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The Changing Academic Profession in Japan
by William K. Cummings Jung Cheol Shin Akira Arimoto Futao HuangThis volume provides an empirical and qualitative analysis of the nature and extent of the Japanese academic profession, with a special focus on the changes that occurred in the period between 1992 and 2007. Based on responses to two comprehensive surveys administered to faculty samples with a similar questionnaire, the book presents key aspects of the academic activities and views of Japanese faculty members. Divided into five sections, the book describes the changing social, economic and educational environment, academic organization and life, productivity, as well as the effects of the profession on society. The last section describes the Japanese academic profession as observed from the USA and Asia. In addition to its focus on empirical analysis, the book makes use of historical and comparative perspectives to explore the various aspects of the changes that have occurred in the academic profession in this non-English-speaking country.
Integrating Sustainability Thinking in Science and Engineering Curricula
by Walter Leal Filho Sandra Caeiro Ulisses M. Azeiteiro Fátima AlvesIncluding considerations of sustainability in universities' activities has long since become mainstream. However, there is still much to be done with regard to the full integration of sustainability thinking into science and engineering curricula. Among the problems that hinder progress in this field, the lack of sound information on how to actually implement it is prominent. Created in order to address this need, this book presents a wealth of information on innovative approaches, methods and tools that may be helpful in translating sustainability principles into practice.
Schooling for Sustainable Development in Europe
by Rolf Jucker Reiner MatharThis book examines the implementation of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) programs in schools across Europe. It describes and analyzes how individual countries and the region as a whole have established teaching and learning methods to help students develop the competencies needed to be part of a sustainable society. Featuring chapters written by experts throughout Europe, the book first provides a general overview of ESD in various contexts, including the state-of-the-art of ESD theory and conceptual development; political and social analysis; the various concepts of ESD competencies; and teacher training. Next, the book details how ESD has been implemented in different European countries and regions, including: Sweden, Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Catalonia, Hungary, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Flanders, France, Cyprus, UK and the Netherlands. In recognition of education as a motor of change, the United Nations General Assembly declared a Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014), calling for the integration of sustainable development into all aspects of education and learning. Inside this book, readers will find details on what has been done, as well as assessments of what more could be done, across Europe. It will help readers gain valuable insights into how to help students develop the knowledge, skills and values needed to shape a sustainable future.
Task Design In Mathematics Education
by Anne Watson Minoru OhtaniThis book is the product of ICMI Study 22 Task Design in Mathematics Education. The study offers a state-of-the-art summary of relevant research and goes beyond that to develop new insights and new areas of knowledge and study about task design. The authors represent a wide range of countries and cultures and are leading researchers, teachers and designers. In particular, the authors develop explicit understandings of the opportunities and difficulties involved in designing and implementing tasks and of the interfaces between the teaching, researching and designing roles - recognising that these might be undertaken by the same person or by completely separate teams. Tasks generate the activity through which learners meet mathematical concepts, ideas, strategies and learn to use and develop mathematical thinking and modes of enquiry. Teaching includes the selection, modification, design, sequencing, installation, observation and evaluation of tasks. The book illustrates how task design is core to effective teaching, whether the task is a complex, extended, investigation or a small part of a lesson; whether it is part of a curriculum system, such as a textbook, or promotes free standing activity; whether the task comes from published source or is devised by the teacher or the student.
