Development of Manager‐Academics at Institutions of Higher Education in Catalonia

Managers at Spanish universities are having to deal with increasingly complex managerial tasks as a result of current changes in higher education. This paper presents the results of a study into the professional development of deans and department heads at universities in Catalonia. At management level, these universities are typically based on an elected, rotating model rather than an appointed or permanent one. The findings from 23 qualitative interviews and a focus group identified three phases in the development of academic management: learning and contextualization, development of functions, and the institutional projection and transmission of management tasks.     

A teaching accompaniment and development model: possibilities and challenges for teaching and learning centers

ABSTRACT

We propose a ‘1-to-1’ accompaniment and teaching development model emerging from the analysis and reflection of professional experience at a Teaching and Learning Center in a Chilean university. We highlight the relevance of the bond between professor and adviser and the establishment of a horizontal relationship, where both work collaboratively on the achievement of common objectives. This means breaking away from the classic view of the counseling process, where aspects of discipline and context are not necessarily considered. Despite size scalability issues, this model is flexible in its applicability and is adaptable to different university contexts. The implementation of this model is still under development, particularly in its evaluation phase.     

The development of children with down syndrome: the influence of maternal adaptation,mother-child interaction and early forms of support

In this paper, we present a longitudinal case study involving four dyads with babies with Down syndrome from birth until the age of 7 years – the moment at which the children were observed for the last time before they began compulsory schooling. At each data collection point, the mother was given a semi-directive interview and we filmed a free interaction situation. The objective of our study was to carry out an indepth analysis of the ways in which mothers adapt to the birth of a ‘different baby’, the evolution of their expectations in relation to the child's development, mother–child interaction and early support for both the child and the family, and the way in which these aspects of the overall situation relate to the children's development. The data of our longitudinal study show that there is an interaction between children's development and family characteristics and patterns, particularly mother–child interaction and the way in which the mother deals with the stress factors associated with the fact that she has a disabled child. We found that the four dyads experienced different models of early support, which to some extent reflect what really does happen in Portugal in cases involving children with disabilities, and that the programmes' impact was not identical in every situation. The most successful was the one which best suited the family's wishes, and involved both the mother and later on the kindergarten teacher.     

The interplay between input and initial biases: asymmetries in vowel perception during the first year of life

Vowels with extreme articulatory-acoustic properties act as natural referents. Infant perceptual asymmetries point to an underlying bias favoring these referent vowels. However, as language experience is gathered, distributional frequency of speech sounds could modify this initial bias. The perception of the /i/-/e/ contrast was explored in 144 Catalan- and Spanish-learning infants (2 languages with a different distribution of vowel frequency of occurrence) at 4, 6, and 12 months. The results confirmed an acoustic bias at 4 and 6 months in all infants. However, at 12 months, discrimination was not affected by the acoustic bias but by the frequency of occurrence of the vowel.     

Adaptation of a computer programming course to the ESHE requirements: evaluation five years later

In the academic year 2010–2011, Spain finished the process of introducing the regulatory changes derived from the Bologna Declaration and the new European Space for Higher Education (ESHE). These changes have implied the updating of university degrees’ structure as well as the inclusion of the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS). This paper describes the process of adaptation of two basic first-semester core subjects of computer engineering to one of the basic aspects of the ESHE, the adoption of the ECTS. The process described in the paper was developed in the framework of the pilot plan undertaken by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona between 2005 and 2010. The proposed course design implies a better coordination and integration of the contents of two different subjects that students follow simultaneously, and it is based on the combination of project-based learning and cooperative learning. After the experience finished, an extended quantitative and qualitative analysis of the academic results over the five-year period has shown an improvement in the students’ learning outcomes.     

