Assessing the impact of a program designed to develop sustainability leadership amongst staff members in higher education institutes: a case study from a community of practice perspective

This study focuses on the impact of a sustainability leadership development program (SLDP) designed to develop staff members as leaders who encourage sustainability practices within institutions of higher education (IHE). Using the framework of community of practice (CoP), we explored the program’s contribution by interviewing 16 staff members who had attended the program. At the individual level, we found that the SLDP provided participants with opportunities to learn from and with other members of the CoP and to engage them in debate about the various meanings of ‘sustainability’, increasing their environmental awareness and their environmental involvement within the IHE’s community. At the institutional level, the SLDP disseminated the college’s socio-environmental mission statement, increased its administration’s commitment and involvement, served as a platform for addressing local socio-environmental problems and initiated an Education-for-Sustainability (EfS) activists’ network. However, the participants indicated that the SLDP had limited impact on the environmentalism of other staff members and that the on-going mentoring and support from the college administration was insufficient. This study highlights the importance of such EfS professional programs to the development of both staff members and entire institutions as sustainability leaders. It also suggests ways to increase staff involvement in institutional EfS discourse.     

Making ‘place’ for ecological sustainability in early childhood education

Culturally, childhood is often understood as a time of innocence which can mean that issues such as ecological sustainability are considered too problematic for early childhood practice. By drawing on findings from a research project that focused on issues of ecological sustainability in early childhood centres in New Zealand from Western and indigenous perspectives, this article contributes a critical perspective of ecological sustainability as an educational issue in early childhood education (ECE). The article falls into two parts: the first section gives an overview of some of the conceptual and theoretical issues that underpin critical perspectives of childhood, and provides a context for current global ECE discourse, while the second section introduces the research project and discusses the intersections of ‘local’ and ‘global’ in light of teachers’ emerging ‘pedagogies of place’. The intent is to demonstrate that critical engagement with such complex global issues as ecological sustainability generates spaces for new understandings of how ECE can contribute to theory and practice of education for sustainability.     

Der Personalstrukturplan im System des Universitätsgesetzes 2002

Seit der Periode 2010–2012 verpflichten die Leistungsvereinbarungen zwischen den Universitäten und dem Bund, die Universitäten Personalstrukturpläne zu erstellen. Personalstrukturpläne sind in erster Linie interne Instrumente zur strategischen Personalentwicklung. Sie sind teils komplementär und teils konkretisierend zu den Entwicklungs- und Organisationsplänen der jeweiligen Universitäten. Extern dienen sie dem Bundesministerium für Wissenschaft und Forschung als Informationsressource. Der Beitrag untersucht die rechtliche Stellung des Personalstrukturplans im System des Universitätsgesetzes 2002.     

Academic self-efficacy and learning strategies as mediators of the relation between personality and elementary school students’ achievement

European Journal of Psychology of Education - In this study, we examined the mediating role of academic self-efficacy and motivational learning strategies in the relationship between personality...     

E-book as facilitator of vocabulary acquisition: support of adults,dynamic dictionary and static dictionary

We investigated the effects of three facilitators: adults’ support, dynamic visual vocabulary support and static visual vocabulary support on vocabulary acquisition in the context of e-book reading. Participants were 144 Israeli Hebrew-speaking preschoolers (aged 4–6) from middle SES neighborhoods. The entire sample read the e-book without a dictionary once, and was pretested on receptive word comprehension, expressive word explanation and word production in story retelling. The sample was then randomly divided into four groups, each reading an e-book three times, with: (1) adults’ vocabulary support; (2) dynamic visual dictionary support; (3) static visual dictionary support; or (4) without support. The participants were then posttested on the same measures. Children’s progress in all measures was dependent on group, with adults’ support appearing as most effective, dynamic dictionary as second, static dictionary as third, and no support as least effective. However, the gains differed significantly only between some of the groups, but were always significantly different between the group given adults’ support and the control group which was given no support. We conclude that e-books can be used effectively to facilitate word meaning acquisition at different levels. This contribution can be augmented by adults’ support and dynamic dictionary support.     

Do null phonemic masking effects reflect strategic control of phonology?