Task Design In Mathematics Education: an ICMI study 22 (New ICMI Study Series #17)
by Anne Watson Minoru Ohtani*THIS BOOK WILL SOON BECOME AVAILABLE AS OPEN ACCESS BOOK*This open access book is the product of ICMI Study 22 Task Design in Mathematics Education. The study offers a state-of-the-art summary of relevant research and goes beyond that to develop new insights and new areas of knowledge and study about task design. The authors represent a wide range of countries and cultures and are leading researchers, teachers and designers. In particular, the authors develop explicit understandings of the opportunities and difficulties involved in designing and implementing tasks and of the interfaces between the teaching, researching and designing roles – recognising that these might be undertaken by the same person or by completely separate teams. Tasks generate the activity through which learners meet mathematical concepts, ideas, strategies and learn to use and develop mathematical thinking and modes of enquiry. Teaching includes the selection, modification, design, sequencing, installation, observation and evaluation of tasks. The book illustrates how task design is core to effective teaching, whether the task is a complex, extended, investigation or a small part of a lesson; whether it is part of a curriculum system, such as a textbook, or promotes free standing activity; whether the task comes from published source or is devised by the teacher or the student.
The Changing Governance of Higher Education and Research
by Dorothea Jansen Insa PruiskenThis book analyses and describes the effects of the reforms of the European science systems on research. Taking the multilevel governance of the science system into account, the authors describe the effects of the reforms on different aspects: research collaborations and research lines, PhD education, performance profiles, research funding and legal aspects. The first part of the book deals with "PhD education" from an economic perspective. How successful are Research Training Groups and is heterogeneity really a factor of success? What kind of PhD education leads to success? The second part focuses on the interactions of governance and research. How do changes at the national and organisational level influence research cooperation, research lines and research performance? The third part reflects the Europeanisation and Internationalisation of research and research funding. To what extent are research collaborations becoming international? How is the role of European funding agencies changing?
The Roskilde Model: Problem-Oriented Learning and Project Work
by Anders Siig Andersen Simon B. HeilesenThis book describes the pedagogical foundations of the Roskilde Model of education and educational design. It presents knowledge about how principles of problem-oriented, interdisciplinary and participant-directed project work may serve as a basis for planning and applying educational activities at institutions of higher learning. It discusses the dilemmas, problems, and diverging views that have challenged the model, provoking experiments and reforms that have helped develop practice without compromising the key principles. The Roskilde Model combines various student-centered learning concepts into a nexus, providing the foundation for a consistent pedagogical practice that is strongly supported by the educational structure and the academic profile of the university. A complex concept, the Roskilde Model refers to three different aspects: The first one is problem-oriented interdisciplinary and participant-directed project work (PPL). At Roskilde University, half of all study activities are organized in line with this particular pedagogical approach. The second aspect the model refers to is the organizing of university education on the basis of four interdisciplinary bachelor programmes. These programmes are part of the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and humanistic-technological sciences and give admission to two-year master programmes in a broad range of disciplines. The third aspect the model refers to is the interdisciplinary academic and educational profile of the university.
The Problem of Catalan
by Yann Bugeaud Yuri F. Bilu Maurice MignotteIn 1842 the Belgian mathematician Eugène Charles Catalan asked whether 8 and 9 are the only consecutive pure powers of non-zero integers. 160 years after, the question was answered affirmatively by the Swiss mathematician of Romanian origin Preda MihÄfilescu. In other words, 32 - 23 = 1 is the only solution of the equation xp - yq = 1 in integers x, y, p, q with xy ≠ 0 and p, q ≥ 2. In this book we give a complete and (almost) self-contained exposition of MihÄfilescu's work, which must be understandable by a curious university student, not necessarily specializing in Number Theory. We assume a very modest background:a standard university course of algebra, including basic Galois theory, and working knowledge of basic algebraic number theory.
