Metadata for describing learning scenarios under European Higher Education Area paradigm

In this paper we identify the requirements for creating formal descriptions of learning scenarios designed under the European Higher Education Area paradigm, using competences and learning activities as the basic pieces of the learning process, instead of contents and learning resources, pursuing personalization. Classical arrangements of content based courses are no longer enough to describe all the richness of this new learning process, where user profiles, competences and complex hierarchical itineraries need to be properly combined. We study the intersection with the current IMS Learning Design specification and the additional metadata required for describing such learning scenarios. This new approach involves the use of case based learning and collaborative learning in order to acquire and develop competences, following adaptive learning paths in two structured levels

Purposes, Uses, and Practices of Leadership Assessment in Education

Explores recent research literature dealing with personnel evaluations, professional learning, accountability, and the relation of leadership to learning, in order to clarify how leadership assessment practices impact student achievement

Beyond GDP: the need for new measures of progress

This repository item contains a single issue of The Pardee Papers, a series papers that began publishing in 2008 by the Boston University Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future. The Pardee Papers series features working papers by Pardee Center Fellows and other invited authors. Papers in this series explore current and future challenges by anticipating the pathways to human progress, human development, and human well-being. This series includes papers on a wide range of topics, with a special emphasis on interdisciplinary perspectives and a development orientation.This paper is a call for better indicators of human well-being in nations around the world. We critique the inappropriate use of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a measure of national well-being, something for which it was never designed. We also question the idea that economic growth is always synonymous with improved well-being. Useful measures of progress and well-being must be measures of the degree to which society’s goals (i.e., to sustainably provide basic human needs for food, shelter, freedom, participation, etc.) are met, rather than measures of the mere volume of marketed economic activity, which is only one means to that end. Various alternatives and complements to GDP are discussed in terms of their motives, objectives, and limitations. Some of these are revised measures of economic activity while others measure changes in community capital—natural, social, human, and built—in an attempt to measure the extent to which development is using up the principle of community capital rather than living off its interest. We conclude that much useful work has been done; many of the alternative indicators have been used successfully in various levels of community planning. But the continued misuse of GDP as a measure of well-being necessitates an immediate, aggressive, and ongoing campaign to change the indicators that decision makers are using to guide policies and evaluate progress. We need indicators that promote truly sustainable development—development that improves the quality of human life while living within the carrying capacity of the supporting ecosystems. We end with a call for consensus on appropriate new measures of progress toward this new social goal

Lilly Endowment Annual Report 2015

During 2015, the Endowment paid grants totaling $435.5 million. Community development grants accounted for$200.4 million (46 percent), religion grants accounted for $124.1 million (29 percent) and education grants accounted for$111.0 million (25 percent). Most grants were paid to organizations in Indiana - a total of $257.8 million (59 percent). Of the payment total of$435.5 million, $107.9 million (25 percent) was paid to nonMarion County grantees in Indiana and$149.9 million (34 percent) to Marion County (Indianapolis) grantees. Organizations outside of Indiana received $177.7 million (41 percent). Most of these grants paid outside of Indiana were religion grants.The annual report includes a complete list of 2015 grants

Micro-political aspects of mandate development and learning in local subsidiaries of multinational corporations

Beyond functional-structuralist approaches this paper sheds some light on micro political aspects of mandate development and learning processes in multinational corporations (MNC). As classical micro-political studies have shown, management behaviour and learning are not only constrained or enabled by certain structural and (national) cultural patterns, but have its own political agendas and are shaped by individual interests which leads to game playing, active or passive resistance and (re)negotiation of the 'rules of the game'. Based on the assumption that actors are neither the organs of given structures nor acting fully autonomous, the paper focuses on how subsidiary managers interpret and integrate individual, organisational as well as home and host country institutional factors into certain strategies of action. By discussing critical events in mini case studies on mandate development and learning in German subsidiaries in France we will highlight the interactive dynamics between key-actors micro-political strategies and particular institutional settings. Here we, firstly, discuss institutionalist approaches and investigate how different forms of home and host country embeddedness do influence the development of distinct managerial competences and decision making strategies at the subsidiary level. The paper refers then to the question how the overall strategy and multinational organisational design and policies relate to individual interests of key subsidiary actors. These can to higher or lower degrees be influenced by e.g. differences in nationalities, professional backgrounds as well as career stages, orientations and aspirations. By integrating these diverse relational layers, the paper will provide a more dynamic actor centred approach stressing both, the micro-political aspects and interactive construction of intra and intersubsidiary power relations, a key variable to explain mandate development and learning processes in MNCs. -- Über funktional-strukturalistische Ansätze hinausgehend, beschäftigt sich dieser Beitrag mit den mikropolitischen Aspekten von Mandatsentwicklungsprozessen in multinationalen Unternehmen. Im Zentrum der Betrachtung stehen die Strategien und Handlungsrationalitäten von Tochtergesellschaftsmanagern im Ausland. Anhand von drei Fallbeispielen zeigt der Beitrag wie Manager deutscher Auslandsgesellschaften in Frankreich individuelle, organisationale und institutionelle Faktoren (Heimat- und Gastlandeffekte) interpretieren und zu einer Handlungsstrategie verbinden. Ausgangspunkt ist dabei zunächst eine Diskussion relevanter Ansätze des Internationalen Managements und der international vergleichenden Organisationsforschung. Diese Ansätze werden um einen mikropolitischen Ansatz erweitert, der auf die spezifische Bedeutung von Nationalzugehörigkeit, professionellem Background und individueller Karriereorientierung bei Tochtergesellschaftsmanagern im Ausland abstellt.

