A new law on higher education came into effect in North Rhine-Westphalia on 1 April 2000, setting a new direction, based in law, that should and will lay the foundations for a revamping of higher education in this state. Since the 1990s, the critical debates that are part of the general German discussion on higher education have shown a more…

This article discusses the debate on the introduction of course fees in German higher education. It also discusses a pilot model developed by the Conference of University Deans (HRK) Presidium to resolve the fee question. This model is attuned to competition and is at the same time socially acceptable. The main idea is that neither a general…

This study reports the findings of a qualitative study of competitive West Coast Swing dancers that incorporated both ethnographic and phenomenological techniques. A modern variation of the original Lindy Hop, West Coast Swing is typically learned in dance studios and non-profit clubs. The West Coast Swing community can be considered a community…

Describes a programme, developed by FT Knowledge and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, USA, to guide managers through the opportunities and threats presented by electronic commerce. Focuses on areas such as marketing, electronic retailing, pricing, product design, supply chain management and communication. Highlights how the…

Motivating a team is often more challenging than motivating a single individual. Individuals within teams operate with different goals, values, beliefs, and expectations. Yet the variety of team member personalities can be a positive force if each performer contributes his or her own unique capabilities when and where needed. Teamwork potentially…

In the project described in this article, students work together to model real-life phenomena. They also think about the modeling process as they develop rubrics for evaluating their peers' work.

One of the most consistently recurring themes in great literature is the love triangle--Arthur and Guinevere and Lancelot, Tristan and Isolde and King Mark, and countless others. No one has produced an immortal story about it; but a love triangle plays itself out day after day in the lives of parents, young children, and caregivers. In this…

In this article, the author describes how she altered the game of musical chairs to eliminate both the aggressiveness and the elimination aspects. She used the new version of musical chairs to begin a dialogue with the children about the difference between competition and cooperation.

This chapter considers the design of incentive pay systems for teachers and principals and the challenges facing policy makers who seek to design them. The author argues that policy makers must direct the efforts of teachers and principals toward schools' mission--the acquisition of skills and knowledge among children--and must find ways to link…

Background: Coaches and physical educators must obtain valid data relating to the contribution of each of their players in order to assess their level of performance in team sport competition. This information must also be collected and used in real game situations to be more valid. Developed initially for a physical education class context, the…

Innovation is crucial to the competitiveness of the economies of Europe, and learning is crucial to innovation. The most important trend shift is not that knowledge is becoming more important but that it is becoming obsolete more rapidly than before, so that firms and employees constantly have to learn and acquire new competencies. This involves…

Supporters of public education fear attempts to privatize schools, while the private sector has always struggled against the monopolistic power of the public schools that educates almost 90% of all K-12 students. This trepidation has recently been intensified by the creation of a "third sector" that includes charter schools, voucher…

Globalisation, together with readier access to capability-enhancing technologies and to technological insights once restricted to a few leading economies, are resulting in greater competition within Europe, and more widely within the developed world, for influence of all kinds (not just influence over the choices that foreign students make about…

The Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act of 1998 (Perkins III) has been reauthorized in the first session of the 109th Congress, but not without strong opposition from the Bush Administration and allied neoconservative school reformers. This paper will detail four neoconservative rationales--modernization, competition, alignment,…

Since the 1980s, "key school system" (KSS) in basic education has contributed to teaching quality and the development of some schools. However, at the same time it brings about many serious problems such as failure to attain educational objective, being away from the goal of education equity, arising students' mental or emotional…