数学教学中的思想品德与素质教育的内容与方法及其重要意义。     

MATLAB在工科数学课程教学中的应用

结合工科专业数学公共课程的教学实例,阐述将数学建模和数学实验的思想引入工科专业的数学课程教学中,运用MATLAB等数学软件来处理实际问题、设计数学实验的教学方法.实践教学表明,这个教学方法能极大的提高学生的学习兴趣和动手能力,较好的提高了教学效果.