Evaluating student allocation in the Portuguese public higher education system

This paper characterizes and evaluates the student allocation in the Portuguese public higher education system. It describes the supply and demand sides of the system by looking at the numerus clausus across areas of study and institutions, institutions’ degree of diversity, and performance and adjustment indicators based on students’ revealed preferences. Performance indicators quantify the adequacy between demand and supply, across institutions and fields of study, and gauge the performance of public higher education institutions in the competition for candidates. Adjustment indicators allow us to predict the potential impact of changes in higher education regulations on student allocation and its stability. According to these indicators, such changes could result in an expansion for some institutions and fields of study, whereas other institutions might face a reduction.

Innovation and R&D spillover effects in Spanish regions: A spatial approach

This paper analyses the spatial patterns of innovation, its regional interdependencies and evolution, as well as its role in determining local innovation in Spanish regions. Results indicate the suitability of a trade-based regional proximity when considering spatial spillovers in innovation. In this context, not only local capacity is relevant in determining domestic innovation, but also spatial innovation spillovers, which result mainly from efforts in both higher education and public administration. Moreover, a minimum level of regional development is required to improve the effectiveness of R&D policies. Therefore, it is necessary for R&D policies to act in combination with other policies focused on the improvement of socio-economic and structural determinants of regional innovative performance.     

Knowledge management research & practice: visions and directions

This editorial paper outlines key directions for knowledge management research and practice. The editorial team presents the results from a small survey of academics and practitioners about the present and future of knowledge management, and the editors include their own informed views on how this journal can help promote scholarly inquiry in the field.     

Education and self‐change

This paper explores three psychological theories of self – Kenneth Gergen's theory of the crystallised self, Carol Dweck's theory of the incremental self and William Swann's theory of the homeostatic self – for their ability to account for personal change in general, and radical self‐change in particular. Special attention is paid to their educational implications. The overall conclusion is that whereas all three theories provide important insights into self‐change, none of them gives a fully satisfying account.     

Primary and secondary teachers’ conceptions about heritage and heritage education: A comparative analysis

This study describes and analyses the conceptions of primary teachers and secondary teachers of Physics–Chemistry, Biology–Geology and Geography–History with respect to the concept of heritage and its teaching and learning, taking the model of teacher-researcher as the theoretical referent. The data collection instrument used was a questionnaire, designed on the basis of categories that in turn were used for the analysis of the resulting data. The results show a high degree of homogeneity in pedagogic content knowledge, in contrast to the heterogeneity of the conceptions with respect to purely content knowledge.     

To shine or not to shine? – The relationship between environmental knowledge of preteens and their choice among plastic and non-plastic materials for a manual task

Abstract

Since education aims to offer applicable knowledge, studying knowledge–behavior relationship is of key importance in promoting environmental education. But there is scarcity of studies addressing the relationship between knowledge and real behavior choices. We examined the connection between environmental knowledge and behavior (self-reported and measured in an operative way) among 10-12-year-old students, with special focus on the potential mediating role of attitudes. The main research question was whether knowledge (measured with an achievement test) correlates with actual environmental behavior, and how mental accessibility of environmentalism is related to the relationship between knowledge and actual behavior (i.e. choosing a material for completing a manual task). The study with 325 persons revealed that although the positive connection between knowledge and self-reported behavior was fully mediated by environmental attitudes, knowledge was just slightly related to actual behavior, even when the topic of environmentalism appeared before the behavior choice. However, behavior was related to school, suggesting that school-level socialization (beyond the knowledge transfer) is highly influential in forming environmental behavior. The difficulties of studying actual behavior and implications of our findings for practitioners from the field of environmental education are discussed.     

Tradition and modernization: Educational consequences of changes in Hungarian society

Summary The problem of preserving tradition and initiating modernization has caused headaches for educational policy makers and theorists in Hungary for centuries. The perennial problem has been joined by several new problems as the country tries to find its way from Stalinist totalitarianism to pluralist democracy. In education this change is marked by the shift from crude political indoctrination and from an officially-imposed value system to critical thinking and the plurality of values. The paper follows the major changes in educational philosophy and policy in the past forty years with a special focus on recent developments. A short summary is provided of the educational programs of different political forces and an outline of the basis of a possible new educational philosophy is given.

