This book examines continuing professional development (CPD) of teachers in Finland. As one of the best-performing countries in terms of education, the Finnish education system is often revered and held up as an example to follow. However, the authors argue that CPD actually constitutes the Achilles' heel of this 'miraculous' system, demonstrating that in fact it is a victim of contradictory discourses and actions among decision-makers, teacher educators and practitioners. Including extensive interviews from CPD providers, teachers and other educational actors, the authors critically discuss the 'wonders' of Finnish education, in the process debunking various myths created both inside and outside Finland. The authors also call for a new approach to comparative and international education. Based on over 20 years of experience in Finnish education, this pioneering book will be of interest and value to students and scholars of Finnish education, continuing professional development and international education branding more generally.

Assessment and evaluation have always been an integral part of educational process. Quality and purposeful assessment can assist in students' learning and their achievement. While there has been a rapid growth in international, standardized student assessments in the past few decades, a large number of education systems participating in these assessments are now focusing their attention on developing new national, within-country assessments to evaluate educational standards and to modify the curriculum to better suit to the demands of the 21st century. Education systems that are successful in linking the national curriculum and assessments directly to international standards are performing better on international standardized assessments of reading, mathematics, and science. This book covers studies related to educational assessment in addressing quality of education and performance improvement. The book presents the distinguished and exemplary works by educators and researchers in the field highlighting the contemporary trends and issues, creative and unique approaches, innovative methods, frameworks, pedagogies and theoretical and practical aspects in assessment processes in various educational settings.

A different language is a different vision of life.--Federico Felli pursuing an education or career in business, and for anyone who is interested in foreign languages. countries, and making friends all over the world, author Tyler Lyerly shares his knowledge and experiences dealing with languages and cultures with you in order to help you succeed in this language-driven world. There is no better time than now to understand which foreign language will aid you most in your current or future business career. Lyerly discusses many of today's most significant languages in the international arena today, including:

Institutions of higher education across the world are expected to contribute to the resolution of economic, social, and environmental problems and to respond to them. However, in order to meet these expectations, universities need to have a strong sense of university governance to provide academics and researchers with a high degree of independence. University Governance and Academic Leadership in the EU and China provides innovative insights into the evolving higher education system of university governance in Europe and China. The content within this publication analyzes university governance, education technology, academic integrity, higher education, clear role positioning, and more. It is a vital reference source for education administrators, educators, academicians, policymakers, government officials, professionals, researchers, and consultants seeking coverage on topics centered on successful and effective leadership in modern universities.

This book discusses the developments in policy and practice in the field of formal, non-formal and continuing vocational education and training in Spain since 1970. It describes how VET has been transformed and become one of the country's main areas of pedagogical innovation, and also examines current developments, such as the role of non-formal vocational education and training, the accreditation of vocational qualifications acquired in the non-formal system, and the adoption of dual apprenticeships that bear little resemblance to central European dual systems. Written by respected researchers in these fields, the first section is informative and analytical, offering a description of the system and comments based on academic literature and research. The second section illustrates the research on relevant issues, portraying empirical data from different regions in Spain, as well as nationwide data. Explaining and interpreting data on the basis of the authors' different theoretical frameworks, the book provides a comprehensive, updated and accurate overview of VET and relevant research in Spain, as well as their relation to European and global developments.

The future looks promising for the field of career and technical education (CTE). The Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 eases the way to create multiple pathways for high school students to get to college and careers. Philanthropic foundations are funding innovations in career preparation. State departments of education are revamping program guidelines and graduation requirements. In many states, governors have made career preparation a priority. While people plan CTE's future, Educating a Working Society looks to its past. This book explores twentieth-century efforts to bring schooling and work closer together. Chapters feature timely topics, such as public controversy over vocational programs, the influences of racism in philanthropic giving, students' choices in course taking, teachers' efforts to combine the academic and vocational missions of schooling, and contemporary trends in college and career readiness initiatives. Using schools to prepare youth for work has a long and troubled history. The contributors to this book dive into that history, bringing up compelling issues that challenge conventional wisdom about the history of education.

