Satisfaction with knowledge and competencies:a multi-country study of employers and business graduates

This study critically discusses findings from a research project involving four European countries. The project had two main aims. The first was to develop a systematic procedure for assessing the balance between knowledge and competencies acquired in higher, further and vocational education and the specific needs of the labor market. The second aim was to develop and test a set of meta-level quality indicators aimed at evaluating the linkages between education and employment. The project was designed to address the lack of employer input concerning the requirements of business graduates for successful workplace performance and the need for more specific industry-driven feedback to guide administrative heads at universities and personnel at quality assurance agencies in curriculum development and revision. Approach: The project was distinctive in that it combined different partners from higher education, vocational training, industry and quality assurance. Project partners designed and implemented an innovative approach, based on literature review, qualitative interviews and surveys in the four countries, in order to identify and confirm key knowledge and competency requirements. This study presents this step-by-step approach, as well as survey findings from a sample of 900 business graduates and employers. In addition, it introduces two Partial Least Squares (PLS) path models for predicting satisfaction with work performance and satisfaction with business education. Results: Survey findings revealed that employers were not very confident regarding business graduates’ abilities in key knowledge areas and in key generic competencies. In subsequent analysis, these graduate abilities were tested and identified as important predictors of employers’ satisfaction with graduates’ work performance. Conclusion: The industry-driven approach introduced in this study can serve as a guide to assist different types of educational institutions to better align study programs with changing labor market requirements. Recommendations for curriculum improvement are discussed.

A study of the impact of field experience in hospitality education

The purpose of this study was to find out the impact of field experience in hospitality education and whether such field experience and others such as semi-practicum, the cooperative, and the work study programs will not play an important role of a closer alliance between the academic and the hospitality industry. II. If it is justifiable to say that it is possible to provide field experience which will enhance the professionally oriented course work, while educators and employers strive to design curriculum that is needed to meet the educational and the industry demands and goals.

Supporting interdisciplinary case studies: development and implementation of a joint learning environment for students in forensic science and criminal law

Scientific reporting and communication is a challenging topic for which traditional study programs do not offer structured learning activities on a regular basis. This paper reports on the development and implementation of a web application and associated learning activities that intend to raise the awareness of reporting and communication issues among students in forensic science and law. The project covers interdisciplinary case studies based on a library of written reports about forensic examinations. Special features of the web framework, in particular a report annotation tool, support the design of various individual and group learning activities that focus on the development of knowledge and competence in dealing with reporting and communication challenges in the students' future areas of professional activity.

L’influence de l’apprentissage des arts sur le développement de l’intelligence émotionnelle d’élèves du primaire

Dans les écoles primaires québécoises, les cours d'arts font partie des domaines d’apprentissage obligatoires. Toutefois, les effets de l’apprentissage des arts sur les jeunes élèves demeurent mal connus puisque d’une part, l'art est fréquemment perçu comme une discipline de deuxième ordre et d’autre part, des programmes à volet artistique voient encore le jour dans certaines écoles. L’objectif de l’étude est de déterminer si les élèves de 4ième, 5ième et 6ième années fréquentant une école à volet artistique développent davantage d'habiletés particulières liées directement à leur intelligence émotionnelle (IE) comparativement à des élèves fréquentant une école à programme régulier. Une méthodologie reposant sur un devis quasi expérimental avec groupe témoin non équivalent est privilégiée. Les scores d’IE ont été mesurés à l’aide de questionnaires complétés par les élèves, leur enseignant ainsi que leurs parents afin de trianguler les données. Dans un premier temps, les résultats obtenus auprès de l’ensemble de l’échantillon montrent que selon la perception des enseignants, les élèves suivant des cours d’art en parascolaire ont une IE plus élevée que les élèves qui n’en suivent pas. Toutefois, la fréquentation d’une école proposant un programme artistique ne semble pas avoir d'incidence sur le développement de l'IE puisque les résultats obtenus dans le cadre de cette étude montrent que les élèves inscrits à une école à vocation artistique ont une IE inférieure à celle des élèves provenant d’un programme régulier. Ces résultats contradictoires à l’hypothèse de départ sont discutés à la lumière de la littérature scientifique disponible, ainsi que des forces et des limites de la présente recherche.

