scholarly journals Student Team Sustainability Research Projects as an Approach to Education for Sustainability at the University Level

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-114
Author(s):  
G. Ceulemans ◽  
B. Dewulf ◽  
J. D’hollander ◽  
F. M. Fedorowicz ◽  
J. Kempeneers ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Issues ◽  
Scientific Information ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Cultural Dimensions ◽  
Education For Sustainability ◽  
Master's Students ◽  
Sustainability Issue ◽  
Global Action ◽  
Multi Stakeholder ◽  
The University

Abstract At this moment about 7.6 billion people inhabit the earth (Worldpopulation clock 2018). A sustainability revolution is necessary (WCED 1987, UNCED 1992, Rockström 2009) to avoid this huge population in striving for a luxury life depleting the resources of the planet. There are also important social issues that need to be resolved (Raworth 2017). It has been argued that even a real cultural shift is needed (Kagan 2010).This revolution can be started in education (UN 2003). The decade of education for sustainable development <target target-type="page-num" id="p-85"/>(UNESCO 2014a) ran from 2005 till 2014. It is being carried further in the Global Action Program (UNESCO 2014b). At the University of Leuven, the ‘Science and Sustainability’ course is a stand-alone elective course of 6 credits that specifically aims to provide master’s students in the natural sciences with education for (the benefit of) sustainability action (Ceulemans & Severijns 2018a and 2018b). Last year (2016‐2017), the course ran for the first time and insight was gained in the competences that master’s level students hold for sustainability. Based on this experience, stronger emphasis was placed in the second year (2017‐2018) on providing, and making students use, tools to approach sustainability issues. Specific attention was directed toward allowing students to get acquainted with systems thinking and deal with inter- and transdisciplinary issues by approaching problems from a multi-stakeholder point of view. The sustainability reports the student teams compiled therefore necessarily included a representation of the system map they compiled to get a grip on the sustainability issue. Also a stakeholder map needed to be drawn.Near the end of the course it became apparent that students had difficulty in deviating from the Western interpretation of sustainability, where ecological criteria strongly dominate and ecological responsible behavior is pretended to be adequate to drive the transformation for true sustainability. However, it is in the socio-political and socio-cultural dimensions that the value-laden component of sustainability is really found. Several team-tailored feedback and discussion sessions were therefore organized to make students at least consider a slightly broader view on sustainability.Three student reports of projects that were carried out within this framework are presented in the appendices to this abstract. Students were asked to focus in their reports specifically on the broader sustainability related issues. Technical and exact-scientific information related to their project topic was preferably included in an addendum. Sustainability dimensions on which a focus was laid (e.g. Social, Cultural, Politics, Economics, Communications) varied among the projects, being largely dependent on the topic addressed and in part also on the major stakeholders.

scholarly journals Library in the Unadapted Premises: Development of Architectural Transformation of Space

2020 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 343-354
Author(s):  
Marina N. Kolesnikova ◽  
Vadim P. Timonin
Keyword(s):  
Architectural Design ◽  
Practical Interest ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Library Science ◽  
Master's Students ◽  
State Institute ◽  
Project Study ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Architectural Transformation ◽  
The University

Siting, reconstruction, modernization of libraries in the unadapted premises has always been and remains till now a challenging practical problem in the global librarianship, which in each case obtains unique, unconventional solution. Soviet architects involved in the design of libraries — F.N. Pashchenko, L.Z. Amlinsky, V.G. Gelfreikh, A.R. Zimonenko and others — contributed to the development of this problem. They laid the modern and progressive theoretical and methodological foundations of the interdisciplinary section of library science — architecture and construction of library buildings which is actively developing in the 21st century, making the transition from the long-standing concept of the library as a repository for books to understanding it as a constantly changing, flexible and technological information space for all its subjects — visitors, readers and employees. Actualization of the complex task of creating a comfortable environment for the reader and librarian in the adopted for this purpose architectural space has come to the fore. The purpose of the article is to present an original approach in the pre-project study of the University library located in the Palace building in the form of an individual matrix of ideas and solutions. For the key conceptual ideas in the matrix of possible redesigning of the University scientific library the authors chose human centrism, openness, mobility and uniqueness. The paper presents architectural plans of the library, performed by master’s students of the St. Petersburg State Art and Industry Academy named after A.L. Stieglitz under the guidance of the architect-artist, Professor V.P. Timonin, as well as the matrix of ideas and possible solutions for the transformation of the material space of the library of the St. Petersburg State Institute of Culture, prepared by Professor M.N. Kolesnikova. The results of this work are of practical interest from the point of view of architectural design of libraries in the premises of historical buildings, that is an urgent global problem, as well as of theoretical interest for the development of modern library science in its sections related to library design, material and technical base of libraries and library imageology.

scholarly journals The Effectiveness of Distance Learning (BlackBoard) in Pursuing the Educational Process at Taif University during the COVID-19 Pandemic from the .....