This edited volume offers a range of insights about, practices of, and findings associated with, enrichening higher education students' learning by their engagement in educational processes during and after the completion of their work integrated education experiences. That is, using post-practicum intervention to augment and enrich those learning experiences. The collected contributions here draw on the processes of trialling and evaluating educational processes that aimed to enrich the work integrated education experiences for purposes of improving students' understandings, abilities to address workplace and occupational requirements. These processes and findings from these processes across a range of disciplinary fields including pharmacy, psychology, physiotherapy, service learning, occupational therapy, journalism and business students education speak directly to educators in both workplace and educational settings across a range of occupational sectors. These messages, which arise from educators and practitioners enacting and evaluating these interventions, offer practical suggestions as well as conceptual advances. The reach of the accounts of processes, findings and evaluations is not restricted to the occupational fields in which the interventions occurred. The lessons provided through this edited volume are intended to inform how post-practicum interventions might be enacted across a range of occupational studies.

The computer graphics (CG) industry is an attractive field for undergraduate students, but employers often find that graduates of CG art programmes are not proficient. The result is that many positions are left vacant, despite large numbers of job applicants. This book investigates how student CG artists develop proficiency. The subject is important to the rapidly growing number of educators in this sector, employers of graduates, and students who intend to develop proficiency for the purpose of obtaining employment. Educators will see why teaching software-oriented knowledge to students does not lead to proficiency, but that the development of problem-solving and visualisation skills do. This book follows a narrow focus, as students develop proficiency in a cognitively challenging task known as 'NURBS modelling'. This task was chosen due to an observed relationship between students who succeeded in the task, and students who successfully obtained employment after graduation. In the study this is based on, readers will be shown that knowledge-based explanations for the development of proficiency do not adequately account for proficiency or expertise in this field, where visualisation has been observed to develop suddenly rather than over an extended period of time. This is an unusual but not unique observation. Other studies have shown rapid development of proficiency and expertise in certain professions, such as among telegraph operators, composers and chess players. Based on these observations, the book argues that threshold concepts play a key role in the development of expertise among CG artists.

This book reports on the use of behavioural support - an evidence-based approach developed in the USA to meet students' special educational needs - in Australia and selected thriving Asian countries. It brings together key issues and insights into how educational policy and practices in different societies and cultures influence the uptake of behavioural support in schools and classrooms. The book provides a balanced and highly informative perspective on the historical paths of development and current expansion of behavioural support into regular schools in the USA. It also offers insights into the progress of its implementation outside the Western context of the USA and Europe and its influence on capacity building among professionals within various contexts across the Asia-Pacific region. Case studies from Australia demonstrate the effectiveness of multi-tiered behavioural support in a state government education system for a population of diverse students, and address the resultant adaptation of tiers when it is implemented in a nongovernment school organisation for students with autism. Case studies from Singapore, Mainland China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan reveal the cultural practices and organisational issues that produce distinctive characteristics of behavioural support in inclusive and special education within these countries. This book offers essential guidance to educational decision-makers in these countries and communities around diverse students in considering their next steps towards using behavioural supports proposed in the American blueprints for implementing and building capacity for use in any context.

The discussion around whether entrepreneurship can be taught is becoming obsolete as the number of entrepreneurship courses, specializations and degrees is rising at an unprecedented rate all over the world and the demand for entrepreneurial education teachers or instructors is constantly growing. The global community of entrepreneurial education proponents is enthusiastic about the possibility of spreading the idea of entrepreneurship, as it is believed to benefit societies and economies in addition to influencing human development on an individual level. The fervour is nurtured by public policies and the development of an enterprising culture in the public discourse. In this discourse, entrepreneurship is treated as a panacea for numerous social and economic problems. This book is a solid reference point for all who are interested in conducting research on entrepreneurial education or engaged in teaching entrepreneurship. It is a compendium of knowledge about entrepreneurial education as a research field, seen from the perspective of the last four decades, its complete contemporary history. It reviews the progress of the field from the outset to the present in terms of its socio-economic context, changes in the academic community, but also its research focus and methodological development. This uniquely comprehensive book is a resource of both knowledge on entrepreneurial education research and inspiration for future studies within the field. This timely and relevant book provides practical insights for educators when developing their teaching practice and will be of interest to entrepreneurship educators and entrepreneurship education researchers.

