Journal articles on the topic 'Organizational learning. Learning Classroom management. Universities and colleges'

Abstract The University of Florence’s Language Center (CLA) and the Florence seat of an American university renowned for its language programs, Middlebury College, twice intertwined their English and Italian B2/C1 foreign language courses to produce an English/Italian reciprocal learning space. In addition to disparate organizational constructs, the two institutions had slightly differing goals. Both institutions sought multiple, peer-speaking opportunities; however, in addition, Middlebury aimed for intercultural exchange with local peers. To achieve these multiple objectives, our joint courses included elements of group work, collaborative learning, and the latter’s language-acquisition offspring, task-based learning. Research drawn from the fields of management, psychology, pedagogy, sociology, and translation studies, in addition to second language acquisition, guided our instructional design choices. Students worked together outside the classroom, co-constructing knowledge in increasingly complex tasks, to produce tangible outcomes. These joint activities provided students with a space to confront their interpretations and expectations of the L2 culture with an insider’s view. Students experimented with simultaneous, sequential and reciprocal bilingualism. In the second edition of the course, Spanish L1 speakers were present in both universities, co-constructing their knowledge multilingually. The article describes the courses’ format, activities and hurdles, for those interested in setting up bilingual lessons, as well as citing germane studies from a variety of academic disciplines which guided course design.

Purpose – In today's complex and highly competitive marketplace, universities and colleges, realizing a need to develop sustainable strategies, have turned to branding as a solution. However, because of unique service characteristics, universities’ branding attempts may not always result in success. The purpose of this paper, utilizing the concept of brand equity as a foundation of understanding, is to present a framework and scale measurements of university brand equity and its dimensions. Design/methodology/approach – Because no prior measurement scales for university branding have existed, the scale measures for this study are compiled from the literature on brand equity measurements identifying the core and supporting value-creation factors for higher education. For this exploratory study, several pretests and exploratory factor analyses were conducted to ensure that the scale items are comprehensible and clearly measure the intended constructs. Students are considered as the target population for this study. Data for the main study were collected at a comprehensive university in the Midwestern USA. A total of 30 classes with varying sizes provided 439 usable surveys. Findings – Empirical results from the survey research suggest that some of the brand equity dimensions are more important in developing strong university brands. Of the core dimensions, perceived quality of faculty is the most important brand equity dimension, followed by university reputation and emotional environment, brand loyalty, and brand awareness dimensions for creating a strong university brand. Among the supporting brand equity dimensions, library services was the most important for creating a strong university brand, followed by student living (residence halls and dining services), career development, and physical facilities (e.g. gym, classrooms, labs). Research limitations/implications – Although the target population was students, as a first step, the survey was administered to students at one university. Administering surveys to students at different universities and comparing the results would improve the reliability of the brand equity scales. The significant correlations found among the brand equity dimensions suggest the interconnectedness of these dimensions. The findings have implications for developing and implementing university brand strategies. The authors suggest serious consideration to be given to a holistic approach to branding efforts. Originality/value – The branding literature offers no prior research that develops and tests a scale or examines the issues and factors that are important for developing strong university brands and brand equity for higher education institutions. This study develops the scale measurements through a comprehensive literature review, tests the validity of the measurements, and takes the brand equity theory one step further by identifying the core and supporting-value creation factors suggested sporadically in the literature. The framework suggests that both core and supporting value-creating activities are dynamically interrelated and work jointly in creating student learning experiences, and ultimately, a strong university brand.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to capture challenges faced and lessons learned when implementing Lean in higher education. Design/methodology/approach – During 2010-2014, faculty, staff, and administration from three community colleges and four four-year universities attended Educational Lean workshops. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the administrators who originally sought the training opportunity or their designee who coordinated Lean events. Findings – The paper provides insights from seven colleges and universities who have experience with implementing Lean in higher education. Organizational and personal elements are identified and discussed along with seven critical reflection questions to consider before implementing Lean. Research limitations/implications – Further research is needed to understand the role of the senior leadership team when implementing Lean as a continuous improvement strategy. This research provides some insight, but is limited to the factors identified by the seven institutions. Practical implications – The findings of this study can be used to assist higher education institutions considering a Lean initiative. Critical reflection questions include: Who will oversee the Lean initiative? How will human and financial resources be allocated? When and how will professional development opportunities be offered for senior leaders, facilitators, and employees? How will facilitators continue to develop their skills? How will projects be selected? How will Lean thinking be introduced into academic departments? Originality/value – This provides original research in the area of implementing Lean in higher education and its concurrent challenges.

Online teaching is a virtual teaching mode developed with the help of modern information technology, which is widely used in colleges and universities. Online teaching has the advantage of learning across time and space, but it also brings problems such as ineffective classroom management and poor learning effect. To improve the existing problems in the current situation, we need to do a good job in teaching preparation, strict management of teaching and learning process, timely feedback and improvement of the existing problems. Students, teachers, and organizations need to join efforts to improve the quality of teaching.

Colleges of Business face new challenges in teaching students about Business Ethics. Some laugh off the notion as an oxymoron; they assert that you cannot teach morality, ethics or values. Others look to our nation's universities as the place where ethical behavior should be defined, nurtured and encouraged. Unlike courses offered in religion or philosophy, students and employers want to know how to apply these models and concepts. Exhortations do not suffice. This article defines a successful class project that applies business ethics to organizational realities. Student teams work with a client system to develop a Code of Ethics for the firm. These projects incorporate the established benefits of service learning – students learn while doing, strongly reinforcing classroom lessons. Does this approach make a difference? Results from the accreditation processdocument that it contributes to an increase in student learning.

Every year in the U.S., 40,000 jobs for information security analysts go unfilled, and employers are struggling to fill 200,000 other cybersecurity related roles. Colleges and universities have created certificates, undergraduate, and graduate programs to train professionals in these job roles. This issue becomes more complicated when you explore the that competent workers in this field need more than just book knowledge to be effective. Engaged and experiential learning approaches encourages experimentation and expanding teaching cybersecurity beyond the use of just classroom lectures, textbooks, and PowerPoint slides. The use of experiential and scenario-based learning approaches helps students to develop real-world problem solving and critical thinking skills that demonstrate expertise beyond course grades and degrees. Developing the ability to strategic and adaptive is vital to be effective. This case study research intends not to reconstitute theory but to influence the practice of cybersecurity education through the use of innovative applied and engaged learning approaches.

Colleges and universities have spent significant financial and human resources deploying and promoting educational technologies, including Learning Management Systems (LMS). A large body of research now exists on the impact of technology on student learning, including the roles of blended learning, hybrid classes, and distance learning. Yet, despite all of this work, there are surprisingly few policy-focused tools available to assess whether these investments are paying off in the classroom. This article describes a student-centered measure of LMS utilization, average number of student logins per student, as a primary tool for policymakers. While no single measure of LMS utilization will ever answer all needs, the authors argue that a student-centered empirical measure could help move policy discussions forward in important ways. Complementary to theoretical models that focus on faculty adoption, a student-centered approach provides a basic measure of how often technology is being used by the learner. The article illustrates several ways in which the proposed empirical measure could be used to spur dialog about the use of academic technologies on campus.

Blackboard platform has become a network teaching platform, which is widely appreciated by colleges, universities, and other educational institutions worldwide for its convenient operation interface, strong teaching functional modulus, and diverse online courses and tools. According to subject characteristics and curriculum practice of human resources management, a blended learning pattern based on a blackboard network platform was designed and implemented in this paper for the course of Recruitment and Employment Management from four aspects: curriculum frontal analysis, teaching environment creation, learning activity design, and learning evaluation. This learning pattern extended teaching activities from classroom to the outside, realized deep integration between the teaching behavior of teachers and the learning behavior of students, and met diversified learning demands of students, thereby improving the teaching efficiency.

This paper investigated the declining number of students in higher education institutions, and the effective strategies universities can use to recruit students who will graduate. From this research, it appeared that data-driven decision-making can be an effective means to create a successful enrollment management office. Through a practice of data-driven decision-making, organizational learning can happen, which will allow an organization to maintain success and build a culture that sustains that success. Three key themes emerged from the research that will help to inform best practices for other colleges and universities to implement ideas from this research. The three themes are: an organization must have good, usable data; an organization should strive to create a culture of teamwork to sustain success, and an organization needs a successful enrollment leader.

For the sake of change our country the irregularity of the common high school athletics professional traditional teaching mode, improve a teaching target in the teaching, well embody the student's corpus position, relocate relation of teacher and pupil, build up the team study mode, development aware of self study, ego control, ego management of behavior habit, this text to study type organization theory the usage carried on a viability assessment at the teaching process and put forward to is the speculation of study of study type organization the study change of classroom.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine established leadership paradigms in the context of institutions of higher education. The old ways of running a college, which might have worked several decades ago, no longer work in the age of flux characterized by super-fast breakthroughs due to technology and the internet. Organizational change is especially difficult in academe where many faculty are tenured and satisfied with the status quo. Design/methodology/approach This paper examines and synthesizes the relevant literature in leadership and higher education administration, focusing on critical issues and recommendations to ensure the long-term viability and relevance of colleges and universities. It also describes meaningful metrics that should be monitored by university leaders to strengthen their institutions. Findings Some of the findings are as follows: the old ways of running an institution of higher learning need to be overhauled; colleges and universities need leaders who can transform their institutions into learning organizations where knowledge is shared; and leaders must have the ability to tap into their organization’s intellectual capital and creativity. In addition, several new metrics are needed for evaluating the leadership of a college of university, including vision, employee engagement, student satisfaction and image/reputation. Originality/value This study provides an original approach to reform colleges and universities and enable them to thrive in the age of chaos and disruption.

With the rapid development of the internet, smart classroom has become the research interest of modern-day educational informatization. With Tiktok, WeChat, QQ, and other new media, the intelligent teaching model of “new media + education” has been derived. The research subject in this study is the economic and management undergraduate course, Principles of Economics. In regard to that, it is expounded based on the new media and an intelligent teaching model is designed in line with the development of colleges and universities in the new era to change the plight of the traditional classroom teaching model, stimulate learners’ enthusiasm and interest in learning, as well as improve the teaching effect.

<p>Library is an important position for the cultural construction of institutions of higher learning. High quality library can well reflect the cultural characteristics of schools. It is an important task for schools to cultivate talents in the way of culture. In the process of talent construction, library can play an important role. In the process of carrying out quality education and building diversified classrooms, library can be used as the form of the second classroom, which is a beneficial supplement to the students' first classroom. The library has the special function of cultivating talents and is also an important place for students to carry out quality education. According to the teaching characteristics of colleges and universities, this paper mainly discusses the ways of educating students, the new ways and methods of managing and building libraries, and concludes the important influence of libraries on students' comprehensive quality in the process of educating students, so as to cause educational institutions at all levels to pay more attention to the role of libraries.</p>

The Problem As service men and women transition to the civilian workforce because of a major drawdown of combat forces, many will face challenges with education requirements necessary to gain employment they desire in the civilian sector. The Solution Consequently, colleges and universities are adapting to this group of adult learners with convenient, flexible, and structured pathways to greater levels of educational attainment. One method of assisting military-connected students and student veterans is acknowledgment of credit for prior learning in the military. Portfolio development for prior learning assessment (PLA) has become a practice for adult learners in many institutions. The Stakeholders This article provides a review of the literature on PLA and discusses how it may address a multitude of challenges faced by transitioning military members who wish to consider formal education as an avenue to move forward in their careers and lives.