The long road—how evolving institutional governance mechanisms are changing the face of quality in Portuguese higher education

While a lot has been written regarding the changing management and governance arrangements in higher education, less is known about how this progression relates to quality in higher education. The purpose of this article is to describe the context of governance in Portuguese higher education institutions and how institutional governance arrangements impact on quality and quality assurance mechanisms of higher education. The study is based on four institutional cases studies, comprising two universities and two polytechnic institutions. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with senior managers, middle managers, academics and students from Arts and Engineering, and documentary analysis was undertaken. The main findings show that national and institutional features of governance and management may influence the implementation of quality policy and procedures, and indeed quality improvement. The different institutional actors seem to be aware of the dynamic nature of the equilibrium between positive and negative impacts and recognise the need for checks and balances in the governance and management structures of higher education institutions, especially between collegial and managerial facets.     

Mapping the Health Communication Infrastructure in Rural Senegal: an Assessment to Support Cervical Cancer Screening

Cervical cancer is the leading cause of women's cancer deaths in Senegal, but few medical personnel are trained to perform cervical cancer screening. In rural areas, the situation is worse. To remedy this, a collaborative of researchers and stakeholders trained local health-care workers in cervical cancer screening through the “training-of-trainers” method. However, lack of cancer screening knowledge, barriers, and a hard-to-reach population may jeopardize the collaborative's efforts. The purpose of this study is to map the health communication infrastructure by applying communication infrastructure theory to assess general health and cancer screening knowledge, as well as attitudes and barriers toward screening. Results from focus groups and interviews show that women have minimal knowledge of cervical cancer. Moreover, health workers report detrimental attitudes in menopausal women. Our findings identified routes for information dissemination and attitude change including community radio and local health talks.     

The research-teaching nexus in nurse and teacher education: contributions of an ecological approach to academic identities in professional fields

In developing graduates for the knowledge society lecturers in higher education may seek to strengthen links between research and teaching. Much of the previous work on the research-teaching nexus is within traditional universities and subject disciplines. In aiming to deepen understanding of the research and teaching nexus this paper focuses on the academic identities of higher education lecturers working in newer higher education institutions and in the professional fields of nursing and of teacher education. A qualitative study, informed by professional identity construction as an ecological concept, was conducted. The findings align with previous studies concerning similarities between lecturers in nurse and teacher education, but they contrast with previous studies concerning differences between these two groups of lecturers. Similarities include the priority given by professional educators to their responsibility for preparing new clinical practitioners; the research-led model as the lecturers’ main approach to the research-teaching nexus; and their difficulties in coping with current demands in academic work. Differences between the two groups of lecturers include the way that ‘practitioner identity’ is positioned within their current academic identities and the way that they position initial education within the wider professional field. These differences indicate different kinds of connections between teaching and research. The paper proposes an ecological approach to understanding the research-teaching nexus.     

Polychronicity: review of the literature and a new configuration for the study of this hidden dimension of online learning

Polychronicity is the natural tendency or preference for structuring time that has an influence on people’s behaviors. Highly polychronic individuals are involved in everything, doing many things at once because they value human relationships and interactions over arbitrary schedules and appointments. In contrast, highly monochronic individuals focus on one thing at a time, perceive other events as interruptions, and stress a high degree of scheduling, and promptness in meeting obligations and attending appointments. Although time is an important variable in educational contexts, and in particular in online learning, there is a lack of studies on polychronicity in educational research. This article reviews, summarizes, and extends the literature on polychronicity conceptualization and assessment; it discusses the limitations of the results and offers a multidimensional proposal for a polychronicity construct. Finally, the implications of students’ time differences and their impact on instructional situations are discussed.     

Draw a Young and an Older Person: Schoolchildren's Images of Older People

The goal of this study was to explore stereotypes of older people as expressed in drawings by a sample of primary school children. Sixty children from fourth to sixth grades (30 boys and 30 girls aged 9 to 12 years) were asked to draw a young man, a young woman, an old man, and an old woman. The drawings were content analyzed. Children in our sample seemed to represent old people in varied or multidimensional ways, indicating, thus, that the image they held about elders was less negative than concluded in similar investigations. In fact, although some drawings had negative content, most pictured a positive—and even friendly—image of old people. Moreover, some of the drawings included both positive and negative traits at the same time. Compared with images of young men and women, those of the elderly seem to be more homogeneous and less complex, since there was more agreement on represented details. Suggestions for future research are proposed.