Integrating problem- and project-based learning into sustainability programs

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 431-449 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnim Wiek ◽  
Angela Xiong ◽  
Katja Brundiers ◽  
Sander van der Leeuw
Keyword(s):  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Implementation Challenges ◽  
Institutional Structures ◽  
The World ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Ultimate Objective ◽  
Sustainability Problems ◽  
Faculty Surveys

Purpose – The article aims to describe the problem- and project-based learning (PPBL) program and the institutional context at Arizona State University’s School of Sustainability (SOS), with the goal of offering experience-based guidance for similar initiatives in sustainability programs around the world. Design/methodology/approach – This case study presents the diverse PPBL activities that SOS offers on the undergraduate and the graduate levels and examines the institutional structures in place that support these activities. Data were collected through literature and document reviews, observations, interviews, student evaluations and faculty surveys. Findings – The review of the PPBL program at SOS illustrates a case of successfully inaugurating a PPBL program in sustainability at a major university in the USA. Yet, a key challenge for this program and similar programs around the world is how to maintain the institutional momentum and make advances after the initial takeoff. SOS is attempting to address this issue by developing greater program cohesion and coordination, synthesizing past products and learning, monitoring and evaluating impacts, and developing PPBL training programs for faculty and graduate students. Practical implications – The experiences and findings presented can help other programs to articulate the benefits of a PPBL initiative, anticipate implementation challenges and successfully support their own PPBL initiatives through adequate institutional structures. The review points to the fact that the major impact on both student learning and outcomes for partner organizations is achieved through a concerted effort by the organization as a whole. Successful PPBL programs require both top-down commitments from the administration and bottom-up drive from interested faculty and students. Originality/value – This case study discusses the PPBL program at SOS. The findings can inform and support the ongoing transformation in sustainability education with the ultimate objective to build students’ capacities to address and solve wicked sustainability problems in the real world, competently collaborating with partners from government, business and civil society.

Rethinking and revaluating UNESCO World Heritage Sites

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Louis Stiefel
Keyword(s):  
World Heritage ◽  
Content Type ◽  
World Heritage Sites ◽  
Heritage Sites ◽  
Common Heritage ◽  
World Heritage List ◽  
The World ◽  
Outstanding Universal Value ◽  
The Usa

Purpose Having more than 1,000 sites on the World Heritage List raises questions regarding what world heritage means. The re-evaluation of heritage sites within the USA will be conducted as a case study, where similar issues of historical designation has taken place. Within recent decades there has emerged a policy of revisiting designations that occurred prior to 1990, when the nomination process was less rigorous. These re-evaluations do not necessarily remove the property from heritage designation, but the process has been valuable from a qualitative standpoint because a better understanding of significance has been achieved. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach Within recent decades there has emerged a policy of revisiting designations that occurred prior to 1990 in the USA, when the nomination process was less rigorous. Should a similar approach or policy be made to the properties placed on the World Heritage List during the first decades, since the expectations for demonstrating outstanding universal value have since increased? The result could be that we end up with a more robust World Heritage List that provides a better definition of what the common heritage of humanity is. Findings The way we approach and conceptualize World Heritage needs to evolve accordingly, considering how much it has evolved since the Convention in 1972. The experiences of re-evaluating historic places in the USA since the 1990s has much to offer. Research limitations/implications Only the perspective of the USA is given, as a case study. Contributions from practitioners in other countries experienced in heritage site re-evaluation best practices would be meaningful. Practical implications Re-evaluating World Heritage Sites is something to consider as a management prospect for places on or under consideration for the World Heritage List since it could bring a more comprehensive understanding of outstanding universal value. This type of re-evaluation may help in addressing the meaning of place(s), contextualization of multiple locations of common heritage, and the political elitism of the World Heritage List, where some countries are over represented due to sites listed through a less-experienced process from earlier decades. Social implications Revisiting the World Heritage List in respect to policy and the meaning of world heritage may be in order. For example, should every nation be entitled to list at least one property to the list regardless of its heritage value? Originality/value Since the 1970s, coinciding with the establishment of the World Heritage List through the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, the USA has dealt with dynamic and complex logistical problems regarding the recognition and interpretation of its cultural heritage.

