Improving management skills through business simulation

A survey was conducted among students of the Accounting and Administration undergraduate degree at ISCAP – IPP (School of Accounting and Administration of Polytechnic Institute of Porto) in order to understand their perception value of their course Business Simulation (BS). This course is provided in a business environment where students can learn by doing through the management of a company as they were in the real life, but risk-free. The learning tasks are provided in an action-oriented format to maximize the learning process. Students learn by doing a set of tasks every session and have also to produce reports and presentations during the course. BS is part of the undergraduate degree of Accounting and Administration at ISCAP – IPP since the beginning of 2003. The questionnaire we used captured the students’ perception about general and specific skills and competencies considered important for managers and accountants in the real life, about the methodology used in the course, which is totally different from the traditional form, and also about the adequacy of the course included as part of the undergraduate degree. The results showed that students’ perception is highly positive and almost all of them think they improve the skills needed for a job during the course. These results are consistent with [1] Adler and Milne’s research in which the authors found that students agree with the use of action-oriented learning tasks in order to provide them the needed attitudes, skills, and knowledge. The improvement of group skills is the most important issue for students, which can be understandable as BS is the only course from the degree in Accounting and Administration they really have to work in groups

Patterns of debate in tertiary level asynchronous text-based conferencing

Argumentation can be defined at different levels and serve different purposes, but its role in knowledge understanding and construction has given it a central place in education, particularly at tertiary level. The advent of computer-supported text-based conferences has created new sites where such educational dialogues can take place, but the quality of the interaction and whether it is serving its educational purpose is still uncertain. This paper reports on a framework of analysis that has been developed to illuminate the arguing process within an asynchronous electronic conferencing environment, showing how it is both similar to, and different from, argumentation in the more traditional forums of multi-party, face-to-face discussion and traditional written essays. The framework develops earlier work by the authors and is applied to two electronic conferences within the same postgraduate course, comparing overall patterns of argumentation. Findings are presented on the extent to which the technology of electronic conferencing shapes and supports students’ participation in academic literacy practices relating to argumentation, proposing, at the same time, that the teaching strategy adopted by the lecturer is also an important variable

Discrete Stochastic Dynamics of Income Inequality in Education: An Applied Stochastic Model and a Case Study

This paper develops a model for the discrete stochastic dynamics of economic inequality-induced outcomes in education and demonstrates, in the context of the Turkish higher education sector, that higher incomes lead to higher performance levels; and hence income inequality matters. The paper formulates a stochastic subsidy policy that could help the sector to escape the low performance equilibria, and that could stabilize the sector at relatively higher performance levels

uma solução de implementação para o IMETRO

16 valoresA evolução constante na nossa sociedade, os novos desafios que têm vindo a ser colocados às Instituições de Ensino Superior (IES), na formação de estudantes mais capazes e com competências mais valorizadas e necessárias para os empregadores, induz a necessidade de procurar alternativas complementares aos métodos de ensino tradicionais. O processo de Bolonha, também ele um indutor de mudança, colocou novos desafios aos Docentes e Discentes, pois o número de horas de contacto decresceu e com isso a necessidade de trabalho fora de aulas por parte dos alunos também aumentou substancialmente. Os Professores foram confrontados com a necessidade de se adaptarem às mudanças e com isso foram surgindo novos métodos de ensino. Desses métodos de ensino, que foram emergindo, iremos abordar na presente investigação, o método utilizado nas unidades curriculares de Projeto de Simulação Empresarial (PSE), do Instituto Superior de Contabilidade e Administração do Porto (ISCAP), como uma alternativa/complemento ao método tradicional que ainda é o único utilizado em muitos países, caso de Angola, país com fortes ligações a Portugal. A presente investigação pretende elencar e contribuir para a melhoria do ensino superior da contabilidade e da gestão no processo de reforço na aquisição de competências que os estudantes das licenciaturas do departamento de ciências económicas e de gestão do Instituto Superior Politécnico Metropolitano de Angola (IMETRO), devem possuir chegados ao termo do seu processo de formação O objetivo da nossa investigação é demonstrar a utilidade deste método de ensino numa IES Angolana, o Instituto Superior Politécnico Metropolitano de Angola (IMETRO). Na presente investigação realizámos questionários aos alunos do ISCAP e do IMETRO. Além dos questionários foram ainda realizadas entrevistas a Docentes do ISCAP e do IMETRO.The constant evolution in our society, the new challenges that have been placed on Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), the training of more capable students and with more valued and necessary skills for employers induce the need to look for alternatives that are complementary to the Traditional teaching methods. The process of Bologna also an inducer of change posed new challenges to Teachers and Students, as the number of contact hours decreased and with this the need for out-of-class work by students also increased substantially. Teachers were confronted with the need to adapt to change and new teaching methods emerged. From these teaching methods, which emerged, we will address in the present research, the method used in the Business Simulation Project (PSE) course of the ISCAP, as an alternative / complement to the method which is still the only one used in many countries, in the case of Angola, a country with strong links to Portugal. The present research aims to highlight and contribute to the improvement of higher education in accounting and management in the process of reinforcement in the acquisition of skills that the students of the degrees of the department of economic sciences and management of the Institute Metropolitan Polytechnic Metropolitan of Angola (IMETRO), Must have reached the end of their training process. The main objective of our research is to demonstrate the usefulness of this method of teaching in an Angolan HEI, the Metropolitan Polytechnic Institute of Angola (IMETRO). In the present investigation, we carried out questionnaires to ISCAP and IMETRO students. In addition to the questionnaires, interviews semi structured, structured, open were also conducted with ISCAP and IMETRO

What Is Writing? Student Practices and Perspectives on the Technologies of Literacy in College Composition

Despite the increasing presence of technology in composition classrooms, students have not yet accepted the idea of multiple writing technologies – in fact, most students do not yet fully understand the role of the word processor in their individual writing process. The research goal of this dissertation is therefore to examine the physical experience of writing, both in and outside of a computer composition classroom, from students’ perspective by investigating their definitions of writing and how they understand the relationship between writing and technology. To highlight student writing practices, the analysis uses both qualitative and quantitative data from two classes in a PC computer lab at Texas A and M University, one freshman composition and one advanced composition course. Several important patterns have emerged from the analysis of this data, and each of the main chapters focuses on a different student perspective. Chapter II argues that students tend to view computers simply as instruments or tools, an understanding that affects how they perceive and work with classroom computers. Because how they perceive and approach computers affects their writing, Chapter III examines student theories of writing and technology. The discussion postings indicate that students write differently at home than they do in the classroom, and this distinction creates context-bound theories. They are more familiar with the personal context, often exhibiting an inability to translate their ease with this type of writing or computer functions into an academic environment. Their makeshift theories lead to writing practices, and Chapter IV examines student responses for patterns regarding how writing happens. Specifically, discomfort with academic writing leads them to compose with a computer because they believe technology makes this process faster and easier; however, their choice of medium can actually derail writing when made for reasons of ease or convenience. This study finds that physical set-up of the classroom and the curriculum are factors that have perpetuated these problems. Despite these obstacles, a computer classroom approach has unique advantages, and a new approach is proposed, one that focuses on developing rhetorical flexibility or the ability of students to produce multiple texts in multiple contexts