Global crisis management and higher education: Agency and coupling in the context of wicked COVID-19 problems

Campus crisis management remains an understudied topic in the context of COVID-affected higher education. In this paper, we contrasted the ability to tame the wicked problems brought by the pandemic of COVID-19 in private and public universities in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Colombia, India, Kazakhstan, Uganda, and Ukraine. The cross-country analysis and diversity of institutional types allowed us to consider a wide range of challenges faced by academic leaders and their institutions during the global pandemic. By drawing on institutional policy reviews and interviews with university administrators, we have examined tensions between the human and institutional agencies on these crisis-stricken campuses given differing institutional coupling, sizes, resources, and missions. The focus on agential co-dependencies and institutional coupling lays the ground for conceptualizing campus crisis management as a culturally specific construct in the context of higher education affected by the global pandemic.     

Consolidation of stone blocks prior to placement: A case study of the Roman wall in Tarragona (Spain): Report and methodology

The possible pre-consolidation of the stones used to repair the Roman wall of Tarragona was studied, on the premise that this had been carried out prior to placement in the wall. A detailed study of the stones was conducted in order to determine whether they had been treated, and if so, how this had been done. A semi-quantitative X-ray mineralogical analysis using the Rietveld method was performed, together with porosity and textural analyses. This paper concludes with a discussion of how the stones studied here were pre-consolidated using lime slurry.     

Faculty Engagement in University–Industry Linkages in Turkey and the United States: National Technocenters versus Ecosystems of Knowledge

Higher Education - Most of the literature on innovation has focused on high-income nations with strong neoliberal economies, in which faculty become actors immersed in global markets and ecosystems...     

Spanish Secondary School Students' Notions on the Causes and Consequences of Climate Change

This paper is part of an extensive study of secondary school students' preconceived ideas about climate change. Here, we undertake a survey in the province of Valencia (Spain) to ascertain secondary school students' notions of the causes and consequences of climate change. Results show, among other things, that students clearly relate the misuse of motor vehicles and factory emissions to the problem. However, the obvious correlation with household energy use is not observed. The usual confusion with other environmental problems, such as the hole in the ozone layer, as described in previous studies, is also detected. Students know almost no greenhouse gases other than CO₂, while the socio‐economic consequences of climate change are the least perceived.     

School and teacher performance incentives: The Latin American experience

This paper discusses performance evaluation and the introduction of incentives into education in Latin America from an analytical and methodological perspective. The aim is to describe ongoing strategies and learn from practical experiences in this field. The cases analyzed reveal that school-level evaluations and collective incentives adapt better to the characteristics of the educational process and the potential for teamwork, while individual evaluations pose some difficulties. Several evaluation systems currently in use emphasize educational inputs and, in some cases, mainly compliance with rules and procedures, irrespective of education results (output). If the factors considered in assessing school performance do not correlate well with educational achievement, the incentives vanish. Hence, the importance of emphasizing output and ensuring that if measures are included for inputs and processes, these must line up with educational achievement.     

Experimental archaeology and historical empathy: key tools for learning about our origins / Arqueología experimental y empatía histórica: herramientas clave para la didáctica de nuestros orígenes

We propose a learning methodology based on the development of historical empathy through experimentation. Experimental archaeology is an active methodology which provides dynamism and an active role and entertainment for students, as well as provoking historical empathy in them. This combination helps the students get a better understanding of the target knowledge. This paper presents a practical illustration of historical empathy through the implementation of experimental archaeology activities.     

How young teachers experience their professional work in Chile

This paper presents results from a qualitative study of 15 neophyte teachers in Chile who were part of a survey of 242 teachers in two geographical regions of the country. They were studied on the basis of questionnaires, interviews, observations and focus groups, all of which served to examine their teaching contexts and working conditions, how they recalled beginning to teach and its problems, their views about their profession and their work at the time of the study. The findings show interesting variations to those themes identified in the literature such as building of professional identity, their socialisation into schools, the relative weights of initial teacher education and experience, and the lack of support as they begin to teach.     

An Approach to Introducing Environmental Education into the Science Methods Course in Teacher Education

This approach attempts to use environmental education as a thread in the science methods course in teacher education for lower secondary level (12‐14) in the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain). The framework of the approach, which stresses the for’ component of environmental education is discussed and some of the strategies and activities used are presented, for instance production of concept maps on environmental issues and a role‐play about traffic restrictions in the historic city of Santiago. Some of the difficulties that student teachers encounter in translating this approach to the practical level are also discussed.