This book is open access under a CC-BY license. The volume presents papers on vocational education, project-based learning and science didactic approaches, illustrating with sample cases, and with a special focus on Central Asian states. Thematically embedded in the area of Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET), the book examines the following main topics: project-based learning (PBL), specific didactics with a linkage to food technologies and laboratory didactics, media and new technologies in TVET, evaluation of competencies including aspects of measurement, examination issues, and labour market and private sector issues in TVET, and research methods with a focus on empirical research and the role of scientific networks. It presents outcomes from TVET programmes at various universities, colleges, and teacher training institutes in Central Asia.

Technology management education and business education are visibly intertwined in the current educational system. Certain efforts that have taken place in the recent past are the interinstitutional discourse around the world. Technology management is a dynamic and evolving profession, driven by changes in technology, globalization, sustainability, and the increasing importance of the service economy. The Handbook of Research on Future Opportunities for Technology Management Education is a comprehensive reference book that enables readers to comprehend the trends in technological changes and the need to orient business education and technology management in workplaces. The book serves to support with the formation and implementation of appropriate policies for technology management. Covering topics such as big data analytics, cloud computing adoption, and massive open online courses (MOOCs), this text is an essential resource for managers, technologists, teachers, executives, instructional designers, libraries, university researchers, students, faculty, and industry taught leaders.

A new set of major changes is reshaping the economy and creating challenges that are testing the mettle and talents of organizations and their employees. Unless organizations and their employees develop the requisite skills they need to cope with these challenges, many will become casualties of their own deficiencies. "Keys to Employee Success in Coming Decades" seeks to prepare employees for future success in an increasingly demanding and competitive global environment. Sims, Veres, and their contributors are careful to focus on what employees at different levels in the organization will need to do to be successful in the twenty-first century.

Mastery of the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors discussed by the contributors in this book will lead to enhanced employee performance as the new decade approaches. The requirements for new employees or the redesigned employees is quickly changing. The organizations of tomorrow will expect employees who understand the importance of success; who welcome change and accept it, master it, and deliberately cause it. They are also employees who are proactive innovators, who confront constraints and the limitations on actions that they impose, who take risks and who continue to develop themselves professionally, technically, and personally. Written clearly, concisely, and with a minimum of academic jargon, the book will be important reading for specialists in human resource management, training and development, and others with critical responsibilities throughout the organization.

This book covers the main issues on the study of competencies and talent management in modern and competitive organizations. The chapters show how organizations around the world are facing (global) talent management challenges and give the reader information on the latest research activity related to that. Innovative theories and strategies are reported in this book, which provides an interdisciplinary exchange of information, ideas and opinions about the workplace challenges.

Due to the varied history of learning among disabled students, educators should ideally develop content tailored to each student's specific needs. However, in order to accomplish this, educators require easy-to-handle software and hardware for creating original content and aid for students with disabilities in their classes. Handmade Teaching Materials for Students With Disabilities provides emerging research exploring the theoretical and practical aspects of materials and technology made to help teachers in providing content and aid for students with disabilities and their applications within education. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as assistive technologies, instructional practice, and teaching materials, this book is ideally designed for school teachers, pre-service teachers, academicians, researchers, and parents seeking current research on advancements in materials provided for teachers of disabled students.

This joint World Bank-ILO study traces the experience of 19 countries in reforming their vocational education and training policies and summarizes the lessons learned, focusing on obstacles to implementing changes in response to changing labor markets and innovative approaches to overcoming these constraints. The four main messages emerging from the study are: that matching instrument to target group is vital; the role of governments as facilitators has often been overlooked; the assumed reluctance of private providers to enter the field is a myth; and lack of political will, not institutional capacity, is the main obstacle to comprehensive reform.

"If you want to learn how to bring the best performances out of the people who surround you, then this straightforward guidebook on human resource development provides you with the tools you need to cause positive change.People new to the field as well as industry veterans will find practical information and guidance, including how to: facilitate dynamic adult learning experiences; help people develop confidence, vigor, and zeal to meet challenges; write the best performance criteria; establish an atmosphere where learning is always promoted.All supervisors must take responsibility in helping their employees meet expectations and become successful professionals. This also applies to ministers, rabbis, imams, and other leaders who encourage people to lead more productive and satisfying lives.Regardless of whether you are a human resource professional, it's imperative that you rise to the challenge and take the necessary steps to help others rise to their potential. Learn how to do it step by step with A Mini Course in Training Design. It provides guidance on how you can become a motivational force. Through human resource development tools, you can develop qualities such as expertise, empathy, and enthusiasm that will help you to develop training methods specialized to your purpose and to your people."