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Zusammenfassung Jahrhundertelang haben sich Entscheidungsträger und Theoretiker im Erziehungsbereich in Ungarn über das Problem der Erhaltung der Tradition bei gleichzeitiger Einführung von Modernisierungen den Kopf zerbrochen. Mehrere neue Probleme kamen zu diesem Dauerproblem hinzu, da das Land versucht, seinen Weg von stalinistischer totalitärer Staatsform zu pluralistischer Demokratie zu finden. Im Bereich der Erziehung macht sich diese Veränderung in einer Verlagerung von nackter politischer Indoktrination und offiziell auferzwungenem Wertesystem zu kritischem Denken und vielfältigen Wertvorstellungen bemerkbar. Der Artikel verfolgt die wichtigsten Veränderungen in Erziehungsphilosophie und-politik der letzten vierzig Jahre, besonders im Hinblick auf die jüngsten Entwicklungen. Eine kurze Zusammenfassung beinhaltet die Erziehungsprogramme verschiedener politischer Kräfte und gibt einen Überblick über die Grundsätze einer möglichen neuen Philosophie über die Erziehung.

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Résumé Pendant des siècles le problème de la préservation de la tradition et de l'introduction de la modernisation fut un casse-tête pour les responsables et les théoriciens de l'éducation en Hongrie. Plusieurs nouveaux problèmes sont venus se greffer à cette question pérenne depuis que la Hongrie s'efforce de passer du totalitarisme stalinien à une démocratie pluraliste. Dans le domaine de l'éducation, ce changement est marqué par le passage d'un rude endoctrinement politique et d'un système de valeurs, imposé officiellement à une penséc critique et à une pluralité de valeurs. Le présent article examine successivement les changements majeurs qui sont intervenus dans la philosophie et la politique éducatives au cours des quarante dernières années en mettant un accent particulier sur les événements récents. On donne un bref résumé des programmes éducatifs des diverses forces politiques ainsi qu'une esquisse de la base d'une nouvelle philosophie éducative envisageable.

     

The Impact of Teacher-Directed and Child-Directed Pretend Play on Cognitive Competence in Kindergarten Children

The goal of our research was to study different forms of organization of pretend play on children's cognitive performance in a mixed-age environment. We studied two forms of management of the playing process: (a) teacher-directed play with simultaneous involvement of all children in the classroom, where the teacher plays the dominant role in the education process directing children's activity, and (b) child-directed play in various small groups. Twenty-six observations were performed on 51 children in two mixed-age classrooms. The mean age of the children was 4.6 years, with age span from 3 to 6 years. Data were collected regarding children's affective and cognitive behavior according to generally accepted taxonomies: Bloom for the cognitive domain, and Krathwohl for affective domain. We found a significant increase in cognitive manifestations during direction of the playing process in groups compared with frontal management of the lesson (113.1 ± 12.1 vs. 45.7 ± 10.3, mean ± SEM, p < 0.0001), which is related with better employment of the powerful education engine of the free-play children.     

Enacting the role of special needs educator – six Swedish case studies

With the increasing focus on inclusion, special needs educators (SNEs) are now expected to share responsibility for pupils with teacher colleagues and to lead school development, but it is a challenge to enact this role in schools. The aim of the study was to explore how professional roles of Swedish SNEs are enacted in local school contexts. From a survey of SNEs in 10 Swedish municipalities, six participants whose work tasks were expected to correspond to the degree ordinances for their university training were chosen. The participants were followed at work, and data were collected through observation of the participants at work, participants’ diaries and interviews with the participants, their teacher colleagues and their school principals. The analysis involved both quantitative and qualitative methods. First, based on the researchers’ observations of the participants at work, categories of SNEs’ tasks were discerned, and the amount of time devoted to those categories of tasks was summarised. Second, case study narratives of the SNEs’ work were constructed to describe how the participants, their teacher colleagues and their school principals view the SNE role and to describe how the work is enacted in various school contexts. The results revealed seven categories of work tasks practised to varying degrees by the six SNEs. The case study narratives exposed large variation in how the SNEs conceptualised their role and how it evolved in relation to local school contexts. The results of the study are discussed with regard to the role of the SNE in relation to policies of inclusion.