Changes in medical education have affected both curriculum design and delivery. Many medical schools now use integrated curricula and a systemic approach, with reduced hours of anatomy teaching. While learning anatomy via dissection is invaluable in educational, professional, and personal development, it is time intensive and supports a regional…

This article intends to describe a collaborative experience between a non-government development organization (NGDO) and a university in the area of development education. The experience has included the design, following an action research methodology, of a system of quality criteria for experiences promoted by the Network of Educators for Global…

This research investigates how data on multidisciplinary collaborative experiences can be used to solve a novel problem: recommending research profiles of potential collaborators to academic researchers seeking to engage in multidisciplinary research collaboration. As the current domain theories of multidisciplinary collaboration are insufficient…

Assessing people's understanding of the causal relationships found in large-scale complex systems may be necessary for addressing many critical social concerns, such as environmental sustainability. Existing methods for assessing systems thinking and causal understanding frequently use the technique of cognitive causal mapping. However, the…

The purpose of this article is to revisit the basic principles of technology planning as applied to online education initiatives. While not meant to be an exhaustive treatment of the topic, the article is timely because many colleges and universities are considering the development and expansion of online education as part of their planning…

There have been current controversial discussions concerning the performance of private primary schools versus public primary schools in the Kenya Certificate of Primary Examination (K.C.P.E.). Lately, the private primary schools appear to be performing better than public primary schools. For example; in the 2003 K.C.P.E. results, more than 31% of…

In this paper, a model and tool is proposed to assist universities and other mission-based organisations to ascertain systematically the optimal portfolio of projects, in any year, meeting the organisations risk tolerances and available funds. The model and tool presented build on previous work on university operations and decision support systems…

The purpose of this paper is to view Kant's approach to education in the broader context of Kant's philosophy of culture and history as a process whose direction should be reflectively assumed by human freedom, in the light of man's moral vocation. In this context, some characteristic tensions of his enlightened approach to education appear. Thus,…

Many current psychological models of reasoning minimize the role of deductive processes in human thought. In the present paper, we argue that deduction is an important part of ordinary cognition and we propose that a dual systems Competence [image omitted] Procedural processing model conceptualized within relational developmental systems theory…

When winter rolls around, keeping yourself and your home warm is of the utmost importance. Heating your home seems like a simple subject to tackle, but there are many heating systems available, requiring different fuels, installations, and costs. The various fuel types and their environmental footprints will be the focus of this month's column.…

This paper reports on the development of complexity and accuracy in English as a Second Language (ESL) academic writing. Although research into complexity and accuracy development in second language (L2) writing has been well established, few studies have assumed the multidimensionality of these two constructs (Norris & Ortega, 2009) or…

The notion of complexity--as in "education is a complex system"--has two different meanings. On the one hand, there is the epistemic connotation, with "Complex" meaning "difficult to understand, hard to control". On the other hand, complex has a technical meaning, referring to systems composed of many interacting…

This paper considers the impact of a small-scale action research project which focused on the development of an emergent approach to curriculum making in a general certificate in secondary education course in geography. In this context, we argue that complexity thinking offers a useful theoretical foundation from which to understand the nature of…

This case study introduces the notion of an operative system to describe elementary teachers' knowledge and practice. Drawing from complex systems theory, the operative system is defined as the network of knowledge and practices that constituted teachers' work within a lesson study cycle. Data were gathered throughout a lesson study cycle in which…

The "Ten Tonne Plan" is a greenhouse gas emissions reduction initiative that aimed to reduce school emissions by 10 tonnes (metric tons) in one year. A case study was conducted on the impact of this initiative at a primary school in Western Australia. Research investigated student, staff, parent, and community partner perceptions…