2007 Annual Performance Report

Based on Irvine's Performance Assessment Framework, reports on program impact -- grantmaking, outcomes, and lessons learned -- and institutional effectiveness -- leadership, constituent feedback, and financial and organizational health

International organizations and world society: studying global policy development in public policy

This article develops a theoretical framework to analyze the rise and spread of global public policy. After an introduction to the background of sociological institutionalism, it first elaborates on the role and functions of international organizations, identifying instruments by which these can disseminate policies and influence domestic policy processes. Second, conditions of global agenda setting and policy diffusion are presented; building up a model of global policy development, a frame in which the worldwide spread of global public policy can be analyzed. Third, I present a case study of global policy development, namely the rise of lifelong learning as part of current education policy. In the concluding part I briefly summarize central findings and elaborate on the potential and the shortcoming of the idea. The article mainly has a conceptual aim, but strictly relies on empirical material. ; In diesem Arbeitspapier präsentiere ich einen theoretischen Rahmen zur Analyse politischer Internationalisierungsprozesse. Nach einer Einleitung in theoretische Annahmen des soziologischen Institutionalismus und der Idee einer Weltkultur werden zentrale Funktionen internationaler Organisationen dargestellt, mit denen politischen Ziele verbreiten und nationalstaatliche Politikprozesse beeinflussen. In einem weiteren Schritt werden Bedingungen globalen Agenda-Settings’ und globaler Politikdiffusion präsentiert. Diese werden dann in einem Model eines globalen Politikzyklus zusammengeführt. Eine Anwendung erfolgt im Anschluss anhand des Beispiels von Lebenslanges Lernen’, ein zentrales Ziel weltweiter bildungspolitischer Konzepte. In den Schlussbemerkungen fasse ich zentrale Ergebnisse zusammen und prüfe die Übertragbarkeit auf andere Fälle. Das Papier hat vorrangig ein theoretisches und konzeptionelles Ziel, basierend auf empirischen Ergebnissen --

Writing Groups: An Analysis of Participants’ Expectations and Activities

Writing groups are a valuable way for writers to improve their writing, receive feedback, gain accountability, and increase their motivation. However, groups are only beneficial if participants decide to join one, stay in it, and are satisfied with the outcome. Much of what guides these decisions is based on what participants initially expect from a group. Little is known about what potential writing group members believe they will do in a group. The current study offers data about writing group expectations and satisfaction rates gathered from surveys and interviews with writing group participants. Findings suggest that expected writing group activities fell into four separate categories: skill-based, draft-based, timebased, and emotion-based activities. Recommendations for writing groups are offered based on these trends.University Writing Cente

Allyship in the Academy: The Girlhood Project and Redefining Girlhood

The emerging field of Girl Studies reflects increasing interest in social justice programming and research in higher education. Yet much girl-centered work has tied the concept of allyship to traditional service models, without examining the power structures reinforced by top-down service practices. Academia, social movements, and larger society have historically failed to center the voices of girls or the diversity of girlhood(s). In partnership with The Girlhood Project, this project utilizes practice rooted in theory to deconstruct those power systems which reinforce hegemonic identity and deny agency. Using qualitative data from coconstructive discussions about allyship and girlhoods, “Allyship in the Academy” examines enacted themes of identity, relationship, and oppressive social norms