The Youth Experience Gap
by Francesco Pastore"The education to work transition of young people is key to a successful work-life and to fight youth unemployment. The book provides an impressive outline of the facts and convincing insights of the potential causes. This offers a large and broader audience help to adjust properly to achieve a better life. " Klaus F. Zimmermann, IZA, Bonn, Germany This work points to the youth experience gap as a key concept to explain the meager employment opportunities and earnings many young people face. The transition from education to work remains a long dark tunnel around the world. However, this book shows that there are striking differences between countries: in Germany, the young people of today are no worse off than their adult counterparts, while in Southern European and Eastern European countries they fare 3 through 4 times worse. The current economic and financial crisis has further exacerbated the situation for young people in many advanced economies. Observers are divided as to the optimal design of youth employment policy. Liberalists believe that the market itself should address youth disadvantages. More flexible labor markets should also guarantee greater labor turnover, including temporary work, so as to allow young people to move from one job to the next until they accumulate the work experience they need to become more employable and find the right career. In contrast, other economists oppose approaches focusing on entry flexibility and temporary work, claiming that the former type helps only the most skilled and motivated target groups, while the latter only allows young people to gather generic, not job-specific work experience.
Gamification in Education and Business
by Torsten Reiners Lincoln C. WoodThis book is dedicated to applied gamification in the areas of education and business, while also covering pitfalls to avoid and guidelines needed to successfully implement for a project. Using different theoretical backgrounds from various areas including behavioral economics, game theory, and complex adaptive systems, the contributors aim to help readers avoid common problems and difficulties that they could face with poor implementation. The book's contributors are scholars and academics from the many areas where the key theory of gamification typically comes from. Ultimately, the book's goal is to help bring together the theories from these different disciplines to the field of practice in education and business. The book is divided into four parts: Theory, Education, Business, and Use Cases. Part I provides a foundation on the theory of gamification and offers insight into some of the outstanding questions that have yet to be addressed. In Part II, the application and value that gamification can bring within the education sector is examined. The book then changes focus in Part III to spotlight the use of gamification within business environments. The topics also cover educational aspects like improved learning outcomes, motivation, and learning retention at the workplace. Finally Part IV concentrates on the applications and use of gamification through a series of case studies and key elements that are used in real situations to drive real results.
Bucer, Ephesians and Biblical Humanism: The Exegete as Theologian (Studies in Early Modern Religious Tradition, Culture and Society #7)
by N. Scott AmosThis book describes Martin Bucer (1491-1551) as a teacher of theology, focusing on his time as Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge between 1549 and 1551. The book is centered on his 1550 Cambridge lectures on Ephesians, and investigates them in their historical context, exploring what sort of a theologian Bucer was. The lectures are examined to find out how they represent Bucer's method of teaching and "doing" theology, and shed light on the relationship between biblical exegesis and theological formulation as he understood it. Divided into two interconnected parts, the book first sets the historical context for the lectures, including a broad sketch of scholastic method in theology and the biblical humanist critique of that method. It then closely examines Bucer's practice in the Cambridge lectures, to show the extent to which he was a theologian of the biblical humanist school, influenced by the method Erasmus set forth in the Ratio Verae Theologiae in which true theology begins, ends, and is best "done" as an exercise in the exegesis of the Word of God.
Interactive Multimedia Learning
by Johannes KonertThis book introduces new concepts and mechanisms regarding the usage of both social media interactions and artifacts for peer education in digital educational games. Digital games in general, and digital educational games in particular, represent an area with a high potential for interdisciplinary innovation, not only from an information technology standpoint, but also from social science, psychological and didactic perspectives. This book presents an interdisciplinary approach to educational games, which is centered on information technology and aims at: (1) improving digital management by focusing on the exchange of learning outcomes and solution assessment in a peer-to-peer network of learners; (2) achieving digital implementation by using forms of interaction to change the course of educational games; and (3) providing digital support by fostering group-formation processes in educational situations to increase both the effects of educational games and knowledge exchange at the individual level. In addition to a systematic analysis of the relationship between software architecture, educational games and social media applications, the book also presents the implemented IT systems' architectures and algorithmic solutions as well as the resulting applicable evaluation findings from the field of interactive multimedia learning.
