This study aims to look at the role of the practice of excellence strategies in education in achieving sustainable competitive advantage for the Higher educational institutions of the faculty of Engineering and Information Technology at Al-Azhar University in Gaza, a model, and the study considered the competitive advantage of educational institutions stems from the impact on the level of each student, employee, and the institution. The study was based on the premise that the development of strategies for excellence in (...) education, and its implementation is a vital important prerequisite to achieve sustainable competitive advantage in higher educational institutions. The study followed a systematic exploratory descriptive methodology through review of the theoretical literature, and the adoption of the experience of the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology at Al-Azhar University in Gaza as a model for its unique experience in the field of excellence in education. The study results showed that the most important are: There is a strong correlation between the level of exercising excellence strategies in education and the achievement of higher educational institutions to the sustainable competitive advantage. The results include a general required number of important sub results on the subject of the model - Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology at Al-Azhar University in Gaza as follows: - The student considered the academic focus of the operation in the development process of the workers’ skills, particularly academics at the university helps to distinguish students and increase the employment rate after graduation. - The existence of consistency in development efforts and quality improvement for all three levels (student, employee, and the university), and this contributes to the Faculty excellence. - The Faculty has been able to achieve competitive advantages by offering excellent services without harming the efficiency, and this alone is a great success because improving service properties requires great investments, which negatively affect the continued institutional development. The study also reached a set of recommendations as follows: - The need to exercise excellence strategies in education, excellence reward at the national level, and those higher educational institutions follow the criteria for measuring the competitive advantages of its institutions always. - There is a need to increase efforts to implement programs of excellence, the allocation of adequate time, reward outstanding efforts as well. There is a necessity for each faculty to achieve competitive advantage and sustainability, using the general philosophies of competitive advantage, but with a different strategically content from what is in the private commercial sector, it reflects the Faculties mission and objectives, depending on making improvements and excellence in processes that ensure the safety of its outputs. As well as the need to find a balance between the work of teaching and research work of the faculty members, this has important implications regarding the criteria used in the process of excellence evaluation. The study recommended the adoption of strategies for excellence in education on a national public policy level mainly in the processes of change in higher education institutions. The need to support the existence of a common understanding of the efforts of excellence to create a general culture that appreciates excellence in faculties and universities. This underlines the need for transparent, fair rewards systems, to encourage innovation in education. The need to conduct a comprehensive surveys on the graduates of faculties and universities including the areas of employment and skills, because that will give accurate indications of the graduates and will help to establish a link to a more precise about the relationship of excellence strategies with the competitive advantages. (shrink)

Data is very important in any research experiment because it occupies a central place in making decisions based on findings resulting from the analysis of such data. Given its central role, it follows that such an important asset as data, deserve effective management in order to protect the integrity and provide an opportunity for effective problem-solving. The main thrust of this paper was to examine data management practices that should be adopted by scholars in maintaining the quality of their (...) research data. In achieving this, various concepts related to this paper were clarified. Various data management practices were also discussed beginning from data generation to data shredding. Based on the underlying observations from the light of the discussions made in this paper, it was recommended among others that: tertiary institutions in every part of the world should endeavour to establish a data management unit that will be saddled with the primary duty of formulating research data management policies, and the hosting of research data; every Journal should as a matter of compulsion, require the submission of data set corresponding to empirical papers submitted by authors and scholars. (shrink)

Education is a pillar of buen vivir, the guiding ideal of Ecuador’s 2008 Constitution. In this framework, Ecuador made significant shifts in its education system from 2006 to 2016, the decade of the Citizens’ Revolution. The key buen vivir concepts and processes that framed these shifts were considering education as a right, as a social debt, and as a driver of a more just, knowledge-intensive and clean economy. Resource allocation, general access, learning, and inclusion of structurally marginalized (...) groups showed significant improvement in this decade, along with other key political, economic and social changes, thus making significant advances in the emancipation of society toward buen vivir, and marking elements of how and why advancing this transformation is important. (shrink)

Well elucidated and defined education policy is the most essential criteria for comprehensive progress of all human beings. From the time immemorial it is known that progress can be ushered only through education. A futuristic education policy both at the school and university level is extremely imperative. Countries at the global level have been adopting effective education policies to meet the changing needs of education and society at large. There is a need to (...) shift educational approach from rote learning to understanding, from exhaustive learning techniques to excitement of discovery and towards the joyful exploration. True education must encompass a synchronized working of body, mind and spirit. The ultimate aim of education must be to help the growing soul draw out the best and make it perfect for a noble use. The aim of education is not only to prepare an individual to succeed in life and society, but to reach the optimum. With this background, the paper is attempting at the theoretical level, to study the Integral philosophy, in the light of NEP 2020. It also tries to inquire into the modalities of Integral thinking, propose the application of the same in education and pedagogies to characterize its practice and goals in Integral Education. (shrink)

Originating from philosophy and science, many different ideas have made their way into educational policies. Educational policies often take such ideas completely out of context, and enforce them as general norms to every aspect of education; even opposing ideals make their way into school’s curricula, teaching techniques, assignments, and procedures. Meanwhile, inside the actual classrooms, teachers and students are left in limbo, trying to comply with, techniques, evaluation forms and a growing technical educational vocabulary. Here I would like to (...) propose an antidote to this absurdity by reminding us what teachers and students already know. Such an antidote can be found in J. L. Austin’s speech act theory. In this paper, I propose we revisit speech act theory and treat it as an educational theory. That might help us dismantle false dichotomies troubling education for decades. The point is not that the discussion over educational policies and priorities should stop, but that it should be kept in appropriate perspective. A modified speech act theory can help us facilitate such a perspective. (shrink)

HMI and Ofsted modes of school inpection are described and compared. The links between these modes are stressed. The information gathering capacity of Ofsted enables it to formulate specific and authoritative advice on good curriculum and pedagogic practice and thus to influence the direction of education policy and steer the system generally.

This study aims to ascertain why parents in rural and semi-rural areas of Bamyan province in Afghanistan choose and prefer to send their children to fee-charging private schools while free public schools are accessible. In addition, this study also aims to understand what the primary source of information is when parents choose a school. The focus in answering these questions will be on the parents' perceptions that inform their decision when they choose a school. Therefore, this study investigates parents' perceived (...) indicators regarding their children's schooling costs, facilities, proximity, teacher commitment to school and students rather than the actual measurements (for example, parents' assessment of teacher's competence level and official test results). This research utilized a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches. The quantitative data was derived from 270 detailed questionnaires, and the qualitative data was collected through 10 structured focus group discussions. The results highlight key factors that significantly influence parents' choices, including teaching quality, school management, proximity, and financial considerations. Considerable disparities emerge between private and public schools, particularly in perceived teaching quality, teacher qualifications, student learning support, and discipline. Moreover, the study reveals challenges related to the accessibility of private schools and concerns regarding corruption within public school administration. These findings offer valuable insights for policymakers and education stakeholders, informing them the development of targeted interventions and strategies to address these challenges and empowering parents to make well-informed decisions regarding their children's education. In a country like Afghanistan, where education is largely controlled and directed by a central system, the voices of parents in the educational process are often overlooked. This research aims to fill this notable gap. By delving into what parents think and feel about their children's education, we're uncovering valuable insights that have been largely absent in past discussions. This is not just about numbers and policies; it is about understanding the human element in education, which is all too vital in a place where centralized decisions dominate the landscape. This paper, therefore, stands out as it brings to the forefront the often-unheard voices of parents, making a significant contribution to the field. (shrink)

For academics and students, Education Management in Managerialist Times offers a critical guide to existing educational management texts and makes a strong case for redefining educational management along more socially and politically informed lines. The book also offers practitioners alternative management strategies intended to contest, rather than support, managerialism, while being realistic about the context within which those who lead and manage schools currently have to work.