Asset recovery in corruption cases

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Leasure
Keyword(s):  
Vice President ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Case Study Analysis ◽  
Asset Recovery ◽  
The Us ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Republic

Purpose – Asset recovery proceedings increasingly target corrupt foreign officials who acquire lavish assets as a result of capital gained through criminal acts. One extremely difficult issue arising in asset recovery proceedings is whether the capital used to acquire the assets can be traced to a criminal act. The purpose of this paper is to critique US tracing procedure through comparative analysis. Design/methodology/approach – A prominent series of cases brought by the USA and France against assets owned by Teodoro “Teodorín” Nguema Obiang, second Vice President of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, produced mixed results on the tracing element. This paper utilizes a qualitative comparative case analysis to examine the US and French cases. Findings – The US results reflect serious weaknesses in the US law as compared to more effective French asset recovery procedure. Originality/value – Though this paper is certainly a comparative case study analysis, nearly identical facts and two different jurisdictions reaching separate conclusions bring us in the legal community as close as we can realistically come to quasi-experimental research. Comparative research in this area is severely lacking and sorely needed. The mechanisms identified in the French system clearly show flaws that are present in the US system.

International benchmarking for performance improvement in construction safety and health

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 916-936 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lance W. Saunders ◽  
Andrew P McCoy ◽  
Brian M. Kleiner ◽  
Helen Lingard ◽  
Tracy Cooke ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Construction Safety ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Worker Safety ◽  
Potential Hazard ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Project Lifecycle

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to advance knowledge on the advantages of integrating safety earlier in the construction project lifecycle. Design/methodology/approach – A case study approach is used to collect data from construction sites in the USA, which performs poorly in construction safety and health, and Australia (AU), which performs well in construction safety and health. Qualitative data are collected to determine how and when safety is considered in the project lifecycle in both countries, and then the results are benchmarked to determine the benefits of addressing safety earlier in the process. Findings – Data show that addressing a potential hazard earlier in the project lifecycle has performance benefits in terms of the level of hazard control. Research limitations/implications – The processes that are identified as possibly explaining the performance difference are just based on qualitative data from interviews. Targeted research addressing the relationship between these processes and safety outcomes is an opportunity for further research. Practical implications – The case study data are used to identify specific processes that are used in AU that might be adopted in the USA to improve performance by integrating safety earlier into the decision-making process. Social implications – This paper highlights the advantages of integrating safety as a decision factor early in the process. Worker safety is not just an issue in the construction industry, and thus the findings are applicable to all industries in which worker safety is an issue. Originality/value – This paper advances the safety in design literature by quantitatively supporting the link between when a hazard is addressed and performance. It also links the results to specific processes across countries, which advances the literature because most research in this area to data is within a single country.

The US brewing industry, strategic windows and survival

2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 434-458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynn A. Walter ◽  
Linda F. Edelman ◽  
Keneth J. Hatten
Keyword(s):  
Dynamic Capabilities ◽  
Survival Rates ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Brewing Industry ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Operational Capabilities ◽  
Select Group ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Usa

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate how dynamic capabilities enabled survival in a select group of brewers, during one of the lengthiest and most severe industry consolidations in history. In doing so, we advance Abell’s (1978) theory of strategic windows through integration with the resource-based view of the firm. Design/methodology/approach – Using a mixed method approach, we first apply case study methods to develop hypotheses around the timing and level of operational capability required for survival. In the second phase, we test these hypothesized estimations on the USA Brewing population. Findings – Indicate that brewers which had advanced distribution and manufacturing operational capabilities before the strategic window of opportunity closed had higher survival rates. Practical implications – This study reinforces the importance of making timely strategic investments in capabilities. Originality/value – The integration of strategic window and capability theories advances our understanding of the roles that capabilities and time play in determining firm survival.

scholarly journals Digital curation: the development of a discipline within information science

2018 ◽  
Vol 74 (6) ◽  
pp. 1318-1338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Higgins
Keyword(s):  
Information Science ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Digital Information ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Digital Curation ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Financial Ecology

Purpose Digital curation addresses the technical, administrative and financial ecology required to ensure that digital information remains accessible and usable over the long term. The purpose of this paper is to trace digital curation’s disciplinary emergence and examine its position within the information sciences domain in terms of theoretical principles, using a case study of developments in the UK and the USA. Design/methodology/approach Theoretical principles regarding disciplinary development and the identity of information science as a discipline are applied to a case study of the development of digital curation in the UK and the USA to identify the maturity of digital curation and its position in the information science gamut. Findings Digital curation is identified as a mature discipline which is a sub-meta-discipline of information science. As such digital curation has reach across all disciplines and sub-disciplines of information science and has the potential to become the overarching paradigm. Practical implications These findings could influence digital curation’s development from applied discipline to profession within both its educational and professional domains. Originality/value The disciplinary development of digital curation within dominant theoretical models has not hitherto been articulated.

