The power of play: preparing international higher education students for practicum

With an increased number of international students undertaking higher education courses (degrees), Australian universities are challenged to prepare international students with the necessary understandings, knowledge and skills to effectively participate in the workplace. For many students, understanding Early Childhood Education in Australia is a new way of viewing teaching and learning from their own cultural perspective. In order to facilitate successful engagement during pre-service teacher practicums (placements) and in response to concerns raised by mentorteachers in the workplace, a pilot program was run at Deakin University in 2015 for students to undertake before placement. The program focused on ‘play’ as an innovative model of teaching. This paper situates itself as part of a wider study Improving work placement for international students, their mentors and other stakeholders. It draws on narrative reflection, classroom observation, questionnaire and interview data from the early childhood strand within the Master of Teaching course at Deakin University. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis the data was analysed and coded into two emerging themes: building confidence and competency skills and connecting to the early childhood context. Generalisationscannot be made to other educational institutions or context however; the findings reveal that ‘play’ can be used as a powerful tool to empower students to make connection with early childhood settings. It is hoped that the findings may provide a platform for further dialogue with other universities regarding how best we can prepare international education students at Australian universities for their practicum experience.

Globalization and the Public Provision of Higher Education: Empirical Evidence from Selected Countries

This research study was designed to examine the relationship between globalization as measured by the KOF index, its related forces (economic, political, cultural and technological) and the public provision of higher education. This study is important since globalization is increasingly being associated with changes in critical aspects of higher education. The public provision of education was measured by government expenditure and educational outcomes; that is participation, gender equity and attainment. The study utilized a non-experimental quantitative research design. Data collected from secondary sources for 139 selected countries was analyzed. The countries were geographically distributed and included both developed and developing countries. The choice of countries for inclusion in the study was based on data availability. The data, which was sourced from international organizations such as the United Nations and the World Bank, were examined for different time periods using five year averages. The period covered was 1970 to 2009. The relationship between globalization and the higher education variables was examined using cross sectional regression analysis while controlling for economic, political and demographic factors. The major findings of the study are as follows. For the two spending models, only one revealed a significant relationship between globalization and education with the R2 s ranging from .222 to .448 over the period. This relationship was however negative indicating that as globalization increased, spending on higher education declined. However, for the education outcomes models, this relationship was not significant. For the sub-indices of globalization, only the political dimension showed significance as shown in the spending model. Political globalization was significant for six periods with R2 s ranging from .31 to .52. The study concluded that the results are mixed for both the spending and outcome models. It also found no robust effects of globalization on government education provision. This finding is not surprising given the existing literature which sees mixed results on the social impact of globalization.

Preferences in the use of communication technology: the influence of the gender dimension among higher education students

This paper presents some of the findings of a nationwide study, which was designed for understanding aspects related to the use of Communication Technology (CT) among higher education students in Portugal. This descriptive and exploratory study essentially focused on gender issues, particularly on how they influence the students’ perception regarding the use of CT. The data collection method selected was online survey. The findings reveal, among other results, students’ preferences regarding CT use and gender differences in that context.

Researching the Use of Communication Technologies in Higher Education Institutions in Portugal

This paper describes a research which main purpose was identifying and characterizing the use of Communication Technologies by Portuguese Public Higher Education Institutions to support learning activities. An analysis model was created and used to develop a nationwide online survey used to collect data from students, teachers and institutional managers. The results show that institutional policies and resources are in place and being used to support learning; learning management systems and interpersonal communication technologies are intensely used and widely adopted; and that there are gender differences as far as the students' use of Communication Technologies is concerned. The results of this project provide a useful insight on the use of Communication Technologies by Portuguese Public Higher Education Institutions and give valuable information for ongoing decision making processes regarding the institutional adoption and development of learning models that take advantage of these technologies.

Free software and free culture in Higher Education: pipelines and workflows for creative purposes

OpenLab ESEV is a project of the School of Education of the Polytechnic Institute of Viseu (ESEV), Portugal, that aims to promote, foster and support the use of Free/Libre Software and Open Source Software, Open Educational Resources, Free Culture, Free file formats and more flexible copyright licenses for creative and educational purposes in the ESEV's domains of activity (education, arts, media). Most of the OpenLab ESEV activities are related to the teacher education and arts and multimedia programs, with a special focus on the later. In this paper, the project and some activities are presented, starting with its origins and its conceptual framework. The presented overview is intended as background for the examination of the use of Free/Libre Software and Free Culture in educational settings, specially at the higher education level, and for creative purposes. The activities developed with students and professionals generated pipelines and workflows implemented for different creative purposes, software packages used for different tasks, choices for file formats and copyright licenses. Finished and ongoing multimedia and arts projects will be presented as real case scenarios.