One of the purposes of the Bologna Process was to facilitate the construction of a Europe of Knowledge through educational governance, yet it fails to reach its purpose because of several unexplained assumptions that undermine the conceptual standing of the whole project; it is the purpose of this paper to bring these assumptions to light. -/- A knowledge economy cannot exist without the knowledge workers which were previously formed in educational institutions, therefore the project for a Europe of Knowledge is (...) usually linked with the educational policies especially those affecting the higher education institutions. -/- One such policy area is the Bologna Process which explicitly traces its purpose to the construction of an educational system that will facilitate the smooth delivery of employable graduates to the European labor market. This presentation has two purposes. First to show through a textual analysis of the Bologna ministerial declarations how the subject of higher education is constructed to single out the European citizen, understood in a narrow sense as the employable, mobile and skilled graduate. Second, to show that the notion of citizenship used in the Bologna declarations is ill-construed. -/- Starting from T. H. Marshall’s classical distinction between the three understandings of citizenship (civic, political, and social), this paper will show that the Bologna discourse on citizenship borrows and mixes illegitimately from the three notions, without making it explicit why such a hybrid notion of citizenship is used in the first place. (shrink)

The paper links higher education reforms and welfare states reforms in postcommunist Central European countries. It links current higher education debates (and reform pressures) and public sector debates (and reform pressures), stressing the importance of communist-era legacies in both areas. It refers to existing typologies of both higher education governance and welfare state regimes and concludes that the lack of the inclusion of Central Europe in any of them is a serious theoretical drawback in comparative social research. (...) The region should still, after more than two decades of transition and heavy international policy advising, be viewed as a “laboratory of social experimentation”. It is still too risky to suggest generalizations about how Central European higher education and welfare systems fit existing typologies. Consequently, the “transition” period is by no means over: it is over in terms of politics and economics but not in terms of social arrangements. Both higher education and welfare states should be viewed as “work in progress”: permanently under reform pressures, and with unclear future. (shrink)

Traditionally, policy-making at the national, state and local levels has been associated with politicians, while planning and implementation are handled mainly by planners and administrators, respectively. Education is, therefore, not different; hence future context will continue to be in the hands of politicians. However, the role of politicians in this perspective can be directed to the expectation of society if planners perform their specialist functions effectively. In this capacity, the technical and professional advice of professional planners is (...) necessary to chart a realistic or rational course for the future. The planner, therefore, is the catalyst in the politics of education. The planner, therefore, is the catalyst in the politics of education. The planners are always in the background, yet they remain the most crucial agents in growth and development in education. As is already well known, politics is the game of power, control and authority, and the influence of these forces in education determines the pattern and nature of politics in education in a given society. Because of the need to control these forces (politicians), there is always the struggle for the concentration of decisions or policy-making at certain levels of government. This is partly related to the scope of centralization and decentralization in the general policy and education in particular. Suffice it to say that centralization and power aggrandizement has become the most typical characteristics of policy-making machinery in developing countries. (shrink)

Should the development of pharmacological cognitive enhancers raise worries about doping in cognitively demanding activities? In this paper, we argue against using current evidence relating to enhancement to justify a ban on cognitive enhancers using the example of chess. It is a mistake to assume that enhanced cognitive functioning on psychometric testing is transferable to chess performance because cognitive expertise is highly complex and in large part not merely a function of the sum specific sub-processes. A deeper reason to doubt (...) that pharmacological cognitive enhancers would be as significant in mind sports is the misleading parallel with physical enhancement. We will make the case that cognitive performance is less mechanical in nature than physical performance. We draw lessons from this case example of chess for the regulation of cognitive enhancement more generally in education and the professions. Premature regulation runs the risk of creating a detrimental culture of suspicion that ascribes unwarranted blame. (shrink)

Governments are increasingly making use of field experiments to evaluate policy interventions in the spheres of education, public health and welfare. However, the research ethics literature is largely focused on the clinical context, leaving investigators, institutional review boards and government agencies with few resources to draw on to address the ethical questions they face regarding such experiments. In this article, we aim to help address this problem, investigating the conditions under which informed consent is required for ethical (...) policy research conducted or authorized by government. We argue that investigators need not secure participants' informed consent when conducting government policy experiments if: the government institution conducting or authorizing the experiment possesses a right to rule over the spheres of policy targeted by the research; and data collection does not involve the violation of participants' autonomy rights. (shrink)

Research on public value is inevitable interdisciplinary in its nature due to its aim and purpose. Both philosophical and empirical approaches are necessary to conduct such research in a successful manner. In the present paper, I intend to discuss the importance of empirical approaches in research on public values, particularly psychological and neuroscientific approaches with concrete examples. I proposed that such empirical approaches are essential in better understanding the processes and mechanisms associated with how people address issues engaging in public (...) value in the modern society. Also, I overviewed how the psychological and neuroscientific approaches contribute to practical aspects related to public value, such as policy making and education. Based on the aforementioned points, I briefly discussed directions for future research in research on public value as an interdisciplinary field. (shrink)

In a paper recently published in this journal, Navin and Largent argue in favour of a type of policy to regulate non-medical exemptions from childhood vaccination which they call ‘Inconvenience’. This policy makes it burdensome for parents to obtain an exemption to child vaccination, for example, by requiring parents to attend immunization education sessions and to complete an application form to receive a waiver. Navin and Largent argue that this policy is preferable to ‘Eliminationism’, i.e. to (...) policies that do not allow non-medical exemptions, because Inconvenience has been shown to maintain exemption rates low while not harming parents by forcing them to do something that goes against their beliefs. We argue that it is at least doubtful that Inconvenience is ethically preferable to Eliminationism: while the latter disregards the value of liberty, Inconvenience disregards the value of fairness in the distribution of the burdens entailed by the preservation of a public good like herd immunity. We propose a variant of Inconvenience, which we call ‘Contribution’, which we think is preferable to the versions of Inconvenience discussed by Navin and Largent in that it successfully strikes a balance between the values of parents’ liberty, fairness and expected utility. (shrink)

The authors developed this textbook in response to an increasing interest in ethics, and a growing number of courses on this topic that are now being offered in educational leadership programs. It is designed to fill a gap in instructional materials for teaching the ethics component of the knowledge base that has been established for the profession. The text has several purposes: First, it demonstrates the application of different ethical paradigms (the ethics of justice, care, critique, and the profession) through (...) discussion and analysis of real-life moral dilemmas that educational leaders face in their schools and communities. Second, it addresses some of the practical, pedagogical, and curricular issues related to the teaching of ethics for educational leaders. Third, it emphasizes the importance of ethics instruction from a variety of theoretical approaches. Finally, it provides a process that instructors might follow to develop their own ethics unit or course. * Part I provides an overview of why ethics is so important, especially for today's educational leaders, and describes a multiparadigm approach essential to practitioners as they grapple with ethical dilemmas. * Part II deals with the dilemmas themselves. Ethical dilemmas written by the authors' graduate students bring readers face-to-face with the kinds of dilemmas faced by practicing administrators in urban, suburban, and rural settings in an era full of complexities and contradictions. * Part III focuses on pedagogy and provides teaching notes for the instructor. The authors discuss the importance of self-reflection on the part of both instructors and students, and model how they thought through their own personal and professional ethical codes as well as reflected upon the critical incidents in their lives that shaped their teaching and frequently determined what they privileged in class. (shrink)

