Analysing and improving a recruitment process : a teaching case for developing business process improvement capabilities

The demand for Business Process Management (BPM) is rapidly rising and with that, the need for capable BPM professionals is also rising. Yet, only a very few structured BPM training/ education programs are available, across universities and professional trainers globally. The ‘lack of appropriate teaching resources’ has been identified as a critical issue for BPM educators in prior studies. Case-based teaching can be an effective means of educating future BPM professionals. A main reason is that cases create an authentic learning environment where the complexities and challenges of the ‘real world’ can be presented in a narrative enabling the students to develop crucial skills such as problem solving, analysis and creativity-within-constraints, and to apply the tools and techniques within a richer and real (or proxy to real) context. However, so far well documented BPM teaching cases are scarce. This article aims to contribute to address this gap by providing a comprehensive teaching case and teaching notes that facilitates the education of selected process improvement phases, namely identification, modelling, analysis, and improvement. The article is divided into three main parts: (i) Introductory teaching notes, (ii) The case narrative, and (iii) Student activities from the case and teaching notes.

Analysis and improvement of a construction permit approval process: A teaching case for developing business process development capabilities, targeting developing nations

With the increasing competitiveness in global markets, many developing nations are striving to constantly improve their services in search for the next competitive edge. As a result, the demand and need for Business Process Management (BPM) in these regions is seeing a rapid rise. Yet there exists a lack of professional expertise and knowledge to cater to that need. Therefore, the development of well-structured BPM training/ education programs has become an urgent requirement for these industries. Furthermore, the lack of textbooks or other self-educating material, that go beyond the basics of BPM, further ratifies the need for case based teaching and related cases that enable the next generation of professionals in these countries. Teaching cases create an authentic learning environment where complexities and challenges of the ‘real world’ can be presented in a narrative, enabling students to evolve crucial skills such as problem analysis, problem solving, creativity within constraints as well as the application of appropriate tools (BPMN) and techniques (including best practices and benchmarking) within richer and real scenarios. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive teaching case demonstrating the means to tackle any developing nation’s legacy government process undermined by inefficiency and ineffectiveness. The paper also includes thorough teaching notes The article is presented in three main parts: (i) Introduction - that provides a brief background setting the context of this paper, (ii) The Teaching Case, and (iii) Teaching notes.

An analytic knowledge network process for construction entrepreneurship education

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide a quantitative multicriteria decision-making approach to knowledge management in construction entrepreneurship education by means of an analytic knowledge network process (KANP) Design/methodology/approach- The KANP approach in the study integrates a standard industrial classification with the analytic network process (ANP). For the construction entrepreneurship education, a decision-making model named KANP.CEEM is built to apply the KANP method in the evaluation of teaching cases to facilitate the case method, which is widely adopted in entrepreneurship education at business schools. Findings- The study finds that there are eight clusters and 178 nodes in the KANP.CEEM model, and experimental research on the evaluation of teaching cases discloses that the KANP method is effective in conducting knowledge management to the entrepreneurship education. Research limitations/implications- As an experimental research, this paper ignores the concordance between a selected standard classification and others, which perhaps limits the usefulness of KANP.CEEM model elsewhere. Practical implications- As the KANP.CEEM model is built based on the standard classification codes and the embedded ANP, it is thus expected that the model has a wide potential in evaluating knowledge-based teaching materials for any education purpose with a background from the construction industry, and can be used by both faculty and students. Originality/value- This paper fulfils a knowledge management need and offers a practical tool for an academic starting out on the development of knowledge-based teaching cases and other teaching materials or for a student going through the case studies and other learning materials.

Educação inclusiva e formação continuada: contribuições dos casos de ensino para os processos de aprendizagem e desenvolvimento profissional de professores

This study focuses on processes of learning and professional development experienced by elementary school teachers who have students with special educational needs in their classrooms. Cases and case methods can be used as methodological resource to articulate the continued training of teachers in an inclusive perspective. This research-intervention adopted a constructive-collaborative model for continued teachers formation. The main objective was to investigate the possible contributions of teaching cases, while investigative and formative strategies, for the processes of learning and professional development of teachers who work in the regular school. The data were collected by means of analytical activities, drafting collective discussion and teaching cases, having eight teachers as participants in a regular public school, located in the municipality of Natal/RN, Brasil. The theoretical reference covers the inclusive education, teaching learning, teachers professional development, the knowledge base for teaching and teaching cases as a resource for continued teachers formation in an inclusive perspective. The results indicated that teaching cases allowed description and analysis of educational practices developed by regular education teachers and adoption of reflective processes about situations reported and on their own pedagogical actuation, achieving indications of changes. It also indicates the contribution of cases for the clarification, systematization and extension of professional knowledge about inclusive education process as well as for involvement by the teachers of the study in a pedagogical thinking process. The lessons learned are related mainly to own role as teachers of regular education, to the role of professional support and specialized institutions faced to school inclusion. The analyses showed the methodological option was suitable to develop a schoolcentric training process, allowing teachers to seek in their actual environment alternatives for construction of a new logic of teaching that encloses diversity. The conclusion is that the cases, while bringing educational situations closer to the reality experienced by teachers in their daily professional role, causes relevant improvement on teachers education, because it offers training in conjunction with the experience and knowledge that teachers already have

