Educational Planning and Social Responsibility: Eleven Years of Mega Planning at the Sonora Institute of Technology (ITSON)

ABSTRACT The Instituto Tecnológico de Sonora (ITSON), a public and autonomous university in Cuidad Obregon, Sonora in Mexico has, since its inception, maintained a commitment to society and public service. To transform this commitment into valued results, it has used Mega Planning as its framework over the last eleven years. This article illustrates the impact an educational institution can have through a strategic planning and implementation approach that is focused on measurable objectives, the appropriate processes and activities, and the required resources for the development of its region (i.e., students and their environment). The article will begin with a brief background of the institution, its strategic approach, the subsequent curriculum and organization reform, and finally four key strategic programs that have had a positive social impact in the region: The Integrated Community Development Program; ITSON‐Consulting; Masters in Agribusiness; and the Software Factory.     

Change,choices, and consequences: A guide to mega thinking and planning by Roger Kaufman,CPT

Roger Kaufman, CPT, is professor emeritus from Florida State University, director of Roger Kaufman & Associates, and Distinguished Research Professor at the Sonora Institute of Technology. He has published 38 books and over 250 articles on strategic planning, performance improvement, quality management and continuous improvement, needs assessment, management, and evaluation. Change, Choices, and Consequences (ISBN: 0–87425–924‐X) is published by HRD Press and ISPI. The publisher may be reached online at www.hrdpress.com or by phone at 800–822–2801.     

Education for Sustainable Development: The Engineer of the 21st Century

This paper describes the way in which the Department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Sonora in Mexico is facing the challenge posed by sustainable development. In order to integrate the principles of Agenda 21, the Group of Sustainable Development has designed an educational model called ‘sustainable cell’. This educational model is based on a proactive conscience towards ecological and social problems, which could ensure in the future a responsible participation of these professionals at their workplaces, by the application of the universal values: to develop better processes and products that would cause a lower impact on nature, and transmit these ideas to their employees, co-workers and superiors. Even though the sustainable cell was designed to be applied in higher education, it is feasible for application at any level of education.     

Quality of Australian childcare and children's social skills

This study investigated the relationships and interactions between childcare quality (Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale – Revised edition [ECERS‐R]/Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale – Extension [ECERS‐E]) and children's social skills (SSRS) in different sociodemographic areas within one Australian city. Multiple regression analysis revealed that some subscales of ECERS‐R and ECERS‐E (language–reasoning, programme structure, space and furnishings, parents and staff, literacy, mathematics, science and environment) predicted the level of children's social skills and the frequency of problem behaviour, with positive and negative effects. Interestingly, although total scores for ECERS‐R and ECERS‐E were not significant predictors of social skills scores, interaction between total ECERS‐R and ECERS‐E scores was a significant predictor. With some qualifications the study provides evidence that both the childcare centre's neighbourhood and the quality of childcare provision are related to children's social skills. The interaction between social/emotional and academic aspects of quality suggests that we need to consider synergistic dimensions in quality in order to optimally enhance social skills in children.     

Students’ Perspective into the Apathy and Social Disconnectedness They Feel in Undergraduate Business Classrooms

Apathy and social disconnectedness among undergraduate business students remain poorly understood and under‐researched—despite evidence that they produce an adverse impact on learning‐related outcomes. Qualitative research was initially conducted among a sample of undergraduate business students to identify the antecedents and learning‐related consequences of apathy and social disconnectedness, develop grounded definitions, hypotheses, and scales. This was followed by a survey that aimed to test a conceptual model that emerged from qualitative data. The study finds evidence to suggest that high levels of anxiety among students antecedes social disconnectedness and powerlessness, which trigger apathy or the lack of caring about being a student or attending college. These psychosocial problems are severe enough, the study finds, to adversely impact the quality of students’ learning experiences. Implications for new thinking and research are discussed, and implications for improving instruction are derived from the findings.     

Creating Spaces for Collaboration in Community Co‐design

Urgent societal challenges have led to unease in our socio‐cultural interactions and the production systems that underpin our lives. To confront such challenges, collaboration stands out as an essential approach in accomplishing joint goals and producing new knowledge. It calls for interdisciplinary methodologies such as co‐design, an approach capable of bridging multiple expertise. The core activities of co‐design are based on the premise of collaboration and on developing creative social environments. Yet achieving collaboration through co‐design is challenging as people need to understand each other, and develop trust and rapport. We argue that ‘informal‐mutual learning’ is central to building mutual understanding. This article explores how we create spaces for collaboration through co‐design by examining the social environments supporting them. It examines the value of collaboration and its impact upon participants within an action research project conducted in Scotland. We identified Cultural‐Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) as a suitable theoretical framework. It offers support for holistic inquiry into participation and learning. Its strength was in the attention that it pays to multi‐dimensional human interactions within the social environment. This led to an understanding of the concepts of boundary‐crossing and boundary space examined through a CHAT lens. The findings shed light on four designerly conditions supporting informal‐mutual learning when engaged in collaboration during co‐design situations: choreography and orchestration, aesthetics, playfulness, and quality and quantity of participation. The findings enable us to elaborate on the theorisation of boundary space, a theoretical space for the assemblage of multiple levels of expertise to achieve collaboration.     

