The HPT Model Applied to a Yoga Studio's Performance

This case study describes how the human performance technology model has been applied to enhance the performance of a small yoga studio—Salty Dog Yoga & Surf of Carolina Beach, North Carolina. An analysis of Salty Dog's organizational performance revealed several ongoing challenges, including issues with sales, strategic planning, and division of labor. An environmental analysis found that Carolina Beach's market is strong enough to support a full‐time local yoga studio, while an organizational analysis uncovered multiple issues with strategic vision, resource deployment, and training policies.     

Learning via direct and mediated instruction by deaf students

Four experiments investigated classroom learning by deaf college students receiving lectures from instructors signing for themselves or using interpreters. Deaf students' prior content knowledge, scores on postlecture assessments of content learning, and gain scores were compared to those of hearing classmates. Consistent with prior research, deaf students, on average, came into and left the classroom with less content knowledge than hearing peers, and use of simultaneous communication (sign and speech together) and American Sign Language (ASL) apparently were equally effective for deaf students' learning of the material. Students' self-rated sign language skills were not significantly related to performance. Two new findings were of particular importance. First, direct and mediated instruction (via interpreting) were equally effective for deaf college students under the several conditions employed here. Second, despite coming into the classroom with the disadvantage of having less content knowledge, deaf students' gain scores generally did not differ from those of their hearing peers. Possible explanations for these findings are considered.     

Academic identities and communities of practice in a professional discipline

This paper explores the dynamics surrounding the formation of academic identities in a context where the nature of academic work is contested both as a result of tensions within the discipline and in response to pressure from both the institution and the field of higher education. It is based on a case study which investigated the process of academic identity formation at the micro level of a department at a South African university. The study revealed a complex relationship between identity construction and participation within the particular configuration of teaching, professional and research communities of practice that defined the academic field in the department. Multiple identity trajectories were evident, indicating the role of individual agency, despite the dominance of a professional community of practice within the department. The arrival of new academics in the department without professional practice experience was found to have created the possibility of a changed notion of the academic within the discipline.     

Relevant and timely learning for busy leaders

Lord Leitch was commissioned by the Chancellor in 2004 with a remit to ‘identify the UK's optimal skills mix in 2020 to maximise economic growth, productivity and social justice and to consider the policy implications of achieving the level of change required.’ In the 2006 Budget, the Chancellor asked Lord Leitch to consider how to better integrate employment and skills services at a local level. In his final report ‘Prosperity for all in the global economy – world class skills’ Leitch states the need to further improve management and leadership skills in the UK recommending that the UK should aim to be a world leader on skills by 2020. One of the key ways to maximize economic growth is through leadership of small and medium enterprise. In response to this Leitch report and in conjunction with the Sector Skills Councils, an action learning opportunity was made available for leaders in the retail and leisure sectors in Merseyside. Alongside the government also highlighted a need for skill development in ‘inspirational’ leadership in particular. To make learning and development ‘relevant and timely’ for busy leaders, action learning is often a preferred option. This paper looks at three particular aspects of using action learning with leaders in the retail and leisure sectors. Firstly, how commitment to engage with the process was created and fostered, in light of work pressures and long working hours. Secondly, the factors that encouraged each member to feel, and act upon, a sense of responsibility for each others' learning and development, rather than just their own, and, thirdly, a frank look at some of the difficulties which arose which could have threatened the effectiveness of the learning.     

The Legacy of Chet Bowers for Educational Studies and the Social Foundations of Education

This article introduces some of the primary ideas in Bowers' long legacy of scholarship and its importance to Educational Studies and the Social Foundations. We also trace the development of our personal relationships and the network of scholarship that resulted, including the authors in this Special Issue.     

Teaching Biology at a Distance: Pleasures,Pitfalls, and Possibilities

Abstract

The Open University (OU) has a long and distinguished history of teaching biology at a distance by a supported open learning model. This article examines some of the challenges in delivering biology via distance teaching, explores some of the lessons learned, and discusses the opportunities and hazards of new teaching technologies that the OU has helped pioneer.