2022 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 0-0
Keyword(s):  
Distance Learning ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Master's Students ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
University Experience ◽  
The University ◽  
Descriptive Survey

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia facing the Covid-19 pandemic, as it is trying with all its efforts to pursue higher education in its universities and schools through distance learning. The current research tried to investigate Taif University experience in distance learning and the effectiveness of BlackBoard in pursuing education in the light of the Covid-19 pandemic from the viewpoints of teachers and students. To achieve this goal, the descriptive survey approach was used. Two questionnaires were designed A random sample was chosen from all colleges of the University The sample consisted of (240) faculty members and 804 students. The results showed great effectiveness of BlackBoard in pursuing education from the viewpoints of faculty members, and to a very great degree from the students' point of view. No impact of the two variables (gender, rank) appeared in the viewpoints of faculty members in that effectiveness. male students’ viewpoints were higher than those of females, and the viewpoints of master's students were higher than those of undergraduate students on this effectiveness.

Environmental cell studies of deformation and fracture

1990 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 516-517
Author(s):  
H. K. Birnbaum ◽  
I. M. Robertson
Keyword(s):  
National Laboratory ◽  
Argonne National Laboratory ◽  
Damage Threshold ◽  
Chromatic Aberration ◽  
Good Choice ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Deformation And Fracture ◽  
Environmental Cell ◽  
Gas Molecules ◽  
The University

Studies of the effects of hydrogen environments on the deformation and fracture of fcc, bcc and hep metals and alloys have been carried out in a TEM environmental cell. The initial experiments were performed in the environmental cell of the HVEM facility at Argonne National Laboratory. More recently, a dedicated environmental cell facility has been constructed at the University of Illinois using a JEOL 4000EX and has been used for these studies. In the present paper we will describe the general design features of the JEOL environmental cell and some of the observations we have made on hydrogen effects on deformation and fracture.The JEOL environmental cell is designed to operate at 400 keV and below; in part because of the available accelerating voltage of the microscope and in part because the damage threshold of most materials is below 400 keV. The gas pressure at which chromatic aberration due to electron scattering from the gas molecules becomes excessive does not increase rapidly with with accelerating voltage making 400 keV a good choice from that point of view as well. A series of apertures were placed above and below the cell to control the pressures in various parts of the column.

A Futures Study on the Quality Of Life from the Point Of View of Iranian Youth

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Sina Saeedy ◽  
Mojtaba Amiri ◽  
Mohammad Mahdi Zolfagharzadeh ◽  
Mohammad Rahim Eyvazi
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Life Satisfaction ◽  
Mixed Model ◽  
Satisfaction With Life ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Futures Studies ◽  
The Social ◽  
The University

Quality of life and satisfaction with life as tightly interconnected concepts have become of much importance in the urbanism era. No doubt, it is one of the most important goals of every human society to enhance a citizen’s quality of life and to increase their satisfaction with life. However, there are many signs which demonstrate the low level of life satisfaction of Iranian citizens especially among the youth. Thus, considering the temporal concept of life satisfaction, this research aims to make a futures study in this field. Therefore, using a mixed model and employing research methods from futures studies, life satisfaction among the students of the University of Tehran were measured and their views on this subject investigated. Both quantitative and qualitative data were analysed together in order to test the hypotheses and to address the research questions on the youth discontentment with quality of life. Findings showed that the level of life satisfaction among students is relatively low and their image of the future is not positive and not optimistic. These views were elicited and discussed in the social, economic, political, environmental and technological perspectives. Keywords:  futures studies, quality of life, satisfaction with life, youth

scholarly journals Spirals of Sustainable Academic Motivation, Creativity, and Trust of Higher Education Staff

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 7057
Author(s):  
Martina Blašková ◽  
Dominika Tumová ◽  
Rudolf Blaško ◽  
Justyna Majchrzak-Lepczyk
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Academic Motivation ◽  
Slovak Republic ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Scientific Management ◽  
Administrative Staff ◽  
Sustainable Systems ◽  
New Concepts ◽  
Future Improvement ◽  
The University

