Knowledge Sharing and Knowledge Café's: A Case Study in Higher Education

Higher Education Institutions are knowledge intensive institutions. Academics are considered knowledge workers within a knowledge society, with a remit to create and transfer knowledge to their students, as well as to distribute and share the knowledge created from research undertaken. These forms of knowledge sharing within Higher Education Institutions happen as part of the role of an educator and an academic. Knowledge sharing between academics is not as commonplace as sharing explicit knowledge. The academic culture within Higher Education can be quite hierarchical, competitive, and individualistic, where the focus for career advancement is on research and publishing, although a renewed focus on teaching quality, is also a performance measurement tool. For new and relatively new staff, the academic context can be perceived as highly individualised, and self‐directed. Most newcomers to academia initially operate not being aware of the complexity of its rules of interaction. There are several barriers to knowledge sharing at a personal level within this context. Given these challenges, it is important for new academics, as well as seasoned academics in the United Kingdom context, to understand the value of sharing practices through informal conversations, which inspired this project. As a funded project titled, “Improving student engagement and satisfaction by sharing best practices”, the project had a three-fold set of objectives: 1). To undertake initial research to understand knowledge sharing practices at Higher Education institutions, 2). To provide opportunities for knowledge sharing via the implementation of three Knowledge Cafés, and 3). To disseminate research and lessons learnt around the sharing of teaching best practices. This case study presents one of the three arms of the project, which is the implementation of the Knowledge Cafés within a Higher Education Institution, at Swansea University. The impact of the radical shift from a face-to-face environment to a virtual space, the perception of the personal value of the Knowledge Cafés, and how it was experienced by the Desireé J Cranfield et al30participants, is explored. The idea of the knowledge café progressed and further developed into special sessions being delivered at two international conferences: 1) The 14th Annual International Conference of Education, Research, and Innovation 2021 (virtual), and 2) The 14th Annual International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies (face-to-face, Spain). Initial surveys conducted of the Knowledge Cafés suggests that these opportunities to informally have conversations around teaching best practice and their experience of online teaching was valued, and its benefits understood. Several determinants for the success of knowledge sharing, within this context, are revealed

Knowledge Sharing and Knowledge Cafés: A Case Study in Higher Education

Higher Education Institutions are knowledge intensive institutions. Academics are considered knowledge workers within a knowledge society, with a remit to create and transfer knowledge to their students, as well as to distribute and share the knowledge created from research undertaken. These forms of knowledge sharing within Higher Education Institutions happen as part of the role of an educator and an academic. Knowledge sharing between academics is not as commonplace as sharing explicit knowledge. The academic culture within Higher Education can be quite hierarchical, competitive, and individualistic, where the focus for career advancement is on research and publishing, although a renewed focus on teaching quality, is also a performance measurement tool. For new and relatively new staff, the academic context can be perceived as highly individualised, and self‐directed. Most newcomers to academia initially operate not being aware of the complexity of its rules of interaction. There are several barriers to knowledge sharing at a personal level within this context. Given these challenges, it is important for new academics, as well as seasoned academics in the United Kingdom context, to understand the value of sharing practices through informal conversations, which inspired this project. As a funded project titled, “Improving student engagement and satisfaction by sharing best practices”, the project had a three-fold set of objectives: 1). To undertake initial research to understand knowledge sharing practices at Higher Education institutions, 2). To provide opportunities for knowledge sharing via the implementation of three Knowledge Cafés, and 3). To disseminate research and lessons learnt around the sharing of teaching best practices. This case study presents one of the three arms of the project, which is the implementation of the Knowledge Cafés within a Higher Education Institution, at Swansea University. The impact of the radical shift from a face-to-face environment to a virtual space, the perception of the personal value of the Knowledge Cafés, and how it was experienced by the participants, is explored. The idea of the knowledge café progressed and further developed into special sessions being delivered at two international conferences: 1) The 14th Annual International Conference of Education, Research, and Innovation 2021 (virtual), and 2) The 14th Annual International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies (face-to-face, Spain). Initial surveys conducted of the Knowledge Cafés suggests that these opportunities to informally have conversations around teaching best practice and their experience of online teaching was valued, and its benefits understood. Several determinants for the success of knowledge sharing, within this context, are revealed

Mutational activation of BRAF confers sensitivity to transforming growth factor beta inhibitors in human cancer cells

Recent data implicate elevated transforming growth factor-β (TGFβ) signalling in BRAF inhibitor drug-resistance mechanisms, but the potential for targeting TGFβ signalling in cases of advanced melanoma has not been investigated. We show that mutant BRAFV600E confers an intrinsic dependence on TGFβ/TGFβ receptor 1 (TGFBR1) signalling for clonogenicity of murine melanocytes. Pharmacological inhibition of the TGFBR1 blocked the clonogenicity of human mutant BRAF melanoma cells through SMAD4-independent inhibition of mitosis, and also inhibited metastasis in xenografted zebrafish. When investigating the therapeutic potential of combining inhibitors of mutant BRAF and TGFBR1, we noted that unexpectedly, low-dose PLX-4720 (a vemurafenib analogue) promoted proliferation of drug-naïve melanoma cells. Pharmacological or pharmacogenetic inhibition of TGFBR1 blocked growth promotion and phosphorylation of SRC, which is frequently associated with vemurafenib-resistance mechanisms. Importantly, vemurafenib-resistant patient derived cells retained sensitivity to TGFBR1 inhibition, suggesting that TGFBR1 could be targeted therapeutically to combat the development of vemurafenib drug-resistance

Students’ notetaking during lectures: an examination of resources, motivation, and learning styles.

PurposeIn today’s learning environment, students can take notes in a wide range of ways from the traditional – longhand, to the modern – digital. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis of notetaking approaches concludes that there is no difference between traditional and modern notetaking approaches by students on performance when all other things are kept constant (Voyer et al., 2022). However, students do not make decisions in a vacuum, so all things are unlikely to be constant. In this study, we investigate how a student’s access to resources, motivation to study, and learning strategy affect their notetaking behaviour and academic success.Design/methodology/approachA survey methodology with undergraduate students is used to collect the necessary data. We collect a mix of quantitative and qualitative data on student demographics, academic success, and notetaking activities as well as specific learning characteristics that may impact their engagement with notetaking. This includes well-established instruments such as the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (Pintrich et al., 1991) and the Abbreviated Technology Anxiety Scale (Wilson et al., 2023).Practical and social implicationsAssessing whether a student’s notetaking strategy is by choice and planned, or forced by modern societal norms and practices, will allow educators and students to question whether other methods of notetaking need to be explored to ensure they access optimal learning strategies

From the Editors—New Times, New Histories of the Business School

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