The culture of learning from mistakes: How employees handle mistakes in everyday work

Workplace learning circumscribes processes leading to the development of competencies and skills through daily work. It is of increasing importance for many modern enterprises, which consider themselves as being learning organisations, to make use of the potential of their employees in order to be competitive within global markets. Dealing with mistakes is a particular strategic source of workplace learning for such organisations, because contemporary work often is so complex that mistakes cannot be avoided. A workplace culture of learning from mistakes stands to maximise them as effective learning experiences. Two empirical studies were conducted in order to investigate conditions of learning from mistakes in everyday work in modern enterprises. Study 1 assessed the role of individual mistake orientation using a questionnaire. Through the comparison of 52 managers and 108 working staff members the variability of learning from mistakes was investigated. Study 2 assessed how communities of practice deal with mistakes and what is done to prevent them occurring in future. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 28 subjects, 14 managers and 14 working staff members. Study 1 revealed a greater appraisal of mistakes as opportunities for learning by managers, but no differences in related strategies and emotions. Study 2 revealed that mistakes are constructively dealt with, and that they are appraised as learning opportunities. Both studies indicate the presence of a culture of learning from mistakes in everyday work. Conclusions are drawn about organisational and personal prerequisites for this kind of workplace learning.     

States,Markets and University Funding: New paradigms for the reform of higher education in Europe

The construct of the market is an interesting new element in the discourse on higher education in Europe. It has generated serious initiatives in deregulating higher education, in developing performance-based models of resource allocation, in fostering inter-institutional competition and efficient management structures, and even in considering the 'privatisation' of higher education. These developments affect particularly the financing of higher education, where new models of resource generation and allocation, institutional steering and controlling, and accountability are being explored. Within this context, and with a view towards the future of higher education in Europe, four issues are being examined in more detail: formula funding, the mobilisation of external resources, the introduction of tuition fees, and the creation of private institutions of higher education.     

Wilhelm Flitner vollendet sein hundertstes Lebensjahr

Ohne Zusammenfassung

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Wilhelm Flitner's hundredth birthday

     

Further steps toward a theory of comprehension and ‘Rauding’

The article analyzes several aspects of the Rauding Theory recently presented in the Reading Research Quarterly by Ronald Carver. The critical analysis is combined with constructive suggestions as to how the theory could be further developed and improved. It is pointed out that some of the basic concepts of the theory need to be redefined or defined more explicitly. The possible nature of literal or textual comprehension through a sentence monitoring function operating on the surface structure of spoken or written language, is discussed in some detail. Finally, a new theoretical equation is put forward, which fits Carver's empirical data as well as does Carver's equation, and also yields more plausible results when predicting levels of comprehension after several re-readings when comprehension after the first reading is low.     

Perception,communication and educational research: A transactional view

Summary We have not presented a transactional theory, since, so far as we know, there is no one such theory to present. Instead, we have outlined some transactional viewpoints which we consider potentially useful in audiovisual communication, learning resources development, and research in these areas. We have suggested some implications and advantages of transactional assumptions.     

Are education and nationalism a happy marriage? Ethno-nationalist disruptions of education in Dutch classrooms

Following Gellner, citizenship education has often been framed in terms of nationalism. This framing is supported by methodological nationalism that legitimizes nationalism as either functional (civic nationalism) or natural (ethnic nationalism). Based on a triangulation of qualitative and quantitative data, this study of the dynamics in the classes of a Dutch faculty of social professions highlights the disruptive impact of nationalism on citizenship education, spilling over to other courses as well. Ethno-nationalist discourses in Dutch media and politics as well as in multiculturalism approaches used in citizenship education fuel conflicts between non-migrant students and students with a migration background that disrupt education. It is argued that in globalized settings like these classes, a more viable approach to citizenship education would take an institutional instead of communitarian perspective.     

The impact of the university context on European students' learning approaches and learning environment preferences

This article describesexperiences of 610 Dutch students and 241students from other European countries whostudied at least three months abroad within theframework of an international exchange program.The Dutch students went to a university inanother European country and the foreignstudents went to a Dutch university. By meansof a questionnaire students' perceptions ofthree main characteristics of the universitylearning environment were measured concerningthe home university, the host university andthe ideal learning environment. The studentswere also asked about their way of learning atthe home university and at the host university,in particular about the extent of constructivelearning and reproductive learning. Evidencewas found for the influence of aspects of thelearning environment on the two learningapproaches; e.g., a learning environmentcharacterized as student-oriented discouragesreproductive learning and promotes constructivelearning, especially when conceptual andepistemological relations within the learningdomain are stressed. The learning environmentpreferences of the students were partly relatedto their learning orientations at the homeuniversity, but they were strikingly similarfor students from different countries. Therewas a strong preference for those learningenvironment aspects that promote constructivelearning.