Sustainability has to penetrate more and more into higher education. It should not focus only on traditional elements. It should also enter new, but for future improvement, extremely important areas. Based on this premise, creativity and motivation, when additionally interconnected and supported by trust that is provided and achieved, decide on the progress and sustainability of universities. This connection is gaining importance especially from the point of view of building solid foundations and mechanisms that functionally preserve the potential effects of these elements in the future. For this reason and following the nature, importance, and content of sustainable academic motivation (SAM), the paper introduces two new concepts: sustainable academic creativity (SAC) and sustainable academic trust (SAT). For further original contributions, the paper hypothesizes the existence of mutual—spiral—relations of sustainable academic motivation (SAM), sustainable academic creativity (SAC), and sustainable academic trust (SAT). The empirical section tests the validity of this claim in the universities of two countries: the Slovak Republic and Poland. A survey performed on a sample of n=181 pedagogical, scientific, management, and administrative staff in higher education confirms the existence of these spirals. The results indicate the spiral effect of motivation when connected with creativity and trust and show that it is accented by the crucial principles of sustainability (responsibility, novelty, usefulness, progress, etc.). Therefore, the paper’s conclusion contains the explanations for the potential occurrence of three types of sustainably mutual systems and complexes. These are: (a) individual sustainable systems of SAM, SAC, and SAT; (b) group/sectional sustainable systems of SAM, SAC, and SAT; and (c) the global sustainable complex of SAM, SAC, and SAT in the university.

Technical services and user service improvement

2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (6/7) ◽  
pp. 505-514 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jie Huang ◽  
Katherine Wong
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
Service Improvement ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Content Type ◽  
University Of Oklahoma ◽  
Online Catalog ◽  
Efficient Processing ◽  
The University ◽  
Technical Services

PurposeFrom the cataloging librarians' point of view, this paper aims to present how technical services, especially the cataloging department, can play important roles in the improvement of user services.Design/methodology/approachThe paper examines the practices of the University of Oklahoma Libraries.FindingsThe paper identifies several aspects in which technical services can enhance the quality of user services, especially in the cataloging department. A library's online catalog becomes the first point of access to the library's information resources. Its quality can be improved and enriched in many ways to raise users’ satisfaction. Aside from the improvement in technical aspects, efforts should also be made to promote collaboration between technical and public services so as to ensure efficient processing of materials and to meet the needs of library users.Originality/valueThe value of the paper is in showing that the quality of an online catalog and the cooperation between public and technical services are two of the key factors in achieving high quality of user services.

scholarly journals The Potential of Geographical Indications (GI) to Enhance Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Japan: Overview and Insights from Japan GI Mishima Potato

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 961
Author(s):  
Junko Kimura ◽  
Cyrille Rigolot
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Potential Role ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Geographical Indications ◽  
Certification System ◽  
Local Stakeholders ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Common Agenda

Geographical indications (GIs) have recently become an important tool for Japanese agricultural policy, particularly after the adoption of a “sui generis” certification system in 2015. In the same year, the United Nations proposed a common agenda with 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The present paper addresses the potential of GIs to enhance SDGs in Japan. First, we examine existing knowledge on GI inception, which consists in both government reports and research surveys. We show that these studies mostly focus on SDGs related to economic growth, and on social issues raised by the registration process. Then, as an exploration of potential impacts of GIs on the full set of SDGs, we study the case of Mishima Bareisho Potato GI, on the basis of interviews and participatory observation. From local stakeholders’ point of view, Mishima Potato GI can contribute to at least nine SDGs at all the production, transformation and commercialization stages. The SDG framework is useful to reveal some contributions seldomly considered in GI studies but which matter for local people, for example, the employment of disabled people or nutritional education. Finally, we discuss how these new insights can contribute to the debate on the potential role and limits of GIs for sustainable development in Japan.

scholarly journals Team Learning as a Model for Facilitating Entrepreneurial Competences in Higher Education: The Case of Proakatemia

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 7373
Author(s):  
Timo Nevalainen ◽  
Jaana Seikkula-Leino ◽  
Maria Salomaa
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Team Learning ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Educational Approach ◽  
Business Skills ◽  
Business Plans ◽  
University Of Applied Sciences ◽  
Entrepreneurial Competencies ◽  
The University ◽  
Quantitative Case Study