La evaluación y el cambio institucional en la sociedad del conocimiento : un estudio de caso en la Universidad del Valle - Colombia

Les sociétés contemporaines affrontent le défi de s’intégrer et s’adapter à un processus de transformation qui vise la construction de sociétés du savoir. Ce processus doit notamment son élan aux institutions d’enseignement supérieur qui constituent un espace privilégié où on bâtit l’avenir d’une société à partir des savoirs et celles-ci doivent faire face aux nouveaux enjeux sociaux, économiques et politiques qui affectent tous les pays du monde. La quête de la qualité devient donc un processus constant d’amélioration et surgit l’intérêt par l’évaluation au niveau universitaire. Par conséquent, cette recherche s’attache au sujet de l’évaluation à l’enseignement supérieur et s’enfonce dans le débat actuel sur les changements provoqués par les évaluations institutionnelles produisant un défi puisqu’il s’agit d’une prise de conscience fondée sur la culture de la qualité. L’autoévaluation est une stratégie permettant aux institutions d’enseignement supérieur mener des processus intégraux de valorisation dont le but est d’identifier les faiblesses des facteurs qui ont besoin d’améliorer. Le résultat conduit à l’élaboration et à la mise en œuvre d’un plan d’amélioration pour l'institution, programme académique ou plan d’études. À travers l’orientation du modèle d’évaluation systémique CIPP de Stufflebeam (1987), on a pu analyser de façon holistique la mise en place de l’autoévaluation depuis son contexte, planification, processus et produit. Ainsi les objectifs de la thèse visent l’identification du développement de la deuxième autoévaluation afin d’obtenir une reconnaissance de haute qualité et effectuer la mise en œuvre du plan d’amélioration auprès des programmes académiques de Licence en Comptabilité et Gestion de l’entreprise de la Faculté de Sciences de l’Administration de l’Université du Valle en Colombie. À travers l’appropriation de la théorie Neo-institutionnelle les changements apparus après l’autoévaluation ont été également analysés et interprétés et ont ainsi permis l’achèvement des fins de la recherche. La méthodologie développe la stratégie de l’étude de cas dans les deux programmes académiques avec une approche mixte où la phase qualitative des entretiens semi-structurés est complémentée par la phase quantitative des enquêtes. Des documents institutionnels des programmes et de la faculté ont aussi été considérés. Grâce à ces trois instruments ont pu obtenir plus d’objectivité et d’efficacité pendant la recherche. Les résultats dévoilent que les deux programmes ciblés ont recouru à des procédés et à des actions accordées au modèle de l’Université du Valle quoiqu’il ait fallu faire des adaptations à leurs propres besoins et pertinence ce qui a permis de mener à terme la mise en œuvre du processus d’autoévaluation et ceci a donné lieu à certains changements. Les composantes Processus Académiques et Enseignants sont celles qui ont obtenu le plus fort développement, parmi celles-ci on trouve également : Organisation, Administration et Gestion, Ressources Humaines, Physiques et Financières. D’autre part, parmi les composantes moins développées on a : Anciens Étudiants et Bienêtre Institutionnel. Les conclusions ont révélé que se servir d’un cadre institutionnel fort donne du sens d’identité et du soutien aux programmes. Il faut remarquer qu’il est essentiel d’une part élargir la communication de l’autoévaluation et ses résultats et d’autre part effectuer un suivi permanent des plans d’amélioration afin d’obtenir des changements importants et produire ainsi un enracinement plus fort de la culture de la qualité et l’innovation auprès de la communauté académique. Les résultats dégagés de cette thèse peuvent contribuer à mieux comprendre tant la mise en œuvre de l’autoévaluation et des plans d’amélioration aussi que les aspects facilitateurs, limitants, les blocages aux processus d’évaluation et la génération de changements sur les programmes académiques. Dans ce sens, la recherche devient un guide et une réflexion à propos des thèmes où les résultats sont très faibles. Outre, celle-ci révèle l’influence des cadres institutionnels ainsi que les entraves et tensions internes et externes montrant un certain degré d’agencement par le biais de stratégies de la part des responsables de la prise de décisions dans les universités. On peut déduire que la qualité, l’évaluation, le changement et l’innovation sont des concepts inhérents à la perspective de l’apprentissage organisationnel et à la mobilité des savoirs.

