Using large group methods to develop effective quality cultures

It has become evident that higher education institutions in the Sultanate of Oman are currently experiencing change, in particular when it involves implementing quality management systems. The underlying principles of quality management are participatory decision making. Our methods for conducting improvements in quality management, strategic planning and other topics model this principle. Large group methods or interventions involve gathering an entire organization to talk about, influence or invent needed changes (Bunker & Alban, 2002). Change is a result of purposeful social construction by organizational members. It involves a goal (approach/plan), implementation (deployment/act/so), evaluation (results/check) and modification (improvement). This paper explores the different large group methods being used in the field today and it proposes that large group methods allow a forum to overcome some of the hurdles and challenges that are being faced in Oman such as; How do you encourage sharing information in a fiercely competitive environment? And how do you establish an informal network of peers? We were witness to some of these challenges being over come when we used large group methods during various strategic planning workshops with members of staff from the different colleges in Oman. Results from the evaluations of the workshops highlighted that participants enjoyed the opportunity to network and share ideas with their peers as well as being involved in group discussions and brainstorming ideas. The paper will also propose that large group methods can be used effectively in Omani culture strengthening goals towards Omanisation.

Subject cultures and pedagogy : comparing mathematics and science

This research found that a teacher is both a member of a culture and an individual, building practice within parameters set by a dynamic and multifaceted subject culture. Feelings of competence and confidence grow as an aesthetic understanding of what it means to know, teach, and appreciate a subject.

Staging cultures : the potential for intercultural theatre

Recently, 'intercultural' theatre has taken aspects of performance genres from different cultures and has blended them into a new hybrid form. This thesis engages with this issue through performance practice, textual analysis and theoretical critique, and aims to explore the possibilities and boundaries of a practical non-neo-colonial 'intercultural' theatre.

Approaches to learning across cultures : The role of assessment

In the context of a broader research study on the intercultural understanding of teachers in Australia, Japan and Thailand, this paper focuses on approaches to learning and the role of assessment in shaping such approaches. Popular contrasts portray Asian learners as compliant and favouring rote memorisation and Western learners as independent and favouring deep, conceptual learning. Yet Asian students frequently outperform their Western counterparts in competitive tests purported to measure higher cognitive skills. Biggs and his associates have challenged the stereotypical view of Asian students as rote learners as a Western misperception. But data from the present cross-cultural study suggest it is more than a Western misperception, being shared by teachers in Japan and Thailand. With this background, this paper then explores the role of assessment through an analysis of examination papers in the three countries at the high stakes, year 12 level. This analysis of the ways in which knowledge and comprehension are assessed identifies different practices across cultures but not ones corresponding to the rhetoric on contrasting approaches to learning. Rather it concludes that assessment tasks classified superficially as comprehension can be approached through memorisation and conversely, those often classified as memorisation can require careful reading, thought and interpretation, while drawing from an extensive knowledge base. A shared understanding of the nature of assessment tasks in different cultures thus has the potential to dissolve the demarcation of culturally embedded learning styles and to enhance deep learning grounded in specialist knowledge for scholars, be they students or teachers, in all cultures.

C. P. Snow’s The two cultures : Michael Polanyi’s response and context

C. P. Snow’s “The Two Cultures” controversially contrasted science and literature, suggesting that neither scientists nor literary intellectuals have much in common with, and seldom bother speaking to, the other. Responding to Snow, Michael Polanyi argued that specialization has made modern culture, not twofold but manifold. In his major work, Personal Knowledge, Polanyi explained that branches of modern culture have personal knowing and knowledge in common, and there is extensive cross-pollination of ideas. He also, in this book, saw the branches of culture as disparate intellectual frameworks that are divorced from one another.

Finding footy : female fan socialization and Australian rules football

The question of how, irrespective of gender, a person becomes a sports fan has been absent in sociological studies of sports supporters. Distinct from other studies of sport spectatorship that focus on the practices of already existing (and overwhelmingly male) fans, our research is the first to consider how women become supporters, and in doing so, it begins to redress the significant under-representation of women in sports fan research. From interviews with female supporters of the Australian Football League (AFL), this article identifies and critically assesses the modes by which women come to support sport. We propose four categories to explain the different ways women accomplish fandom, focusing on the importance of strong social ties and doxic actions in this process. The events, experiences and social relations that inform women's first encounters with AFL offers a template for the wider consideration of women as social agents in the sporting landscape.