Assessment in Music Education: From Policy To Practice (Landscapes: the Arts, Aesthetics, and Education #16)
by Scott D. Harrison Don Lebler Gemma CareyThe contributions to this volume aim to stimulate discussion about the role of assessment in the learning experiences of students in music and other creative and performing arts settings. The articles offer insights on how assessment can be employed in the learning setting to enhance outcomes for students both during their studies at higher education institutions and after graduation. An international group of leading researchers offers an exciting array of papers that focus on the practice of assessment in music, particularly in higher education settings. Contributions reflect on self-, peer- and alternative assessment practices in this environment. There is a particular emphasis on the alignment between assessment, curriculum structure and pedagogy.
Coping with Demographic Change: A Comparative View On Education And Local Government In Germany And Poland (European Studies of Population #19)
by Reinhold Sackmann Walter Bartl Bernadette Jonda Katarzyna Kopycka Christian RademacherWith many OECD countries experiencing a decline in their populations, this book offers a theoretical model of coping with demographic change and examines different strategies that societies have used to come to terms with demographic change. In particular, it details the different ways that Germany and Poland have tried to cope with this challenge and reveals three conflicting strategies: expansion, reduction, and phasing out. Coverage includes: · How and why demographic change was used in Poland to expand the education system · The variance of linkage between demographic change and growth rates in different fields of education in a German Bundesland · Modes of reflexivity and personnel policy in German and Polish municipalities · Effects of demographic change and forms of coping on fiscal capacity and unemployment rates in German municipalities Coping with Demographic Change examines how and why societies cope with these detrimental effects. It conceptualizes the challenges a society faces as a result of demographic change and focuses on the processes by which actors, organizations and nation-states try to cope with this new situation.
School Funding and Student Achievement
by Andy SpearsThis Brief explores school funding reform in the states of Kentucky and Tennessee. In 1990, Kentucky passed the Kentucky Education Reform Act designed to overhaul that state's education system. Two years later, Tennessee passed the Education Improvement Act which included the Basic Education Plan, designed to foster equity in funding among the state's schools. Initiated as a result of lawsuits against the states' educational systems, both programs dealt with school funding, specifically funding equalization among districts. This Brief examines the environments that precipitated funding reform in each state as well as the outcomes of the reforms on student achievement. The similarities and differences between the approaches in each state are analyzed and compared to related reform programs in other states. An in-depth study of regional educational reform in the United States, this Brief is of use to public policy scholars as well as education policy consultants and other school system or state education leaders.
Measuring Scholarly Impact
by Ying Ding Ronald Rousseau Dietmar WolframThis book is an authoritative handbook of current topics, technologies and methodological approaches that may be used for the study of scholarly impact. The included methods cover a range of fields such as statistical sciences, scientific visualization, network analysis, text mining, and information retrieval. The techniques and tools enable researchers to investigate metric phenomena and to assess scholarly impact in new ways. Each chapter offers an introduction to the selected topic and outlines how the topic, technology or methodological approach may be applied to metrics-related research. Comprehensive and up-to-date, Measuring Scholarly Impact: Methods and Practice is designed for researchers and scholars interested in informetrics, scientometrics, and text mining. The hands-on perspective is also beneficial to advanced-level students in fields from computer science and statistics to information science.
English as a Global Language in China
by Lin PanThis book offers insight into the spread and impact of English language education in China within China's broader educational, social, economic and political changes. The author's critical perspective informs readers on the connections between language education and political ideologies in the context of globalizing China. The discussion of the implications concerning language education is of interest for current and future language policy makers, language educators and learners. Including both diachronic and synchronic accounts or China's language education policy, this volume highlights how China as a modern nation-state has been seeking a more central position globally, and the role that English education and the promotion of such education played in that effort in recent decades.
