This comparative case study examined how graduate students in two student affairs preparation programs were socialized to constructions of professionalism. One program regularly conveyed that professionalism was reflected via formal communication and dress, and through demonstrating professional competency as defined by ACPA and NASPA. The second…

Soft skills are a collection of people management skills, important to many professions and job positions, including academic librarianship. Yet the concept of soft skills lacks definition, scope, instrumentation, and systematic education and training. This literature review explores the definition of "soft skills"; contrasts skills with…

An expanded investment in interdisciplinary research has prompted greater demands to integrate knowledge across disciplinary boundaries. "Vision and Change" similarly made interdisciplinary expectations a key competency for undergraduate biology majors; however, we are not yet synchronized on the meaning of interdisciplinarity, making…

This comparison seeks to determine if the three documents addressing information literacy skills and competence developed by professional library associations for postsecondary education in four predominantly English-speaking countries--the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand--have similar or varying conceptions of…

This paper discusses the representation of information literacy and media literacy in the Singapore education discourse as part of its twenty-first century competencies framework. Through examining the conceptual definitions, purposes/aims, and means of these two significant twenty-first century competencies in the global context and the Singapore…

This article explores the literature that focuses on the various roles librarians and libraries play in distance education settings. Learners visit libraries either in person or via networked computing technology to ask for help with their online courses. Questions range from how to upload a document with a learning management system, to how to…

Research managers at science-intensive institutions appear as a continuously evolving group of professionals whose identity is somewhat fragmented, even to themselves. In Portugal, specialized research manager roles have rapidly emerged over the last years alongside the development of a small but consolidated scientific system. In order to get an…

The digital revolution and automation are accelerating changes in the labour market and in workplace skills, changes that are further affected by fluctuations in international and regional economic cycles and employment opportunity. These factors pose a universal policy challenge for all advanced economies and governments. In the workplace, people…

Peter G. Northouse's "Leadership: Theory and Practice" defines leadership as an individual's influence on a group in order to reach a goal. This definition is good in that it is difficult to disagree with, but it is vague in that the creation of influence can happen in countless ways, some of which, such as the use of coercion, force, or unethical…

Discusses the difference between skills, values, and personality traits and competencies. Defines competency as a cluster of related knowledge, attitudes, and skills that affects a major part of ones job; correlates with performance; can be measured; and can be improved. (JOW)

Essential to the definition of an effective school is an operational definition of minimum academic mastery as the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and concepts that enable the student to be demonstrably successful in the next grade level in the same school or in any other school in the United States. An effective schools program, such as the one…

An approach is presented to the definition of minimal competence for judges to use in standard setting. Panelists in standard setting must receive training to ensure that differences in rating result from differences in perceptions of item difficulty, not in differences of opinion about the definition of minimal competence. (SLD)

Although the topic of effective schools is a popular one among today's educators, researchers, and publishers, there still is no commonly agreed upon definition of an effective school. One definition given by Ronald Edmonds and Lawrence Lezotte is notably precise, measurable, attainable, and easy to determine. They defined an effective school as…

This paper describes a project of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Project Definition and Selection of Competencies: Theoretical and Conceptual Foundations (Project DeSeCo). DeSeCo was designed to complement past and current international comparative assessments by providing theoretical and conceptual foundations…

Functional literacy for inmates is that critical threshold in learning which enables a person to become an autonomous individual capable of reflecting on his/her circumstances and transforming the self and behavior. Once on 'the outside,' the conditions which led to incarceration can hopefully be recognized and avoided. (Author)