Educação inclusiva e formação continuada: contribuições dos casos de ensino para os processos de aprendizagem e desenvolvimento profissional de professores

This study focuses on processes of learning and professional development experienced by elementary school teachers who have students with special educational needs in their classrooms. Cases and case methods can be used as methodological resource to articulate the continued training of teachers in an inclusive perspective. This research-intervention adopted a constructive-collaborative model for continued teachers formation. The main objective was to investigate the possible contributions of teaching cases, while investigative and formative strategies, for the processes of learning and professional development of teachers who work in the regular school. The data were collected by means of analytical activities, drafting collective discussion and teaching cases, having eight teachers as participants in a regular public school, located in the municipality of Natal/RN, Brasil. The theoretical reference covers the inclusive education, teaching learning, teachers professional development, the knowledge base for teaching and teaching cases as a resource for continued teachers formation in an inclusive perspective. The results indicated that teaching cases allowed description and analysis of educational practices developed by regular education teachers and adoption of reflective processes about situations reported and on their own pedagogical actuation, achieving indications of changes. It also indicates the contribution of cases for the clarification, systematization and extension of professional knowledge about inclusive education process as well as for involvement by the teachers of the study in a pedagogical thinking process. The lessons learned are related mainly to own role as teachers of regular education, to the role of professional support and specialized institutions faced to school inclusion. The analyses showed the methodological option was suitable to develop a schoolcentric training process, allowing teachers to seek in their actual environment alternatives for construction of a new logic of teaching that encloses diversity. The conclusion is that the cases, while bringing educational situations closer to the reality experienced by teachers in their daily professional role, causes relevant improvement on teachers education, because it offers training in conjunction with the experience and knowledge that teachers already have

El caso de enseñanza en la formación del Pedagogo 1989-0257

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Casos de ensino relacionados à educação física escolar: uma produção dos alunos do ensino médio

Teaching cases are records, through written narratives, of an academic episode or incident, they appear in educational scenery as a rich strategy not only for the teacher's conformation but also for their investigation. The bibliography shows that young students are still not very much investigated and it contributes to the establishment of negative images of this social subject. In this sense, the objective of this work is to analyze the stories and episodes, called teaching cases, in narrative style, written by students from High School about their physical education classes. The participants of this study are High School students from two public schools from two cities in the countryside of São Paulo state. The researcher stayed in the schools for nine months and in this meantime she made contact with the students, asking, for the ones who showed interest, the construction of teaching cases. For this interested students, the researcher explained researcher explained what teaching cases are, as well as, she presented a template to guide them in the production. At the end of this process, twenty teaching cases were delivered to the researcher. They were analyzed under the qualitative approach, valuing the expressive wealth in the narratives, complemented by the interviews with the authors. Inset the mosaic of narratives and interviews, showing a variety of experiences and possibilities of distance and approximation of the students to the physical education classes, we can indicate that from the 20 cases, only one was set as a total distance from the physical education classes (this is the student's situation since she was in the second grade from elementary school). Mentioning the positive experiences and the approximation to the physical education classes, the association of teaching cases and interviews showed that seven students lived the context and until today present an affective proximity to the classes. These evidences can help...

Increasing relevance and interest : teaching environmental and planning law to built environment students

A new approach was taken to delivering a challenging "stewarship of land" unit to over 350 predominantly first year built environment students stewardship. The new approach involved incorporating environmental and planning law into the syllabus, exposing students to a wide range of statutes, selecting legal cases according to a et of criteria and revisiting the material using different modes of delivery and teaching resources. To evaluate the effectiveness of the new approach, the students were surveyed to elicit their learning experience and preferences. The survey found that most students perceived learning about environmental and planning law, including legal cases, worthwhile.----- Areas identified by the surcey for improvement included the perception by some students that: environmenatl and planning law is irrelevant to their discipline and future caree; studying law is dull and sometimes daunting; and the prescribed reading could be omitted.----- To address student perceptions, it is proposed to reorder the topics commencing with local, charismatic topics, while explanding international content and cases, to enlarge and enhance the repertoire of video clips to include sites of legal cawses and development projects, and to reformat the online weekly quizzes to promote reading of primary material.----- Overall, the approach to teaching environmental and planning law to built environment students, including the criteria for selecting legal cases, described in this paper, was found to be effective.

Secondary teachers’ conceptions of teaching and learning

This paper presents a phenomenographic analysis of the conceptions of teaching and learning held by a sample of 16 secondary school teachers in two Australian schools. It provides descriptions of four categories, derived from pooled data, of the ways in which these teachers thought about teaching and about learning, their teaching strategies, and their focus on student or content. The categories for teaching and learning are described with each teacher allocated to the category most typical of their conceptions of teaching and of learning. The lack of congruence, in some cases, between the conceptions of teaching and of learning held by these teachers is discussed.

