Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques

Experience and Educationis the best concise statement on education ever published by John Dewey, the man acknowledged to be the pre-eminent educational theorist of the twentieth century. Written more than two decades after Democracy and Education(Dewey's most comprehensive statement of his position in educational philosophy), this book demonstrates how Dewey reformulated his ideas as a result of his intervening experience with the progressive schools and in the light of the criticisms his theories had received. Analysing both "traditional" and "progressive" education, Dr. Dewey here insists that neither the old nor the new education is adequate and that each is miseducative because neither of them applies the principles of a carefully developed philosophy of experience. Many pages of this volume illustrate Dr. Dewey's ideas for a philosophy of experience and its relation to education. He particularly urges that all teachers and educators looking for a new movement in education should think in terms of the deeped and larger issues of education rather than in terms of some divisive "ism" about education, even such an "ism" as "progressivism." His philosophy, here expressed in its most essential, most readable form, predicates an American educational system that respects all sources of experience, on that offers a true learning situation that is both historical and social, both orderly and dynamic.

经验与教育 = Experience and education

Given the proliferation of training transfer studies in various disciplines, we provide an integrative and analytical review of factors impacting transfer of training. Relevant empirical research for transfer across the management, human resource development (HRD), training, adult learning, performance improvement, and psychology literatures is integrated into the review. We synthesize the developing knowledge regarding the primary factors influencing transfer—learner characteristics, intervention design and delivery, and work environment influences—to identify variables with substantive support and to discern the most pressing gaps. Ultimately, a critique of the state of the transfer literature is provided and targeted suggestions are outlined to guide future empirical and theoretical work in a meaningful direction.

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Training Transfer: An Integrative Literature Review:

Author Ray Pawson presents a devastating critique of the dominant approach to systematic review namely the 'meta-analytic' approach as sponsored by the Cochrane and Campbell collaborations. In its place is commended an approach that he terms 'realist synthesis'. On this vision, the real purpose of systematic review is better to understand program theory, so that policies Author Ray Pawson presents a devastating critique of the dominant approach to systematic review namely the 'meta-analytic' approach as sponsored by the Cochrane and Campbell collaborations. In its place is commended an approach that he terms 'realist synthesis'. On this vision, the real purpose of systematic review is better to understand program theory, so that policies can be properly targeted and developed to counter an ever-changing landscape of social problems. The book will be essential reading for all those who loved (or loathed) the arguments developed in Realistic Evaluation (Sage, 1997). It offers a complete blueprint for research synthesis, supported by detailed illustrations and worked examples from across the policy waterfront.

Evidence-based Policy: A Realist Perspective

CONCLUSIONS This paper’s theoretical contribution is an emergent educational theory of informed design that identifies key performance dimensions relevant to K–16 engineering and STEM educational contexts. Practical contributions include the Informed Design Teaching and Learning Matrix, which is fashioned to help teachers do informed teaching with design tasks while developing their own design pedagogical content knowledge.

The Informed Design Teaching and Learning Matrix

Transfer of learning from management development pro- grammes has been described as the effective and continuing application back at work of the knowledge and skills gained on those programmes. It is a very important issue for orga- nizations today, given the large amounts of investment in these programmes and the small amounts of that investment that actually translates into an improved individual and organiza- tional performance. This paper describes the testing of the Hol- ton model of learning transfer and suggests amendments to the model where appropriate. A sample of participants on a man- agement development programme within the Irish health ser- vice completed the Learning Transfer System Inventory based on the Holton model. The data obtained were analysed using multiple regression and partial correlation techniques. Results indicate that the model does adequately represent the effects of its factors, although a slightly revised model is presented. Important relationships between factors are identified, and the central role of the learners' personal capacity for transfer (hitherto unreported in the literature) and their motivation to transfer in facilitating transfer is highlighted. In practical terms, the tested model can be used as a diagnostic tool by identifying individual, training design and work environment transfer issues in need of attention and by developing strate-