Using a Group‐Centered Approach to Observe Interactions in Early Childhood Education

This study examined the value of using a group‐centered approach to evaluate process quality of early childhood education and care (ECEC). Is observed support of group processes a different aspect of classroom quality, and does it predict children's collaborative play in ECEC in the Netherlands? In two play situations, 37 teachers and 120 two‐ to four‐year‐old children were observed with the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) Toddler and two new measures. In a two‐level structural equation model, teachers’ support of group processes was positively related to the CLASS domains and to children's collaborative play, over and above the effect of children's cognitive ability and social competence. These findings suggest that ECEC quality evaluation could be enriched by adding group‐centered indicators of classroom quality.     

Performance analysis: Knowing what to do and how by Dale Brethower,CPT

Dale Brethower, CPT, is professor emeritus of psychology at Western Michigan University and a visiting professor at the Technological Institute of Sonora, Mexico. He has been a consultant more than 30 years with a very impressive client list. In addition, he has served two terms on the board of directors of ISPI and is a former president of ISPI. HRD Press and ISPI publish Performance Analysis (price: $19.95; ISBN: 1–59996–054–0). The publisher may be reached online at http://www.hrdpress.com or by phone at 800‐822–2891.     

Urban neighbourhood quality and school leaving age: Gender differences and some hypotheses

This study used longitudinal data from the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) to examine the role of neighbourhood quality, assessed when cohort members were aged five, in boys’ and girls’ school leaving age. It was expected that, since context is in general more strongly predictive of boys’ rather than girls’ behaviour, neighbourhood quality would be more strongly related to men’s than women’s school leaving age. Results showed that, as expected, even after controlling for cognitive ability, parental socio‐economic disadvantage and social class, family structure, and maternal education, age and depressed mood, neighbourhood quality was more strongly related to men’s than women’s school leaving age. To rule out the possibility that neighbourhood quality is simply picking up individual level social class the study also explored the interaction of neighbourhood quality with parental social class. It was found that, compared to cohort members of high social class groups, cohort members of lower social class groups were less likely to stay in education after the minimum school leaving age in both neighbourhood groups, but being in the lower social class groups was more of a disadvantage for children living in well‐to‐do rather than average or poor neighbourhoods at age five.     

Conservative and liberal challenges to progressivist curricula in Scandinavia

ABSTRACT

The post‐war period in the Scandinavian countries has been characterized by successive school reforms administered by social democratic governments following a moderate form of progressivism. A central idea is of equality and of an equal right to quality education. The public schools dominate and the management is top‐down. For a long period of time there have been central national curricula. In recent years the System of public schools has been questioned, as has the ideological basis of the curriculum. Proponents of a new liberal ideology demand more private schools, decentralization and efficiency. New conservative ideas at the same time argue for the restoration of basic forms of knowledge, competition and moral qualities to be mirrored in the new national curricula.     

The quest for quality,East and West

The paper describes the development of a new distance education institution in Hong Kong. The methods and systems used to assure that its courses and degree programmes are of the highest quality are described. The paper addresses the means by which new courses are produced: a direct import from another institution, adaptation of an imported course, and in‐house production. Although established by the Hong Kong Government the institution is required to become self‐financing within four years — the paper describes some of the consequences of this policy especially on quality. The paper concludes by comparing the performance of Hong Kong students on courses taken from the British Open University with that of their British counterparts.     

Riding over socialism and global capitalism: changing education governance and social policy paradigms in post‐Mao China

In coping with the challenges of globalization, various reform measures, in the field of social policy, have been initiated in post‐Mao China. Strategies such as privatization, marketization, commodification and societalization have been adopted to redefine the relationship between the state, the market and other non‐state sectors involved in social policy provision and financing. In particular, the restructuring of state‐owned enterprises and the de‐monopolization of the state in social policy provision has inevitably led to significant changes in the post‐Mao welfare regime. This article has chosen a theme ‘riding over socialism and global capitalism’ to examine how the Chinese government reinvents its social policy delivery by adopting new governance strategies to cope with the growing impacts of globalization. With particular reference to higher education, this article focuses on how the three major aspects of higher education governance, namely, provision, financing and regulation, have changed since the economic reform started in the late 1970s. This article concludes by asking whether the introduction of new governance strategies and new reform strategies in education have weakened the state capacity.     

Is Self‐Esteem a Cause or Consequence of Social Support? A 4‐Year Longitudinal Study

Considerable research has been devoted to examining the relations between self‐esteem and social support. However, the exact nature and direction of these relations are not well understood. Measures of self‐esteem, and social support quantity and quality were administered to 961 adolescents across five yearly time points (M_age = 13.41 years). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was utilized to test between a self‐esteem antecedent model (self‐esteem precedes changes in social support), self‐esteem consequence model (social support precedes change in self‐esteem), and a reciprocal influence model. Self‐esteem reliably predicted increasing levels of social support quality and network size across time. In contrast, the consequence model was not supported. The implications of this for helping adolescents to develop higher quality social support structures are discussed.     