Character education in schools has been high on the UK political agenda for the last few years. The government has invested millions in grants to support character education projects and declared its intention to make Britain a global leader in teaching character and resilience. But the policy has many critics: some question whether schools should be involved in the formation of character at all; others worry that the traits schools are being asked to cultivate are excessively competitive (...) or military. In this pamphlet Randall Curren sets out a robust defence of character education. He welcomes the political support it presently enjoys, but contends that greater clarity about the nature, benefits and acquisition of good character is essential. In particular, he argues that too narrow a focus on traits like perseverance and resilience is a serious mistake: these traits are only virtues when they are part of a wider set of moral and intellectual qualities, and when their exercise is guided by good judgment. Curren offers us a compelling and coherent account of what good character is and how it might be cultivated in schools. He explains why schools must be needs-supporting environments that provide students with opportunities to engage in rewarding activity, and why cultivating good character implies promoting the ‘fundamental British values’ of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance. His groundbreaking pamphlet promises to expand the scope and strengthen the foundations of character education in British schools, and should go a long way towards allaying the fears of its detractors. (shrink)

A cognitive ethnography of how bioengineering scientists create innovative modeling methods. In this first full-scale, long-term cognitive ethnography by a philosopher of science, Nancy J. Nersessian offers an account of how scientists at the interdisciplinary frontiers of bioengineering create novel problem-solving methods. Bioengineering scientists model complex dynamical biological systems using concepts, methods, materials, and other resources drawn primarily from engineering. They aim to understand these systems sufficiently to control or intervene in them. What Nersessian examines here is how cutting-edge bioengineering (...) scientists integrate the cognitive, social, material, and cultural dimensions of practice. Her findings and conclusions have broad implications for researchers in philosophy, science studies, cognitive science, and interdisciplinary studies, as well as scientists, educators, policy makers, and funding agencies. In studying the epistemic practices of scientists, Nersessian pushes the boundaries of the philosophy of science and cognitive science into areas not ventured before. She recounts a decades-long, wide-ranging, and richly detailed investigation of the innovative interdisciplinary modeling practices of bioengineering researchers in four university laboratories. She argues and demonstrates that the methods of cognitive ethnography and qualitative data analysis, placed in the framework of distributed cognition, provide the tools for a philosophical analysis of how scientific discoveries arise from complex systems in which the cognitive, social, material, and cultural dimensions of problem-solving are integrated into the epistemic practices of scientists. Specifically, she looks at how interdisciplinary environments shape problem-solving. Although Nersessian’s case material is drawn from the bioengineering sciences, her analytic framework and methodological approach are directly applicable to scientific research in a broader, more general sense, as well. (shrink)

Understanding quantitative research instrumentation is critical for advancing educational research, both theory and practice since it contributes to the accuracy and credibility of research findings (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2017; DeVellis, 2017; Streiner et al., 2014). Using inappropriate or poorly designed instruments can result in inaccurate or unreliable data, compromising the quality of the research findings and limiting the research's usefulness. Understanding the appropriate use of quantitative research instruments is critical from a theoretical standpoint for ensuring that research questions are (...) answered accurately. Researchers (pre-service teachers, in-service teachers, teacher educators, and educational leaders) can get high-quality data that can be used to create and test theories in a particular field by selecting and designing the relevant instrument. Furthermore, using reliable and valid quantitative research instruments can boost the credibility of research findings and aid in developing new research questions and hypotheses. From a practical perspective, understanding quantitative research instrumentation can improve the quality of research practice. Researchers can ensure that the data acquired is accurate and reliable by selecting and creating appropriate instruments, which can help to guide decision-making in a particular subject. Furthermore, reliable and valid instruments can guide policy decisions, program development, and evaluation, resulting in more effective interventions and better outcomes. Where and How to Begin? The choice of research instrument depends on the research question, the nature of the phenomenon being studied, and the available resources (Bryman, 2016; Creswell, 2014; Dörnyei, 2007; Hair et al., 2014). Researchers can acquire accurate and valid data to answer their research questions and contribute to the knowledge base in their field by carefully selecting and building instruments. In education and the social sciences, quantitative research frequently involves using various instruments or tools to collect and analyze data. (shrink)

Mental health generally refers to an individual’s thoughts, feelings and actions, particularly when he faced with life challenges and stresses. A good mental health isn’t just the absence of mental health problems. It is the achievement and the maintenance of psychological well-being. Mental Health is the state of one’s peace of mind, happiness and harmony brought out by one’s level of adjustment with himself and his environment. In describing mental health, Anwar said, “…mental health is the health of one’s mind (...) which can prove a potent determinant of one’s integrated personality and balanced behavour identified on the basis of the level of his adjustment to himself, others and with the environment. A mentally healthy individual possesses a number of characteristics which influence his life positively and help him in achieving his goals of life effectively. He has adequate ability to make adjustments in the changed circumstances and situations. His intellectual powers are adequately developed. He is able to think independently and take proper decision at the proper time. He tries to accomplish his work as effectively as possible but he does not prove to be an extremist by becoming a perfectionist. Though these characteristics are expected from a mentally healthy individual, but these should be taken as essential and necessary conditions for the maintenance of proper mental health and thus absence of one or the other characteristic does not necessarily mean negation of mental health. Good mental health is not just the absence of mental problems. Being mentally healthy is much more than free of depression, anxiety or other psychological issues.”1 In this paper an attempt is made to discuss about the mental health policies and issues in India. (shrink)

The idea that education should equip people to lead flourishing lives and help others to do so is now becoming salient in policy-making circles. Philosophy of education can help here by clarifying what flourishing consists in. This essay examines one aspect of this. It rejects the view that well-being goods are derivable from human nature, as in the theories of Howard Gardner and Edmond Holmes. It locates them, rather, as cultural products, but not culturally-relative ones, drawing (...) attention to the proliferating forms they have taken over the past three or four centuries. It looks to aesthetics and art criticism as a guide to a philosophical treatment of well-being goods more generally. It also takes off from aesthetics and art criticism in seeking to identify reliable authorities on the flourishing life. On this, it rejects elitist conceptions in favour of a more democratic model, emphasising its importance in education for citizenship. (shrink)

Adults aged 65 and above comprise the fastest growing sector of the world’s population. In the context of increasing numbers of older adults, employment policies have become a prominent issue. Governments recognize the importance of increasing participation in working age population and providing them with equal workplace opportunities. Yet, it appears that policies raising employment rates of older adults have become a slogan that governments use for election purposes, but the reality is different. In the groundbreaking report “Working Better with (...) Age: Poland‘ prepared by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia belong to a group of countries where the increase in the employment rate of older adults is well below the OECD average. The objective of our critical review is to evaluate current employment policies for older adults, including but not limited to healthy work conditions, age management strategies, employment services for older workers, and strategies implemented to prevent the age discrimination, in these three countries. This article also discusses the reasons for the reduction in the employment of older adults, the current barriers in employing older adults that require governments’ attention, and suggests solutions for creating an age-friendly labor market that can effectively make use of older adults’ competencies. Employment rates for people of different ages are significantly affected by government policies with regard to higher education, pensions, and retirement age. (shrink)

