“The most artistic lesson I ever heard” - a contribution to the reflection on the comment made by William James regarding a lesson by Ernst Mach

On November the 2nd 1882, William James visited Ernst Mach in Prague, and attended one of his lectures. The conversation with Mach and the lecture were marking events for James. Based, namely, on James’s lectures for teachers and on Mach’s lectures for the general public, we propose a reflection on the defining traits that made that event "the most artistic lesson [James] ever heard". We shall remark on the imaginative joy contained in these texts, which appear to embody some of James' key ideas on Education. The experience of knowledge about the world contained in the texts, reveals that "to experiment" means "not coldly to observe a thing happening outside us, but to undergo, to feel within oneself, to live oneself this or that manner of being".

Analysis of Needs and Resources

The initial aim of the CareMan project was to develop a joint degree programme that combined and utilised the strengths of the five collaborating universities that were already involved in delivering social and health care management education. Because the project was to be implemented in collaboration between education- al institutions, the collaboration had to be based on a detailed understanding of the national and institutional specifics of each of the individual academic enti- ties. During this process it was recognised that, due to a number of regulation issues, achieving the original aim would not be possible; ultimately, following a series of analytical works, which are presented below, it was decided that a set of three master’s level modules should be developed. One of the reasons was that the Finnish law on master’s degrees at universities of applied sciences (UAS) stated that the requirement for entry to a UAS master’s programme was a bachelor degree from a UAS or equivalent, plus a minimum of three years of work experience in an appropriate field. The three years’ work experience is also required from international students. In practice this meant that the participating Finnish UASs, Lahti and HAMK, could not award a diploma for foreign students without this work experience. The other European universities do not have the work experience requirement, although some take it as a bonus for admission (FHS UK). There were also other differences in law (e.g., requirements for mini - mum standards in Social Work education at FHS UK) that could not have been overcome during the period of project realisation. Consequently, the outcome was the development of only three common educational modules, each for 10 ECTS, which were developed, delivered and assessed during the lifetime of the project. The intention was that these would be integrated into the current masters’ level provision in each of the universities

The Proces of Curriculum and Module Design

The outcome of the inductive decision -making process of the leading project management group (PMG) was the proposal to develop three modules, Human Resource Management and Knowledge Management, Quality Management and Intercultural management, each for 10 ECTS credits. As a result of the theoretical and organisational framework and analytical phase of the project, four strategies informed the development and implemen- tation of the modules: 1. Collaboration as a principle stemming from EU collaborative policy and receiving it’s expression on all implementation levels (designing the modules, modes of learning, delivering the modules, evaluation process). 2. Building on the Bologna process masters level framework to assure ap- propriate academic level of outputs. 3. Development of value -based leadership of students through transforma- tional learning in a cross -cultural setting and continual reflection of theory in practice. 4. Continual evaluation and feedback among teachers and students as a strategy to achieve a high quality programme. In the first phase of designing the modules the collaborative strategy in particular was applied, as each module was led by one university, but members from all other universities participated in the discussions and development of the mod- ules. The Bologna process masters level framework and related standards and guidelines informed the form and method of designing the modules.

Summary and Conclusion

This monograph outlines the process and results of development of a common educational programme at masters level in health and social care management, which was supported by the Erasmus Life Long Education project CareMan (Cul- ture and Care Management). The CareMan project brought together university partners actively involved in educating social and health care professionals in leadership and management at master’s level in Europe. The five partners of the consortium were Lahti University of Applied Sciences – Lahti UAS (administra- tive and academic coordinator, Finland), Charles University – CU (the Czech Republic), Edinburgh Napier University – ENU (Scotland), Hammeline University of Applied Sciences – HAMK (Finland), and University of Évora – UoE (Portugal). The objectives of the project were to achieve lower -level educational goals that included the development through education cultural and value -driven leadership, quality of care and quality management to effectively manage an integrated health and social care service. Through mapping the situation in the field and comparing curricula of all participating universities the overall aim was to develop a joint masters programme in social and healthcare management. After the detailed understanding of national and institutional specifics of each of the individual academic entities it was recognised that, due to a number of regulation issues, the original aim was not achievable. Following subsequent analytical work, it was decided to develop a set of three master’s level modules. At the end of the project it was intended that all created modules would be available virtually to the participating programmes and would contribute some added value to existing curricula. In the future these ready -to -use modules are intended to be taught in cooperation with the participating universities or as a separate module in each university. The chosen theoretical framework of the project that underpinned the devel- opment, management and evaluation of the inter -cultural educational provision relied on the combination of two learning theories – ‘cooperative collaborative and social learning’ and ’transformational’ (Mezirow, 2009). This theoretical framework helped to align with European collaborative policy and its application on all levels of implementation of the project.

Quality Management

The purpose of this chapter is to enable registered health and social care prac - titioners to assume a clinical and/or a professional leadership role in quality management in the health and social care sectors. The contents in this chap - ter will strengthen the management competences of practitioners working in these sectors, including critical thinking, critical reflection, problem solving and decision -making, thus improving the quality in health and social care services.

Setting up a network of agrometeorological stations in East Timor

A developed and sustainable agriculture requires a permanent and reliable monitoring of climatic/ meteorological elements in (agro) meteorological stations which should be located close to agricultural, silvicultural or pastoral activities. An adequate network of meteorological stations is then a necessary condition to support innovation and development in any country. Developing countries, mainly those with a history of frequent conflicts, presents deficient number of weather stations, often poorly composed and improperly distributed within their territories, and without a regular operation that allows continuity of records for a sufficiently long period of time. The objective of this work was to build a network of meteorological and agro-meteorological stations in East Timor. To achieve this goal, the number and location of pre-existing stations, their structure and composition (number and type of sensors, communication system,… ), the administrative division of the country and the available agro-ecological zoning, the agricultural and forestry practices in the country, the existing centres for the agricultural research and the history of the weathers records were taken into account. Several troubles were found (some of the automatic stations were assembled incorrectly, others stations duplicated information regarding the same agricultural area, vast areas with relevant agro-ecological representativeness were not monitored …). It was proposed the elimination of 11 existing stations, the relocation of 7 new stations in places not covered until then, the automation of 3 manual meteorological stations. Two networks were then purposed, a major with 15 agro-meteorological stations (all automatized) and one other secondary composed by 32 weather stations (only two were manual). The set of the 47 stations corresponded to a density of 329 km2/station. The flexibility in the composition of each of the networks was safeguarded and intends to respond effectively to any substantive change in the conditions in a country in constant change. It was also discussed the national coverage by these networks under a “management concept for weather stations”.