Social Media Use in Medical and Health Professional Education: Role of the Librarian on a Faculty Steering Committee

Objective: An interprofessional steering committee was created at Université de Montréal’s Faculty of Medicine to examine how social media are integrated in medical and health professional education in universities across the globe, and to propose a strategic plan for integrating social media in the Faculty’s various curricula. This presentation will summarize the steering committee’s work and describe the librarian’s contribution. Methods: The Committee’s project leader first conducted a literature search on best practices of social media in medical and health professional curricula. A reference website was then created (mse.med.umontreal.ca) to provide easy access to a large number of the articles and resources reviewed. A steering committee was constituted and 11 meetings were held over a 9-month period. The Committee comprised 18 members and included assistant deans, academic program directors, professors, communication advisors, undergraduate and graduate students and a librarian. An online survey on social media use by students and professors of the Faculty was conducted, ten pilot projects were put forward and a three-year strategic plan was proposed. Results: A total of 1508 students and 565 professors participated in the survey. Results showed that both groups had a strong interest in learning how social media could be integrated in academic and professional activities. Participants reported concern with risks associated with social media use and expressed the need for a Faculty policy and guidelines. The librarian’s contribution to the steering committee included: writing posts on the website’s internal blog, assisting in the design of the survey questionnaires and writing the final report’s survey results chapter. She also proposed two pilot projects: creating a social media learning portal and an altmetrics workshop. Conclusions: Based on the literature review and the survey results, the Committee affirmed the importance of integrating social media in the various study programs of the Faculty of Medicine. Despite the restricted timeline, this interprofessional steering committee was able to carry out its mandate because of the leadership and expertise of each of its members. As the librarian had the most experience with the use of social media in a professional context, her knowledge was instrumental in assisting the project leader in a group mainly composed of social media non-users.

Competencies of Higher Education Graduates: A Case of Universitas Kristen Indonesia

This dissertation investigated higher education graduate competencies, acquired during their study period and required at work as perceived by the graduates themselves. This study also investigated whether graduates of professional, semiprofessional, and non-professional study programs acquired different levels of competencies during their studies and compared the gaps among the three groups of graduates. The case study is Universitas Kristen Indonesia graduates of graduation years 2001, 2003, and 2005, from the Faculties of Engineering, Economics and English, representing professional, semi-professional and nonprofessional study programs respectively.

Perfil da pós-graduação em ginecologia e obstetrícia no Brasil

Ainda em desenvolvimento e tomando contornos mais sólidos, os programas de pós-graduação (PG) stricto sensu em Ginecologia e Obstetrícia (GO) vêm, progressivamente, se aperfeiçoando na formação de recursos humanos na área da Saúde da Mulher. Responsáveis por incrementar o currículo dos médicos com mestrados e doutorados, os cursos inserem, no mercado, profissionais aptos para desenvolver atividades de pesquisa. Nesse contexto de formação, torna-se importante entender que a PG não visa exclusivamente ao aperfeiçoamento em GO, e sim à formação do professor e do pesquisador. Assim, as disciplinas ministradas nos diversos programas devem ter como foco principal a formação do pesquisador e não do médico especialista em GO. Reforçando esta orientação, a maioria dos programas de PG em GO não é voltada apenas para os tocoginecologistas, havendo abertura para todos os profissionais da Saúde interessados em fazer pesquisa na área. Cada vez mais, a geração do conhecimento assume caráter multidisciplinar e exige atividades compatíveis com a formação de um pesquisador, independentemente da especialidade

Tecnologia digital móvel e educação: envolvendo jovens na discussão sobre o ECA

Pós-graduação em Televisão Digital: Informação e Conhecimento - FAAC

A experiência de pesquisa na formação básica e seu impacto na atuação docente na visão de profissionais do ensino fundamental I

Pós-graduação em Educação Escolar - FCLAR

Research Training Program: Duke University and Brazilian Society of Cardiology

Background: Research coaching program focuses on the development of abilities and scientific reasoning. For health professionals, it may be useful to increase both the number and quality of projects and manuscripts. Objective: To evaluate the initial results and implementation methodology of the Research and Innovation Coaching Program of the Research on Research group of Duke University in the Brazilian Society of Cardiology. Methods: The program works on two bases: training and coaching. Training is done online and addresses contents on research ideas, literature search, scientific writing and statistics. After training, coaching favors the establishment of a collaboration between researchers and centers by means of a network of contacts. The present study describes the implementation and initial results in reference to the years 2011-2012. Results: In 2011, 24 centers received training, which consisted of online meetings, study and practice of the contents addressed. In January 2012, a new format was implemented with the objective of reaching more researchers. In six months, 52 researchers were allocated. In all, 20 manuscripts were published and 49 more were written and await submission and/or publication. Additionally, five research funding proposals have been elaborated. Conclusion: The number of manuscripts and funding proposals achieved the objectives initially proposed. However, the main results of this type of initiative should be measured in the long term, because the consolidation of the national production of high-quality research is a virtuous cycle that feeds itself back and expands over time. (Arq Bras Cardiol 2012;99(6):1075-1081)