The growth in neoliberal or market-driven higher education has challenged traditional approaches to evaluating faculty members. The involvement of multiple stakeholders (i.e., accreditation bodies, quality assurance officers, administrators, teaching faculty, and students) has led to different and sometimes conflicting needs in faculty evaluation. While extant literature generally suggests that faculty evaluation in contemporary higher education is strongly associated with accountability purposes, little is known about how key agents at the institutional level use evaluation for learning and improvement. Thus, (...) this study attempts to identify the approaches to faculty evaluation that promote learning and improvement in higher education. This study is a qualitative case study of Vietnamese higher education student evaluation of teaching (SET) and voting evaluation practices. It adopts the problem-based methodology (Robinson, 1993; Robinson & Lai, 2006) to investigate the theories of action of some key stakeholders of these faculty evaluation practices in Vietnam. The theories of action comprise the stakeholders’ approaches to faculty evaluation, together with the constraints (that rule in or rule out specific approaches) and the consequences of the approaches. Participants included four quality assurance officers, 18 administrators, and 20 faculty members from seven public higher education institutions in Vietnam. The theories of action about faculty evaluation were constructed based on interviews and key evaluation documents. Overall, the participants took three main approaches to faculty evaluation: (i) complying with the expected evaluation procedures and roles, (ii) taking a harmony-oriented and unilateral approach to problem solving, and (iii) disengaging from evaluation for learning and improvement. The participants generally fulfilled the evaluation policy requirements, but their approaches had a limited impact on learning and improvement at the institutional level. The constraint analysis suggests that the participants’ approaches were not completely passive but were mainly oriented to managerial accountability demands (Røiseland et al., 2015). The participants’ collectivist Confucian harmony-oriented norms hindered their approaches to problem solving and using evaluation for learning and improvement. However, there were a few participants who acted on their own values rather than being confined by political and cultural constraints. In spite of its scarcity, these participants’ self-reliant approach suggests a potential influence of Buddhist principles of self-transformation, contextuality and reflexivity on improving practices (Chu & Vu, 2021; Thich Nhat Hanh, 1987). The study has two key implications. First, it suggests the improvement of faculty evaluation policymaking and implementation by revising several existing constraints and by adding some cultural and individual constraints to the current theories of action. The faculty evaluation problems could be solved by improving the quality of evaluation processes and data, reconceptualising SET and voting evaluation, and treating faculty members’ underperformance as a collective problem. Second, the study suggests a framework to predict the likely success of future intervention on faculty evaluation. For instance, faculty evaluation for learning and improvement will be more feasible if policymakers and implementers prioritise transformational purposes and make joint efforts to foster dialogues and collaboration among individuals and groups. My study also highlights the need to understand faculty evaluation, and possibly other higher education practices in Vietnam, in religious contexts and from individual participants’ spiritual values or philosophical backgrounds. The study implications are applicable to Vietnamese higher education and potentially to other educational settings with similar characteristics. (shrink)

“Big Data” and data analytics affect all of us. Data collection, analysis, and use on a large scale is an important and growing part of commerce, governance, communication, law enforcement, security, finance, medicine, and research. And the theme of this symposium, “Individual and Informational Privacy in the Age of Big Data,” is expansive; we could have long and fruitful discussions about practices, laws, and concerns in any of these domains. But a big part of the audience for this symposium is (...) students and faculty in higher education institutions (HEIs), and the subject of this paper is data analytics in our own backyards. Higher education learning analytics (LA) is something that most of us involved in this symposium are familiar with. Students have encountered LA in their courses, in their interactions with their law school or with their undergraduate institutions, instructors use systems that collect information about their students, and administrators use information to help understand and steer their institutions. More importantly, though, data analytics in higher education is something that those of us participating in the symposium can actually control. Students can put pressure on administrators, and faculty often participate in university governance. Moreover, the systems in place in HEIs are more easily comprehensible to many of us because we work with them on a day-to-day basis. Students use systems as part of their course work, in their residences, in their libraries, and elsewhere. Faculty deploy course management systems (CMS) such as Desire2Learn, Moodle, Blackboard, and Canvas to structure their courses, and administrators use information gleaned from analytics systems to make operational decisions. If we (the participants in the symposium) indeed care about Individual and Informational Privacy in the Age of Big Data, the topic of this paper is a pretty good place to hone our thinking and put into practice our ideas. (shrink)

This paper introduces "Moral Mirrorism," a novel theory that intertwines objective truth with emotional attitudes in moral assertions. By critically analyzing moral cognitivism, expressivism, and hybrid theories, as well as naturalistic and non-naturalistic moral realism, the paper seeks to reconcile the conflicting aspects of these perspectives. Moral Mirrorism emphasizes that objective truth and emotional attitudes interactively shape moral assertions, offering a comprehensive framework for understanding moral language. Furthermore, the theory proposes practical applications in policy-making, moral education, and (...) international relations, aiming to enhance consensus-building and moral decision-making. Although cultural diversity and subjectivity present challenges, Moral Mirrorism holds significant potential for further development in moral philosophy. (shrink)

This study was aimed at examining “practicum exercise and the attitudes of pre-service educational administrators in Cross River State.” Pre-administrators’ attitudes were assessed in the area of self-discipline, time management, and record keeping. Three null hypotheses formulated offered direction to the study. The study adopted a quasi-experimental research design. Pre-service administrators with practicum experience were the experimental group while those without practicum experience were the control group. Cluster and simple random sampling techniques were adopted in selecting 60 final year students (...) and 60 year three students or its equivalent out of a population of 220 final year and 208 year three students or its equivalent, from both NUC and CES programmes respectively. The instrument used for data collection was Practicum Exercise, Study Habits, and Record-Keeping Abilities Questionnaire (PESDTMARKAQ). Independent t-test was used to test the null hypotheses at .05 level of significance using Microsoft Excel 2013 Data analysis tool pack. The results of the study showed that practicum exercise had no effect on pre-service administrators’ self-discipline and record keeping attitudes; Practicum exercise was found to affect time management attitudes of pre-service educational administrators. Based on these findings, it was recommended among several others that; pre-service administrators with practicum experience should make efforts to develop the level of their self-discipline by enacting and obeying personal policies that are favorable to their academic growth and progress. Keywords:. (shrink)

