The reflective learning continuum: reflecting on reflection

The importance of reflection to marketing educators is increasingly recognized. However, there is a lack of empirical research which considers reflection within the context of both the marketing and general business education literature. This paper describes the use of an instrument which can be used to measure four identified levels of a reflection hierarchy: habitual action, understanding, reflection and intensive reflection and two conditions for reflection: instructor to student interaction and student to student interaction. Further we demonstrate the importance of reflective learning in predicting graduates’ perception of program quality. Although the focus was on assessment of MBA level curricula, the findings have great importance to marketing education and educators

Simplicity in Visual Representation: A Semiotic Approach

Simplicity, as an ideal in the design of visual representations, has not received systematic attention. High-level guidelines are too general, and low-level guidelines too ad hoc, too numerous, and too often incompatible, to serve in a particular design situation. This paper reviews notions of visual simplicity in the literature within the analytical framework provided by Charles Morris' communication model, specifically, his trichotomy of communication levels—the syntactic, the semantic, and the pragmatic. Simplicity is ultimate ly shown to entail the adjudication of incompatibilities both within, and between, levels.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68281/2/10.1177_105065198700100103.pd

"Then you get a teacher" - Guidelines for excellence in teaching

Background: Current literature calls for the explicit teaching to health-science educators of the skills, knowledge and dispositions that are required for successful teaching in higher education. Aims: This paper draws on evidence from an Oral Hygiene department at a South African university in order to illustrate these teaching-competency needs. Insights from the evidence are synthesised with current literature regarding best teaching practice, in support of an appropriate framework for the development of teaching competencies to health-science educators. Description: A qualitative approach, using a case study, was adopted. The cohort comprised fifteen students in the first-year Oral Hygiene cohort class and the ten educators who taught their programme. Data was collected through semistructured interviews and open-ended questionnaires. The topics that emerged from the combined analysis of the interviews and the questionnaires were organised into a grid so that common themes could be identified. Current literature regarding teaching and learning was used as a framework for interpreting the empirical evidence, from which three categories emerged. The first category included suggestions from students regarding what to do to teach better. A review of the literature indicates that these competencies can be effectively learnt from self-help guides. The second category included requests for skills development. Literature review suggests that these might effectively be learnt from single-event workshops facilitated by more able peers. Responses in the final category highlighted the need for an underpinning theory of teaching and learning, and signalled the need for a more theoretically grounded and detailed approach to teacher development. Conclusion: The framework developed from the empirical study and current literature makes it possible for individual clinical teachers, and staff developers, to construct teaching-competency development plans that are pertinent to individual teachers’ needs, relevant and practical, educationally sound, and cost-effective in terms of time and effort

Student understandings of evidence-based management : ways of doing and being

This paper advances the literature on Evidence Based Management (EBMgt) by exploring how students understand EBMgt. We conduct a qualitative inductive study of undergraduate students who were introduced to EBMgt and applied evidence-based processes as part of an introductory management course. Our findings identify four qualitatively different student understandings of EBMgt: (1) EBMgt as an unrealistic way of doing management; (2) EBMgt as a way of doing management in particular situations; (3) EBMgt as a generally useful way of doing management; and (4) EBMgt as an ideal way of being a manager. We find that variations in student understanding are based upon perceptions of the utility of evidence-based processes, the stance taken towards scientific evidence as a form of knowledge, and the focus of reflection about the practice of EBMgt. By opening up insight into the how undergraduate students understand and make sense of EBMgt as ways of doing and being, we contribute to the theoretical literature on EBMgt and to the practice of EBMgt teaching and learning and offer new paths for future research.PostprintPeer reviewe