In an era of global competition and a technology-based economy, it is increasingly important that college students graduate with a solid foundation of knowledge and understanding of science and mathematics. They must be able to use their scientific knowledge on their jobs and in their role as citizens of a society where complex policy and resource…

The central argument of the article is that while the building, the collection and the staff were inseparably linked, in a digital environment these facets of the library are diverging. This divergence clouds the process of envisioning a future for the library, but, if properly defined, it is a source of clarity, which sheds light on strategic…

Participation in outdoor education is underpinned by a learner's ability to acquire skills in activities such as canoeing, bushwalking and skiing and consequently the outdoor leader is often required to facilitate skill acquisition and motor learning. As such, outdoor leaders might benefit from an appropriate and tested model on how the learner…

During President Barack Obama's first two years in office, the administration's signature education initiative has been the Race to the Top (RTT) fund, a small part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 that was passed to stimulate the nation's ailing economy. While celebrations and criticisms of RTT abound, serious attempts to…

Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), in which educators work collaboratively to improve learning for students, need effective strategies to sustain them. PLCs promote continuous improvement in student learning and build academic success with increased teacher expertise. Grounded in organizational systems theory, participative leadership…

Performance-based accountability systems (PBASs), which link incentives to measured performance as a means of improving services to the public, have gained popularity. While PBASs can vary widely across sectors, they share three main components: goals, incentives, and measures. Research suggests that PBASs influence provider behaviors, but little…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to propose an integrated model of action learning based on an examination of four reviewed action learning models, definitions, and espoused outcomes. Design/methodology/approach: A clear articulation of the strengths and limitations of each model was essential to developing an integrated model, which could be…

In 2003, Dr. Freddie Thomas Middle School in Rochester, New York, was in serious trouble. In 2000, it had been labeled a "school under registration review" by the state's education department and was under a directive to make significant progress or face serious consequences. Three years later, only 3% of 8th-grade students met state standards in…

This essay brings together two lines of inquiry. Firstly, I revisit research on futures in education conducted during the 1980s and re-examine some of the propositions and principles that this research generated about "the future" as an object of inquiry in education. Secondly, I argue that the language of complexity invites us to…

Objectives: (1) To identify which United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) recommended child protection (CP) measures, such as policy, reporting systems, and services for child abuse and neglect (CAN) victims, individually or in combination, were most important in establishing a basic level of child protection in 42 countries;…

The article tries to answer two questions: Has the education system of the GDR disappeared without a trace? What role could academics in the field of education from the GDR play after the state of the GDR was dissolved? The policies of the East German states are looked at with respect to the heritage of the GDR education system, and attention is…

Of all the social constructs impacting the contemporary world, gender is perhaps the most pervasive and the most insidious. Its inequities creep into our everyday lives with impunity. Across the globe, gender construction has evoked challenge, undergone reform and, in some instances, transformed thinking in societies. Yet, for all the gains made…

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to revisit the practical worth of different systems thinking tools applied to three different business clients, which may be dismissed by academic researchers as theoretically old fashioned. Design/methodology/approach: The methodologies used are systems-based (SSM, VSM and causal loop diagrams), culminating in…

It is now widely accepted that qualitative and quantitative research traditions, rather than being seen as opposed to or in competition with each other (Hammersley & Atkinson, 1995; Furlong, 2004 ) should be used, where appropriate, in some kind of combination (Bryman & Cramer, 1999; Moore et al., 2003 ). How this combining is to be understood…

This paper reports the results of a study to understand why some New Zealand dairy farmers are changing from twice-a-day (TAD) to once-a-day (OAD) milking. Increasing herd size, unavailability of suitable labour and changing lifestyle expectations from farmers and their staff have led some to explore OAD milking as a means of alleviating these…