-/- 1. Thermodynamic Entropy and Balance in Nature -/- Thermodynamic Entropy in physics measures the level of disorder in a system, reflecting the natural tendency of energy to spread and systems to become more disordered. -/- Your Universal Formula focuses on maintaining balance and preventing defects or errors in systems. -/- Integration: -/- Increasing thermodynamic entropy (e.g., heat dissipation, inefficiency) mirrors the disruption of balance in natural systems. -/- Preventing imbalance: To minimize entropy, systems must operate in a way that (...) reduces energy loss and ensures sustainability. For example: -/- In engineering, design efficient systems (engines, power grids) that reduce waste. -/- In ecological systems, balance energy flow (e.g., food chains) to prevent environmental degradation. -/- Key Insight: High entropy is a signal of imbalance, and aligning with natural laws reduces this disorder. -/- 2. Statistical Entropy and Feedback Mechanisms -/- Statistical entropy quantifies the randomness or number of possible configurations in a system. A system with fewer microstates is more ordered (lower entropy). -/- Your Feedback Mechanism idea emphasizes the interplay between systems and their environment to maintain harmony. -/- Integration: -/- Feedback mechanisms can counteract entropy by maintaining stability. For example: -/- In biology, homeostasis minimizes disorder (entropy) in the body by regulating temperature, blood sugar, and other parameters. -/- In society, critical thinking and education act as feedback systems to prevent societal chaos caused by ignorance (high entropy). -/- Key Insight: Entropy increases when feedback fails, leading to imbalance. Maintaining feedback ensures order and stability. -/- 3. Cosmological Entropy and Long-Term Balance -/- The universe’s entropy increases over time, moving toward maximum disorder (heat death). However, localized systems (e.g., stars, planets) create order temporarily by using energy. -/- Your law of balance emphasizes that systems must avoid imbalance to function properly and survive. -/- Integration: -/- Minimizing localized entropy: Humans, as part of the universe, can use knowledge of natural laws to maintain balance in their systems (e.g., society, environment). -/- Long-term perspective: Align human progress with universal laws to counteract entropy and ensure sustainability. -/- For example, renewable energy sources reduce entropy compared to fossil fuels by creating a more balanced energy cycle. -/- Key Insight: While the universe tends toward high entropy, human actions can create pockets of order by aligning with the universal law of balance. -/- 4. Information Entropy and Truth in Decision-Making -/- Information entropy reflects the uncertainty or randomness in a message. Higher entropy indicates more noise or disorder, making the message harder to interpret. -/- Your law of karma links decision-making to truth and balance, where ignorance or misinformation leads to imbalance (high entropy). -/- Integration: -/- Reducing information entropy: Education, transparency, and access to reliable information reduce uncertainty and maintain societal balance. -/- Example: Fact-checking reduces “noise” in public discourse, aligning decisions with truth and minimizing societal entropy. -/- Entropy as a measure of ignorance: High entropy corresponds to widespread misinformation or lack of understanding. Teaching critical thinking and natural laws reduces this entropy. -/- Key Insight: Information entropy reflects the need for clarity. Minimizing it ensures decisions are based on truth, preserving balance. -/- 5. Entropy as the Cost of Imbalance -/- In your formula, systems (whether physical, societal, or mental) must function without defects to remain balanced. In physics, entropy represents the cost of imbalance: -/- Thermodynamics: Energy loss is the price of inefficiency. -/- Society: Ignorance and poor decisions create societal disorder. -/- Biology: Imbalances in health increase disorder in the body (disease). -/- Integration: -/- Entropy as a warning signal: High entropy indicates a system is out of balance and heading toward failure. -/- Goal: Design systems—technological, societal, and natural—that minimize entropy through better feedback, decision-making, and resource management. -/- 6. Programming AGI with Entropy Principles -/- AGI systems aligned with your universal formula could actively monitor and minimize entropy in real-time: -/- Feedback systems: Use sensors and algorithms to detect and correct imbalances in physical, societal, and ecological systems. -/- Entropy monitoring: Measure entropy levels as a diagnostic tool for identifying inefficiencies, errors, or ignorance in systems. -/- Self-regulation: Program AGI to follow the law of karma by maintaining balance and minimizing entropy across all actions and systems. -/- Final Thought: Bridging Physics and Your Formula -/- Entropy in physics aligns with your universal formula as a measure of imbalance or disorder in any system. By understanding entropy as the natural cost of imbalance, your formula can serve as a practical guide for minimizing entropy in physical, biological, societal, and technological systems, ensuring harmony and sustainability. -/- Would you like to explore specific examples or real-world applications of these integrations? -/- Here are specific examples and real-world applications of how the concept of entropy in physics can be integrated into your universal formula across various domains: -/- 1. Thermodynamic Entropy in Engineering and Energy Systems -/- Example: Designing energy-efficient machines -/- Real-world Issue: Internal combustion engines lose significant energy as heat, increasing entropy and wasting fuel. -/- Application of Your Formula: Align engine designs with the law of balance to reduce inefficiencies. For example: -/- Use renewable energy systems like solar panels or wind turbines, which operate with fewer losses. -/- Implement feedback mechanisms (e.g., smart grids) to optimize energy distribution, ensuring minimal waste. -/- Entropy Measurement: Monitor energy losses in power plants or transportation systems as a way to measure inefficiency (high entropy). -/- Solution: Continuously improve these systems to reduce energy dissipation and maintain balance. -/- 2. Statistical Entropy in Environmental Sustainability -/- Example: Biodiversity and ecosystem balance -/- Real-world Issue: Deforestation and pollution disrupt ecosystems, leading to species extinction and increasing disorder (ecological entropy). -/- Application of Your Formula: Promote policies and actions that restore ecological balance by: -/- Preserving biodiversity to maintain the “feedback mechanisms” in ecosystems (e.g., predator-prey relationships). -/- Reducing pollutants that cause imbalances in natural cycles like water, carbon, and nitrogen. -/- Entropy Measurement: Track the loss of biodiversity or the degradation of natural habitats as indicators of ecological entropy. -/- Solution: Use data-driven conservation strategies to minimize entropy and restore balance in ecosystems. -/- 3. Cosmological Entropy and Sustainable Development -/- Example: Planning human activities to prevent resource depletion -/- Real-world Issue: Overextraction of natural resources leads to higher entropy in the global system, disrupting the environment and social structures. -/- Application of Your Formula: Align economic and societal decisions with natural balance laws: -/- Adopt circular economy models, where waste is minimized and resources are reused efficiently. -/- Implement population control policies to avoid overburdening ecosystems. -/- Entropy Measurement: Use indicators like carbon footprints, waste generation, and energy inefficiencies to gauge how much “imbalance” human activities create. -/- Solution: Educate policymakers on the law of balance, emphasizing actions that minimize long-term entropy while maximizing harmony. -/- 4. Information Entropy in Society and Education -/- Example: Combating misinformation in media -/- Real-world Issue: Fake news and propaganda increase information entropy, creating confusion and imbalance in society. -/- Application of Your Formula: Reduce information entropy by: -/- Teaching critical thinking and media literacy in schools. -/- Promoting transparency and fact-checking mechanisms in journalism and social media. -/- Entropy Measurement: Develop tools to measure the “noise-to-signal” ratio in information systems, identifying areas of high misinformation (high entropy). -/- Solution: Create feedback systems where false information is quickly identified and corrected, maintaining informational balance. -/- 5. Biological Entropy in Healthcare -/- Example: Preventing diseases caused by imbalance in the body -/- Real-world Issue: Chronic diseases like diabetes or obesity occur when the body’s internal systems (e.g., metabolism) fall out of balance, increasing entropy. -/- Application of Your Formula: Promote health practices that maintain biological balance, such as: -/- Encouraging balanced diets and physical activity to maintain homeostasis. -/- Using preventive medicine to detect and correct imbalances early. -/- Entropy Measurement: Use biomarkers (e.g., blood sugar, cholesterol levels) to assess the level of disorder in a patient’s body. -/- Solution: Treat health as a feedback system, continuously monitoring and adjusting to maintain low entropy (optimal health). -/- 6. Entropy in Economic Systems -/- Example: Preventing financial instability and inequality -/- Real-world Issue: Unregulated financial systems lead to wealth inequality and economic crashes, increasing societal entropy. -/- Application of Your Formula: Design economic policies based on feedback mechanisms and natural balance: -/- Enforce progressive taxation to redistribute wealth and reduce inequality. -/- Promote sustainable investments that balance economic