Transfer of learning from management development programmes: testing the Holton model

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the relationship between project success factors and actual project success. It reports on an investigation into those factors within the direct influence of project managers that can make a real difference to the outcome of project endeavours.Design/methodology/approach – Using principal components analysis (PCA) on 60 questions about actual project work performance collected from four culturally different regions (UK, France, Norway and China), nine distinctively different critical success factors were found. Similarly, using PCA on ten project success items, three distinctively different project success criteria were extracted.Findings – The most important factors in improving managerial ability to deliver results in time and at cost were strong project commitment, early stakeholder influence, stakeholder endorsement of project plans and rich project communications. To secure project impact, strong project commitment and rich project communications were t...

Exploring project success

Executive Summary This report presents the results of a study undertaken by Henley Management College on behalf of the Royal Academy of Engineering to investigate UK undergraduate engineering education requirements in terms of the current and future needs of the engineering industry. The research was based on a combination of in-depth interviews with industry practitioners, focus groups with recent graduates, and a large-scale survey of firms within the industry. Newly-recruited engineering graduates are used in a wide range of job roles. Whilst research and development, design and production/manufacturing are the most prevalent activities within the sample studied, engineering graduates are to be found across the product lifecycle and throughout the value chain. As a result, many graduate engineers are likely to find themselves in roles which do not necessarily involve hands-on specialist engineering. To fill these roles engineering firms look for skills and attributes in two broad areas. The first is a set of defining skills that are unique to the engineer and which encompass the domain of technical skills. These include a sound knowledge of the engineering fundamentals within their discipline, built on a solid base of mathematics. Other highly sought-after attributes in this domain are creativity and innovation plus the ability to apply theory in practice. The second skill set includes the social and interpersonal skills and attributes that enable the engineer to operate in a commercial working environment. These include communication skills, team-working skills, and business skills, which for entry-level graduates primarily mean awareness of the commercial implications of engineering decisions. Engineering firms use a wide range of methods to attract and develop the engineering graduate talent they need. Although advertising is the most widely used approach, many companies work closely with universities to identify suitable candidates Work placements also play an important role in the recruitment process and candidates who have gained relevant work experience while at university are more attractive than candidates without such experience. In terms of skills development once in work, whilst nearly one-third of companies have no formal scheme in place, 70% of firms do offer some type of formal graduate development programme. Overall, respondent firms report that they are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with their ability to recruit appropriately skilled engineering graduates from UK universities. There is some evidence, however, both of skill shortages (where there is a lack of appropriately qualified graduates available to be recruited) and skill gaps (where …

http://www.raeng.org.uk/RAE/media/General/News/Documents/20060329-Henley-Report.pdf

Educating Engineers for the 21st Century: The Industry View

Innovation within small and medium–sized companies has become a subject of much interest. Competitive pressures and globalisation have provided the impetus for innovation. In this paper particular attention is paid to the role of technology management as a factor for success in technological innovation by SMEs.

Managing innovation in SME's: a comparison of companies in the UK, France and Portugal

Purpose – Information security is becoming increasingly more important as organisations are endangered by a variety of threats from both its internal and external environments. Many theorists now advocate that effective security policies should be created at senior management level. This is because executives are able to evaluate the organisation using a holistic approach as well as having the power to ensure that new systems and procedures are implemented in a timely manner. There is, however, a continuing lack of understanding regarding the strategic importance of managing information security. In addition, there is a gap in the literature on the relationship between directors and information security strategy. This paper attempts to close this gap by exploring how directors perceive their organisation's security and what factors influence their decisions on the development and implementation of information security strategy.Design/methodology/approach – The research is based on constructivist grounded ...

David Birchall

Papers

Transfer of learning from management development programmes: testing the Holton model

Exploring project success

Educating Engineers for the 21st Century: The Industry View

Managing innovation in SME's: a comparison of companies in the UK, France and Portugal

Perception of risk and the strategic impact of existing IT on information security strategy at board level