Enhancing Critical Thinking Across The Undergraduate Experience: An Exemplar From Engineering

Faculty in a large, urban school of engineering designed a longitudinal study to assess the critical thinking skills of undergraduate students as they progressed through the engineering program. The Paul-Elder critical thinking framework was used to design course assignments and develop a holistic assessment rubric. The curriculum was re-designed to include deliberate teaching of critical thinking and assessment in at least one key course for every student each year of their undergraduate curriculum. The critical thinking scores for seniors using the holistic rubric were significantly higher than their baseline critical thinking scores as freshmen (p = .004). This case-study can serve as an exemplar for other units, departments, or programs to model or replicate

Endogenous and exogenous risk factors in the success of South African small medium enterprises

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) March 2017The objective of this study is twofold: first to evaluate the magnitude of the effect of endogenous and exogenous risk factors in the success of South African (SA) small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); second, to develop a framework for an integrated risk assessment model that can be used to assess SA SMEs holistically. Drawing from the entrepreneurial ecosystem, systems perspective, GEM framework and complex theory, an integrated risk assessment model framework that is person-centric, interdisciplinary, and multidimensional (individual, firm and environment) is formulated. This was a cross-sectional, quantitative study, which followed a post-positivist approach. Primary data, with a sample size of 286, was collected from SA SMEs through self-administered questionnaires. Data analysis included correlational analysis, backward elimination method, hierarchical multiple regression and mediation analysis. Financial capital, entrepreneurial self-efficacy on growth and risk perception emerged as significant predictors of SME success. However financial capital is by far the most influential predictor of financial performance. The results also confirmed the mediating effect of financial capital between entrepreneurial self-efficacy (finance and growth) and financial performance. Entrepreneurs who are confident can raise enough capital for their businesses, thus producing successful SMEs. Government policies and support programmes need to take a holistic view when supporting SMEs. While taking a holistic view, priority needs to be put on making capital available for entrepreneurs to develop and grow their businesses. Training programmes can focus on up-skilling entrepreneurs regarding entrepreneurial tasks that can improve their self-efficacy in management, financial understanding, and growth of their businesses. The study’s findings are important in that they help funders realise that business plans and financial projections are not the most important predictors of SME success, thus the need to review current risk assessment models.MT 201

From Community Engagement to Community Emergence: The Holistic Program Design Approach

University-community engagement has the potential to positively transform higher education, but community-engaged institutions must overcome challenges related to defining, planning, and assessing engagement activities. The 2015 Carnegie Community Engagement Classification application process and the results of the 2015 Campus Compact member survey revealed that there is room for improvement in engagement efforts within public and private institutions alike. The authors propose the holistic program design approach to curricular-based engagement as a new framework for building individual and institutional capacity. Utilizing interactional field theory, the framework shows how university-community engagement can promote the emergence or formation of community between a university and local participants. Curricular-based engagement experiences serve as venues for interaction in which students, faculty, and local residents communicate and work to address common, place-based needs. The authors provide operational definitions of university-community engagement and curricular-based engagement, describe a theoretical and philosophical rationale for engagement, and present a conceptual model of student and community development outcomes. They also highlight potential assessment metrics, address five recommendations of the Carnegie Foundation, and suggest directions for future research and development

A Holistic Approach to Curriculum Design – an example from dietetic practice education

Practice Education is an integral component of all student dietitians’ academic programme. This paper outlines how a holistic, situational model of curriculum design was used to redesign a two-week clinical placement module to facilitate application of theory and development of core professional attributes based on pre-existing learning outcomes. This module is currently a core professional development module for all Human Nutrition and Dietetics BSc and PGDip student

Do we know how urban heritage is being endangered by climate change? A systematic and critical review

It is worldwide accepted that climate change is affecting cities and that the conservation of the cultural heritage contributes to sustainable development. However, despite the high level of interest and research in climate-change risks on socioeconomic, urban and natural systems, studies that assess climate change impacts on urban cultural heritage and contribute to a holistic understanding on the subject present noticeable gaps in knowledge. A systematic review and meta-analysis was carried out to assess the state-of- the-art of cultural heritage risk assessment methodologies within urban systems in the context of climate change, specifically historic urban areas. For this purpose, a systematic search was applied using Web of Science and Scopus. The search identified and characterized existing methodologies on vulnerability and risk assessment for cultural heritage in a changing climate following the PRISMA protocol, and it synthesized knowledge gaps to be addressed in the near future. This study aims to bring risk assessment methodologies closer to urban planners for more efficient climate change adaptation policies. The research concluded that there is an unbalance between the amount of methodologies for the different climate change derived hazards and their impacts on historic urban areas. The amount of methodologies focused on flooding highlights that further research is needed for other relevant hazards, like heat and cold waves, that contribute to a holistic perspective.The authors wish to acknowledge funding from the European Com-mission through the SHELTER project (GA 821282) and from the Uni-versity of the Basque Country UPV/EHU (PPGA20/26), as well as the support of research groups IT1314-19 of the Basque Government, GIU19/029 of the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU and SAREN of the Faculty of Engineering in Bilbao. 9. Annex I – Papers reviewed References Year Citations Author keywords Hazard (s) Risk aspects/Systems 1 [49] 2020 0 Damage Assessment; Climate-Change; Precipitation; Future; Model; Management; Framework; Hazard Floods Vulnerability/Physical 2 [60] 2020 1 Floods Vulnerability/Physical (continued on next page) Fig. 6.Articles published each year. L. Quesada-Ganuza et al