growth with environmental protection. -/- Entropy Measurement: Track economic indicators like income inequality (Gini coefficient) or resource depletion to measure imbalances. -/- Solution: Align economic systems with natural laws to ensure they operate with minimal disorder and maximize fairness. -/- 7. Programming AGI to Minimize Entropy -/- Example: Using AGI to solve global challenges -/- Real-world Issue: Human systems (e.g., governments, industries) often fail to detect or address imbalances effectively, leading to crises. -/- Application of Your Formula: Program AGI to: -/- Continuously monitor global systems (e.g., climate, economies, healthcare) to detect entropy or imbalances. -/- Suggest or implement corrective actions to restore balance, such as optimizing resource distribution or preventing conflict. -/- Entropy Measurement: AGI could calculate entropy across various systems in real-time, identifying areas of high disorder or inefficiency. -/- Solution: Use your universal formula to guide AGI decision-making, ensuring actions reduce entropy and align with natural balance. -/- 8. Entropy in Leadership and Governance -/- Example: Implementing balanced decision-making in governments -/- Real-world Issue: Corruption, ignorance, and shortsighted policies increase societal entropy, leading to instability and unrest. -/- Application of Your Formula: Train leaders to: -/- Follow the law of balance by making decisions that benefit both current and future generations. -/- Use evidence-based approaches to minimize societal entropy (e.g., reducing poverty and inequality). -/- Entropy Measurement: Monitor social indicators like crime rates, education levels, and public trust to assess entropy in governance. -/- Solution: Integrate principles of balance and feedback into leadership training, ensuring leaders minimize societal disorder. -/- Final Thought: A Holistic Approach to Entropy -/- Your universal formula, when integrated with the concept of entropy, provides a holistic framework for addressing imbalances across physical, biological, societal, and informational systems. By recognizing entropy as a measure of disorder and imbalance, and aligning actions with natural laws, you can create sustainable solutions to prevent or reverse entropy in all aspects of life. -/- Entropy in Leadership and Governance: A Closer Look -/- 1. The Problem: Increasing Societal Entropy -/- Poor governance (corruption, ignorance, or biased decisions) creates imbalances that lead to societal disorder, or high entropy, such as: -/- Economic inequality and poverty -/- Political instability and public distrust -/- Environmental degradation and unsustainable practices -/- These imbalances disrupt feedback mechanisms between leaders and citizens, causing decisions to deviate further from balance and truth. -/- 2. Application of Your Universal Formula -/- By aligning leadership decisions with the law of balance in nature, entropy in governance can be minimized. Here’s how: -/- A. Feedback Mechanisms for Effective Leadership -/- Concept: Leadership decisions must consider feedback from the governed population and their environment to maintain balance. -/- Example: Participatory governance -/- Regularly collect citizen feedback through public consultations, surveys, and referenda. -/- Use this feedback to adapt policies in real time, ensuring they align with the needs of society and reduce disorder. -/- Result: Minimizing entropy by preventing policies that create widespread dissatisfaction or unrest. -/- B. Decision-Making Based on Truth and Natural Balance -/- Concept: Policies must adhere to the universal law of balance, prioritizing sustainable and equitable outcomes. -/- Example: Climate change governance -/- Leaders implement evidence-based climate policies, such as transitioning to renewable energy and promoting sustainable agriculture. -/- These actions reduce environmental entropy (e.g., resource depletion, pollution) and ensure long-term ecological balance. -/- Result: Lower entropy across environmental and economic systems, benefiting both current and future generations. -/- C. Reducing Political Entropy Through Transparency -/- Concept: High information entropy (e.g., corruption, misinformation) leads to public distrust and societal imbalance. -/- Example: Open governance -/- Implement systems for transparency, such as publishing government spending data and decisions publicly. -/- Encourage independent audits and anti-corruption measures. -/- Result: Trust and stability are restored, reducing societal entropy caused by hidden agendas and misinformation. -/- D. Addressing Inequality to Prevent Social Disorder -/- Concept: Inequality is a key driver of societal imbalance (high entropy). Leadership must focus on fair wealth distribution and access to resources. -/- Example: Progressive taxation -/- Implement tax policies that reduce income inequality by redistributing wealth from the richest to fund social programs like education and healthcare. -/- Result: Lower societal entropy as disparities are reduced, creating a more harmonious and balanced society. -/- E. Education as a Tool to Minimize Leadership Errors -/- Concept: Ignorance among leaders increases entropy by leading to shortsighted or imbalanced decisions. -/- Example: Leadership training programs -/- Integrate your universal formula into leadership education to teach principles of balance, feedback mechanisms, and the importance of minimizing entropy. -/- Include critical thinking, ethics, and systems thinking as core components. -/- Result: Leaders make informed, balanced decisions, reducing errors and systemic failures. -/- 3. Entropy Measurement in Governance -/- To track progress and detect imbalances, entropy in governance can be measured through key indicators: -/- Economic entropy: Income inequality (Gini coefficient), unemployment rates, and economic growth sustainability. -/- Social entropy: Public trust in institutions, crime rates, and access to education and healthcare. -/- Environmental entropy: Resource depletion, pollution levels, and biodiversity loss. -/- Using these metrics, leaders can identify areas of imbalance and implement corrective actions based on your universal formula. -/- 4. AGI-Assisted Governance -/- To minimize human error and maximize balance, AGI can: -/- Continuously analyze data on societal entropy (economic, social, environmental). -/- Provide unbiased recommendations based on the law of balance. -/- Detect misinformation or high entropy in public discourse, ensuring decisions are based on truth. -/- Final Thought: Leadership as Guardians of Balance -/- By understanding and applying the principles of entropy through your universal formula, leaders can: -/- Reduce societal disorder (entropy) by aligning decisions with natural laws. -/- Create systems that are self-correcting and sustainable through effective feedback mechanisms. -/- Ensure governance promotes long-term balance, fairness, and harmony. -/- Here’s a detailed approach to applying your universal formula to reduce entropy in governance and leadership in the Philippines: -/- 1. Identifying Areas of High Entropy in the Philippines -/- The Philippines faces a range of imbalances or entropy in its governance systems, creating societal disorder: -/- Economic Entropy -/- Poverty: Nearly 20% of Filipinos live below the poverty line. -/- Income Inequality: The wealth gap continues to widen, with the richest 1% controlling a significant portion of the country’s wealth. -/- Unemployment: High levels of underemployment and a reliance on remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) instead of local industrial growth. -/- Social Entropy -/- Corruption: Government corruption leads to misallocation of resources and decreases public trust. -/- Misinformation: Fake news and misleading media contribute to confusion and division. -/- Healthcare and Education: Access to quality healthcare and education is uneven, especially in rural areas. -/- Environmental Entropy -/- Environmental Degradation: Deforestation, plastic pollution, and loss of biodiversity. -/- Climate Change Vulnerability: Frequent typhoons, floods, and earthquakes, worsened by poor infrastructure and disaster preparedness. -/- Political Entropy -/- Instability: Frequent changes in leadership and populist policies that prioritize short-term gain over long-term solutions. -/- Weak Rule of Law: A justice system that is slow and sometimes corrupted, which weakens public confidence. -/- 2. Applying Your Universal Formula to Reduce Entropy -/- By applying your universal formula, we can introduce holistic, balanced solutions to reduce entropy and restore order in the Philippines. -/- A. Feedback Mechanisms for Effective Governance -/- Problem: A disconnection between the government and the people leads to ineffective policies and high entropy. -/- Solution: -/- Public Consultation and Direct Feedback: Create systems for regular and direct communication between the government and citizens. Public consultations, town halls, and online surveys can allow citizens to provide feedback on policies. -/- Example: Barangay-level feedback mechanisms where local governments can assess the needs of citizens and adapt their policies accordingly. -/- Real-time Data Utilization: Use technology to monitor public opinion, especially on important issues like corruption, education, and healthcare. -/- Example: Implement smart governance platforms where citizens can report issues such as service delays, corruption, or inefficiencies, which are then addressed in real-time. -/- Feedback Loops: Create a continuous feedback system where government actions are evaluated and refined to maintain societal balance, much like your principle of natural systems operating with minimal defects. -/- Result: Policies reflect the needs of the population, maintaining societal harmony and reducing entropy. -/- B. Promoting Policies Based. (shrink)