This book examines challenges associated with the education of teachers in and for rural places. It offers a new perspective with respect to how Canadian educators are shifting the conversation toward a hopeful discourse concerning how educators can foster meaningful rural learning environments, which will contribute to building stronger rural communities and regions. A central focus of the book is emerging reconceptualization of education, place and indigeneity in Canadian education in the wake of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Though the challenge of addressing rural teaching and learning lies partly in the nuances and complexities of unique places, there are also common threads that affect virtually all communities in rural, regional and remote educational, cultural, economic, and social geographies. Chapters in this collection provide current research in Canadian rural education including examples and stories from the field - contributed by teachers, administrators, and superintendents - on the challenges and creative opportunities that they have discovered in their own rural context, giving hope and inspiration for what is possible. The book will appeal to all readers interested in rural education and teacher education, as well as to those concerned with educational inequality and indigenous education.

The authors analyze the schism between accounting practitioners and academics, providing historical, philosophical, and political perspectives on this division. They support the efforts of the Accounting Education Change Commission in its call for sweeping changes in the scope and quality of accounting education. This schism originated before the turn of the century in the United States over concerns about the best preparation for professional accountants. Since that time, the nature of the schism has broadened considerably. Accounting has largely been taught in a structured framework, far removed from the dynamic and ill-structured situations resulting from environmental changes in which accounting is practiced. This gulf between accounting and practice reflects the schism today, which has become a division between individuals with different philosophical, economic, and political goals and attitudes. Nevertheless, the authors view the schism in a positive light--as a natural reflection of different ideas that lead to beneficial changes.

The authors begin with a philosophical perspective on the schism, as a division between opposing ideas, and deal with three areas of the accounting schism: education, practice, and standard-setting. The main focus is on education. The history of the schism is then delineated. Other views of the schism are considered next, including economic, political, and utilitarian. The function of the schism in the world of accounting is examined. Recent changes in the nature and complexity of the environment in which accounting is practiced are presented. This book is suitable for use in accounting theory and policy courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels and in accounting education seminars at the graduate level. In addition, the book should be of interest to accounting practitioners.

This book provides a framework for investigating faculty development in the Chinese higher education system, and proposes a faculty development model, which is subsequently applied to assess the conceptual, practical and strategic dimensions of Chinese faculty development. The proposed framework is primarily based on reconstructing the higher education system. The book focuses on conceptualizing and pursuing faculty development. The intended readership includes researchers with an interest in, or whose work involves, research on faculty development and comparative higher education; administrators and stakeholders in Chinese higher education management; and graduate students majoring or minoring in comparative higher education.

Recent years have seen numerous and substantial changes in the processes, expectations, and criteria that inform the work of regional accreditation commissions and professional accreditation associations. This sourcebook offers an overview of the accreditation process focused specifically on contemporary expectations for and challenges to libraries, information technologies, and academic computing, and offers practical advice to those librarians involved with academic accreditation activity. Chapters in this professional reference book overview and discuss the principal issues and challenges of academic accreditation, the process of accreditation, and the role of libraries in that process. Throughout the book, attention is given to changing student demographics, the impact of new technologies on the mission of the university, and the evolving expectations placed on the library and other campus information centers. Chapter authors include several executives associated with regional accreditation commissions, library administrators who have extensive experience with accreditation, and university administrators knowledgeable of accreditation issues.

This book focuses on the training, education, and assistance needs of municipal governments as they prepare to face the challenges of the 21st century. These crises include increased citizen demands, dwindling financial support, technological advances, and demographic trends which result in the additional layering of diversity in the work force. The authors argue that an investment in training represents a commitment to the future of the municipal organization as well as the community itself. An important resource for public administrators and academics.

This book describes how a support structure can be built to enhance peer-to-peer (and also students-to-lecturers) communication and support. It informs lecturers on how they can decide if they should adopt one or more social media tools to facilitate students' learning, communication, and support for an internship program. This book introduces a participatory design approach that can help develop a pedagogy that will make good use of social media tools on internship learning. It presents a framework for experiential internship learning, integrating helpful educational practices such as participatory design approach and the use of social media.