Verstaen, Humphreys, Olson and D'Ydewalle [(1995) Journal of Memory and Language, 34, 335–356] reported null phonemic masking effectswith homophone targets under conditionsdiscouraging reliance on phonology. Theyattributed these null effects to the absence ofreliance on phonology, concluding that relianceon phonology may be strategically controlled. Two studies using Verstaen et al.'s methodoccasionally replicate these null phonemicmasking effects, but challenge theirinterpretation. The emergence of null phonemicmasking effects was unrelated to the strategymanipulation. Conversely, evidence forphonology emerged in homophone errorsregardless of the strategy manipulation anddespite null phonemic masking effects. Ourfindings reflect an inherent instability in theperception of homophones. We demonstrate thatthis instability is directly due to reliance onphonology, rather than to its control.     

When Sociocognitive Transaction among Peers Fails: The Case of Misconceptions in Science

The effect ofsociocognitive transaction among peers on cognitive change was analyzed. Transaction concerned the concept of speed applied to 2 problems: a Piagetian problem and a parallel problem evoking a misconception. The effect of transaction, intended to evoke inter- and intrapersonal conflicts, was compared to two other treatments: taking a multiple choice test aimed to raise intrapersonal conflict and no intervention. A total of 360 sixth, eighth, and tenth graders participated. Following treatments, subjects mainly progressed on the Piagetian problem and mainly regressed on the problem evoking the misconception. Transaction had a beneficial effect on the former problem, encouraging progress and discouraging regression relatively to other treatments. It had a bidirectional effect on the latter problem, encouraging both progress and regression. Cognitive change following transaction was related to level of reasoning on speed during transaction. Inter- and intrapersonal conflicts evoked by transaction resulted in different changes in the 2 problems: Interpersonal conflict increased intrapersonal conflict on both, but the degree of intrapersonal conflict was related to change on the latter problem only, with greater conflict evoking greater change, mainly regressive. Results cast doubt on Piagetian assumptions concerning the role of conflict in cognitive development.     

Higher education and attainment of policy goals: Interpretations for efficiency indicators in Israel

This study concerns identification of policy aims and goals in Israeli Higher Education (HE) and an analysis of efficiency indicators to determine the extent and nature of HE policy goal attainment at the Israeli universities. Overall, these indicators, be they quantitative or qualitative, point to major developments in the Israeli HE system in both national and international comparative terms. The aims and related efficiency performance indicators identified and used in this study are normative and their analysis follows conceptualizations of efficiency assessment. They are in line with orientations of quality as bound up with values and fundamental aims relating to fitness for purpose (Ball 1985; Williams 1991; Barnett 1989, 1992; vanVught 1994) and pertain mainly to the individual universities' perceptions and priorities. The analysis model also adopts conceptual approaches used in studies of HE quality by the Planning and Budgeting Committee of the Israeli HE Council, as well as those conducted in England, Scotland, and the Netherlands, and by the OECD. As such, the analysis model as well as the findings identified in this study lend themselves to comparative HE policy analysis in a global perspective.     

Editors’ Note

The notion that students come to science courses with misconceptions has become quite widely accepted by those who follow or participate in education research. DiSessa and his colleagues (diSessa, 1988, 1993; Smith, diSessa, &; Roschelle, 1993/1994) have challenged the theoretical and empirical validity of this perspective and offered an alternative account of cognitive structure in phenomenological primitives or p-prims. The purpose of this article is to further clarify and contrast the two accounts: in particular, to consider their utility and generativity as conceptual tools for teachers. How may each perspective influence instructional perceptions and intentions? The article recounts a discussion about forces and motion from a high-school physics class, analyzes how a teacher may perceive students' participation in that discussion from either perspective, and considers what, based on those perceptions, the teacher may see as tasks for instruction.     

Online newspapers in the U.S.: Perceptions of markets,products, revenue,and competition

The market position of Public Service Media (PSM) and the programming and services provided have for years been the object of academic media research. Relatively little has however been written about the way the PSM corporations are managed. The article presents a number of reasons why media management researchers should add this area to their field of study. Not only are the managers of PSM corporations in great need of scholarly inspiration from outside. Even more important from an academic perspective is the fact that PSM provides management researchers with a sample of reasonably comparable cases of media companies and managers exposed to radical and very similar changes in their operational environment.