scholarly journals Penguatan Karakter Kebangsaan dan Kompetensi Pedagogik Berorientasi Pada Keterampilan Abad 21

MADRASAH ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 83
Author(s):  
Puji Rahayu ◽  
Turmudi Turmudi ◽  
Agus Muharram ◽  
Mamad Kasmad ◽  
Nuur Wachid Abdul Majid
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
21St Century Skills ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
National Character ◽  
Case Study Approach ◽  
Analysis Techniques ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
The World ◽  
Collection Data

<em>This research aims to reveal how the national character and pedagogic competence have oriented to 21st Century Skills for Students at Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia. This research used to qualitative that using case study approach. This research took place at UPI Campus Purwakarta. Informants at this time are: (1) leadership; (2) lecturers; and (3) students. Data analysis techniques using interactive models Miles and Huberman, namely: data collection, data condensation, display data, and concusion: drawing / verifying. The results of this research is the process of strengthening national character and mastery of pedagogic potential for PGSD UPI Students Purwakarta Campus is in accordance with the needs of 21st century skills. The learning process includes: (1) Project Based Learning; (2) Religious Tutorials; (3) Extracurricular Field Practices; and (4) Video Projects themed Local Wisdom. Through this method, they can help them to work in the world and be able to utilize pedagogic's teachers</em>

Civics education in Malaysia: a clash between ethics, religion and cultural norms

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vishalache Balakrishnan
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Digital Citizenship ◽  
Civics Education ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Study Research ◽  
Qualitative Approaches

PurposeTo showcase the importance of digital citizenship in the current era. This article compares the nine features of digital citizen provided by Ribble and Bailey (2007) with a case study conducted in a multicultural setting and identifies the tensions between ethics, religion and cultural norms in that environment.Design/methodology/approachA case study approach has been used in this research. Why case study? Because it is unique and provides in-depth, unique and invaluable findings. Case studies researchers have contributed to the development of case study research from diverse disciplines. Historical examples of case studies go back as far as the nineteenth century with the biography of Charles Darwin (Stewart, 2014). The dominance of positivism in science in the late 1940 and 1950s in social science sidelined qualitative approaches such as case studies. Although case study research was often criticized for its inability to support generalizations, and thus, provided limited validity and value as a research design (Merriam, 2009; Stewart, 2014), case study research provides intensive analysis of an issue. A Case study is intrinsic, instrumental and collective (Stake, 1995, 2006). Case study research encourages the detailed enquiry of a unit of analysis within its context.FindingsFindings show that current society needs to be educated on the nine aspects of digital citizenship. In the current era, changes are so rapid that every now and then, there must be collaboration and cooperation between different agencies to ensure that the tension between religiosity, cultural norms and ethics would be able to find some common ground. With more knowledge and wisdom on human rights, sustainability education and project-based learning in Civics Education, teachers, students, parents and community should often meet to decide on controversial issues and find ways to ensure that each one in society has the knowledge, skills and values for digital citizenship to grow and flourish.Originality/valueThe article is original in nature and has much social impact.

Families’ engagement in making activities related to aerospace engineering: designing for parents as learning partners in pop-up makerspaces

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Toomey Zimmerman ◽  
Katharine Ellen Grills ◽  
Zachary McKinley ◽  
Soo Hyeon Kim
Keyword(s):  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Aerospace Engineering ◽  
Instrument Panel ◽  
Scientific Instrument ◽  
Design Work ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Collective Case Study ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Engineering Designs

Purpose The researchers conducted a collective case study to investigate how families engaged in making activities related to aerospace engineering in six pop-up makerspace programs held in libraries and one museum. The purpose of this paper is to support families’ engagement in design tasks and engineering thinking, three types of discussion prompts were used during each workshop. The orienting design conjecture was that discussion prompts would allow parents to lead productive conversations to support engineering-making activities. Design/methodology/approach Within a collective case study approach, 20 consented families (22 adults, 25 children) engaged in making practices related to making a lunar rover with a scientific instrument panel. Data included cases of families’ talk and actions, as documented through video (22 h) and photographs of their engineering designs. An interpretivist, qualitative video-based analysis was conducted by creating individual narrative accounts of each family (including transcript excerpts and images). Findings Parents used the question prompts in ways that were integral to supporting youths’ participation in the engineering activities. Children often did not answer the astronomer’s questions directly; instead, the parents revoiced the prompts before the children’s engagement. Family prompts supported reflecting upon prior experiences, defining the design problem and maintaining the activity flow. Originality/value Designing discussion prompts, within a broader project-based learning pedagogy, supports family engagement in engineering design practices in out-of-school pop-up makerspace settings. The work suggests that parents play a crucial role in engineering workshops for youths aged 5 to 10 years old by revoicing prompts to keep families’ design work and sensemaking talk (connecting prior and new ideas) flowing throughout a makerspace workshop.

