Community College Program Planning: A Method to Measure and Meet Community Need

Offering academic programs that meet community need has long been a core mission of community colleges. However, determining which job skills and credentials are needed for employment in the community is challenging. In order to facilitate a holistic and community-based perspective, our 2-year community college developed a structured curricular planning model to guide programmatic decision-making based on regional economic and labor-market data. These procedures cumulatively inform comprehensive curricular planning related to program offerings and describe the relationship of this process to integrated planning. This model can assist other community colleges with designing processes to refine programing mix.     

Adaptive capacity in the Pacific region: a study of continuous professional development for in-service teachers in Kiribati

This study of I-Kiribati secondary school teachers used a project-based approach to investigate the notions of school-based and collaborative learning as a suitable model for in-service teacher continuous professional development (CPD). The design and methodology adopted by the study framed the argument that since collaborative behavior is integral in Kiribati and Pacific community daily life it could be a suitably applied in the workplace to promote effective learning. At the same time the study was designed to investigate a system of learning for teachers in Kiribati that would address their needs, in particular being school-based. The study revealed that cultural influences in Kiribati such as: the role of leaders, respect for elders and secret knowledge have a strong influence on teacher behavior both inside and outside the classroom. The recommendations concur with research literature that suggests developing effective policy and practices in the Pacific region must be driven by and strongly reflect cultural practices, values and beliefs. Importantly, the notion that some cultural practices may conflict when applied in different settings provides an added dimension to the body of literature.     

The impact of maternal responsiveness and control on change in externalising behaviour problems: differences between regular and special schools

The present study compared 124 adolescents from special schools for students with emotional and behavioural disturbances (EBDs) and 133 regular schooled adolescents with regard to their perceived maternal behaviour. It was also tested longitudinally whether effects of maternal parenting behaviour on subsequent externalising behaviour vary as a function of school type. The two groups did not differ from each other with regard to perceived maternal parenting behaviour. However, an interaction effect of school type and parenting behaviour on externalising behaviour was found. Maternal warmth/support predicted a decrease and maternal strict control an increase in subsequent problem behaviour only for adolescents from special schools. The importance of parenting programmes especially for parents of adolescents attending special schools for students with EBD is discussed.     

Mapping remote and multidisciplinary learning barriers: lessons from challenge-based innovation at CERN

This paper presents the experienced difficulties of students participating in the multidisciplinary, remote collaborating engineering design course challenge-based innovation at CERN. This is with the aim to identify learning barriers and improve future learning experiences. We statistically analyse the rated differences between distinct design activities, educational background and remote vs. co-located collaboration. The analysis is based on a quantitative and qualitative questionnaire (N?=?37). Our analysis found significant ranking differences between remote and co-located activities. This questions whether the remote factor might be a barrier for the originally intended learning goals. Further a correlation between analytical and converging design phases was identified. Hence, future facilitators are suggested to help students in the transition from one design phase to the next rather than only teaching methods in the individual design phases. Finally, we discuss how educators address the identified learning barriers when designing future courses including multidisciplinary or remote collaboration.     

Organizational knowledge creation and the generation of new product ideas: A behavioral approach

In this paper, we address the pre-project phase of idea generation in the product innovation process, where the effective generation of new product ideas still remains an issue of high relevance for both management scholars and practitioners. We relate Nonaka and colleagues’ four knowledge creation modes of socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization to the novelty of product ideas generated. Taking a behavioral perspective on the four modes, we posit positive relationships between socialization as well as internalization and the novelty of product ideas, whereas we postulate negative relationships for externalization as well as combination. Using data from multiple respondents in 33 companies, our results confirm the proposed linkages.