El talento humano juega un papel fundamental dentro de la estructura operativa, táctica y estratégica de las organizaciones, las cuales están apuntando a contar con personal mejor cualificado y capaz de hallar soluciones a los problemas y retos que enfrenta para el sostenimiento de su ventaja competitiva. En este contexto, el aprendizaje organizacional y la universidad corporativa, como herramientas, tienen una tendencia de aplicación cada vez mayor. El presente trabajo realiza un estado del arte sobre dichos conceptos, mostrando sus tendencias de acuerdo a una escala de clasificación definidaPalabras clave: Universidad corporativa, aprendizaje organizacional, entornos virtuales de aprendizaje, competenciasCorporate university and organizational learning: a theoretical frameworkAbstract: Human talent plays a key role in the operational, tactical and strategic structure of organizations, which are targeting to have a better qualified staff who find solutions to problems and face challenges to sustain its competitive advantage. In this context, Organizational Learning and Corporate University, as tools, have a trend of increasing application. In this vein, this paper aims to give the readers a conceptual framework about the application and state of the art on Corporate Universities and Organizational Learning. Applying the methodology of classification proposed by Lage and Godinho (2010) in their research, different sources were analyzed and classified in order to develop a theoretical framework. In particular, the papers were classified according to seven topics: a) Geographical location in which the research was developed, which refers to the place where its subject of study was located (America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Middle East and/or Oceania); b) Sector in which the research was conducted, that is, the sector where the Corporate University was created, taking into account sub-levels of classifications (textile, automobile and metal-mechanical industries, healthcare industry and educational sector); c) Main topic of research, which was divided into five (5) categories (Integral organizational learning systems, Virtual learning environments, Corporate university, Enterprise-university programs and Information Technologies (IT’s) used); d) Educational strategy, which represents all educational strategies raised in the research related to the topics under study, using sub-categories as Training Programs, Virtual Education programs, Classroom programs in higher education and Hybrid educational development programs; e) Related information technologies, which deals with the use of ICT in the process of educational development and using subcategories used for this topic: Virtual Platforms, Implemented programs on the intranet and Platforms on the cell phone; f) Competency-based approach, considering whether or not the program was made based on competencies and g) Results obtained, which refers to the successfully achievement of the results expected when the research was planned. The consulted literature was classified under the previous mentioned criteria, in order to show the readers the impact of Corporate University and Organizational Learning. The findings of this study and the theoretical framework are shown at the end of this paper. Researchers and practitioners will find this synthesis useful since it can be considered an important aid to analyze the rationale under these approaches for staff developing in the current context of organizations. Finally, the results show that there is extensive research about virtual learning environments, continuing progress in corporate universities and there is an open and growing field toward integrated learning systems in organizations. It was found that Corporate Universities show a major growing trend, and it is expected that they could be compared in size with traditional universities in the long term since they have the advantage of offering specific and applied solutions to those problems organizations face day by day.Keywords: Corporate University, Organizational Learning, Virtual Learning Environments, Competencies

Colleges and universities have increasingly invested in specialized software and hardware designed to enhance and facilitate the instructional process for faculty and students. One type of technological assistance is commonly known as course management software (CMS). Once learned, these CMS packages can greatly enhance and enrich the classroom experience and provide internet based access to course materials, assignments, grades, supplementary materials, such as quizzes, PPTs, and study aids. Like all moderately complex software packages (Blackboard is proprietary software and Moodle is open source software), there is a learning curve involved in mastering the functionality of each CMS. This paper examines the process of changing from one type of CMS (Blackboard) to another (Moodle). Faulty (FT & PT) and students (graduate & undergraduate) were surveyed to obtain opinions about the transition from one CMS system to another. The goal is to identify issues that may be addressed by targeted training and insights which would improve the transition process.

PurposeIn response to global competitive challenges, universities recently started developing better strategies for branding. Branding has been used as a differentiation strategy for higher education institutions. As the number of universities (public and private) has increased, so has the competition for students, the universities in Turkey have faced similar challenges. The main objective of this study is to investigate, from the students' perspective, the role of interactions of brand equity dimensions in creating a strong university brand.Design/methodology/approachCompiling from the literature, the study used a survey instrument to collect data at a comprehensive public university in Turkey. To assure representation of students across the campus, the sample included students at freshmen, sophomore, junior, senior and graduate levels from all major colleges.FindingsBased on 1,300 usable surveys from students across all colleges of a major state university, the PLS-SEM model revealed significant relationships among the brand equity dimensions of brand awareness, perceived quality, brand association, learning environment, emotional environment, brand trust, brand loyalty and university reputation. These brand dimensions collectively and/or individually influence the students' university learning experiences that may result in creating strong university brand equity.Research limitations/implicationsThe study was conducted at a government-owned university in Turkey capturing only students' perceptions. Future research could benefit from perceptions of other stakeholders like faculty, staff, alumni, and parents and testing the relationships for different types of universities. This study discusses the implications for developing university branding strategies.Originality/valueThe study empirically tests the validity and effects of the university brand equity dimensions with Turkish university students using structural equation modeling (SEM). It confirms that the measures of brand equity dimensions are also applicable in a different country.

The main concern of this study was the assessment of the faculty performance evaluation system of State Universities and Colleges in the Philippine Eastern Visayas Region. Specifically, the study sought answers to research questions on how the faculty performance is evaluated with regards to evaluation procedures, instruments, and criteria and what is the present and desired faculty performance evaluation system considering the standards on utility, feasibility, propriety, and accuracy. In search of answers to the abovementioned research questions, the researcher made use of the descriptive-assessment research design. The respondents of this study were administrators, faculty members, and students from the main campuses of State Universities and Colleges in Philippine Eastern Visayas Region. As result, the researcher found out that the most common evaluation procedure used were administrative observation in the class and the administration of appraisal instrument. Rating scales were extensively employed evaluation instrument and the most commonly used evaluation criteria were teaching commitment, mastery of the subject matter, teaching for independent learning, and classroom management. In addition, the SUCs in the Eastern Visayas Region of the Philippines unanimously expressed their desire to implement a faculty performance evaluation system that adheres to the standards of utility, feasibility, propriety, and accuracy. At the present, the existing faculty performance evaluation system of SUCs in the Eastern Visayas Region of the Philippines generally followed the standards on utility, feasibility, propriety, and accuracy.

Purpose – This study aims to utilized the item response theory (IRT) rating scale model to analyze students’ perceptions of assessment practices in two universities: one in Jordan and the other in the USA. The sample of the study consisted of 506 university students selected from both universities. Results show that the two universities still focus on paper-pencil testing to assess students’ learning outcomes. The study recommends that higher education institutes should encourage their teachers to use different assessment methods to assess students’ learning outcomes. Design/methodology/approach – The convenience sample consisted of 506 selected university students from the USA and Jordan, and participants were distributed according to their educational levels, thus: 83 freshmen, 139 sophomores, 157 juniors and 59 seniors. (Note: some students from both universities did not report their gender and/or their educational level). The USA university sample consisted of 219 students from three colleges at a major university in the southeast of the USA studying for arts and sciences, education and commerce and business qualifications, of whom 43 were males and 173 were females. The study used the Students Perception of Assessment Practices Inventory developed by Alquraan (2007), and for the purpose of this study, the RUMM2020 program was used for its rating scale model. Findings – Both universities, in Jordan and the USA, still focus more on the developmental (construction of assessment tasks), organizational and planning aspects of assessment processes than they do on assessments of learning and assessment methods (traditional and new assessment methods). The assessment practices that are used frequently in both universities based on the teachers sampled are: “(I27) I know what to study for the test in this class”, “(I6) Teacher provides a good environment during test administration” and “(I21) My teacher avoids interrupting students as they are taking tests”. This indicates that teachers in the selected universities have a tendency to focus on the administrative and communicative aspects of assessment (e.g. providing a good environment during test administration) more than on using different assessment methods (e.g. portfolios, new technology, computers, peer and self-assessment) or even using assessment practices that help students learn in different ways (e.g. assessing students’ prior knowledge and providing written feedback on the graded tests). Originality/value – This is a cross-cultural study focus assessment of students learning in higher education.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how collaborative entrepreneurial learning (EL) processes between entrepreneurs and university students can enhance the entrepreneurial practices in the context of knowledge-intensive enterprises. These learning processes represent a valuable source for entrepreneurship development in incumbent enterprises in the forms of innovative products, services, processes or organizational renewal. Design/methodology/approach An extreme case study is the project “Mimprendo” (www.mimprendo.it), an initiative promoted by the Italian Conference of the University Colleges and the Italian Association of Young Entrepreneurs in collaboration with Italian universities. This is analyzed in the period 2009-2015, during which seven editions were developed. Findings A framework is presented based on collaborative EL processes to perform relevant entrepreneurial projects in knowledge-intensive enterprises. The framework provides a coherent and systematic approach to generate, select and implement entrepreneurial practices in incumbent companies starting from a project competition involving creative students and innovative entrepreneurs. EL processes in the community composed of entrepreneurs, experts and university students are grouped into the entrepreneurial phases of inspiration, exploration, exploitation, acceleration and growth, and include the learning processes of “intuition and sensing,” “contamination,” “experiential and contextual learning,” “experimenting and acting” and finally “thinking and reflecting.” Research limitations/implications Implications for research can be identified according to many perspectives to deepen the centrality of the learning process in the research on knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship. Practical implications The framework results to be a promising approach to diffuse an entrepreneurial culture both in incumbent enterprises and in university students through a synergic collaboration among industry, university and institution. Practical implications could be derived for enterprise, students and educators involved in the design of innovative learning initiatives to sustain the development of an entrepreneurial mind-set. Originality/value The framework contributes to extending an emerging research area exploring entrepreneurship as a never-ending dynamic learning process. The involvement of brilliant university students in activating EL process with entrepreneurs in incumbent enterprises represents a novel aspect in the field of entrepreneurship and innovation.

Understanding the determinants of student learning outcomes and their academic performance is never being easy. Most of the studies examined the impact of emotional intelligence (EI) and intelligence quotient (IQ) on academic performance discretely, and their combined influence was not studied. The study identifies various dimensions of EI and IQ and investigates their impact on university business students’ academic performance comparatively among private and public university students. The data relevant to this study were collected from 416 students of various Business Colleges of Saudi central province universities, using online survey questionnaire. Structural equation modeling analysis using SPSS AMOS was used to evaluate the data. The private students possess a significant IQ, and their academic performance is primarily driven by IQ and with high EI; whereas public sector students possess moderate EI with insignificant IQ levels and tend to perform average in their academics. All the measurement items of EI and IQ explained only 43.6% of variance in public student’s performance and 56.3% in private student’s performance. The study argues the cognitive intelligence is very purposive in academics but narrow in nature and does not extend the horizon of student’s lifelong learning. Therefore, EI is vital and plays a prominent role in supporting their IQ as well. The study is limited to only business students; therefore, findings may not be generalized to other academic domains and for master level students. It suggests to conduct further studies to explore relationship among various exogenous variables.

Smart Campus is an intelligent and smart environment of teaching, learning and living. It is built on the Internet of Things and application services. Colleges and universities are devoted to the construction and development of the smart campus and have completed some digital campuses of different sizes. However, there are still some problems in the current construction and development process, such as low degree of intelligence, free intelligent functions, energy and resource monitoring is still in the traditional mode of non-intelligent management, the functions of terminal application are still simple, can’t keep up with the intelligent development of the campus. In order to help promote the development of smart campus, we designed a database, smart campus mobile terminal APP. The smart campus APP is based on Android system to monitor and control energy and other nodes in the campus. The monitoring method is real-time, clear and efficient. In addition, smart dormitory, smart classroom and smart map function have also been designed to provide a more convenient and safe living environment for teachers and students in our school. And this APP has laid a solid foundation for establishing a smart, efficient, open, harmonious, humane and safe campus.

The main thrust of this research is to contribute to theory building in the Theory of Constraints (TOC) in logistics management and its applicability in Oman Higher Education Institutions (referred to as HEI right through), with focus on colleges and universities. One of the two major theories of higher education said a blend of theory and practice was the only way to get quality graduates in HEI. The research will explore gaps in knowledge regarding these theories as a contribution to knowledge. Logistics will be looked at in this research as a support function for marketing strategy. Market orientation is a company philosophy focused on discovering and meeting the needs and desires of company or organizational customers through its products mix, and in this instance HEI will be expected to meet foremost the needs of industry and government as employers of graduated students, then the needs of students and society. Axtell quoting Lombardi argued that the quality of university research drove the quality, breadth, and depth of the undergraduate curriculum and that teaching delivered the state of current knowledge while research pursued knowledge at the boundaries of our current understanding, (Axtell, 2016:3510). Field research would shed light on research-teaching nexus in Oman compared to the GCC and the world at large. This will be an intensive in-depth single case study, with Oman being the case. This research paper focused the management of constraints in higher education teaching and learning in Oman and understanding market orientation and quality service delivery. This paper is constructed from the researcher’s PhD thesis as a way of disseminating critical new knowledge on higher education in Oman and globally, for the betterment and benefit of academia and society.

Purpose – As universities and colleges face an increasingly global environment, internationalization is viewed as a critical aspect of education, a fact that has significant academic and economic implications for higher educational institutions worldwide which need to be current with cultural education to adapt to change. Learning from other cultures is essential and valuable for students to connect with other cultures even as they enrich their own lives. Practical processes for developing successful cross-cultural education programs merit serious attention from higher educational institutions. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – The case study explored in this paper demonstrates a practical application of internationalization of music education by examining the experience and outcomes from a cross-cultural program jointly developed by a US and a Korean university. The success of the case study under review hinged on three critical factors for developing a cross-cultural program between international academic partners: organizational commitment, teamwork, and pedagogical content. Findings – The findings support the assertion that the three key factors introduced in the framework can be applied to develop a cross-cultural program between international academic partners. Originality/value – This study proposes a practical framework for developing cross-cultural education programs among higher educational institutions.