The New American School: preparation for post‐industrial discipline

In this article we consider how broad shifts in social relations over the past 30 years have given rise to new social control regimes in US public schools. We argue that the contemporary mechanisms of control engendered by mass incarceration and post‐industrialization have re‐shaped school discipline. To illustrate contemporary discipline in the ‘New American School,’ we discuss the emergence of police officers and technological surveillance in schools. These two strategies of school social control facilitate the link between courts and schools, and expose students to both the salience of crime control in everyday life and to the demands of workers in a post‐industrial world. By incorporating police officers and technological surveillance into the school safety regime, schools shape the experiences of students in ways that reflect modern relationships of dependency, inequality, and instability vis‐à‐vis the contemporary power dynamics of the post‐industrialist labor market and the neoliberal state.     

Preschool care and education: Lessons from the 20th for the 21st Century

This paper offers a review and critique of research carried out over the past 15 to 20 years designed to investigate the effects of various types of day care provision on the development of preschool children. It is argued that in view of the diversity of provision offered in different countries, simple, global, generalisations about the effects ofout‐of‐home, preschool experience on later development can not be sensibly justified. The fact that type and quality of care varies widely within and between countries must be taken into consideration if accurate assessments of the impact of day care on children's social, emotional and intellectual development are to be made. Also, in assessing the effects of care, it is important to recognise and take account of, the relationships between a child's home environment and the characteristics of his or her preschool experience. It is argued that conflicting results from previous studies can best be evaluated in terms of a model which looks at the balance between the quality of a child's home experience and that of his or her day care experience. The paper also discusses new findings which are beginning to emerge from international, comparative research projects on the effects of preschool care, and calls for greater efforts to be made in co‐ordinating cross‐national research in the future.     

New technology and distance education: the case of Australia

New technology can help cut costs and improve quality, equity and participation in distance education, but the choice of technology, medium and carrier is application specific. Different goals, methods and philosophies dictate different systems and different cost‐benefit ratios. This paper examines five major requirements if Australia is to take advantage of the new technologies in distance education, looks at their social, economic and pedagogic implications, and suggests some specific actions.     

强化公益主题与环保理念的艺术创新教育

艺术教育应以其敏锐的目光深刻地把握社会发展的现状,走在时代发展的前列,教育和引导学生形成良好的生活习惯和社会公德意识。本文试图探索艺术创新教育如何以公益主题与人文关怀为动因．以专业教学为依托,以创新活动为载体,用鲜活的艺术作品及育人方式,提高学生综合素质．创造社会效益。     

虚拟实验室在大学创新实践教学中的应用研究

随着社会对人才需求的改变,培养高素质的创新型人才是新时期高等教育的重要使命,大学创新实践教学是实现这一目标的重要环节．论文提出了运用虚拟实验室进行大学创新实践教学的新方法,从实践教学体系、内容和方法等方面探索创新实践教学,培养具有创新精神、创新意识和创新能力满足社会需求的高素质创新型人才．     

Factors Affecting the Balance Between Teaching and Research in the Universities of the Twenty‐First Century

The author suggests that the current mode of knowledge production at the leading edges of advanced studies in the sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities is changing dramatically. This development, that is being driven as much by the internal dynamics of knowledge production as by government policy and by the demand for competitiveness, has profound implications for the balance of teaching and research in universities. A traditional, university‐based mode of knowledge production, characterized by a linear model, that the author calls Mode 1, is being complemented and to some extent supplanted by a new type of knowledge production called Mode 2 that is characterized by knowledge produced in the context of application, transdisciplinarity, heterogeneity and organizational diversity, enhanced social accountability, and broadly based systems of quality control. Mode 2 knowledge production questions the validity of the linear model of knowledge production characteristic of Mode 1. Mode 2 requires the universities, particularly in regard to research, to come to grips with a new pattern for the social distribution of knowledge production, especially the fact that they are no longer either the sole or even the primary institutions on the cognitive landscape.     

Teachers' assessment of students' research skills

Today, teachers are expected to develop complex skills, such as research skills, in their students while implementing new views on learning and teaching and using authentic assessment strategies. About these new assessment strategies there is much debate and teachers are vulnerable in using them. We studied upper secondary education natural and social science teachers' practices using two surveys and two rounds of expert panel judgement on teacher‐submitted assessment‐related material and information. Our study shows that there are grounds for concern regarding the clarity of teachers' assessment criteria, the consistency between teachers' goals, assignments, and criteria, and the validity and acceptability of teachers' assessment practices. The extent to which it is justifiable to judge teachers' assessment practice by professional quality criteria is discussed, and suggestions are given as to the main quality criteria for formative and summative assessment and as to ways in which teachers could improve their assessment practices.