2007-2008 higher education state accountability report

Spartanburg Community College reports to the Budget and Control Board its annual accountability report that includes an executive summary, a description of the leadership system, customer focus and satisfaction and other performance criteria, mission, and program descriptions and budgets.

2008-2009 higher education state accountability report

Spartanburg Community College reports to the Budget and Control Board its annual accountability report that includes an executive summary, a description of the leadership system, customer focus and satisfaction and other performance criteria, mission, and program descriptions and budgets.

2009-2010 higher education state accountability report

Spartanburg Community College reports to the Budget and Control Board its annual accountability report that includes an executive summary, a description of the leadership system, customer focus and satisfaction and other performance criteria, mission, and program descriptions and budgets.

2011-2012 higher education state accountability report

Spartanburg Community College reports to the Budget and Control Board its annual accountability report that includes an executive summary, a description of the leadership system, customer focus and satisfaction and other performance criteria, mission, and program descriptions and budgets.

2012-2013 higher education state accountability report

Spartanburg Community College reports to the Budget and Control Board its annual accountability report that includes an executive summary, a description of the leadership system, customer focus and satisfaction and other performance criteria, mission, and program descriptions and budgets.

Staff and students co-creating curricula in UK higher education: exploring process and evidencing value

Student engagement in learning and teaching is receiving a growing level of interest from policy makers, researchers, and practitioners. This includes opportunities for staff and students to co-create curricula, yet there are few examples within current literature which describe and critique this form of staff-student collaboration (Bovill (2013a), Healey et al (2014), Cook-Sather et al (2014). The competing agendas of neoliberalism and critical, radical pedagogies influence the policy and practice of staff and students co-creating curricula and, consequently, attempt to appropriate the purpose of it in different ways. Using case-based research methodology, my study presents analysis of staff and students co-creating curricula within seven universities. This includes 17 examples of practice across 14 disciplines. Using an inductive approach, I have examined issues relating to definitions of practice, conceptualisations of curricula, perceptions of value, and the relationship between practice and institutional strategy. I draw upon an interdisciplinary body of literature to provide the conceptual foundations for my research. This has been necessary to address the complexity of practice and includes literature relating to student engagement in learning and teaching, conceptual models of curriculum in higher education, approaches to evidencing value and impact, and critical theory and radical pedagogies. The study makes specific contributions to the wider scholarly debate by highlighting the importance of dialogue and conversational scholarship as well as identifying with participants what matters as well as what works as a means to evidence the value of collaborations. It also presents evidence of a new model of co-creating curricula and additional approaches to conceptualising curricula to facilitate collaboration. Analysis of macro and micro level data shows enactment of dialogic pedagogies within contexts of technical-rational strategy formation and implementation.

Equity in Higher Education – Portuguese Perspective

Access, participation and exclusion from higher education for marginalized and disadvan-taged sections of the population are an intricate socio-political as well as economic practice that has manifold explanations and outcomes. During the last three decades, the higher education has experienced expansion in both enrolments and institutions. The approaches and means of delivery have changed besides the diversification in provision. The role of the state and mar¬ket has also reformed. This characteristic has also altered the nature of equity in higher edu¬cation across the globe. The chapters of this book on different countries of Asia, Europe and Latin America examine access and describe the several spaces where cohorts of relevant age group are included, excluded, or are at threat of exclusion in higher education. The chapters also narrate the state of affairs in which despite numerous alike structure in the experience and outcomes of social exclusion across disenfranchised groups and regions, how some critical differences have led to different paths of struggles and policy formation to attain the objective of equity in higher education.

Andragogy as a Knowledge Driving Discipline in Higher Education

This paper exposes the diachronic (historical overview) of Andragogy (or Adult Education) and its introduction as a discipline in the context of university education. Based on the andragogical principles of the adult thought process and the work experience, this study sets out Adult Education as an education option to be implemented in higher education, in Costa Rica, to develop cognitive and meta-cognitive competencies in the university students, in the different academic areas simultaneously, by reproducing the Socratic maieutics, which is structured within the Kolb’s experiential learning cycle.