The Problem Higher education, including human resource development (HRD) programs, faces increasing public scrutiny for being out of touch with issues and concerns facing local and global communities by guarding limited conceptualizations of scholarship. In response, colleges and universities are identifying ways to bridge the academy (higher education) with the community-at-large and looking to its faculty to weave community concerns into scholarship through means such as community-engaged scholarship (CES). While the literature on and application of CES is robust in other disciplines, it remains less widely discussed in HRD. The Solution HRD scholar-practitioners have expertise in learning, leadership, organizational culture, and change, which could benefit the larger community, but also faculty and their work. Some HRD scholar-practitioners may already be practicing CES; yet, there is limited understanding of CES within HRD despite shared values and principles, including what may be blocking community-engaged efforts. To jumpstart the discussion, this article provides an overview of CES, identifying questions and issues for HRD scholar-practitioners to consider as part of a call to action to inform and advance the practice of and scholarship on CES. The Stakeholders This article has relevance for all who seek direct and indirect ways to collaborate, integrate knowledge across disciplines and contexts (including the community at large, field of HRD, and academicians), address community concerns, and translate knowledge to serve the broader good.

Effective application of distance technologies, even at the level of individual courses in most universities is faced with a number of organizational, methodological problems. The final design of the regulatory framework the problem of implementation of these technologies in the field of theoretical research and experimental work in the practical implementation of the plane. The authors consider a wide range of problems arising from the mass introduction of e-learning in educational practice, their classification on various grounds. When the authors of the work are based on practical experience in the development of the course Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science for students training areas Teacher Education profiles Informatics and Computer Science and Foreign Language on the basis of a learning management system Moodle. Also studied a number of aspects related to the characteristics of the studied subject area (in Mathematics example of educational area). We formulate the necessary conditions for effective use of e-learning technologies. These conditions, from the point of view of the authors, speakers, among others participated in the implementation of the university administration, the formation of a uniform by the level of the basic mathematical training a group of students, the formation of a thesaurus (semantic web) course in the classroom working with students, as well as a phased approach to solving complex text assignments, requiring the construction of a formal mathematical model in the subject area. We offer some simple criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of (increased performance and students' motivation, optimization of time working teachers, reducing the number of chronic debtors in the discipline).

Purpose Within a connectivist learning model, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the adoption of social media for educational purposes in India, a hitherto unexplored area of research. The basic research thrust is on students’ experiences when social media is incorporated into higher education. This research tries to gather evidence on the effectiveness of this role and its potential future role as a facilitator and enhancer of learning in the Indian system. Design/methodology/approach The current research draws on the perspectives of the students regarding the adoption of social media for educational purposes. The data collection was done in two separate stages. Stratified random sampling was applied and a structured questionnaire was sent via e-mail. Usable responses were received from 568 respondents. The second stage consisted of an exploratory qualitative study using in-depth interviews and reflections of 250 students from the original sample. Findings Four clear themes emerged from the responses collected via the structured questionnaire and particularly from the in-depth interviews. These include: widespread usage of social media, definite usage in business education, strengths of social media in business education and the flip side of learning with social media. One thing is certain: social media will continue to play an important role in the Indian education sector. A number of colleges and universities in India are including social media in their pedagogy, but the challenge lies in effectively aligning it with curriculum. Practical implications Despite the widespread use of online social media for communication and entertainment, the use in the educational sphere seems to be less. This year-long study tries to gather evidence on all these issues. No doubt social media’s contribution in the classroom depicts a rising interest in technology as a tool to assist learning but it also reinforces a paradigm shift in the way students learn. Social implications With nearly a billion people on mobile phones, the online system certainly has vast potential to create the right kind of learning. As this study has shown at a micro-level, technology-led reach and easy access is bringing about a socio-economic difference in the lives of Indian learners. While this study certainly supports digital learning in India it points out that higher educational institutions are yet to exploit its full advantage for better student engagement. Originality/value One key characteristic of this generation is that they are very education oriented. Due to the relative freshness of the approach in India and fairly restricted use in the Indian higher education system, empirical studies are limited and the impact of social media on student engagement in the higher education system in India is not known.

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to explore working students’ perspectives on the inclusion of spiritual topics in graduate leadership and management programs at secular, nonreligious, and multifaith universities. The growth in interest in spiritual issues at work and in leadership and management education suggests that spiritual topics have a role to play in leadership and management education, but this has not been systematically researched from a student perspective. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 128 graduate students in leadership and management programs were surveyed using a 22-item rating scale-based questionnaire, with three additional open-ended items. Questions were developed from a survey of the literature. Findings – Descriptive analysis suggests support for the inclusion of spiritual components in courses but emphasizes students’ desire for an unbiased learning experience. Factor analysis not only revealed student perceptions being influenced by openness to and interest in the topic but also identified concern or fear when engaging others in the educational context. Analysis of qualitative results supported the quantitative findings but provided a richer understanding of students’ perceptions of benefits (e.g. diversity awareness) and concerns (e.g. student and instructor bias). Practical implications – This research suggests a role for spiritual topics in management and leadership programs, with appropriate caution, classroom facilitation skill and control of bias by instructors. Originality/value – This study provides a systematic exploration of students’ perspectives on the inclusion of spirituality in graduate leadership and management programs.

The paper presents the analysis of methodological approaches to the origin, formation and development of the ‘information and education space’ concept, and also notes the relevance of its application in contemporary society. The genesis of methodological approaches to the definition of an information and education space concept is based on a theoretical analysis and generalization of the philosophical, historical, pedagogical, sociological and cultural sciences, which made it possible to specify its essential content. It is indicated that the use of media resources, sites, instant messaging services acts as an organizational and pedagogical toolkit, which provides means for optimizing time management, managing on-line and off-line interactions as part of the learning process in present-day universities and colleges. The main purpose of this article is a brief analysis of a system-holistic, mental-emotional, personality-developing, socio-geographical, distance, and local-poster approaches to the essence of information and education space determination; and also the definition of this pedagogical phenomenon. The study has used various methods described in this paper: a hindsight analysis of domestic and foreign experience in the use of state-of-the-art IT solutions; theoretical methods; established pedagogical methods; empirical methods, an educational experiment; programmed learning techniques; interactive methods; forecasting methods; intuitive methods; methods of statistical data processing; methods for the study and generalization of contemporary pedagogical experience in the development of a personal information literacy in education. The result of the introduction of the methodological approaches described by the authors of this article to the organization of the educational information environment of the university was a positive dynamic in the development of information needs, reflection and self-assessment of educational and cognitive activities in the Internet environment, as well as assessing the ability of self-education and self-development among students of various profiles and areas of preparation.

The aim of this research is to focus on higher education organizations, those usually aspire to reform the educational system. This is because of the need to adapt to the new constantly changing requirements of society. The way is by raising the quality and efficiency of education in the university system to meet international standards. The reform must take into account the effectiveness and quality of education, compatible with global system, and must enable graduates to integrate easily into the modern labor market. As the knowledge is being the critical factor to the survival and sustainability of the organization, knowledge management processes have become an important productive component for the continuous flow of contemporary managerial concepts. Universities should also be prepared to work in the competitive education market, assuming greater administrative self-independence, flexible regulatory framework and adequate funding. Today higher education institutions require more openness and transparency, and directing researches into how public institutions perform at the higher education level, which affect the performance management of these institutions.Emphasis was placed, on the extent, to the contribution of knowledge management processes and their role to fulfill the quality of university education. The matter, which significantly stimulated the university's potential concerns in terms of the difficulty of preparing students for life and work. The expansion of higher education in the outside world took a completely different direction due to the intense competition and the emergence of Open Universities and the Internet revolution while this education remains self-sustaining. Moreover, the increase in the number of colleges and students has led to increased problems of quality control in education. This is a major and important issue faced by universities The analytical approach was used to analyze the information collected by the questionnaire, which was designed to take into account the spectroscopic and analytical clarity in the diagnosis of the dimensions of the research, its components and the measurement mechanism. In the applied side, the logic architecture (fuzzy logic) was adopted in the process of examining the level of knowledge management processes to achieve the quality of learning. The study population was divided into all sections of the institute. A sample of 50 teachers was selected and all data were subjected to statistical analysis using a package ( SPSS ). Conclusions have been reached, most notably are in determining the level of the actualmembership function of the application of knowledge management processes to achieve the quality of university learning, taking into account the necessary requirements for the implementation of these processes, including training, administrative, organizational, incentive and technology. A number of proposals were put forward to all Iraqi administrations, including the (knowledge-driven) organization. One of the most important of these proposals is to generate the conviction of university officials that quality management and its applications are necessary and decisive for the university's continuity, growth and development by improving the quality of its performance and generating the ability to meet the challenges that may arise in the future. The application of knowledge management processes through the trend towards the adoption of programs and modern quantitative methods in the interpretation of theoretical reality and starting through it to reflect the practical reality and practical.

Artikkelens formål er å skape økt innsikt i hvordan de forandringer vi ser i statlige styringsdokumenter og fagmiljøers emneplaner for den norske Rektor-utdanningen, uttrykker endringer i hvilke kunnskapsformer som vektlegges. Ut fra de endringene vi finner, tar vi opp til diskusjon i hvilken grad Rektor-utdanningen møter sentrale utfordringer som fremheves i nyere nasjonal og internasjonal debatt om hva som vil være viktige kompetanser for ledere i fremtidens skole. Med utgangspunkt i Aristoteles’ kunnskapsbegreper “episteme”, “tekhne” og “phronesis” analyseres endringer i Utdannings-direktoratets anbudsdokumenter for perioden 2009–2014 i forhold til perioden 2015–2020. Gjennom dokumentanalyse undersøker vi hvilke former for kunnskap som blir sett på som sentrale i Rektorutdanningen i de to periodene. Vi etterspør også hvordan endringene følges opp i plandokumenter for universitets- og høyskolemiljøer som er gitt i oppdrag å gjennomføre Rektorutdanningen. Funnene diskuteres i forhold til dagsaktuelle nasjonale og internasjonale utdanningspolitiske dokumenter og forskningsarbeider.I Utdanningsdirektoratets styringsdokumenter for Rektorutdanningen finner vi i noen grad en utvikling fra en instrumentelt orientert rektorrolle basert på resultatstyring, til en mer systemisk orientert rektorrolle der faglig ledelse av kollegabasert profesjonsutvikling vektlegges. Pedagogisk ledelse trer sterkere frem i de nye anbudsdokumentene, og det legges vekt på at skoleledere skal få utvidet forståelse for sitt handlingsrom til å lede utvikling av skolen ut fra sitt eget faglige skjønn. Det er likevel et spørsmål om grunnlagsdokumentene for den nasjonale Rektorutdanningen for perioden 2015–2020 fullt ut møter dagsaktuelle utfordringer for skoleledelse som OECD og NOU 2015:8 “Fremtidens skole” trekker opp. Dette spørsmålet forsterkes når vi ser at plandokumentene for universiteter og høyskoler som tilbyr Rektorutdanningen, i ulik grad vektlegger endringene i Utdanningsdirektoratets styringsdokumenter.Nøkkelord: skoleledelse, rektorutdanning, profesjonsutvikling, fremtidens skole, organisasjonslæringAbstractThe purpose of this article is to make greater insight into how the changes we see in various policy documents and plans for the Norwegian Principal Education Program, express a trend of change in emphasized knowledge forms. Based on Aristotle’s concepts of knowledge “episteme”, “tekhne” and “phronesis”, the changes in the tender documents from the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training for the period 2009–2014 are analyzed and compared against the period 2015–2020. Through analyses of documents we investigate which knowledge forms are seen as the central ones in the Principal Education Program in these two periods. We also study how changes are reflected in plan documents for universities and university colleges that offer the Principal Education Program. The findings are discussed in relation to contemporary national and educational policy plans and research.In policy plans for the Principal Education Program issued by the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training, we find to some extent an evolution from an instrumentally oriented principal role based on performance management, towards a more systemicly oriented principal role where professional management of peer professional development is emphasized. Educational management has a stronger position in the new tender documents, and it is emphasized that educational leaders should have an extended understanding of their freedom of action to guide the development of the school, based on their own professional judgment. It is still a question whether the Fundamental Plans for the National Principal Education Program for the period 2015–2020 fully meet the contemporary challenges for education management as OECD and NOU 2015:8 “The school of the future” outline. This question is reinforced when we see that the plan documents for universities and university colleges that offer the Principal Education Program, to varying degrees emphasize the changes in the policy plans from the Directorate for Education and Training.Keywords: educational management, professional development, Principal Education Program, “The school of the future”, organizational learning