Legislative discrepancies: an analysis of Missouri’s current human trafficking laws and the need to improve its legal protection of victims

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-158
Author(s):  
Rachel Kappler ◽  
Arduizur Carli Richie-Zavaleta
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
State Level ◽  
The State ◽  
Safe Harbor ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Usa

Purpose Human trafficking (HT) is a local, national and international problem with a range of human rights, public health and policy implications. Victims of HT face atrocious abuses that negatively impact their health outcomes. When a state lacks protective laws, such as Safe Harbor laws, victims of HT tend to be seen as criminals. This paper aims to highlight the legal present gaps within Missouri’s anti-trafficking legislation and delineates recommendations for the legal protection of victims of HT and betterment of services needed for their reintegration and healing. Design/methodology/approach This case-study is based on a policy analysis of current Missouri’s HT laws. This analysis was conducted through examining current rankings systems created by nationally and internationally recognized non-governmental organizations as well as governmental reports. Additionally, other state’s best practice and law passage of Safe Harbor legislations were examined. The recommendations were based on human rights and public health frameworks. Findings Missouri is a state that has yet to upgrade its laws lately to reflect Safe Harbor laws. Constant upgrades and evaluations of current efforts are necessary to protect and address HT at the state and local levels. Public health and human rights principles can assist in the upgrading of current laws as well as other states’ best-practice and integration of protective legislation and diversion programs to both youth and adult victims of HT. Research limitations/implications Laws are continually being updated at the state level; therefore, there might be some upgrades that have taken place after the analysis of this case study was conducted. Also, the findings and recommendations of this case study are limited to countries that are similar to the USA in terms of the state-level autonomy to pass laws independently from federal law. Practical implications If Safe Harbor laws are well designed, they have greater potential to protect, support and assist victims of HT in their process from victimization into survivorship as well as to paving the way for societal reintegration. The creation and enforcement of Safe Harbor laws is a way to ensure the decriminalization process. Additionally, this legal protection also ensures that the universal human rights of victims are protected. Consequently, these legal processes and updates could assist in creating healthier communities in the long run in the USA and around the world. Social implications From a public health and human rights perspectives, communities in the USA and around the world cannot provide complete protection to victims of HT until their anti-trafficking laws reflect Safe Harbor laws. Originality/value This case study, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, is a unique analysis that dismantles the discrepancies of Missouri’s current HT laws. This work is valuable to those who create policies at the state level and advocate for the protection of victims and anti-trafficking efforts.

The effect of political neuromarketing 2.0 on election outcomes

2019 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Islam Mohamed Hegazy
Keyword(s):  
Big Data ◽  
Political Campaign ◽  
Quality Of Democracy ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Interdisciplinary Field ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Field Of Inquiry

Purpose The purpose of this paper is the better understanding of the increasing relation between big data 2.0 and neuromarketing, particularly to influence election outcomes, along with a special aim to discuss some raised doubts about Trump’s presidential campaign 2016 and its ability to hijack American political consumers’ minds, and to direct their votes. Design/methodology/approach This paper combines deductive/inductive methodology to define the term of political neuromarketing 2.0 through a brief literature review of related concepts of big data 2.0, virtual identity and neuromarketing. It then applies a single qualitative case study by presenting the history and causes of online voter microtargeting in the USA, and analyzing the political neuromarketing 2.0 mechanisms adopted by Trump’s political campaign team in the 2016 presidential election. Findings Based on Trump’s political marketing mechanisms analysis, the paper believes that big data 2.0 and neuromarketing techniques played an unusual role in reading political consumers’ minds and helping the controversial candidate to meet one of the most unexpected victories in the presidential elections. Nevertheless, this paper argues that the ethics of using political neuromarketing 2.0 to sell candidates and its negative impacts on the quality of democracy are and will continue to be a subject of ongoing debates. Originality/value The marriage of big data 2.0 and political neuromarketing is a new interdisciplinary field of inquiry. This paper provides a useful introduction and further explanations for why and how Trump’s campaign defied initial loss predictions and attained victory during this election.

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