The Virtual Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) Process Development Project provides the context for the two areas of the research presented in this dissertation. The first area, generally referred to as feedback in this dissertation, focuses on student learning and the interactions of students and instructors that take place in the project,…

In the second half of the eighteenth century, an enlightened reformist spirit spread among Hamburg's bourgeois upper classes. This was exemplified by the activities of the "Gesellschaft zur Beforderung der Kunste und nutzlichen Gewerbe" ("Society for the Promotion of the Arts and Useful Trades") founded in 1765 as well as by a…

During and after the American Civil War, individual state governments, faced with numerous economic demands, struggled to meet the needs of soldiers and their families. Among other pressing questions, they had to decide what to do with the massive number of dependent children orphaned by the war. In order to protect children, it became more…

There are three "faces" of Technology Education. What is meant by this? It means that more emphasis should be given to the students who take industrial technology education (ITE) classes at the high school level with less emphasis given to standards, objectives, or outcomes developed by national organizations. Viewed in this light, three…

In recent years, bio-inspired approach to design has gained considerable interest between designers, engineers and end-users. However, there are difficulties in introducing bio-inspiration concepts in the university curriculum in that they involve multi-disciplinary work, which can only possibly be successfully delivered by a team with integrated…

During the early 1920s, the question of who should control the schooling of African American children caused controversy in several Southern states, including Georgia. White educationists and bureaucrats were divided into two groups: the conservatives who called for educational needs to be determined and funded locally, and a growing reformist…

In 2004, Central Community College (CCC) established the Mechatronics Education Center (MEC), a regional center of excellence, to help the state address the shortage of skilled technicians in the area of industrial automation. The MEC addresses the needs of the current and future workforce through the implementation of its three main components:…

Despite the growing interest of business executives, there is limited academic research on the contributions of virtual worlds to learning in organizations. We address this limitation by using a recently developed typology of virtual world capabilities to investigate the potential contributions of virtual worlds to learning in organizations.…

In response to the publication of the "Standards for Technological Literacy" by the International Technology Education Association (ITEA), technology education teachers have scrambled to add biotechnology-related components to the curriculum. This can present a particular challenge in terms of funding. In this article, the author details on a…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the association between employees' perceptions of diversity training (DT) existence and effectiveness with organizational commitment (OC), and career satisfaction (CS). Design/methodology/approach: The analyses in this paper utilize survey data collected between 2006 and 2007 from over 11,000…

Most companies need a steady stream of talent to enter, then move up in, the organization. But at most companies, the care and feeding of that talent stream is often a bit fragmented; recruitment is largely an HR function, while succession planning--to the extent there is any--is left in the hands of executive leadership. Development of the…

Purpose: The first purpose of this paper is to review the practical and theoretical distinctions between training and development in the organisational psychology and human resource development (HRD) literatures. Then the paper seeks to investigate how managers responsible for the training and development function conceptualise these activities in…

This paper identified attitudes toward CALL of students studying English as a foreign language (EFL) at industrial colleges in Saudi Arabia. Seventy students who were enrolled in the orientation year of an English program were chosen to participate in this study by expressing their attitudes toward CALL. Standardized and local instruments were…

The aim of this paper, based on a comparative viewpoint from an European outsider perspective, is to present a brief historical reconstruction of the pedagogical and educational political discussion about education for the industrial sector in America. The discussion was triggered by the emerging idea that one of the principal tasks of education…

Incorporating industry-specific training into senior secondary education has not always succeeded in attaining status alongside general education courses. This paper reports enrolment and student performance trends from 2001-2008 in industry-specific training courses developed in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) where around one in…