Internships, externships, field experiences, cooperative work experiences, apprenticeships, practicums—There are probably as many combinations and adaptations of these terms in educational institutions as there are states and provinces in the United States and Canadal Yet all exist for the same purpose: to provide students opportunities to apply knowledge and skills learned in those educational institutions to the real world of work in the hospitality industry and to find out first-hand what a job in this industry really entails. Whether at entry level or supervisory level, students and industry benefit from this sometimes misunderstood, and often mismanaged, practical on-the-job experience. The Ohio Board of Regents, as with other state governing bodies, issues definitions and guidelines for a variety of industry work experiences. These give some uniformity within Ohio two year colleges, but even with this the structure and effectiveness of these experiences differ from college to college. The following chart summarizes the Ohio guidelines: The Columbus State Community College curriculum for Hospitality Management students includes two courses, Hospitality Management Cooperative Work Experiences I and II, requiring a minimum of 20 hours per week in employment during each of two 10-week academic quarters. The student receives two credits for each course. Ninety percent of the hospitality students have worked in the industry, so it is recommended they do not enroll in these courses until their last two quarters. Therefore, they can receive maximum opportunity to apply principles learned in previous coursework and work experience. Until two years ago, our hospitality co-op experiences were loosely structured with varying degrees of benefit to students. It was left almost totally to industry personnel to determine the jobs students would perform. Even though graduate follow-up surveys indicated that graduates felt their required work experiences were among the more valuable aspects of their courses of study, we felt we needed to make some changes to assure that all students were able to grow professionally as a result of the experiences. Our industry advisory committee reached impasse after impasse on essentials such as payment or non-payment, actual jobs to be performed, qualifications of the work site, and critical skills of graduates. It was commonly accepted, however, that there must be some opportunity to sharpen skills in human relations, communication skills, and problem solving if students are to become effective first-line supervisors. It was reinforced that the college cannot teach everything in two years and that we should rely on applied work experience to supplement the formal education. The community colleges offer open access, and the profile of the student differs from the traditional college student in the baccalaureate program. This must be considered in outlining requirements for an industry work experience. The student is usually from the local area and commutes within a 30 mile radius, is an adult learner who averages 27 years of age, is likely to have a family and financial responsibilities, and is already employed at least part-time and probably full-time. It is unrealistic to assume one can take this student away from a job necessary to pay the bills and require a non-paid or lower paid experience strictly for the educational benefits to be derived. A compromise was finally reached with our advisory group and it has worked well for students and for industry. A student already employed in a hospitality job may stay at that site—even continue to perform the same job duties at the current rate of pay, but additional opportunities are created. At the beginning of each quarter the instructor, student, and job supervisor together examine a set of expected educational program outcomes or competencies and evaluate the current strengths and weaknesses of that student. An individualized learning contract is negotiated to supplement and reinforce the expected outcomes based upon each student's career objective. Training objectives for the student are then established which can be achieved either within the current job, by transfer to another department within the organization, or by allowing the student to gain additional experience at the same site on a non-paid basis over and above the regular job for which the student would normally be paid. This assures that there will be career growth, and the student maintains the planned income. At the same time it does not place an unrealistic expectation upon the employer. Industry personnel are most cooperative, and rarely would a student need relocation. The instructor has weekly contact with each student in a seminar accompanying the co-op experience. In this seminar students discuss experiences and observations and there is further opportunity to participate in case studies and supervisory skill development. Unless problems develop, the instructor often makes interim follow-ups by telephone only, and will return to the site only for the final evaluation session with the student and supervisor. A grade is determined jointly by the instructor and supervisor including scores for job performance, achievement of established training objectives, and seminar participation. In those infrequent instances where a student was not already employed, job seeking skills are part of the co-op grade determination. Assistance is given by the instructor and college job placement personnel, but the student is ultimately responsible for obtaining employment. A student does have the option for a non-paid experience, arranged by the college, in which case there will be a set rotation of job stations within an organization. This required a more specific work schedule and a formal agreement outlining responsibilities of the student, college, and work site because of the liability involved. Instructor workload for coordinating work experiences is calculated by assigning one contact hour per week for the seminar and one quarter contact hour per week for each student enrolled in the co-op course. The college full-time faculty workload is 20 contact hours per week. One faculty person is assigned organizational responsibility for the seminars, but the student follow-up is completed by each student's faculty advisor. This works well because it gives all faculty the opportunity for interaction with industry personnel and provides variety in the teaching experience. And, of course, the advisor who has worked closely with the student through his or her academic career knows that student's abilities and needs best. What is the future of internships? Whether credit or not-for-credit, whether paid or non-paid, whether tightly, loosely or non-structured, industry internships are her to stay. Graduate surveys reinforce the fact that students find them invaluable. Industry personnel agree that applied work experience should supplement and reinforce classroom learning. There is no doubt that the experiences could often be better structured and executed, but they cannot be replaced! For the past several years, college educators have participated in serious discussions and conducted studies about the quality of American higher education. The American Association of Community and Junior Colleges (AACJC) has assumed leadership in the focus on assessment and outcomes of students' educational experiences. The emphasis on “value-added” education and assessment programs has pervaded our campuses. It is crucial that the education experience adequately prepare students for the workplace and for career mobility. The question arises as to how to measure whether a program actually meets this objective. An AACJC Policy Statementon Student Assessment suggests that colleges will be better able to meet diverse population needs and improve the overall rate of student success if they provide a comprehensive assessment program for all students using effective measures and tools. It suggests that traditional testing alone is inadequate and other appropriate measurements of program strengths and weaknesses must be developed. It is possible that at least one industry work experience or internship course, if taken during a student's last academic term and based on agreed upon objectives and mastery standards, could serve as a summative assessment measure to determine the effectiveness of learning that has taken place over the student's entire program. It could perhaps serve as the “capstone” course. As we grapple with this and other issues, perhaps the CHRIE Internship Technical Committee can delve into how we can more effectively make the industry internships an integral part of the teaching and learning process.

To improve online learning pedagogy within the field of paralegal education, this study investigated how paralegal students and paralegal instructors perceived the effectiveness of synchronous and asynchronous online paralegal courses. This study intended to inform paralegal instructors and course developers how to better design, deliver, and evaluate effective online course instruction in the field of paralegal studies.Survey results were analyzed using independent samples t-test and correlational analysis, and indicated that overall, paralegal students and paralegal instructors positively perceived synchronous and asynchronous online paralegal courses. Paralegal instructors reported statistically significant higher perceptions than paralegal students: (1) of instructional design and course content in synchronous online paralegal courses; and (2) of technical assistance, communication, and course content in asynchronous online paralegal courses. Instructors also reported higher perceptions of the effectiveness of universal design, online instructional design, and course content in synchronous online paralegal courses than in asynchronous online paralegal courses. Paralegal students reported higher perceptions of asynchronous online paralegal course effectiveness regarding universal design than paralegal instructors. No statistically significant differences existed between paralegal students’ perceptions of the effectiveness of synchronous and asynchronous online paralegal courses. A strong, negative relationship existed between paralegal students’ age and their perceptions of effective synchronous paralegal courses, which were statistically and practically significant. Lastly, this study provided practical applicability and opportunities for future research. Akyol, Z., & Garrison, D. R. (2008). 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Are the reported barriers to Internet-based instruction warranted? A synthesis of recent research. Education, 121(1), 48-53. http://www.projectinnovation.com/education.html Ward, M. E., Peters, G., & Shelley, K. (2010). Student and faculty perceptions of the quality of online learning experiences. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 11, 57-77. Retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/867/1610? Wilkes, R. B., Simon, J. C., & Brooks, L. D. (2006). A comparison of faculty and undergraduate students' perceptions of online courses and degree programs. Journal of Information Systems Education, 17, 131-140. http://jise.org/

