Engineering education plays a pivotal role in cultivating the engineering capacity for sustainable development. Nonetheless, there has been no comprehensive review that examines sustainability as a ...distinct knowledge domain within engineering education. This review filled this gap by conducting a bibliometric review to document the research landscape, analyze the intellectual structure of the literature, and identify emerging research themes. The review sourced 2738 Scopus-indexed documents published between 1991 and 2022. Data analyses included descriptive statistics, co-citation analysis, and keyword co-occurrence analysis. The study identified consistent growth in research output and geographic diversity. Four predominant conceptual themes were identified in the literature: (1) Engineering Education Reform, (2) Engineering Competencies, Pedagogy, and Curriculum, (3) Curriculum Assessment and Benchmarks, and (4) Sustainable Technologies. Findings emphasize the need for defining precise engineering competencies related to sustainability, incorporating diverse teaching methods, and ensuring that sustainability learning outcomes align with changing industry norms, regulations, and accreditation criteria. The study also highlights a growing focus on the use of Industry 4.0 technologies as a means of achieving sustainability outcomes. The review underscores the need for sustained curriculum reform to successfully transform engineering education toward sustainability.
China has adopted policy experimentation (PE) as a means of introducing and testing innovative policy options for reforms in higher education (HE). This paper explores how PE plays out in the HE ...sector, involving state actors and university actors in a dynamic interactive process and bringing about institutional changes. This paper proposes a theoretical categorisation to understand four types of PE that occurred in China’s HE reforms, i.e. directive, authorised, exploratory and retrospectively authorised experiments. It discusses an empirically informed case study to illustrate the experiment process characterised by central-local interaction and intentionally ambiguous boundaries. The PE approach enables state-university interactions and power negotiations that create and maintain strategy space for consensus-building. The state, however, retains ultimate authority for legitimatising, selecting and expanding policy experiments. It is best understood as ‘elite-enabled experimentation within existing political hierarchies’. This study provides a distinctive perspective for understanding and explaining the power dynamics embedded in China’s HE reform process and more broadly the evolution of higher education governance.
Educational Robotics (ER) has the potential to provide significant benefits to education, provided an increase in outreach by transitioning from the extra-curricular initiatives in which ER has ...thrived to formal education. As Computer Science (CS) Education is undergoing curricular reforms worldwide, the present study addresses the case of a Digital Education reform that included ER as a means to teach core CS concepts. Approximately 350 teachers from the first four grades of primary school participated in a mandatory two-year continuing professional development (CPD) program. The first year of the program was dedicated to CS and introduced teachers to CS Unplugged (CSU) and Robotics Unplugged (RU) activities. As such, we analyse the interplay between these activities and focus on teachers’ voluntary adoption of the proposed content in classrooms. This is complemented by an analysis of their perception and recommendation of ER. The findings highlight three main points. Firstly, ER benefits from the integration in the CS CPD, as this provides the necessary traction to introduce ER into teacher practices (the teachers freely devoted 2275 h to ER activities in their classrooms, over two years). Secondly, the presence of ER activities in the CS-CPD allows a higher proportion of teachers to adopt the CS content, as there are teachers that favour one type of activity over the other. Finally, the globally positive perception of ER registered in this study is relevant for two reasons: teachers were not voluntarily participating in the CPD, and results did not differ between pioneers and novices.
Background: Application of appropriate teaching and learning strategies is a necessary way of influencing student learning outcomes. The purpose of this study was to explore students’ views, ...perceptions and the effects of these on different teaching and learning approaches. Methods: Twenty one nursing students who were exposed to different teaching strategies were selected as a purposive sample for this study. Qualitative analysis of feedback from six individual interviews and two focus groups encompass a rich data set to inform nurse educators about student perceptions regarding impact of teaching approaches on their learning outcomes. Results: Participants indicated advantages and disadvantages of each of the teaching strategies and recommended suggestions for improving learning outcomes. The findings also described how a student’s preferred learning strategy impacted on learning outcomes when criteria for surface, deep and strategic approaches were taken into consideration.Conclusions: This research provides evidence for educators on the effects of innovative teaching and learning strategies in nursing education. It also provides preliminary feedback on the extent of achievements on the movement towards national reforms in higher education.
