Maturity model of Knowledge Management in the interpretativist perspective

Many authors have proposed categorizations for approaches to Knowledge Management; outstanding prospects including functionalist and interpretativist. In the first approach, knowledge is considered as a “static object” that exists in a number of ways and locations; in the second one, knowledge does not exist independently of human experience, social practice, of knowledge itself and its use, where it is shared by the social practices of communities, because it is “dynamic and active”. These articles constitute an extensive review on the subject, focused in reviewing, analyzing and presenting a study of the interpretativist perspective, and describe a maturity model for KM operational from it.     

The rhetoric of American Indian activism in the 1960s and 1970s 1

Political rhetoric in a democracy is, in at least some sense, educative and constitutive even as it is instrumentally persuasive. For members of ethnic, racial, or cultural groups that lie outside of the dominant culture, the educative processes that underlie policy advocacy require attention to specific cultures, traditions, historical experiences, and group interests. Thus, even though all out‐groups share many common challenges, they all face unique situations as well. This essay explores these rhetorical challenges and some of the strategies designed to meet them through an examination of the political rhetoric of American Indian activists from the 1972 Trail of Broken Treaties through the 1973 siege at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Particular attention is paid to the question of audience.     

Benefits,Challenges, and Opportunities of Conducting a Collaborative Research Course in an International University Partnership: A Study Case Between Kansas State University and Tallinn University of Technology

A globalized world requires research to transcend geographical boundaries; this includes training students in international collaborative research. The purpose of this project was to identify the benefits, opportunities, and challenges of students from two universities (Kansas State Univ. and Tallin Univ. of Technology) working on an international research project together. For this purpose, six graduate students from the Center for Sensory Analysis and Consumer Behavior, Kansas State Univ., partnered with 20 Food Science major students from a Product Development class at Tallinn Univ. of Technology. Students worked together by distance in a partnership developing a rye bread sensory lexicon for systematically understanding the sensory properties of this product category, conducting Landscape analysis by using sensory mapping techniques on rye bread products from Northeast Europe for capturing the market complexity and to identify opportunity for new product development and new products concepts. Students from Kansas then went to Estonia for further meetings. After the trip, students and professors were asked for their feedback. Results showed that students identify learning food trends from another country as the main benefit of their international collaboration, followed by intercultural skills and knowledge transfer. Language and difference in time zones, as well as educational backgrounds, were identified by students as the main challenges of the collaboration. When US students were asked to rate the learning outcomes stated in the syllabus, understanding the cultural characteristics of Estonia was the one scored highest. Professors mentioned this opportunity is unique because it gives a cultural component programs usually not only an offer and a chance to develop time management skills by working across divergent time zones, but also to practice options for managing language barriers. This project shows that it is possible to setup a partnership between students across different countries and have a positive outcome that includes unique learning experiences for students; especially in terms of time and project management.     

Assessing working memory capacity in a non-native language

The present studies directly test the usefulness of two English-language working memory capacity (WMC) assessments with two samples of students whose native language was not English. Participants completed two widely used complex span tasks, Reading Span (RSpan) and Operation Span (OSpan), in English. To determine whether the well-established relationship between WMC and Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices (RAPM) would be observed when span tasks were not given in the native language of the participant, span scores were regressed against performance on the RAPM. Results indicated that while OSpan was a reliable and valid predictor of RAPM in non-native-English speakers, RSpan administered in English was not.     

Sex differences in science learning: Closing the gap through animations

Males traditionally outperform females on measures of both visuospatial ability and science achievement. This experiment directly tests a manipulation designed to compensate for such differences through the presentation of relevant illustrations or animations to support the construction of understanding of a specific scientific phenomenon. Males and females read a scientific text about plate tectonics that contained static illustrations, animated versions of the static illustrations, or no illustrations. Participants were assessed on their visuospatial ability and also working memory capacity. Results indicated that while males outperformed females on both the visuospatial measure and overall science learning, the presence of animations effectively eliminated performance differences for this science topic. These results suggest that sex differences in learning outcomes can be overcome by supporting the visualization of scientific phenomena.