English for Academic Purposes in Neoliberal Universities: A Critical Grounded Theory
by Gregory HadleyThe critical grounded theory presented in this book offers valuable insights on the social processes and strategies used by Blended English for Academic Purposes Professionals (BLEAPs) at higher education institutions, as they struggle to negotiate the challenges arising from a new focus on recruiting international students and hunting for other resources for their universities. Drawing from in-depth interviews with numerous research participants at over eleven higher educational institutions in the UK, Japan and the United States, this work focuses on those who have been precariously placed as middle manager at many EAP and TESOL programs. Lacking in both positional power or permanence, these 'BLEAPs' are faced with many challenges as they seek to understand their changing role in higher educational institutions, and engage in strategies that can help them gain greater control over issues in their profession.
Global Innovation of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
by Peter Lake Prudence C. LayneThis book examines current trends in higher education and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. It introduces readers to pedagogical strategies that instructors worldwide are using to overcome some of the challenges they face in higher education. To maximize their students' learning, this work argues that institutions are compelled to innovate their policies and instructors must be collaborative and creative in their practices in response to students' growing demands, needs, challenges to their learning, and the shifting terrain of a rapidly globalizing world. The text explores the idiosyncrasies and challenges that drive innovation across particular cultures, disciplines and institutions. It suggests that the responses to these drivers offer some universal and compatible lessons that not only optimize teaching and learning, but also transgress institutional, cultural, and disciplinary boundaries in higher education. The contributors to this collection work in the United States, the United Kingdom, Africa, Asia, Australia, Scandinavia and the Middle East. They represent a broad range of disciplines, fields and institutional types. They teach in varied contexts, durations, delivery modes, and formats, including online, study abroad, blended, accelerated, condensed, intensive and mortar-and-brick settings. Their higher education students are equally as diverse, in age, cultural backgrounds and needs, but willingly lend their voices and experiences to their instructors' study of teaching and learning in their particular contexts. This book harnesses the rich diversities and range our contributors represent and shares the results of their expertise, research, and assessments of some of the most creative and effective ways to improve student learning in the face of stagnant practices, limited resources, and other deficiencies that instructors and students face in higher education.
Lifelong Learning for Poverty Eradication
by Wapula N. Raditloaneng Morgen ChawawaThis book illustrates the meaning and scope of lifelong learning and different types of poverty reduction programs prevalent generally in the African context and particularly in selected communities in Botswana. Lifelong learning is important for all stakeholders in poverty reduction to develop a better understanding of the scope and extent of poverty so that they can make informed decisions on best ways of tackling poverty. The book succinctly showcases community development and engagement initiatives and experiences from selected African universities and how the interaction of the universities and their respective communities resulted in a major transformation in the lives of poor families through exposure to some engagement strategies that effectively gave them a better future in their fight against poverty. This book develops in the reader a better understanding of the dynamics and dilemma of poverty and its negative effects on individuals and communities. But it answers the plight of the poor by equipping them with effective and practical tools to transform their lives and take full control of their destiny. · Provides a conceptual understanding of lifelong learning · Describes practical aspects and indicators of poverty and how it requires tackling through a multi-sectoral approach · Focuses on poverty reduction in all fronts, including development of an entrepreneurship mind-set
Academic Work and Careers in Europe: Trends, Challenges, Perspectives (The Changing Academy – The Changing Academic Profession in International Comparative Perspective #12)
by Barbara M. Kehm Tatiana Fumasoli Gaële GoastellecThis book explores the perceptions of academic staff and representatives of institutional leadership about the changes in academic careers and academic work experienced in recent years. It emphasizes standardisation and differentiation of academic career paths, impacts of new forms of quality management on academic work, changes in recruitment, employment and working conditions, and academics' perceptions of their professional contexts. The book demonstrates a growing diversity within the academic profession and new professional roles inhabiting a space which is neither located in the core business of teaching and research nor at the top level management and leadership. The new higher education professionals tend to be important change agents within the higher education institutions not only fulfilling service and bridging functions but also streamlining academic work to make a contribution to the reputation and competitiveness of the institution as a whole. Based on interviews with academic staff, this book explores the situation in eight European countries: Austria, Croatia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Romania, and Switzerland.