Cases from the technology disciplines

This document is a collection of ‘cases’ adapted from interviews with supervisors of higher degree research students from the technology disciplines. The supervisors come from a wide range of sub disciplines and represent many levels of experience. We follow in this document Hammond and Ryland’s (2009)2 suggested ranking of supervision experience:  No completions – No experience or new supervisors, with no doctoral completions as principal supervisor  Experienced – 1 to 5 doctoral completions as principal supervisor  Very experienced – over 6 doctoral completions as principal supervisor The cases focus attention on thinking about supervision as a teaching and learning practice; a dimension of higher degree research supervision that is increasingly being recognized as important. They are offered as prompts for individuals and groups of supervisors in thinking about their supervision as a teaching and learning practice.

Resource for supervisors and cases

The framework presented in the resource is intended to provide technology supervisors with a range of options available to them with respect to supervisory pedagogy. It has been developed to highlight different aspects of thinking about supervision as a teaching and learning practice; as well as approaches, strategies and roles associated with supervision. It will enable technology supervisors to become aware of the diverse options available to them and provide systematic ways of thinking about supervisory practices. Use of this framework will encourage supervisors to make choices based on broader, rather than more limited, repertoires. It will also encourage thinking about supervision as a teaching and learning practice.

Virtual reality or virtually real : blended teaching and learning in a Master's level research methods class

This paper examines the enabling effect of using blended learning and synchronous internet mediated communication technologies to improve learning and develop a Sense of Community (SOC) in a group of post-graduate students consisting of a mix of on-campus and off-campus students. Both quantitative and qualitative data collected over a number of years supports the assertion that the blended learning environment enhanced both teaching and learning. The development of a SOC was pivotal to the success of the blended approach when working with geographically isolated groups within a single learning environment.

Assessment policy change in relation to English language teaching and learning in China : a study of perspectives from two universities

In response to concerns about the quality of English Language Learning (ELL) education at tertiary level, the Chinese Ministry of Education (CMoE) launched the College English Reform Program (CERP) in 2004. By means of a press release (CMoE, 2005) and a guideline document titled College English Curriculum Requirements (CECR) (CMoE, 2007), the CERP proposed two major changes to the College English assessment policy, which were: (1) the shift to optional status for the compulsory external test, the College English Test Band 4 (CET4); and (2) the incorporation of formative assessment into the existing summative assessment framework. This study investigated the interactions between the College English assessment policy change, the theoretical underpinnings, and the assessment practices within two Chinese universities (one Key University and one Non-Key University). It adopted a sociocultural theoretical perspective to examine the implementation process as experienced by local actors of institutional and classroom levels. Systematic data analysis using a constant comparative method (Merriam, 1998) revealed that contextual factors and implementation issues did not lead to significant differences in the two cases. Lack of training in assessment and the sociocultural factors such as the traditional emphasis on the product of learning and hierarchical teacher/students relationship are decisive and responsible for the limited effect of the reform.

The introduction of an interactive teaching and learning activity (TLA) in class and its relationship to students’ learning-outcomes

In the university education arena, it is becoming apparent that traditional methods of conducting classes are not the most effective ways to achieve desired learning outcomes. The traditional class/method involves the instructor verbalizing information for passive, note-taking students who are assumed to be empty receptacles waiting to be filled with knowledge. This method is limited in its effectiveness, as the flow of information is usually only in one direction. Furthermore, “It has been demonstrated that students in many cases can recite and apply formulas in numerical problems, but the actual meaning and understanding of the concept behind the formula is not acquired (Crouch & Mazur)”. It is apparent that memorization is the main technique present in this approach. A more effective method of teaching involves increasing the students’ level of activity during, and hence their involvement in the learning process. This technique stimulates self- learning and assists in keeping these students’ levels of concentration more uniform. In this work, I am therefore interested in studying the influence of a particular TLA on students’ learning-outcomes. I want to foster high-level understanding and critical thinking skills using active learning (Silberman, 1996) techniques. The TLA in question aims to promote self-study by students and to expose them to a situation where their learning-outcomes can be tested. The motivation behind this activity is based on studies which suggest that some sensory modalities are more effective than others. Using various instruments for data collection and by means of a thorough analysis I present evidence of the effectiveness of this action research project which aims to improve my own teaching practices, with the ultimate goal of enhancing student’s learning.

Using cases in a mixed learning environment : meeting the challenges of higher education reform

This paper explains the context for pedagogy in a specific undergraduate course; the comparative benefits of using cases in a mixed learning environment (simultaneous large and small groups); and illustrates one significant way for universities to respond to increasing demand for delivery efficiency while maintaining high quality learning outcomes. Thus, to achieve objectives of the subject, tutorial classes expand on what is taught in lectures and provide the necessary context to analyse cases in more detail. A small, qualitative study explored experiences of market research tutors with the use of case method teaching reported. Implications of the study for case teaching in higher education are identified.