In the past decades, there has been a growing interest in entrepreneurship education, and many higher education institutions have developed specific programs and courses to support entrepreneurial competencies. However, there have been significant changes in how universities train competences related to business skills and entrepreneurship in practice. Whereas entrepreneurship courses used to focus on the different forms of businesses and drafting business plans, the overall perception of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial competences has shifted this toward a more holistic educational approach to develop students’ entrepreneurial competencies. In this comparative quantitative case study, we investigate the university students’ perception of the development of their entrepreneurial competencies in the case of Proakatemia (Tampere University of Applied Sciences). The aim was to examine how the entrepreneurial competencies are reflected and strengthened in their thinking and everyday functions through the concept of team learning. The survey involved, altogether, 64 students, of which 21 studied in Proakatemia. The results of this study indicate that the team learning concept of Proakatemia facilitates learning entrepreneurial competencies. Therefore, these results provide insights for universities aiming to develop their curricula, programs and pedagogy, thus promoting sustainable societal development. However, we recommend further studies, e.g., from a qualitative point of view, to assess the effective of the concept in other learning environments.

Review of: Рикёр П. Genesis, essence and substance in Plato and Aristotle. Course taught at the University of Strasbourg in 1953-1954 / transl. from french G. V. Vdovina. Moscow: Publishing house of humanitarian literature, 2019. 286 p. ISBN 978-5-87121-051-2

2019 ◽  
pp. 279-287
Author(s):  
Алексей Михайлович Гагинский
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Publishing House ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
History Of ◽  
The University ◽  
Formal Point

Курс лекций П. Рикёра, прочитанный более полувека назад, интересен по ряду причин. Во-первых, потому что он посвящён крайне важной теме — античной онтологии; во-вторых, потому что он был прочитан одним из ведущих философов XX в.; в-третьих, потому что этот философ был крупнейшим представителем герменевтического направления, вследствие чего особенно любопытно проследить, как он читает тексты, без преувеличения, самых важных философов в истории человечества. Впрочем, с формальной точки зрения есть некоторые сомнения в возожности исполнения замысла работы: П. Рикёр всё-таки не антиковед, его знание греческого языка, что видно из текста, весьма скромного уровня; кроме того, изданный текст представляет собой курс лекций, автор которых, как кажется, не столько хочет донести до слушателей результаты кропотливых исследований и продуманных идей, сколько разобраться вместе со студентами в античной онтологии. P. Ricoeur's course of lectures, delivered more than half a century ago, is interesting for a number of reasons. Firstly, because it is devoted to an extremely important topic - ancient ontology; secondly, because it was read by one of the leading philosophers of the 20th century; thirdly, because this philosopher was the biggest representative of the hermeneutic direction, so it is especially interesting to trace how he reads texts of, without exaggeration, the most important philosophers in the history of mankind. However, from the formal point of view, there are some doubts about the feasibility of the idea of the work: Ricoeur is not an antiquarian and his knowledge of Greek, as the text shows, is rather modest; besides, the published text is a course of lectures, the author of which seems to want not so much to convey the results of laborious research and elaborated ideas to his students, as to understand ancient ontology together with the students.

A Note on form and Meaning in the Oresteia

1964 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-184
Author(s):  
C. W. Amerasinghe
Keyword(s):  
Social Issues ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Scholarly Literature ◽  
Dramatic Form ◽  
Dramatic Technique

The volume of scholarly literature on Aeschylus is already so large that an attempt to make even the minutest addition to it may well appear rash. But the standard literature has most often dealt with the dramatic technique of Aeschylus and with the moral or social issues raised by him. This is true even of Kitto's work, Form and Meaning in Drama. Thus, in his preface, he states, ‘The presumption with Aeschylus, Sophocles and Shakespeare, when he wrote Hamlet, is that the dramatist was competent. If the dramatist had something to say and if he was a competent artist, the presumption is that he has said it and that we, by looking at the form which he has created, can find out what it is’; that is to say, he was thinking of dramatic form. This article is concerned with an aspect of form which does not appear to have received sufficient attention. I would call it the ‘poetic’ aspect of form. ‘Poetry’ is not easy to define, but one of the ‘tentative formulas’ given by Lattimore expresses what I mean. ‘What is directed’, he said, ‘neither to the emotion nor the intellect but to the imagination is the poetry of the plays.’ Aeschylus is a poet even more than he is a dramatic artist. One would naturally, therefore, expect to find in his plays much of the stuff that is directed towards the imagination. This ‘poetic’ element is to a large extent communicated through the form, which will enhance his meaning or will even be an image of his thought. It is from this point of view that I propose, in this note, to examine the Oresteia, in the hope that it may throw some light on many of the peculiarities of construction that are so prominent a feature of the trilogy.

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