There is little doubt as to the importance of creativity for both economic and social progress and of the need for educational systems to enhance and nurture it. However, are educational systems promoting creativity? The general feeling is that it is, in fact, being "killed" in schools. The educational systems were designed for a…

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) has become a policy priority in many countries. A growing body of research recognises that it provides a wide range of benefits, including social and economic benefits, better child well-being and learning outcomes as a foundation for lifelong learning, more equitable outcomes and reduction of poverty, and…

This empirical study examines employee perceptions of quality management at three different time periods. New employees at a large United States manufacturing organization were surveyed regarding their perceptions of their organization's quality management practices before they attended a new employee orientation training, immediately after the…

Anderson (1980) and Harris's (2000) examinations of the history of workplace learning and training in the United States highlight issues of power and control in the determination of what training is provided to workers. This paper reviews these two texts and considers the implications of a constructivist paradigm in addressing the dilemmas of…

Although the extant mentoring literature describes the post-hire benefits of mentoring programs, less is known about how mentoring programs affect pre-hire perceptions of organizations--perceptions that may have subsequent implications for the success of mentoring programs and other HRD practices. To explore this issue, we used a policy-capturing…

This study explores the presence of technology-related research in HRD (human resource development), identifies what the research addressed, and analyzes how the research was addressed. We reviewed 1,675 papers in five publications. During the seven-year period examined, 169 articles were technology-related. Through a content analysis, we…

Data were gathered from a sample of training professionals of an American Society of Training and Development (ASTD) chapter in the southern United States regarding best practices for supporting training transfer. Content analysis techniques, based on a rigorous methodology proposed by Insch, Moore, & Murphy (1997), were used to analyze the…

A model to test conceptions from goal theory within an existing framework of training motivation was developed and tested with employees participating in training in a non-profit organization. It was hypothesized that goal orientation ("distal factors") along with self-efficacy, expectancy and valence ("proximal factors") would predict goal…

The purpose of this study was to explore alternative relationships between training opportunities and employee outcomes. A cross-sectional survey of 343 trainees from a broad range of Norwegian service organizations showed that the relationship between perceived training opportunities, and both task performance and citizenship behaviors were fully…

Like most institutions offering programs for career and technical educators, the University of South Florida (USAF) has experienced the impact of changes in the field. Thirty years ago there were undergraduate and graduate programs in career and technical education (CATE) at every university in the Florida state system involving more than 50…

The purpose of this article is to inform readers about the types of instruments available for assessing and improving mentoring in organizations. Extensive review of the psychological, business and medical literature was conducted to identify commercially published, practitioner-oriented instruments. All of the instruments that were…

This chapter uses Kentucky and Iowa as case studies to identify the contextual factors affecting the relationship between workforce development and state community college governance.

Massachusetts alone needs an estimated 5,000 nurses, and the shortage is deepening. Nurses are retiring and quitting faster than new nurses can be trained. In this article, the author describes Bunker Hill Community College's Welcome Back Center, a workforce development program that has thus far helped 47 internationally educated nurses from 29…

Comprehensive research and a highly-trained workforce are essential for the improvement of health and health care both nationally and internationally. During the past 40 years the National Research Services Award (NRSA) Program has played a large role in training the workforce responsible for dramatic advances in the understanding of various…

Efforts by federal and state governments to increase the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) workforce in support of innovation and competitiveness are frustrated by a shortage of adequately prepared and interested students. Less than half of 12th graders meet the math proficiency benchmark that indicates college readiness.…