International Journal of Innovation - IJI completes 7 yearsInternational Journal of Innovation - IJI has now 7 years old! In this editorial comment, we not only want to talk about our evolution but get even closer to the IJI community. It is our first editorial comment, a new IJI's communication channel. Some of the changes are already described on our website.IJI is an innovation-focused journal that was created to support scientific research and thereby contribute to practice. Also, IJI was born internationally, receiving and supporting research from around the world. We welcome articles in Portuguese, English, and Spanish.We have published eight volumes in IJI since 2013, totaling 131 articles. Our journal is indexed in: Dialnet and Red Iberoamericana de Innovación y Conocimiento Científico; Ebsco Host; Erih Plus; Gale - Cengage Learning; Latindex; Proquest; Redalyc; Web of Science Core Collection (Emerging Sources Citation Index), among others. We provide free access “open access” to all its content. Articles can be read, downloaded, copied, distributed, printed and / or searched.We want to emphasize that none of this would be possible without the authors that recognized in IJI a relevant journal to publicize their work. Nor can we fail to mention the tireless and voluntary action of the reviewers, always contributing to the articles' improvement and skilling up our journal, more and more.All editors who passed through IJI have a fundamental role in this trajectory. And, none of this would be possible without the editorial team of Uninove. Everyone who passed and the current team. We want to express that our work as current editors of IJI would not be possible without you. Changes in the Intenational Journal of Innovation – IJIAs we mentioned earlier, IJI was born in 2013. And, over time, we are improving its structure always to improve it. In this section, we want to show some changes we made. We intend that editorial comments become a communication channel and that they can help our readers, authors, and reviewers to keep up with these changes.Although IJI is a comprehensive Innovation journal, one of the changes we want to inform you is that now, at the time of submission, the author will choose one of the available topics that best suit your article. The themes are: Innovative Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Learning; Innovation and Sustainability; Internationalization of Innovation; Innovation Systems; Emerging Innovation Themes and; Digital Transformation. Below, we present each theme so that everyone can get to know them:Innovative Entrepreneurship: emerging markets provided dynamic advantages for small businesses and their entrepreneurs to exploit the supply flows of resources, capacities, and knowledge-based on strategies oriented to the management of innovation. Topics covered in this theme include, for example: resources and capabilities that support innovative entrepreneurship; innovation habitats (Universities, Science and Technology Parks, Incubators and Accelerators) and their influences on the development of knowledge-intensive spin-offs and start-ups; open innovation, triple/quadruple helix, knowledge transfer, effectuation, bricolage and co-creation of value in knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship ecosystems; and adequate public policies to support innovative entrepreneurship.Innovation and Learning: discussions on this topic focus on the relationship between learning and innovation as topics with the potential to improve teaching and learning. They also focus on ways in which we acquire knowledge through innovation and how knowledge encourages new forms of innovation. Topics covered in this theme include, for example: innovative projects for learning; innovation-oriented learning; absorptive capacity; innovation in organizational learning and knowledge creation; unlearning and learning for technological innovation; new learning models; dynamics of innovation and learning; skills and innovation.Innovation and Sustainability: discussions on this topic seek to promote the development of innovation with a focus on sustainability, encouraging new ways of thinking about sustainable development issues. Topics covered in this theme include, for example: development of new sustainable products; circular economy; reverse logistic; smart cities; technological changes for sustainable development; innovation and health in the scope of sustainability; sustainable innovation and policies; innovation and education in sustainability and social innovation.Internationalization of Innovation: the rise of developing countries as an innovation center and their new nomenclature for emerging markets have occupied an important place in the international research agenda on global innovation and Research and Development (RD) strategies. Topics covered in this theme include, for example: resources and capabilities that support the internationalization of innovation and RD; global and local innovation and RD strategies; reverse innovation; internationalization of start-ups and digital companies; development of low-cost products, processes and services with a high-value offer internationalized to foreign markets; innovations at the base of the pyramid, disruptive and/or frugal developed and adopted in emerging markets and replicated in international markets; institutional factors that affect firms' innovation efforts in emerging markets.Innovation Systems: regulation and public policies define the institutional environment to drive innovation. Topics include industrial policy, technological trends and macroeconomic performance; investment ecosystem for the development and commercialization of new products, based on government and private investments; investment strategies related to new companies based on science or technology; Technology transfer to, from and between developing countries; technological innovation in all forms of business, political and economic systems. Topics such as triple helix, incubators, and other structures for cooperation, fostering and mobilizing innovation are expected in this section.Emerging Themes: from the applied themes, many emerging problems have a significant impact on management, such as industry 4.0, the internet of things, artificial intelligence or social innovations, or non-economic benefits. Intellectual property is treated as a cognitive database and can be understood as a technological library with the registration of the product of human creativity and invention. Social network analysis reveals the relationships between transforming agents and other elements; therefore, encouraged to be used in research and submitted in this section. The theoretical field not fully developed is not a barrier to explore any theme or question in this section.Digital Transformation: this interdisciplinary theme covers all the antecedents, intervening, and consequent effects of digital transformation in the field of technology-based companies and technology-based business ventures. The technological innovator (human side of innovation) as an entrepreneur, team member, manager, or employee is considered an object of study either as an agent of innovation or an element of the innovation process. Digital change or transformation is considered as a process that moves from the initial status to the new digital status, anchored in the theories of innovation, such as adoption, diffusion, push / pull of technology, innovation management, service innovation, disruptive innovation, innovation frugal innovation economy, organizational behavior, context of innovation, capabilities and transaction costs. Authors who submit to IJI will realize that they now need to make a structured summary at the time of submission. The summary must include the following information:(maximum of 250 words + title + keywords = Portuguese, English and Spanish).Title.Objective of the study (mandatory): Indicate the objective of the work, that is, what you want to demonstrate or describe.Methodology / approach (mandatory): Indicate the scientific method used in carrying out the study. In the case of theoretical essays, it is recommended that the authors indicate the theoretical approach adopted.Originality / Relevance (mandatory): Indicate the theoretical gap in which the study is inserted, also presenting the academic relevance of the discipline.Main results (mandatory): briefly indicate the main results achieved.Theoretical-methodological contributions (mandatory): Indicate the main theoretical and / or methodological implications that have been achieved with the results of the study.Social / managerial contributions (mandatory): Indicate the main managerial and / or social implications obtained through the results of the study.Keywords: between three and five keywords that characterize the work. Another change regarding the organization of the IJI concerns the types of work. In addition to the Editorial Comment and Articles, the journal will include Technological Articles, Perspectives, and Reviews. Thus, when submitting a study, authors will be able to choose from the available options for types of work. Throughout the next issues of the IJI, in the editorial comments, we will pass on pertinent information about every kind of work, to assist the authors in their submissions.Currently, the IJI is available to readers with new works three times a year (January-April; May-August; September-December) with publications in English, Portuguese and Spanish. From what comes next, we will have some changes in the periodicity. Next stepsAs editors, we want the IJI to continue with a national and international impact and increase its relevance in the indexing bases. For this, we will work together with the entire editorial team, reviewers, and authors to improve the work. We will do our best to give full support to the evaluators who are so dedicated to making constructive evaluations to the authors. We will also support authors with all the necessary information.With editorial comments, we intend to pass on knowledge to readers, authors, and reviewers to improve the articles gradually. We also aim to support classroom activities and content.Even with the changes reported here, we continue to accept all types of work, as long as they have an appropriate methodology. We also maintain our scope and continue to publish all topics involving innovation. We want to support academic events on fast tracks increasingly. About the articles in this edition of IJIThis issue is the first we consider the new organization of the International Journal of Innovation - IJI. We started with this editorial comment talking about the changes and improvements that we are making at IJI—as an example, showing the reader, reviewer, and author that the scope remains the same. However, at the time of submission, the author has to choose one of the proposed themes and have a mandatory abstract structured in three languages (English, Portuguese, and Spanish).In this issue, we have a section of perspectives that addresses the “Fake Agile” phenomenon. This phenomenon is related to the difficulties that companies face throughout the agile transformation, causing companies not to reach full agility and not return to their previous management model.Next, we publish the traditional section with scientific articles. The article “Critical success factors of the incubation network of enterprises of the IFES” brings critical success factors as the determining variables to keep business incubators competitive, improving their organizational processes, and ensuring their survival. Another published article, “The sharing economy dilemma: the response of incumbent firms to the rise of the sharing economy”, addresses the sharing economy in terms of innovation. The results of the study suggest that the current response to the sharing economy so far is moderate and limited. The article “Analysis of the provision for implementation of reverse logistics in the supermarket retail” made it possible to observe that through the variables that define retail characteristics, it is not possible to say whether a supermarket will implement the reverse logistics process. And the article “Capability building in fuzzy front end management in a high technology services company”, whose main objective was to assess the adherence among Fuzzy Front End (FFE) facilitators, was reported in the literature its application in the innovation process of a company, an innovative multinational high-tech services company.We also published the article “The evolution of triple helix movement: an analysis of scientific communications through bibliometric technique”. The study is a bibliometric review that brings essential contributions to the area. This issue also includes a literature review entitled “Service innovation tools: a literature review” that aimed to systematically review the frameworks proposed and applied by the literature on service innovation.The technological article “A model to adopt Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Business Intelligence (BI) among Saudi SMEs”, in a new IJI publication section, addresses the main issues related to the intention to use ERPBI in the Saudi private sector.As we mentioned earlier in this editorial, IJI has a slightly different organization. With the new format, we intend to contribute to the promotion of knowledge in innovation. Also, we aim to increasingly present researchers and students with possibilities of themes and gaps for their research and bring insights to professionals in the field.Again, we thank the reviewers who dedicate their time and knowledge in the evaluations, always helping the authors. We wish you, readers, to enjoy the articles in this issue and feel encouraged to send your studies in innovation to the International Journal of Innovation - IJI.

Mediante un estudio descriptivo y correlacional, se analizó la relación entre la percepción de la calidad de la gestión administrativa del director y el grado de compromiso laboral de los docentes de algunos colegios privados de El Salvador, en un contexto donde cada año los docentes renuncian a sus trabajos y pasan a laborar al sector gubernamental. Se administraron dos instrumentos, uno para medir la percepción de la gestión administrativa del director y otro para medir el grado de compromiso de los docentes, a 87 docentes de los siete colegios de las regiones metropolitana y occidental de El Salvador. Se encontró que los docentes tienen un compromiso laboral muy bueno. De igual manera, la percepción que tienen los docentes de la gestión administrativa del director es muy buena. Al observarse la correlación entre ambas variables, se determinó que es positiva y alta. Se observó que cuánto mejor perciben los docentes la gestión administrativa del director mayor es el compromiso con su trabajo. El liderazgo del director es importante para el compromiso laboral de los docentes, por lo cual su selección y nombramiento deben ser realizados con cuidadoso análisis. Referencias Alam, S. (2017). A study on leadership styles executed by principal and academic coordinator in one of the private schools in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. Academic Research International, 8(3), 71-78. Calik, T., Sezgin, F., Kavgaci, H. y Kilinc, A. (2012). Examination of relationships between instructional leadership of school principal’s and self-efficacy of teacher and collective teacher efficacy. Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice, 12(4), 2469-2504. Chiang Vega, M., Núñez Partido, A., Martín, M. J. y Salazar Botello, M. (2010). Compromiso del trabajador hacia su organización y la relación con el clima organizacional: un análisis de género y edad. Panorama Socioeconómico, 28(40), 92-103. Clayton, J. K. (2014). The leadership lens: Perspectives on leadership from school district personnel and university faculty. International Journal of Educational Leadership Preparation, 9(1), 58-75. Del Valle López, J. (2016). Modelo asociativo entre factores determinantes del desempeño organizacional y la satisfacción de los públicos (Tesis doctoral). Universidad de Montemorelos, Montemorelos, Nuevo León, México. García Rivera, B. R., Mendoza Martínez, I. A. y Puerta Sierra, L. M. (2012). ¿Es el downsizing un factor de impacto sobre los comportamientos innovadores, el compromiso organizacional y las capacidades de aprendizaje de los trabajadores de una empresa de alimentos en México? Revista Internacional Administración y Finanzas, 5(3), 57-78. González de la Rosa, J. (2016). Modelo de factores predictores de desempeño e imagen institucional validado en colegios confesionales dominicanos (Tesis doctoral). Universidad de Montemorelos, Montemorelos, Nuevo León, México. Jiang, D. Y. y Cheng, B. S. (2008). Affect- and role-based loyalty to supervisors in Chinese organizations. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 11, 214-221. https//doi.org/10.111/ j.14-67-839X.2008.00260.x Kumar, D. N. S. y Shekhar, N. (2012). Perspectives envisaging employee loyalty: A case analysis. Journal of Management Research, 12(2), 110-112. https://doi.org/10.2139/ ssrn.1961430 Lai, T., Luen, W., Chai, L. y Ling, L. (2014). School principal leadership styles and teacher organizational commitment among performing schools. The Journal of Global Business Management, 20(2), 67-75. Mack, K. (2016). The perceptions of the leadership behaviors of elementary school principals through professional experience in Texas (Tesis doctoral). University of Phoenix, Phoenix, EE. UU. Méndez Cruz, A. (2015). Clima y compromiso organizacional percibido por los empleados del parque Eco arqueológico en México (Tesis de maestría). Universidad de Montemorelos, Montemorelos, Nuevo León, México. Mustapha, N., Zainal Abidin, M. Z. y Saufi, S. (2013). Measuring the influence of dispositional characteristics and motivational factors on employee loyalty among teachers at private Islamic schools in Kelantan, Malaysia. International Review of Social Sciences & Humanities, 5(2), 127-134. Oberholster, F. R., Taylor V, J. W. y Cruise, R. J. (2000). Spiritual well-being, faith maturity, and the organizational commitment of faculty in Christian colleges and universities. The Journal of Research on Christian Education, 9(1), 31-60. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/10656210009484896 Okutan, M. (2014). My school principal is not a leader. Education, 135(1), 93-100. Ontiveros Ramírez, F. (2016). Modelo de asociación entre factores predictores del desempeño y compromiso laboral validado en maestros del corporativo educativo adventista de la Unión Mexicana del Norte (Tesis doctoral). Universidad de Montemorelos, Montemorelos, Nuevo León, México. Restrepo-Abondano, J. M. y Restrepo-Torres, M. L. (2012). Cinco desafíos en el ejercicio del liderazgo en los rectores de colegios. Educación y Educadores, 15(1), 117-119. Saad, N. (2012). The effects of teacher’s participation in decision making of commitment. The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, 6(9), 1-16. Samkange, W. (2013). Management and administration in education: What do school heads do? A focus of primary school heads in one district in Zimbabwe. International Journal of Social Sciences and Education, 3(3), 635-643. Shaw, J. y Newton J. (2014). Teacher retention and satisfaction with a servant leader as principal. Education, 135(1), 101-106. Wachira, F. M., Gitumu, M. y Mbugua, Z. (2017). Effect of principal´s leadership styles on teachers´ job performance in public secondary schools in Kieni West Subcounty. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention, 6(8), 72-86. Ward, C. J. (2013). Why leadership matters: One school’s journey to success. Educational Leadership and Administration Teaching and Program Development, 24, 62-74. Wasserman, E., Ben-Eli, S., Yehoshua, O. y Gal, R. (2016). Relationship between the principal’s leadership style and teacher motivation. International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research, 15(10), 180-192. Zamora Poblete, G. (2009). Compromisos organizacionales de los profesores chilenos y su relación con la intención de permanecer en sus escuelas. Revista Latinoamericana de Psicología, 41(3), 445-460.