Las radiaciones ionizantes en la educación médica de grado de la Universidad Nacional de Cuyo

Las irradiaciones médicas constituyen la contribución más importante a la exposición humana a radiaciones ionizantes de origen artificial. Las estadísticas mundiales indican una tendencia creciente en el número anual de estas prácticas en función del desarrollo de nuevas técnicas de diagnóstico por imágenes, de la aplicación de nuevos fármacos marcados con diversos isótopos y de avances en los tratamientos antineoplásicos. Debido a esta amplia difusión, la Protección Radiológica (PR) se ha convertido en un tema relevante para las sociedades científicas y los organismos reguladores. En este sentido, la mayor parte de los países europeos ha implementado planes de acción para la protección radiológica del paciente. Un ejemplo de ello lo constituye la guía PR/116 elaborada por la Comisión Europea en el año 2000, que recomienda la implementación de un curso en PR en las escuelas de Medicina y Odontología. En consecuencia, el propósito general de esta investigación fue describir y analizar críticamente la situación actual de la enseñanza de contenidos referidos al uso de las radiaciones ionizantes en la carrera de Medicina de la Facultad de Ciencias Médicas de la Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Los principales resultados muestran que no existe una obligación curricular que presente entre sus contenidos mínimos la enseñanza de la PR, como tampoco de conocimientos básicos de Física de la radiación. Además, tanto la PR como los temas ambientales relativos al uso de radiaciones ionizantes en Medicina no se desarrollan según lo recomendado por Organismos Internacionales especializados. Teniendo en cuenta que muchos métodos de diagnóstico por imágenes utilizan radiaciones ionizantes, se sugiere la inclusión de esta temática en el plan de estudio de la carrera de Medicina. El objetivo es incorporar la cultura de la radioprotección en la formación del futuro profesional y, en consecuencia, reducir la ejecución de prácticas injustificadas que atentan contra la salud individual y ambiental.

Publication activities of German junior researchers in academic medicine: which factors impact impact factors?

Previous studies have shown medical students in Germany to have little interest in research while at the same time there is a lack of physician scientists. This study’s aim is to investigate factors influencing publication productivity of physicians during and after finishing their medical doctorate. We conducted a PubMed search for physicians having received their doctoral degree at Ludwig-Maxmilians-University Munich Faculty of Medicine between 2011 and 2013 (N = 924) and identified the appropriate impact factor (IF) for each journal the participants had published in. Gender, age, final grade of the doctorate, participation in a structured doctoral study program and joint publication activities between graduate and academic supervisor were defined as factors. For analyses we used nonparametric procedures. Men show significantly more publications than women. Before their doctoral graduation men publish 1.98 (SD ± 3.64) articles on average, women 1.15 (±2.67) (p < 0.0001, d = 0.27). After completion of the doctorate (up to 06/2015), 40 % of men still publish, while only 24.3 % of women (p < 0.0001, φ = 0.17) continue to publish. No differences were found concerning the value of IFs. Similar results were found regarding the variable ‘participation in a structured doctoral study program’. Until doctoral graduation, program participants publish 2.82 (±5.41) articles, whereas participants doing their doctorate individually only publish 1.39 (±2.87) articles (p < 0.0001, d = 0.46). These differences persist in publication activities after graduation (45.5 vs. 29.7 %, p = 0.008, φ = 0.09). A structured doctorate seems to have positive influence on IFs (4.33 ± 2.91 vs. 3.37 ± 2.82, p = 0.006, d = 0.34). Further significant results concern the variables ‘final grade’ and ‘age’: An early doctoral graduation and an excellent or very good grade for the doctoral thesis positively influence publication productivity. Finally, joint publication activities between the graduate and his/her academic supervisor result in significantly higher IFs (3.64 ± 3.03 vs. 2.84 ± 2.25, p = 0.007, d = 0.28). The study’s results support the assumption about women’s underrepresentation in science as well as the relevance of structured doctoral study programs for preparing and recruiting young academics in medicine for scientific careers. Promoting women and further development of structured doctoral study programs are highly recommended.