International capacity building: Improving sales skills in a for‐profit business in South Africa‐part 1

How many times do clients ask: What is a CPT? What do CPTs do? Perhaps the best way to answer these questions is to look at some of the case studies submitted by Certified Performance Technologists applicants as part of the CPT application process. The applicants are asked to identify three projects they have done in the past 10 years that demonstrate proficiency in ISPI Standards 1 to 4 and at least three other Standards. In this article, a successful CPT applicant describes one of his projects and aligned his role as a performance improvement consultant with all 10 ISPI Standards. The story begins in this issue as Wessel Van Reede Van Oudtshoorn describes how he focused on results, took a systemic viewpoint, added value, used partnerships, and systematically assessed the need and opportunity. The story will continue in the February 2012 issue of PIJ. Joan Conway Dessinger     

International capacity building: Improving sales skills in a for‐profit business in South Africa—part 2

This series shares examples of case studies developed by certified performance technologist (CPT) applicants to demonstrate their proficiency in applying the 10 CPT Performance Standards. Part 1 of this case study appeared in the January 2012 issue of Performance Improvement journal (PIJ) and detailed how the applicant applied the first four ISPI Standards‐focus on results, take a systemic approach, add value, and create partnerships (RSVP)‐and systematically assessed the need or opportunity (Standard 5). In Part 2, the author relates his project to the remaining five standards.     

Learning from sustainable development: education in the light of public issues

Education for sustainable development plays an increasing role in environmental education policy and practice. In this article, we show how sustainable development is mainly seen as a goal that can be achieved by applying the proper processes of learning and how this learning perspective translates sustainability issues into learning problems of individuals. We present a different perspective on education for sustainable development and emphasize the importance of presenting issues of sustainable development as ‘public issues’, i.e. as matters of public concern. This shifts the focus from the competences that citizens must acquire to the democratic nature of the spaces and practices in which participation and citizenship can develop.     

The retention and success of under-represented groups in a Bachelor of Education program in New Zealand

For several decades researchers have raised questions regarding factors that enable undergraduate students, particularly those from ethnic minority groups living in low socio-economic areas, to persist with their studies to degree completion. Seeking answers to these questions becomes more urgent as universities around the world enrol increasingly diverse cohorts of students. This article reviews the patterns of participation and success for students enrolled in a Bachelor of Education program at one university, distributed across three different locations and attracting different cohorts of students. This provided the university with a unique opportunity to learn about the retention and success of diverse cohorts, particularly those traditionally under-represented at undergraduate-level study. At least 75% of students in the under-represented groups passed their courses. Surprisingly the pass rates of students at the three campuses were similar, despite dissimilarities in ethnicity, socio-economic status and previous academic success.     

Narrowing down the conditions for extinction of Pavlovian feature-positive discriminations in humans

The aim of this study was to delineate the minimal conditions for extinction of Pavlovian modulation in humans. Previous experiments at our lab showed that, after X ? A+/A?C acquisition training, X?C trials did not extinguish differential X ? A+/A?C responding, while X ? A?C trials did. Additionally, X ? A?C extinction training seemed only to extinguish differential X ? A+/A?C responding, while leaving differential responding on a concurrently trained Y ? B+/B?C discrimination intact. It thus seemed that the X ? A+/A?C discrimination can only be extinguished by X ? A?C extinction trials. (Rescorla, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes 12, 16?C24, 1986), on the other hand, found that the minimal conditions for extinction were broader in pigeons: Namely, he found that an acquired X ? A+/A?C discrimination could be extinguished by presenting the original feature X in combination with a different target (B) that was minimally trained as an exciter. We thus wanted to examine whether this was also the case in humans. We found that nonreinforced X ? B?C presentations did not abolish discriminative X ? A/A responding when target B was a nonreinforced stimulus. Nonreinforced X ? B?C trials did extinguish the X ? A+/A?C discrimination when target B had previously been trained as a target for modulation (X ? B+/B?C or Y ? B+/B?C training) or as a reinforced exciter (B+). Our results thusf parallel and extend those in nonhuman animals (Rescorla, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes 12, 16?C24, 1986).     

Information and communication technology in teacher education in Vietnam: from policy to practice

During the school year 2008?C2009, the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam launched the ??Year of ICT?? to produce a breakthrough in educational innovation. In light of this development we have carried out a policy analysis to study the national vision on ICT in education. The policy analysis takes into account a decade of governmental policy guidelines on ICT and education, starting from 2000??the year that the Ministry announced its Master Plan for ICT in education. A critical analysis puts rationales in perspective. Exploratory analysis at the level of five provincial teacher education institutions sheds light on the impact of these guidelines in teacher education. 783 educators completed a self-report questionnaire addressing factors of access, capacities and actual use of ICT in teaching practice. To assess the adopted discourse and operational planning, technology plans of the different institutions are analyzed. It is argued that unbalanced operational planning in the technology plans led to a gap between the current rhetoric in policy guidelines, vision statements of the institutions and the reality in teaching practice.     

Vietnam: Activities Targeting Marginalized Women’s Groups for Gender Equality and Development

Abstract The Vietnamese Women’s Museum (VWM) opened in 1995 with the mission to improve public knowledge of the historical and cultural heritage of Vietnamese women in the nation’s 54 ethnic community groups. The VWM aimed to be a center for cultural exchange with women from other nations with the goal of fostering “equality, development, and peace.” At the outset it honored the positive role played by women in general, and presented some typical individuals acclaimed for their contributions and sacrifices. After some visitor research, the museum is now using a gender‐specific approach, playing the role of social critic, reflecting contemporary life, and targeting marginalized women groups.     

Using IT to engender trust in government-to-business relationships: The Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) as an example

This article analyzes how to use IT to deploy trust-based regulation in the government-to-business (G2B) relationship, with the Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) certification in the Netherlands between the Tax and Customs administrations and the businesses as a case study. Specifically, based on the theory of institutional economics, the article discusses how to implement the AEO by utilizing the modern ICT, at lower transaction costs, in the meanwhile enhancing the trust and reputation between the government and businesses. We illustrate the benefits of trust-based regulation by presenting a qualitative comparison of the transaction costs under the two different types of regulations (control-based vs. trust-based). Further, with the AEO case study, we emphasize on the role of IT in facilitating this trust-based regulation design, in following three perspectives: competence trust signaling, competence trust screening, and goodwill trust enhancing. The article concludes with policy recommendations on how to further improve trust-based regulations (in our case, the AEO certification) by enhancing the reputation effect of the regulation in four aspects, which are influenced by the popularity, reliability, effectives and international recognition of the policy. Governments should strongly promote AEO certification in order to exploit the network externalities and make it a worldwide standard.     

Towards a Comprehensive View of Object-Oriented Play

Educational Psychology Review - The exploration and/or manipulation of objects and materials, referred to as object-oriented play (OOP), is one of the most prominent activities children engage in...