Constant demand for new naval and commercial vessels has created special conditions for the Government-owned Soviet shipbuilding industry, which practically has not been affected by the world shipbuilding crisis. On the other hand, such chronic diseases of the centralized economy as lack of incentive, material shortage and poor workmanship cause specific problems for ship construction. Being technically and financially unable to rapidly improve the overall technology level and performance of the entire industry, the Soviets concentrate their efforts on certain important areas and have achieved significant results, especially in welding and cutting titanium and aluminum alloys, modular production methods, standardization, etc. All productivity improvement efforts are supported by an army of highly educated engineers and scientists at shipyards, in multiple scientific, research and design institutions. Discussion Edwin J. Petersen, Todd Pacific Shipyards Three years ago I addressed the Ship Production Symposium as chairman of the Ship Production Committee and outlined some major factors which had contributed to the U.S. shipbuilding industry's remarkable achievements in building and maintaining the world's largest naval and merchant fleets during the five-year period starting just before World War II. The factors were as follows:There was a national commitment to get the job done. The shipbuilding industry was recognized as a needed national resource. There was a dependable workload. Standardization was extensively and effectively utilized. Shipbuilding work was effectively organized. Although these lessons appear to have been lost by our Government since World War II, the paper indicates that the Soviet Union has picked up these principles and has applied them very well to its current shipbuilding program. The paper also gives testimony to the observation that the Soviet Government recognizes the strategic and economic importance of a strong merchant fleet as well as a powerful naval fleet. In reviewing the paper, I found great similarity between the Soviet shipbuilding productivity improvement efforts and our own efforts or goals under the National Shipbuilding Research Program in the following areas:welding technology, flexible automation (robotics), application of group technology, standardization, facilities development, and education and training. In some areas, the Soviet Union appears to be well ahead of the United States in improving the shipbuilding process. Most noteworthy among these is the stable long-and medium-range planning that is possible by virtue of the use and adherence to the "Table of Vessel Classes." It will be obvious to most who hear and read these comments what a vast and significant improvement in shipbuilding costs and schedules could be achieved with a relatively dependable 15year master ship procurement plan for the U.S. naval and merchant fleets. Another area where the Soviet Union appears to lead the United States is in the integration of ship component suppliers into the shipbuilding process. This has been recognized as a vital step by the National Shipbuilding Research Program, but so far we have not made significant progress. A necessary prerequisite for this "supplier integration" is extensive standardization of ship components, yet another area in which the Soviets have achieved significantly greater progress than we have. Additional areas of Soviet advantage are the presence of a multilevel research and development infrastructure well supported by highly educated scientists, engineering and technical personnel; and better integration of formally educated engineering and technical personnel into the ship production process. In his conclusion, the author lists a number of problems facing the Soviet economy that adversely affect shipbuilding productivity. Perhaps behind this listing we can delve out some potential U.S. shipbuilding advantages. First, production systems in U.S. shipyards (with the possible exception of naval shipyards) are probably more flexible and adjustable to meet new circumstances as a consequence of not being constrained by a burdensome centralized bureaucracy, as is the case with Soviet shipyards. Next, such initiatives as the Ship Production Committee's "Human Resources Innovation" projects stand a better chance of achieving product-oriented "production team" relationship among labor, management, and technical personnel than the more rigid Soviet system, especially in view of the ability of U.S. shipyard management to offer meaningful financial incentives without the kind of bureaucratic constraints imposed in the Soviet system. Finally, the current U.S. Navy/shipbuilding industry cooperative effort to develop a common engineering database should lead to a highly integrated and disciplined ship design, construction, operation, and maintenance system for naval ships (and subsequently for commercial ships) that will ultimately restore the U.S. shipbuilding process to a leadership position in the world marketplace (additional references [16] and [17]).On that tentatively positive note, it seems fitting to close this discussion with a question: Is the author aware of any similar Soviet effort to develop an integrated computer-aided design, production and logistics support system? The author is to be congratulated on an excellent, comprehensive insight into the Soviet shipbuilding process and productivity improvement efforts that should give us all adequate cause not to be complacent in our own efforts. Peter M. Palermo, Naval Sea Systems Command The author presents an interesting paper that unfortunately leaves this reader with a number of unanswered questions. The paper is a paradox. It depicts a system consisting of a highly educated work force, advanced fabrication processes including the use of standardized hull modules, sophisticated materials and welding processes, and yet in the author's words they suffer from "low productivity, poor product quality, . . . and the rigid production systems which resists the introduction of new ideas." Is it possible that incentive, motivation, and morale play an equally significant role in achieving quality and producibility advances? Can the author discuss underlying reasons for quality problems in particular—or can we assume that the learning curves of Figs. 5 and Fig. 6 are representative of quality improvement curves? It has been my general impression that quality will improve with application of high-tech fabrication procedures, enclosed fabrication ways, availability of highly educated welding engineers on the building ways, and that productivity would improve with the implementation of modular or zone outfitting techniques coupled with the quality improvements. Can the author give his impressions of the impact of these innovations in the U.S. shipbuilding industry vis-a-vis the Soviet industry? Many of the welding processes cited in the paper are also familiar to the free world, with certain notable exceptions concerning application in Navy shipbuilding. For example, (1) electroslag welding is generally confined to single-pass welding of heavy plates; application to thinner plates—l1/4 in. and less when certified—would permit its use in more applications than heretofore. (2) Electron beam welding is generally restricted to high-technology machinery parts; vacuum chamber size restricts its use for larger components (thus it must be assumed that the Soviets have solved the vacuum chamber problem or have much larger chambers). (3) Likewise, laser welding has had limited use in U.S. shipbuilding. An interesting theme that runs throughout the paper, but is not explicitly addressed, is the quality of Soviet ship fitting. The use of high-tech welding processes and the mention of "remote controlled tooling for welding and X-ray testing the butt, and for following painting" imply significant ship fitting capabilities for fitting and positioning. This is particularly true if modules are built in one facility, outfitted and assembled elsewhere depending on the type of ship required. Any comments concerning Soviet ship fitting capabilities would be appreciated. The discussion on modular construction seems to indicate that the Soviets have a "standard hull module" that is used for different types of vessels, and if the use of these hull modules permit increasing hull length without changes to the fore and aft ends, it can be assumed that they are based on a standard structural design. That being the case, the midship structure will be overdesigned for many applications and optimally designed for very few. Recognizing that the initial additional cost for such a piece of hull structure is relatively minimal, it cannot be forgotten that the lifecycle costs for transporting unnecessary hull weight around can have significant fuel cost impacts. If I perceived the modular construction approach correctly, then I am truly intrigued concerning the methods for handling the distributive systems. In particular, during conversion when the ship is lengthened, how are the electrical, fluid, communications, and other distributive systems broken down, reassembled and tested? "Quick connect couplings" for these type systems at the module breaks is one particular area where economies can be achieved when zone construction methods become the order of the day in U.S. Navy ships. The author's comments in this regard would be most welcome. The design process as presented is somewhat different than U.S. Navy practice. In U.S. practice, Preliminary and Contract design are developed by the Navy. Detail design, the development of the working drawings, is conducted by the lead shipbuilder. While the detail design drawings can be used by follow shipbuilders, flexibility is permitted to facilitate unique shipbuilding or outfitting procedures. Even the contract drawings supplied by the Navy can be modified— upon Navy approval—to permit application of unique shipbuilder capabilities. The large number of college-trained personnel entering the Soviet shipbuilding and allied fields annually is mind-boggling. According to the author's estimation, a minimum of about 6500 college graduates—5000 of which have M.S. degrees—enter these fields each year. It would be most interesting to see a breakdown of these figures—in particular, how many naval architects and welding engineers are included in these figures? These are disciplines with relatively few personnel entering the Navy design and shipbuilding field today. For example, in 1985 in all U.S. colleges and universities, there were only 928 graduates (B.S., M.S. and Ph.D.) in marine, naval architecture and ocean engineering and only 1872 graduates in materials and metallurgy. The number of these graduates that entered the U.S. shipbuilding field is unknown. Again, the author is to be congratulated for providing a very thought-provoking paper. Frank J. Long, Win/Win Strategies This paper serves not only as a chronicle of some of the productivity improvement efforts in Soviet shipbuilding but also as an important reminder of the fruits of those efforts. While most Americans have an appreciation of the strengths of the Russian Navy, this paper serves to bring into clearer focus the Russians' entire maritime might in its naval, commercial, and fishing fleets. Indeed, no other nation on earth has a greater maritime capability. It is generally acknowledged that the Soviet Navy is the largest in the world. When considering the fact that the commercial and fishing fleets are, in many military respects, arms of the naval fleet, we can more fully appreciate how awesome Soviet maritime power truly is. The expansion of its maritime capabilities is simply another but highly significant aspect of Soviet worldwide ambitions. The development and updating of "Setka Typov Su dov" (Table of Vessel Classes), which the author describes is a classic example of the Soviet planning process. As the author states, "A mighty fishing and commercial fleet was built in accordance with a 'Setka' which was originally developed in the 1960's. And an even more impressive example is the rapid expansion of the Soviet Navy." In my opinion it is not mere coincidence that the Russians embarked on this course in the 1960's. That was the beginning of the coldest of cold war periods—Francis Gary Power's U-2 plane was downed by the Russians on May 1, 1960; the mid-May 1960 Four Power Geneva Summit was a bust; the Berlin Wall was erected in 1961 and, in 1962, we had the Cuban Missile Crisis. The United States maritime embargo capability in that crisis undoubtedly influenced the Soviet's planning process. It is a natural and normal function of a state-controlled economy with its state-controlled industries to act to bring about the controlled productivity improvement developments in exactly the key areas discussed in the author's paper. As the author states, "All innovations at Soviet shipyards have originated at two main sources:domestic development andadaptation of new ideas introduced by leading foreign yards, or most likely a combination of both. Soviet shipbuilders are very fast learners; moreover, their own experience is quite substantial." The Ship Production Committee of SNAME has organized its panels to conduct research in many of these same areas for productivity improvement purposes. For example, addressing the areas of technology and equipment are Panels SP-1 and 3, Shipbuilding Facilities and Environmental Effects, and Panel SP-7, Shipbuilding Welding. Shipbuilding methods are the province of SP-2; outfitting and production aids and engineering and scientific support are the province of SP-4, Design Production Integration. As I read through the descriptions of the processes that led to the productivity improvements, I was hoping to learn more about the organizational structure of Soviet shipyards, the managerial hierarchy and how work is organized by function or by craft in the shipyard. (I would assume that for all intents and purposes, all Russian yards are organized in the same way.) American shipyard management is wedded to the notion that American shipbuilding suffers immeasurably from a productivity standpoint because of limitations on management's ability to assign workers across craft lines. It is unlikely that this limitation exists in Soviet shipyards. If it does not, how is the unfettered right of assignment optimized? What are the tangible, measurable results? I believe it would have been helpful, also, for the author to have dedicated some of the paper to one of the most important factors in improvement in the labor-intensive shipbuilding industry—the shipyard worker. There are several references to worker problems—absenteeism, labor shortage, poor workmanship, and labor discipline. The reader is left with the impression that the Russians believe that either those are unsolvable problems or have a priority ranking significantly inferior to the organizational, technical, and design efforts discussed. As a case in point, the author devotes a complete section to engineering education and professional training but makes no mention of education or training programs for blue-collar workers. It would seem that a paper on productivity improvement efforts in Soviet shipbuilding would address this most important element. My guess is that the Russians have considerable such efforts underway and it would be beneficial for us to learn of them.

The article presents an analysis of the attitude of teachers and students, colleges and universities to distance learning during the 2020 in Ukraine. The factors of the success of online learning were analyzed. The main stress factors were identified. Analysis of the results of the dynamics of opinions led to some conclusions and recommendations: for teachers regarding self-development; for school administrations regarding technical, organizational, and moral support for all participants in the educational process; for universities that provide professional training for future teachers.

Distance learning through e-learning courses has become the most important and commonly requested mode of learning in the higher education system over the past decade. Many aspects of our lives have been upended by COVID-19 including education. Distance education became a requirement at lightning speed, due to the pandemic and worldwide shutdown. According to the University of Kansas, at the height of the COVID-19 outbreak in early April, more than 1.5 billion students, or 91.3 percent of global enrolment, were directly affected by school closures. The question of whether or not to migrate from physical classroom is no more the priority but how quick and efficiently we can adopt distance learning. This paper evaluates the incorporation of the emerging technologies into the concepts of distance learning in terms of efficiency in the teaching and learning environment at universities, polytechnics and colleges.

Introduction: This article mainly through the literature research method and content analysis method, has carried on the analysis to the university turnover classroom. This paper analyses the characteristics and development trend of flipped classroom research from the aspects of research fields, research topics, research methods, literature sources, author information and references. Method: This teaching method undoubtedly fully demonstrates the concept of quality education, that is, while respecting students 'individual differences in learning, it also cultivates students' autonomy, allowing them to learn independently and develop their ability to analyze and solve problems. The flipped classroom uses the Internet as a platform to adjust the teaching steps, which has changed the organization of teaching and learning, class and off-class, teaching and self-study. Result: Teachers can supplement other resources on the Flipping classroom. At the same time, according to the content of the textbook, the teacher should design the test questions. In addition, teachers should also participate in the discussion of students before class, answering questions for students online. Throughout the online learning process, teachers can obtain students' mastery of the unit's knowledge points through the support of big data, such as which knowledge points are difficult, which ones are mastered, and which students are well mastered, so that the teaching can be effectively adjusted. plan. The main content of the teacher in the pre-course period is to check the content of the student's reply in the classroom exchange area to understand the students' knowledge of the knowledge points. Conclusion: It can be seen from the above column chart that the following conclusions can be drawn through the investigation and study of the factors affecting the College psychology teaching in colleges and universities. University leaders have a certain degree of emphasis on College psychology courses, but teaching management needs to be Further improvement; the number of people in some psychology majors is too high. Some colleges and universities in the teaching objectives of psychology special courses lack the target requirements of students' social adaptation and scientific research; most of the teachers' theoretical teaching content is not comprehensive enough and the content is single. Discussion: This article is based on an in-depth analysis of the advantages of domestic SPOC platforms and flipped classrooms, and analyzes the course goals of psychological teaching in colleges and universities. A teaching model of psychological courses based on the SPOC platform was constructed. This article is based on the teaching of psychology, and discusses the problems related to the flip reading teaching of psychology. The purpose is to sort out the theoretical and practical problems of flipped reading teaching in psychology lessons, and better adapt to the teaching of psychology lessons in the new era and new technology.