Replacing the value-free ideal (VFI) for science requires attention to the broader understanding of how science in society should function. In public spaces, science needed to project the VFI in norms for science advising, science education, and science communication. This resulted in the independent science advisor model and a focus on science literacy for science education and communication. Attending to these broader implications of the VFI which structure science and society relationships is crucial if we are to properly (...) replace the VFI with a better ideal. (shrink)

This paper investigates the interaction of gender, disability and education in rural Iran, which is a relatively unexplored field of research. The responses of 10 female students with disabilities from Isfahan indicated that the obstacles they faced included marginalization, difficulties in getting from home to school, difficulties within the school building itself, and discrimination by teachers, classmates and school authorities. The data collected for the study contain a wide range of conservative gendered discourses, and show how traditional gender beliefs (...) interact with disability to aggravate the problems faced in education by young women with disabilities. It is hoped that the findings will raise awareness among policy-makers of the many formidable obstacles that make it difficult for young women with disabilities to achieve their full potential in education. (shrink)

Extended Reality (XR) and Large Language Model (LLM) technologies have the potential to significantly influence higher education practices and pedagogy in the coming years. As these emerging technologies reshape the educational landscape, it is crucial for educators and higher education professionals to understand their implications and make informed policy decisions for both individual courses and universities as a whole. -/- This paper has two parts. In the first half, we give an overview of XR technologies and their (...) potential future role in higher education. Then, we discuss the benefits and challenges of adopting and integrating XR technologies into higher education settings. Finally, we offer recommendations for educators, administrators, and policymakers on how to approach the adoption of this set of technologies and set institutional policy to take advantage of its benefits while minimizing its potential negative consequences. -/- In the paper’s second half, we discuss LLMs - specifically Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPTs). Again, we provide an overview of this rapidly developing technology and examine its unprecedented and potentially disruptive impact on higher education pedagogy. We delve into the benefits and limitations of GPTs, highlighting the pedagogical and ethical challenges they may pose. Finally, we present actionable recommendations for instructors and administrators at both the course level and the university-wide level to guide policy decisions concerning these transformative technologies. (shrink)

This article analyses Ukraine’s language policies from 2002 to 2022 within a framework of liberalism, while avoiding making normative judgements or recommendations, updating the discussion raised in Kymlicka and Opalski’s Can Liberal Pluralism be Exported? The analysis takes into consideration Ukraine’s present and historic position, including the challenge that postcolonial nation building can pose for achieving liberalism and linguistic justice. The paper focuses on three main areas of language policy: education, businesses and media, and assesses if they (...) can be described as liberal orthodox, pluralist or illiberal. The article begins by defining liberalism and illiberalism, discussing the context of Ukraine’s linguistic diversity and postcolonial context, before outlining the language situation until EuroMaidan. Then, the main issue of language policy in the areas of education, business and media is analysed, before considering whether Ukrainian language laws might be considered liberal or illiberal. Finally, potential future trajectories are outlined. (shrink)

According to a widespread view, one of the most important roles of education is the nurturing of common sense. In this article I turn to Gilles Deleuze’s concept of sense to develop a contrary view of education—one that views education as a radical challenge to common sense. The discussion will centre on the relation of sense and common sense to thinking. Although adherents of common sense refer to it as the basis of all thought and appeal to (...) critical thinking as instrumental in eliminating its occasional errors, I shall argue, following Deleuze, that common sense education in fact thwarts thinking, while only education which revolves around making sense may provoke thinking that goes beyond the self-evident. I demonstrate how making sense can become an educational encounter that breaks hierarchies and generates thinking independently of the thinker’s knowledge and place in the sociopolitical order. The present article attempts, therefore, to put some sense into Deleuzian education for thinking, and thereby shed new light on its radical-political, counter-commonsensical power. (shrink)

Preparing students for the real challenges in life is one of the most important goals in education. Constructivism is an approach that uses real-life experiences to construct knowledge. Problem-Based Learning (PBL), for almost five decades now, has been the most innovative constructivist pedagogy used worldwide. However, with the rising popularity, there is a need to revisit empirical studies regarding PBL to serve as a guide and basis for designing new studies, making institutional policies, and evaluating educational curricula. This (...) need has led the researchers to do a meta-analysis to analyse the effectiveness of PBL on secondary students’ achievement in different scientific disciplines. Following the set of inclusion and exclusion criteria, 11 studies in Eurasia, Africa, and America conducted from 2016 to 2020 have qualified for this study. Six of which focused on JHS (n = 1047) and five on SHS (n = 375). Studies were obtained from various meta-search engines including Google, ERIC, and JSTOR. Further, the researchers used Harzing’s Publish and Perish software to exhaust the search process. Sample size, mean, and standard deviation were analysed using the Comprehensive MetaAnalysis version 3 to determine the effect sizes (Hedge’s g) and the results of moderator analysis, forest plot, funnel plot, and Begg-Mazumdar test. Findings have shown that PBL, as an approach to teaching science, had a large and positive effect (ES = .871) on the achievement of secondary students. However, grade levels and various scientific disciplines did not influence students’ learning achievement. The conduct of more studies on the different factors affecting PBL implementation and specific effects of PBL on various student domains is recommended to facilitate comparative educational research in the future. (shrink)

Literature frequently describes how ineffective implementation of instructional policy frameworks can make distance learning a lonely and unrewarding academic pursuit, characterized by high student drop-out rates, high failure rates and academic exclusion. In trying to mitigate this catastrophe, academic departments in distance learning institutions utilize learning management systems (LMSs) to stimulate students’ learning experiences. In keeping with techno-progressivism, the researchers (and authors of this paper) turned to extant documentary policy and literature to review – qualitatively – how the (...) University of South Africa’s (Unisa’s) Open Distance Learning Policy (ODLP) promotes academic inclusion and learning agency as cornerstones of student success and social justice, especially in an unequal society like South Africa. The findings revealed the following: 1) Unisa’s ODLP position has the impetus to influence the deployment of the LMS to promote academic inclusion; 2) Practical means of promoting inclusion were mirrored in the provision of manual or electronic learning material, computer laboratories and free internet connectivity in regional centres across all nine provinces of South Africa, as well as in the provision of laptops for National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS)-funded students, 30 gigabytes of free monthly mobile data to all students, and assistive technologies for students with disabilities; 3) Practical utilization of an LMS to foster self-regulated learning occurred through problem-based individual activities supplemented by asynchronous demonstrative learning material (e.g. audio, video), while collaborative learning agency was enabled through e-tutoring, which afforded students the opportunity to interact with e-tutors and their peers about the learning content; 4) Drawbacks in the use of the LMS stemmed from the insufficiency of assistive learning technologies that are required for students with disabilities to participate fully in online learning, and a corpus of students’ irregular attendance at and participation in e-tutoring discussions and their projection of a negative attitude towards the e-tutors. -/- . (shrink)