Background: Ethiopia increased its anesthesia workforce drastically by expanding the training of associate clinician anesthetists. Following this expansion, the Ministry of Health established an ...entry-level anesthesia licensing examination to ensure patient safety. However, there is limited empirical evidence on the impacts of licensing exams in low- and middle-income countries. This study aimed to explore the concerns and undesirable consequences of the anesthetist licensing examination in Ethiopia. Methods: A qualitative design using a grounded theory approach was employed by collecting data from 10 anesthesia teaching institutions. We conducted 15 in-depth interviews with instructors and six focus groups with students and graduates who took the exam recently. Interviews and focus groups were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using Atlas.ti 23. We also extracted secondary data from the academic committee meeting minutes, curricula, faculty appraisal reports, and program quality self-review reports. Results: Qualitative analysis revealed three central categories of concerns and untoward consequences of the anesthetist NLE: exam management, educational management, and student behavior. Exam management concerns were related to exam validity, fairness, and consistent enforcement of pass/fail decisions. The unintended consequences of the exam on education management were perceived as promoting teaching and learning for the exam, increasing faculty workload, and resulting in superficial and patchy educational reforms. Study participants also reported adverse psychosocial effects and increased cheating behaviors among students as undesirable consequences of the exam on student behavior. Conclusion: Our study identified some concerns and unintended consequences of the Ethiopian anesthetist licensing examination. These lessons learned may contribute to improving the quality of licensing examinations in Ethiopia and beyond. Keywords: anesthesia, anesthetist, associate clinician, non-physician, licensing examination
The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework for a comparative analysis of Higher Education policies that enables us to investigate the explanatory power of structural ...characteristics of politico-administrative systems. The policies that are studied aim at improving the efficiency and quality of institutional performance. The paper focuses on policy trends in higher education in the eight countries in the study. It discusses how the literature on comparative political and administrative systems can help formulate assumptions about public policy making and policy change. The ideas that are developed are then applied to public reform policies in general and in the area of higher education in particular, followed by a test of the assumptions on available data on reform outcomes in the countries involved. The data indicate that a comparative politico-administrative perspective is potentially useful with regard to explaining cross national variation in higher education reform policies in Europe.
This paper examines how different meanings of knowledge (transnational, comparative, statistical, local, and personal) relationally stabilise the agential position for the legitimation of educational ...reform across state and non-state actors. Analysing the materiality and systems of reason of proposals to reform education in the pre-election debates in the Czech Republic, the focus is placed on different patterns of legitimate and legitimating actorship, assembled from global and local relations. Through an ecological conceptualisation the research identifies the problematisation and decomposition of actorship into contradictory assemblages of both traditional actors (teachers and politicians) and relatively new ones (NGOs). The relationship of the civil sector and the state structures allowed the emergence of new non-state, non-professional actors (NGOs) who aggregate their expertise from transnational data and legitimate both their position as experts and the particular educational change. This has consequences for non-experts as politicians and teachers. The transnational and European context penetrated into the Czech educational sphere not through an elite class of system actors but through the representatives of NGOs. Rhetorically saving education from degradation, NGOs engage in spreading the transnational data and externalise the legitimation of educational reform and thus become the bearers (although agentially limited) of the European space.
以往教育研究多注意國家太平時期的發展，較少關注政局動盪下的教育變革。1912年1月中華民國建立，但因民初政局未穩，為因應開學所需，新設教育部只得儘速修改前清癸卯學制後發布命令施行；之後再新頒教育宗旨、學校系統、各級教育令及課程標準。最初教育部曾想另訂新制，但後迫於復學時間緊湊，只能修改舊制。再者，新訂學校系統仍是以前清學 ...制為基礎而稍修訂。本研究旨在探討民初辛亥革命後至袁氏稱帝前（1912-1916年）教育制度的再造，採史學方法，根據政府檔案、法規、公報、教育報刊及時人文集等一手資料，經內、外部考證後，探討教育制度調整的原因、經過、實施狀況及影響因素。研究發現，當時地方未能完全落實新制，其原因除政局不穩、戰事迭起外，原仿日學制持續發揮影響力、中央及地方經費支絀、地方教育行政體制殘破及中央地方爭權，均影響新制改革與落實。最後，研究指出政治革命後，舊有教育制度不必然也遭推翻，政府往往仍沿用後再修改，策略上是「穿衣改衣」，而無法另起爐灶。此段國家動盪時期的教育變革經驗，值得今後欲採革命式教育改革策略決策者關注。 The state of education during tumultuous times has often been overlooked by educational historians. However, such periods warrant attention because educational opportunities can be severely limited during these times. The fall of the Ch’ing dynasty in October 1911 led to the establishment of the Republic of China. Although a provisional Republican government was inaugurated in Nanking on January 1, 1912, the new democracy remained divided. A new Ministry of Education was established, and Dr. Yuan-Pei Tsai became its first minister. Tsai endeavored to replace the Ch’ing dynasty’s existing K’uei Mao School System, instituted in 1904, with a new educational framework for the Republic. Because the government urgently wished to resume academic sessions by March of that year, a provisional general education regulation was promulgated through telegrams by the new ministry. The Republic was forced to adapt the Chi’ing dynasty’s educational system, implementing emergency modifications such as renaming schools and principals, implementing a two-semester academic year, permitting coeducation in primary schools, removing the distinction between general and vocational secondary schools, revising primary and secondary school textbooks, and shortening the duration of secondary and normal school to 4 years. The effectiveness of the new regulations remained unclear because of ongoing conflicts between China’s southern and northern governments. Reconciliation between the two factions led to superficial national unity in April. Subsequently, the Ministry of Education convened the Provisional Education Meeting in Peking, the new capital, in July 1912. President Shih-Kai Yuan announced new educational objectives and a reformed school system in early