COVID-19 has forever changed the trajectory of higher education institutions and the delivery of their services, particularly at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). This unprecedented pandemic necessitated HBCUs to undergo rapid, significant alterations to their academic, instructional, and technological infrastructures in order to remain operational and to continually provide students with academic support services and a conducive environment for higher learning. Therefore, how HBCUs approach the strategic transformation of their campus operations with limited resources in order to remain competitive is vital to their organizational continuity. Considering these challenges, this study examined the role of crisis management as well as investigated the efficacy of decision-making processes of the governing boards and leadership at four (4) HBCUs.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the factors that can facilitate agility in higher education and to analyze the interrelationship between the factors.Design/methodology/approachA structured model of factors facilitating agility in higher education was developed using total interpretive structural modeling (TISM). Cross-impact matrix multiplication (MICMAC) analysis helped in classifying the factors on the basis of their driving and dependency power.FindingsAn extensive literature review and expert opinion helped in identifying eight enablers that can promote agility in higher education. The ability to sense the environment, organizational structure, adoption of ICT, organizational learning, human resource strategies, leadership, readiness to change and collaboration with the stakeholders were the eight factors identified. The structural model revealed leadership as the most crucial enabler followed by human resource strategies and organizational structure.Research limitations/implicationsThe model has incorporated and prioritized all the crucial drivers of agility that can help universities and colleges design, adopt and implement policies and practices that would facilitate agility.Originality/valueSo far, the research on agility in higher education has looked into each factor in isolation. This research provides a comprehensive list of the factors and establishes the interplay between the factors making this study new and original.

Open and distance education in Taiwan has evolved into the third phase – cyberlearning – conceptualized as teaching and learning interactions mediated entirely through the application of state-of-the-art information and communications technologies (ICT), such as the Internet and World Wide Web (WWW). Socio-economic influences, the development of new technologies and a marked shift in learning paradigms have increased the utilization of ICT at all levels of the Taiwanese education system. Since the advent and provision of cyberlearning programs, well over half (56 percent) of the conventional universities and colleges have been upgraded to dual-mode higher educational institutions. They offer real-time multicast instructional systems using videoconferencing and cable TV technology, virtual classroom systems via network-based instructional management systems, and curriculum-on-demand systems utilizing video-on-demand technology. Critical success factors in the development of these cyber universities and the opportunities, challenges and implications inherent in these are analyzed. ICT and the provision of cyberlearning have gradually been changing the structure and vision of higher education institutions as well as the entire learning environment and educational systems. Because the Ministry of Education (MOE) has initiated a policy on credit-based degrees for cyberlearning courses/programs, the development of open and distance education is anticipated to hasten the transformation of Taiwan’s education system towards one which will create an ideal learning society in the 21st century.

For colleges and universities, the expectation for excellence in teaching and learning has made development of a system for measuring teaching effectiveness critical. Teaching effectiveness is generally assessed with a comprehensive review of skills including instructional design, instructional delivery and course management. This requires student feedback usually in the form of Student Evaluation Instruments (SEIs). Since SEIs are an important part of measuring teaching effectiveness to assess excellence, and excellence in the classroom is expected when considering promotion and tenure, it follows that they play an integral role in the promotion and tenure process. In fact, faculty promotions and the issuance of tenure may hinge on the results of these vital evaluations. Our study investigates the use of SEIs at our university’s School of Business. Unlike many other prior studies, limited to a single course or department and a single semester, we examined data collected from the use during six semesters (three years) of our Student Evaluation Instrument for the entire School of Business. The results yielded nearly 30,000 useable responses across all business majors. If SEIs are to be used effectively and fairly then one must have a clear understanding as to what should be the appropriate standard used to evaluate faculty teaching effectiveness. Should a global value – the mean for the entire school or university – be used or should it be based on the mean for each department? We believe this to be a critical consideration given the potential for differences in mean ratings amongst departments.

PurposeSensemaking is the difficult art which lies at the heart of academia. Academics bring their own ways of examining and explaining things they see. A key challenge for Carrie is how to make sense of complex and challenging situations, recognize available solutions, choose the best path moving forward, and convey all of the above to the different stakeholders, in a clear and compelling manner. According to Bolman and Gallos (2011), sensemaking involves three steps: (1) noticing something, (2) deciding what to make of it and (3) deciding what to do about it. Humans are known to be good at all three of these steps. In fact, we do it so automatically, all the time, that we often tend to overlook some important aspects of this process.Design/methodology/approachAcademics in colleges and universities attain levels of autonomy and collective power beyond employees in most other industries, which not only create challenges for administrators but also for colleagues who find themselves in conflict with one another. This chapter chronicles a composite scenario describing a conflict between two scholars, Carrie and Paul. Weick's sensemaking framework and Argyris and Schön's organizational learning framework illustrate how Carrie made sense of and learned from a situation which remains all too common in higher education. Bolman and Gallos's four learning routines provide some resolutions to Carrie's dilemma. The most important lesson to take from Carrie's conversation with Paul is not whether the conversation went well or not. In many ways, we are always moving toward what is real, or what Popper calls “closer to the truth” when we are unable to see our destination clearly.FindingsThe authors, Bolman and Gallos (2011), recommend that we use a two-sided case with the same format that Carrie used, when dealing with difficult situation. One side reflects what was said (or anticipated conversation) and the responses (or anticipated responses; or how you think they will respond) on the left column and, on the right column, your unspoken thoughts (what you were thinking but did not say). According to the authors, if one subscribes to this practice, one would gain greater clarity with respect to one's strengths, comfort zones and flat spots. The two-sided model is low-risk and it enables one to visualize one's intended strategies, how one speaks to one's colleague and the possible consequences. The model can also let one know how optimistic or pessimistic one is about the situation. Knowing our position in advance may help us to develop and practice new strategies, which may also assist in building confidence and communication skills.Practical implicationsTo conclude, interpersonal skills are central to good communication but, in higher education, interpersonal skills are insufficient. Often, when relationships among colleagues go awry, it is because they know what they intend but they do not know what they did to have contributed to unsatisfactory outcomes. As a result, it is easier to point fingers at others than to reflect and learn from one's mistakes. The ones who succeed are those who are persistent and proactive in reflecting on their behaviour and in learning from those around them. Furthermore, they seek feedback from their colleagues, put their assumptions to the test, work on balancing advocacy and inquiry, and learn about the pattern of their daily practice.Originality/valueThis chapter/paper chronicles a composite scenario describing a conflict between two scholars, Carrie and Paul. The most important lesson to take from Carrie's conversation with Paul is not whether the conversation went well or not. In many ways, we are always moving toward what is real, or what Popper calls “closer to the truth” when we are unable to see our destination clearly.

PurposeThe present study contributes to research that examines the meanings of achievement gaps, when enacting policy. Its findings are both hopeful and unsettling. The absence of equitable outcomes and democratic citizenship, as elements of closing the achievement gaps in our participants' definitions, are troubling, particularly within the context of neo-liberalism, where increases in inequities showcase the negative aspects of policy appropriation.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative case study methodology was used to identify the parameters of the research (Merriam and Simpson, 2000) because case studies are particularistic in nature in that case studies examine a specific instance but illuminate a general problem (Merriam, 1998). This case study is not based on generating generalizations, concepts or hypotheses grounded in systematically obtained data (Abercrombie et al., 1990) but goes beyond the limited notion of context employed in many case studies, as no researcher can enter a situation free from preconceptions but must fit existing perceptions into a pre-existing discourse. This study explores heads of schools' decisions with regards to increasing the number of students who meet standards, as set by the government and reducing achievement gaps among student subgroups.FindingsThe findings from this study are discussed in three broad categories; the achievement gap, aspirations and parental support and differentiated and targeted solutions.Research limitations/implicationsThese findings raise the question as to whether the education inspection framework (EIF) presents cause for concern. After all, the EIF was developed to hold schools accountable for high standards without consultation with the teachers' representatives, local communities, parents and colleges and universities. Nevertheless, the EIF, as a set of standards, is problematic.Practical implicationsThe leadership practices enacted by heads of schools to bridge the achievement gaps differ from those advocated by the State. This echoes previous findings demonstrating that the same leadership practices can be used to pursue different goals (Leithwood, 2006) and that individuals enact policies in ways that reflect the particularities of their own contexts (Ball et al., 2012).Social implicationsThe absence of equitable outcomes and democratic citizenship, as elements of closing the achievement gaps in our participants' definitions, are troubling, particularly within the context of neo-liberalism, where increases in inequities showcase the negative aspects of policy appropriation.Originality/valueThe present study contributes to research that examines the meanings of achievement gaps when enacting policy (Ball et al., 2012; Hardy, 2014; Winton, 2013). Its findings are both hopeful and unsettling. The heads of schools demonstrate that they can appropriate definitions of achievement for all students to support their academic learning and wellbeing (Hodgkinson, 1991; Winton, 2013).