Sustainable Learning in Higher Education
by Marta Peris-Ortiz José M. Merigó LindahlIn an era of globalization, technological innovation, and social transformations, universities face the challenge of training students with the competencies needed to meet the demands of the market and to successfully integrate into today's workforce. This book looks at the university as a dynamic source of essential competencies and explores various skill management models, methodologies and innovations applied by educational institutions around the world. The demands of today's society represent a major challenge for universities and their teaching staffs. Professors need to adapt their teaching methods to meet these new challenges. For example, universities need to prepare new generations of students with the ability to select, update and use knowledge, rather than processing facts and formulas. Students need to be capable of learning in different contexts and modalities throughout their professional careers and learn to adapt their knowledge to new situations. In response, a conceptual and methodological change has taken place in the university organizational culture and in student curriculums. This book presents a variety of cases and observations on the competencies developed in the curriculums of universities around the world, with the aim to assure that graduates leave fully prepared to face the challenges of the new economy.
Successful Educational Actions for Inclusion and Social Cohesion in Europe
by Ramon FlechaThis monograph analyses and describes successful educational actions with a specific focus on vulnerable groups (i. e. youth, migrants, cultural groups e. g. Roma, women, and people with disabilities). Concrete data that shows success in school performance in subject matters such as math or language will be provided, as well as children, teachers and families accounts of the impact of this success. Alongside, there is an analysis of the relationship between these children's educational performance with their inclusion or exclusion from different areas of society (i. e. housing, health, employment, and social and political participation). Many studies have already diagnosed and described the causes of educational and social exclusion of these vulnerable groups. This monograph, however, provides solutions, that is, actions for success identified through the INCLUD-ED project, thus providing both, contrasted data and solid theoretical background and development. Some examples of these actions are interactive groups (or heterogeneous grouping in the classroom with reorganisation of human resources), extension of the learning time, homework clubs, tutored libraries, family and community educative participation, family education, or dialogic literary gatherings. All these actions have been defined as successful educational actions, which mean that they lead to both efficiency and equity. Finally, recommendations for policy and practice are included and discussed.
Facing Trajectories from School to Work
by Jean-Michel Bonvin Hans-Uwe Otto Roland Atzmüller Thierry Berthet Lavinia Bifulco Enrica Chiappero-Martinetti Valerie Egdell Björn Halleröd Christian Christrup Kjeldsen Marek Kwiek Regine Schröer Josiane Vero Marianna ZieleńskaThis book promotes a radical alternative impact on youth policy in Europe to overcome the situation of vulnerability and discrimination of a growing number of youngsters in their transition from school to work. It follows a Human Development perspective in using the Capability Approach (CA) as analytical and methodological guiding tool to improve the social conditions of the most socially vulnerable young people in European societies. The mission of the interdisciplinary authors is to expand the actual chances of the young to actively shape their lives in a way they have reason to choose and value. This book is based on the research of the EU Collaborative Project "Making Capabilities Work" (WorkAble), funded by the EU within the Seventh Framework Programme. It is the first empirical project to pursue a justice theory perspective on a European level. It also contributes to a fundamental change in the currently mostly insufficient attempts within the human capital approach to use the labour market to ensure desired lifestyle forms and a secure income for vulnerable youth.
Computational Musicology in Hindustani Music (Computational Music Science)
by Soubhik Chakraborty Guerino Mazzola Swarima Tewari Moujhuri PatraThe book opens with a short introduction to Indian music, in particular classical Hindustani music, followed by a chapter on the role of statistics in computational musicology. The authors then show how to analyze musical structure using Rubato, the music software package for statistical analysis, in particular addressing modeling, melodic similarity and lengths, and entropy analysis; they then show how to analyze musical performance. Finally, they explain how the concept of seminatural composition can help a music composer to obtain the opening line of a raga-based song using Monte Carlo simulation. The book will be of interest to musicians and musicologists, particularly those engaged with Indian music.