September, 2 months after the meeting. The revised educational goals emphasized moral, military and national, and aesthetic education. The new system comprised five educational stages: 4-year junior elementary school, 3-year senior elementary school, 4-year secondary school, 3-year prep-school, and 4-year university. This structure, although similar to the Ch’ing dynasty 4-5-4-3-3-4 model, had been streamlined to a 4-3-4-3-4 model; completing one’s education from elementary school through university required a minimum of 18 years. A series of educational codes, regulations, and curricula were systematically introduced between 1912 and 1913, culminating in the establishment of the Jen Tzu K’uei Ch’ou School System. Regarding the historical narrative of educational reforms in early Republican China, the literature provides only a cursory overview of the new system; it does not delve into the complexities of the reform process or offer critical commentary. Employing a historical method, this study used first-hand sources, including documents from government archives, statutes, regulations, official gazettes, journals, and newspapers. This study employed both internal and external criticism to explore how the new central government sought to reconstruct China’s educational system between 1912 and 1916; to analyze the causes, process, practices, and factors influencing these educational reforms; and to draw conclusions and implications. The major findings are as follows. The primary motivations for reforming the Ch’ing dynasty’s educational system included its inefficiency, shortcomings, excessively long duration, improper curricula, and inconsistencies or redundancies across educational levels. Empirical evidence indicates that only 6 out of 18 provincial governments adopted the new statutes and regulations to implement the new educational system; the status of the remaining provinces remains unknown. Four major factors influenced these reforms. First, the Ch’ing school system, which was modeled after the Japanese system, continued to exert a considerable influence. Although the number of students who had graduated from Western countries increased after 1912, most had not focused on educational studies and consequently had limited understanding of Western educational systems. Second, ongoing political turmoil from 1913 to 1916, involving the rapid failure of the Second Revolution, the dissolution of China’s parliament, the abolition of the constitution, the ascent and rapid descent of President Yuan as Emperor, the fleeting restoration of the Ch’ing dynasty, and the outbreak of civil wars among various warlords, severely hampered reform efforts. Third, the financial resources allocated to education by local governments were consistently inadequate, primarily due to the diversion of educational funds to military activities. In addition, the limited educational funds were often squandered by local educational agencies and schools. Finally, administrative disorganization and power struggles among provincial, local, and central governments negatively affected the implementation of the new system. The lessons from China’s modern history indicate that completely abolishing an existing educational system is not strategically necessary for a new regime. In China, some revisions were made, and the old system continued to function. In understanding these reforms, consideration must be given to the fact that numerous provincial and central government officials visited Japan to gain educational insights after 1894. Additionally, a substantial number of Chinese students were studying in Japan at that time. These factors may have influenced the subsequent introduction of the Japanese education model into China. In the development of comparative education, modern China transitioned from what can be termed the “traveler’s tale” stage to a stage of “educational borrowing.” A comparison of the number of Chinese students studying in Japan and the US between 1906 and 1912 revealed that more students were in Japan. Moreover, these students displayed a deeper understanding of the educational system they were immersed in. During the Provisional Education Meeting of 1912, the participants who had received Japanese education outnumbered those of US and therefore likely had a greater influence on the final decisions. Notably, Hsi-Kuang Yau and Yi Chen, who were sent by Hu-Kuang Governor-General Chih-Tung Chang to inspect Japanese education in the late Ch’ing dynasty, played influential roles. Chen had even translated Japanese educational laws and drafted a framework for the K’uei Mao School System. Both individuals were official delegates, and therefore, their influence was substantial. Since 1922, the educational system established between 1912 and 1913 has been replaced by what is known as the New School System, which was modeled after the US 6-3-3-4 educational structure. In conclusion, the educational reforms of early Republican China offer valuable lessons for modern educational reformers. Adopting an evolutionary strategy rather than a revolutionary one, China reformed its education system during a period of political instability. Modern China’s experience serves as an insightful case study for those considering revolutionary strategies for educational reform in the future.
Using digital technology effectively in schools requires profound changes in traditional teaching and learning activities. Pedagogical innovations often start small-scale and developing good ideas ...into shared practice across schools is challenging in many ways, especially if the innovation requires
second-order change
, i.e. challenges to fundamental beliefs about teaching and learning. This study investigates how a validated pedagogical method requiring integrated Information and Communication Technology (ICT) use and second-order change can be disseminated and sustained over time. We surveyed 92 primary school teachers who at different times over a 5-year period participated in a training course designed to implement an innovative technology-supported teaching method,
Write To Learn,
across an entire city. We found that organized teacher development programs can drive second-order change, but this requires considerable, active, and sustained effort from leaders at both school and district level. Additional factors include immediate and extended social systems and handling diversity among teachers. The results are useful for both practitioners and researchers since they contribute to a deeper understanding of the opportunities and challenges involved in disseminating effective ICT-based methods that requires profound changes of thinking about teaching and learning to guide the transformation of teaching practice.
PDF