Area Studies and Study Abroad in the 21st Century The future now belongs to societies that organize themselves for learning. - Ray Marshall and Marc Tucker, Thinking for a Living, xiii Few today would argue with the conviction that nearly every phase of our daily lives is shaped and informed by global societies, corporations, events and ideas. More than ever before, it is possible to claim that we are increasingly aware of the dynamic power and penetrating effects of global flows on information, technology, the sciences, the arts, the humanities, and languages. Borderless, spaceless and timeless, such sources of knowledge, it appears, are effortlessly digested and disseminated without clocks, calendars, or physical limitations. It is, of course, a mistake to believe that packages of “instant” knowledge that appear to wing their way at megahertz speeds in and through our earthly lives account for all or nearly all that there is to know—or, more importantly, to learn—about our communities, regions and the globe itself. On the contrary: the “knowing” about how to live, to work, to prosper, or to understand ourselves and those around us is not what educators mean when they speak of intellectual achievement and practical understanding. It is the “learning” about us, our societies and our global knowledge that lies at the heart of the international educator’s life work, and it is the learning that is the most controversial aspect of education. The act of “learning,” in fact, is less objective and more subjective, is less passive and more active, and is less superficial and more profound in each of our lives. By definition, a responsible learner is one who takes on the intellectual challenge and the social and personal obligation to leave this globe a better place for those who follow, who assumes the life work of influencing the lives of others, and who is committed to making the best of every opportunity both within the reach and beyond the vision of the mind’s eye. Study abroad has traditionally been viewed as a time of seeing and viewing, however passively, the differences and similarities of other peoples, societies and cultures. The period of knowing about what others do or say can occur at any time during one’s life; however, the “knowing” of studying abroad is accomplished in the college years prior to the accumulated knowledge about practical learning and living. In this respect, study abroad has been seen as an experience which may or may not invest the students in greater or lesser insights about the peoples, societies or cultures around them. Further, when study abroad is bound up with travel or movement from place to place, it can become a passive act, so much so that travel rather than learning becomes the goal of the study abroad experience. Simply put, the more that one travels, the more, it is argued, one learns. Furthermore, while seen as desirable for “classroom learning,” some would say that no amount of academic preparation appears to be useful in the enterprise of the travel experience, since so many experiences are unpredictable, individualized and, in some cases, arbitrary. From the perspective of study abroad, it might be said that the gods of area studies no longer completely fulfill our students’ needs, while the gods of global studies have not yet fulfilled their promises. Janus-like, international educators look in one direction at a still highly intense and valued picture of local cultures and identities, and in another direction toward an increasingly common culture, economy and society. The former appears to celebrate the differences and “uncommonness” of the human experience while the latter smoothes over the differences to underscore the commonalities and sameness of our contemporary world. The choice appears to be between the particular and the universal, the local and the global. Academic preparations, such as area studies programs, appear to be unnecessary for the individualized forms of learning, such as study abroad. Indeed, since an area studies preparation may raise or strengthen stereotypical perceptions of the overseas peoples, societies and cultures, it has been argued that it best be left aside. In this context, students are viewed as a tabula rasa on which new discoveries from living and studying overseas leave an imprint or impression. It seems that sending as many students as possible in as many directions as possible has become the dominant study abroad objective. Thus, “whole world” presentations and documentation often rely on the “other” as the learning objective with little or no attempt to discriminate or distinguish the levels of learning that such “whole world” immersion entails. In recent times, additional concerns about liability, health, safety and comfort levels have been added to the “pre-departure” orientations and training programs. The “student as self-learner” continues to be viewed and treated as a “customer knowledge-consumer” within both U.S. private and public colleges and universities. In the age of “globalization,” it is the conviction of the editors of Frontiers that knowledge consumption is only a small aspect of the 21st century international educators’ arsenal. More importantly, it will be argued in this special issue on area studies and Study Abroad that the intellectual development of the U.S. undergraduate needs to be enhanced with skills of self-learning and transdisciplinary perspectives on local and regional cultures and languages. The authors contributing to this special thematic issue of Frontiers have been asked to bring their state-of-the-art thinking on area studies to bear on the key question confronting study abroad: How does specialized understanding of geographical and cultural areas of the world enhance and strengthen undergraduate learning on and beyond our campuses? In other words, in what ways do area studies inform overseas learning through the activity of study abroad? The variety of responses demonstrates two principal ways in which area studies has begun to reformulate its goals and strategies. First, area studies reaffirms a commitment to local and regional comprehensive research and teaching, and redefines its mission in terms of the need to come to grips with local knowledge and specific social and cultural practices within a globalized world. Second, area studies specialists question long-held definitions of concepts, including those of “geographical area” and “globalization,” in order to maximize contributions to U.S. undergraduate learning. David Ludden begins our issue with a review of the Social Science Research Council and the Ford Foundation’s understanding of the transition in area studies from the Sputnik era to the globalization era. Ludden notes the faculty dilemma in working in an “area.” He points out the political interests of the Cold War for public funding of such specialized academic skills, skills which, whether funded by the government or not, were and continue to be defined by the scholar first and then by finances. Drawing on his own experience at the South Asia Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, Ludden takes the reader through the intellectual rationale for area studies, and how that rationale is being redefined in favor of stronger area studies in the present globalization era. Gregory Kulacki’s study of China and the Chinese experience points accurately to one approach to defining area studies; that is, in terms of the peoples and cultures studied. In a sense, Kulacki makes it clear that Chinese studies is “legitimate” and has authority as long as it reflects the Chinese themselves, their experiences and lives. Ann Curthoys, on the other hand, notes the growing importance of defining Australians and Australian studies not only in terms of the changing experiences of contemporary Australia, but also in terms of the demands of non-Australians, who ask for more precision in defining Australians, their history, society and cultures. Richard Beach and George Sherman take on a more difficult matter, at least from the viewpoint of U.S. faculty and students. Canada is rarely seen as a study abroad site for U.S. students, not only because of its geographical position but also for its cultural and historical proximity. The overall U.S. view, albeit unflattering, is that Canada and Canadians are very much like the U.S. and Americans, so why study in Canada? Beach and Sherman argue that history, languages, and borders do make a difference, both physically as well as culturally. Using the argument of the previous area studies specialists, they are interested in the ways that Canadians have shaped and informed their cultural and social identities in the teeth of U.S. economic and political domination in the region. The implications of globalization are, perhaps, more immediately evident in the Canadian case than in any other world region. U.S. students would do well to observe the processes of adaptation and acculturation first-hand by studying and living in Canada. James Petras gives us a broader vista of regional adaptation to the economic and political forces of globalization with his essay on Latin America. Indeed, Latin America has a dynamic similar to that of Canada due to its physical, cultural and historical proximity to the U.S. It would be a mistake to see Latin America only in terms of the north-south regional dynamics, since Europe, Asia and Africa have also shaped both past and present structures and institutions within that region in ways far more dramatic than has the United States. Study abroad, Petras reminds us, is an excellent way of learning directly about Latin American societies, cultures and politics from Latin Americans themselves, a learning that may be widely different from the official U.S. diplomatic and corporate perspectives. Finally, the very familiar world regions, such as England, offer in some cases more challenges to the U.S. undergraduate than might be expected. Jane Edwards looks at Britain and all that U.S. students may or may not know about that culture and society. The study of Britain lends itself, Edwards argues, to more than the usual challenges, due to the preconceived notions that U.S. students bring with them to, say, London. Understanding the “European-ness” of Britain and its historic relationship with continental Western Europe will justify the need to see Britain as less familiar and more complex, thus necessitating the need to study, visit and live in parts of Britain and Western Europe. In this case, the area does define the country, its identity and culture in a historical interplay of social, cultural and economic forces. David Lloyd, Philip Khoury and Russell Bova invite the reader to return to large regional perspectives through African, Middle Eastern and Russian area studies. David Lloyd presents an analysis of the broad and immediate contexts of African studies. While recognizing the difficulty of establishing consistently causal links between African studies and study abroad in Africa, he delineates the significance of local, experience-based study for the development of collaborative African studies research. Lloyd argues that the benefits of study abroad in Africa to African studies belie the relatively small number of students involved. Further, assessment for funding and other purposes needs to utilize criteria that take into account the challenges of on-site study in Africa and the depth of post-study abroad participation not just in African studies per se, but in other related areas as well. Considering the recent past of Middle East studies, Philip Khoury charts its response to post-Cold War criticism. He illustrates new directions the field is taking towards including different geographic areas, and new emphasis in organizational priorities, noting the importance of funding for providing first-hand contact for students in Middle Eastern studies with scholars from the Middle East. Khoury assesses the impact of recent historical and political events in the area on Middle Eastern studies, and looks toward more inclusive research efforts. Russell Bova examines another region that has undergone considerable political, social and economic change in the 20th century. Having moved from empire to soviet socialist states and now to a confederation of nation states, Russia and, naturally, Russian area studies, offer an excellent example of local and regional complexities both in the nomenclature of the region and in the changes in Russian studies programs. Bova illustrates the need to understand the specific dynamics of local communities in their relationship to larger administrative units such as provinces, states and national capitals. In referring to the “double transition” of contemporary Russia, Bova reminds us that globalization is both a grass roots and elite process with many unlikely “bedfellows” that is also changing more rapidly each decade than had been the case fifty years ago. Finally, Richard Falk and Nancy Kanach collaborate to discuss the ways in which globalization and study abroad are emerging in the post-Cold War period. The sudden shifts of economic and political power make our world more fragile and more difficult to comprehend without considering the “computer gap” that is rapidly leaving whole communities and even nations in a more uneven relationship with the power brokers than ever before. The need to reflect with care and precision through area studies is complemented by the additional pressing need to study, see and learn outside of the U.S. Globalization means promoting study abroad and reaffirming the strengths of local and regional studies. Taken together, these essays invite international educators to reconsider notions of learning before, during and after study abroad. The writers view study abroad as an opportunity for social and intellectual engagement with other peoples and with oneself. The essays point to a variety of ways of intellectually preparing our students for their initial encounters with sets of real-life global experiences. Reflecting on such engagement and encounters allows students to begin to formulate, with increasing sophistication, specific and general concepts about individual differences, local and regional commonalities, and the global transformations of our present era. In light of the current area studies debates, we might also reconsider approaches to pre-departure preparations, create onsite projects, and reorganize the overseas curricula of study abroad programs themselves. In particular, students can continue to benefit from area and global studies programs back on the home campus upon their return, where they can enter effectively into scholarly debates and continue the learning and personal growth that began while they were abroad. Frontiers welcomes comments and suggestions for future special issues. We see ourselves and our field of international education in greater need of close cooperation with our faculty colleagues both in terms of defining the work of international learning, and in terms of formulating and designing international or global programs. We thus invite our readers to see Frontiers as a forum for such academic exchanges, and promise that Frontiers will respond to articles, essays, book reviews and reviews of resources for study abroad with collegial interest and enthusiasm. We wish to thank especially Brian Whalen, Rhoda Borcherding and our other colleagues on the Editorial Board for their support, encouragement and assistance in completing this special issue. We are particularly pleased with the authors and their willingness to listen to our requests and comments. Thomas Ricks, Villanova University Katharine Krebs, SUNY Binghamton Michael Monahan, Macalester College Suggestions for Further Reading Altbach, Philip G. and Patti McGill Peterson, eds. Higher Education in the 21st Century: Global Challenge and National Response. IIE Research Report Number 29. Annapolis, MD: IIE Books, 1999. This slim volume focuses on principal topics for colleges and universities to consider both locally and globally. Philip Altbach and Todd Davis set the tone of the volume with their “notes for an international dialogue on higher education.” Stressing the need for practical education, the authors also raise issues about the role of technology, the increase in “internationally mobile students,” the global role of graduate education, privatization of higher education, committed faculty and the threats of “managerialized” universities. The eight responses to the opening themes address specific issues for China, India, Africa and South Africa, Latin America, Japan and Europe. The work is a very good discussion text for international educators and their area studies faculty colleagues, and also provides a theoretical basis for the design and development of overseas programs. Stephen R. Graubard, ed. “Education Yesterday, Education Tomorrow.” Daedalus. Vol. 127, No. 4 (Fall, 1998). The eleven authors of this issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences build off the Fall 1995 issue of Daedalus and its topic of “American Education: Still Separate, Still Unequal.” While neither accepting nor rejecting the thrust of A Nation at Risk, the authors look both at what has occurred over the past three decades, and at what is on the horizon for the next decade. In stressing reforms of systems and innovative ways of learning, the authors’ discussions invite the international educator to address a variety of ways in which students learn and to challenge the system in which they thrive. WWW. NAFSA.ORG/SECUSSA.WHYSTUDY In 1989, NAFSA and COUNCIL created the Whole World Committee (WWC). Initially chaired by John Sommers and now chaired by Mick Vandenberg, the WWC set out to find ways by which U.S. students could and would choose non-European overseas sites for a semester of study and learning. One of the tasks that the WWC accomplished was the creation of four area study essays on Africa, Asia, South America and the Middle East. Each essay, entitled “Why Study in …,” addresses basic fears and stereotyping of the non-European world regions. The essays then focus on benefits, health and safety, “getting started,” housing, and practical learning in each of these regions. In newly-attached longer versions, the essays also have a bibliography and more informative texts. The shorter versions were published serially in Transitions Abroad. NAFSA has added two additional important essays to this website, on “Class and Study Abroad” and “An African-American in South Africa.” Overall, the readers of Frontiers will be well-advised to access the articles at the website and consider using all the essays in their pre-departure orientation training, faculty area studies discussion groups, and in welcome-back sessions for returning students. Richard Falk. Predatory Globalization: A Critique. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 1999. The thesis of Richard Falk’s critique is that “predatory globalization’ has eroded, if not altogether broken, the former social contract that was forged between state and society during the last century or so” (p. 3). The breaking of that contract resulted from the state’s “deference to the discipline of global capital” and the neglect of the common good. Falk argues that only the “massing of strong transnational social pressures on the states of the world could alter the political equation to the point where the state could sufficiently recover its autonomy in relation to the world economy.” He demonstrates the emergence of a new kind of transnational politics referred to as “globalization-from-below.” In restoring “global civil society,” this new politics will need to move forward with the project of cosmopolitan democracy, including the protection of human rights. For the international educator, creating overseas programs that allow for a better understanding of the interconnectedness of regional and global levels is an admirable goal. More important, however, are those programs that offer U.S. undergraduates insights into “world order priorities” such as global poverty, protection of the planet, the sources of transnational violence, and “responsible sovereignty” in ways rarely found in traditional classroom learning on our campuses. Mark Tessler, Jodi Nachtwey and Anne Banda. Eds. Area Studies and Social Science: Strategies for Understanding Middle East Politics. Bloomington and Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press, 1999. This edited work addresses a wide range of issues involved in the “rational choice” versus area studies debate that is so well elucidated by David Ludden in the opening article of our special issue. Looking at the “area studies controversy” from the perspective of political scientists, the editors’ Introduction underscores questions that we international educators need to address ourselves. It is valuable to wonder about the “uses and abuses” of area studies in planning our overseas programs, or discussing the “internationalization” of our curricula. It is also critical to understand the Eurocentric and overly-simplistic approaches of the social science “rational choice” models. While agreeing that both area studies and the social science theories and methodologies are necessary for a global understanding, the present work places such questions within the context of the Middle East as a stimulus and a model for increasing the value of research about any country or region.