Museums at the crossroad: Contributing to dialogue, curiosity and wonder in natural history museums

The first natural history collections opened to the public were inspired by a sense of curiosity and wonder about the products of nature. They were ‘cabinets of curiosities’ that offered a first-hand interaction between owner and visitors. Nowadays, these two facets of the museum experience—dialogue and wonder—have been lost, in part, due to the information overload coming via the media and the impersonal nature of the museum visit. This paper offers some reflections on the evolution of the museum visit, suggests some ways to rediscover this ‘sense of wonder’ and provides ideas on how to promote two-way communication with museum visitors. Two examples of exhibitions are offered as illustrations of the points discussed.     

Antecedents and consequences of autonomous information seeking motivation

Autonomously motivated individuals tend to enjoy activities more than those who are extrinsically motivated, and they also tend to invest more effort. Grounded in basic psychological needs theory, the current study examines the motivation of students' autonomous information seeking and its relationship with the amount of effort invested in and enjoyment derived from information seeking. Autonomy support and perceived competence were found to explain 34.7% of the variance in autonomous motivation while autonomous motivation, in turn, explained 13.1% of variance in effort and 25.8% variance in enjoyment. The model indicates a positive relationship between basic psychological needs and autonomous motivation. Higher students' autonomy support and perceived competence levels lead to increases in autonomous motivation to seek information. Higher autonomous motivation levels, similarly, lead to higher levels of effort and enjoyment. Findings confirm that intrinsically motivated students enjoy information seeking more and invest more effort in the activity. This highlights the importance of encouraging students to engage in information seeking independently, while providing the necessary guidance that would increase their competence.     

Spanish historic archives’ use of websites as a management transparency vehicle

Against the backdrop of Spain’s Transparency Act, this article discusses the presence or otherwise of a series of document types, proposed as management-related transparency indicators, on 61 (8 national and 53 provincial) historic archive websites. Although examples of good practice were identified, the information provided was found to be scant, in particular as regards lines of action, organisational objectives and yearly reports. The information most commonly provided on the websites included the collection classification chart, service use regulations and citizen charters. The inference drawn was that archives, so intently focused on their role in the application of the Act by the organisations they serve, neglect their own administrative obligations in respect of its provisions. The recommendation is that as government-funded and subsidised public service institutions, historic archives should exercise transparency by furnishing the information stipulated in the Act on their websites.     

Las capacidades gramaticales en el desarrollo

Resumen

Mediante tareas de clasificación de segmentos-palabra, se investiga la evolución infantil en la reflexión sobre el propio idioma (capacidad gramatical). Los datos demuestran que esta evolución pasa por largos períodos—entre ocho y once años—de estrategias semántico-pragmáticas y, por tanto, inmaduras gramaticalmente.     

Do men and women perform academic work differently?

Tertiary Education and Management - Why is the gender gap so large in researchers’ career progression? Do men and women have different priorities in their academic careers? This study...     

Teaching Lean Six Sigma within A Supply Chain Context: The Airplane Supply Chain Simulation

Lean six sigma is a management methodology that firms can employ to achieve substantial improvement in supply chain performance. However, few pedagogical exercises facilitate students’ use of a comprehensive set of lean six sigma principles within a supply chain context. We describe the Airplane Supply Chain Simulation that helps students understand how lean six sigma concepts may be leveraged to improve supply chain performance. The basis of this simulation is a four‐tier supply chain, consisting of suppliers (two tiers), a manufacturer, and a customer, that produces three models of paper airplanes to meet randomly distributed customer demand. In the first of three successive runs, a highly structured simulation is executed in which supply chain roles are well defined, material flows are convoluted, and a “push” production strategy is followed. The first simulation as the “current state” and, for the second and third simulation runs, challenge competing student teams to leverage lean six sigma concepts to develop a “future state” that enables the fulfillment of all customer orders at the lowest cost. Results based on statistical analyses of survey response data from 194 MBA students show that the Airplane Supply Chain Simulation is an effective participative, team‐based learning tool.     

A Multidimensional Analysis of the Disability Digital Divide: Some Evidence for Internet Use

Over the last few years, information and communication technologies have become an essential part of daily life, affecting education, employment, and leisure, among other activities. Nonetheless, many individuals still reap few or no benefits from these technologies, and there are resilient gaps in their use. Within this larger context, the authors examine the Internet digital divide between people with and without disabilities from a multidimensional approach. Rather than analyzing the gap in terms of “haves” and “have-nots,” a range of Internet-related dimensions—affordability, motivation and attitudes, skills, usage, and others—is taken into account.