In the words of Aristotle, "The state is a union of families and villagers having for an end, a perfect and self-sufficing life by which we mean a happy and honourable life. A state exists for the sake of good life and not for the sake of life only". This definition has given a clear vision on the relationship between man and the state. The state, in modern times is regarded as an important agency or in other words a human (...) organization for maintaining disciplined and a well-arranged environment for education. In contemporary world, the functions to be performed by a state are going wide day by day. So, one of the functions of a state is to give proper education and to create a proper environment for imparting knowledge among people. In a democratic country the role of state in spreading education is very much important. These states provide educational aims and objectives, open schools and colleges; arrange the syllabus and curriculum, plan, control and direct educational activities for their citizens. Performing these functions the modern states can create such an environment in every society where every citizen can be made educated enough to understand the complexities of modern world. Besides these, the modern world can make proper arrangements for research and experiments in various fields of education. For this a state should establish such institutions and organisations to inspire the eligible individuals. In a big country like India, the state makes educational policies based on needs, ideals and aspirations of the people. For this there are various administrative unites are established. Each such unites maintain an educational department of it’s own for providing liberal and vocational education up to highest standard. States also maintain one or more universities for higher education. Thus, it can be said that a state exerts it’s direct and indirect influences on all aspects of education. (shrink)

My argument in this paper is that humility is implied in the concept of teaching, if teaching is construed in a strong sense. Teaching in a strong sense is a view of teaching as linked to students’ embodied experiences (including cognitive and moral-social dimensions), in particular students’ experiences of limitation, whereas a weak sense of teaching refers to teaching as narrowly focused on student cognitive development. In addition to detailing the relation between humility and strong sense teaching, I will also (...) argue that humility is acquired through the practice of teaching. My discussion connects to the growing interest, especially in virtue epistemology discourse, in the idea that teachers should educate for virtues. Drawing upon John Dewey and contemporary virtue epistemology discourse, I discuss humility, paying particular attention to an overlooked aspect of humility that I refer to as the educative dimension of humility. I then connect this concept of humility to the notion of teaching in a strong sense. In the final section, I discuss how humility in teaching is learned in the practice of teaching by listening to students in particular ways. In addition, I make connections between my concept of teaching and the practice of cultivating students’ virtues. I conclude with a critique of common practices of evaluating good teaching, which I situate within the context of international educational policy on teacher evaluation. (shrink)

This research explores the crucial role of leadership transitions in educational institutions, particularly at Immaculate Conception College of Balayan, Inc. (ICCBI). Recognizing the profound impact of leadership practices on organizational effectiveness, this study addresses nuanced aspects of employee engagement during transitions. Using a qualitative case study design involving face-to-face interviews, common themes emerge regarding the transition of leadership, such as inclusive decision-making, resistance to new policies, unclear communication, continuity in vision, mission, and commitment, and transparency. The findings underscore the (...) substantial influence of leadership transitions on the institution's dynamics, shaping its mission, vision, and commitment to both students and employees. Proactively addressing challenges is emphasized as crucial for maintaining a positive work environment and enhancing organizational effectiveness. The study further recommends a strategic focus on transforming challenges into -/- opportunities, prioritizing employee engagement, and implementing the outlined strategies to foster a healthy work- life relationship within Immaculate Conception College of Balayan, Inc. (shrink)

This systematic literature review investigates critical factors influencing the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in teaching and learning environments. Drawing upon existing research, the study examines key themes including teacher attitudes and beliefs, professional development, infrastructure, and pedagogical integration. Findings indicate that positive teacher attitudes towards ICT and effective professional development programs are essential for successful technology integration. Moreover, the availability of reliable infrastructure, such as internet connectivity and hardware, plays a vital role in facilitating equitable access to (...) ICT resources. Pedagogical integration emerges as a crucial aspect, with aligning technology use with instructional objectives and fostering active, student-centered learning experiences identified as key strategies. Innovative pedagogical approaches, including inquiry-based learning and flipped classrooms, leverage ICT to enhance engagement and learning outcomes. The study highlights the interconnectedness of these factors and underscores the importance of addressing them holistically to optimize the educational benefits of ICT integration. By informing evidence-based practices and policy recommendations, this research aims to support educators, policymakers, and stakeholders in enhancing teaching and learning outcomes in the digital age. (shrink)

The UK has been ‘following the science’ in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in line with the national framework for the use of scientific advice in assessment of risk. We argue that the way in which it does so is unsatisfactory in two important respects. Firstly, pandemic policy making is not based on a comprehensive assessment of policy impacts. And secondly, the focus on reasonable worst-case scenarios as a way of managing uncertainty results in a loss of (...) decision-relevant information and does not provide a coherent basis for policy making. (shrink)

Background: Although inclusive education is widely discussed, its implementation has not, arguably, been far-reaching. There remains a lack of specific, targeted approaches towards fully including learners with physical and mental impairments in the educational space. Objectives: This study investigated the extent of the inclusion of learners with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in three schools in Johannesburg. Method: A qualitative interpretivist design was adopted. Teachers who work with learners with ASD were interviewed using open-ended questions. The sampled data were analysed (...) using thematic analysis, making use of both a priori codes and emergent codes that arose from the open-ended questions. Results: The findings reveal numerous pedagogic strategies such as differentiation, scaffolding, use of visual cues, group work and collaboration that can include learners with ASD in the classroom space. Conclusion: Teacher collaboration and teacher training are vital in ensuring that learners with ASD are fully included in the classroom space. (shrink)

Since the concept of “nudge” was introduced in 2008 by Thaler and Sunstein, proposing that small interventions based on changes in choice architectures can alter people’s behavior and make it easier for them to achieve their desired goals, the application in public policy of behavioral economics has gained significant attention. This has led to the emergence of different types of policies based on behavioral insights, which have been used in a variety of areas, including health or finance, with the (...) goal of promoting well-being and addressing social and economic issues. After providing a basic theoretical background as a frame of reference to understand gender violence, this study explores the use of tools from the field of behavioral economics as it is applied in public policy. Regulatory (paternalistic) and non-regulatory (libertarian) interventions based on behavioral insights will be considered: nudges, boosts, shoves, budges, or sludge audits, are examined as potential interventions to use in matters related to this type of violence. After evaluating these behavioral policy instruments and their potential effectiveness, the limitations of the behavioral perspective are recognized, and the need for a multifaceted approach to combating gender violence is acknowledged. The article concludes by arguing that public policies addressing gender violence should not only utilize behavioral tools but should also incorporate strategies related to education, legislation, and social norms. (shrink)

What are the roles of scientific causal knowledge in relation to the evidential requirements of policy making? In this chapter, I review the existing approaches in philosophy of science to the policy relevance of causal knowledge. I assess the specific concerns and questions on which these philosophical accounts have focused and show how they only offer a partial perspective of the relation between causal knowledge and policy making. Most existing views are top-down approaches: they start (...) from philosophical concerns about causation and evidence, and then make general claims about (potential) policy implications, but leave the notion of “policy” unanalyzed. As an alternative, I put forward some ideas toward a bottom-up approach: one that understands policy making as a dynamic process with several stages, and that starts from concrete policy problems, to then examine how causal notions and methods can contribute in various ways to the specifics of the process of policy making. (shrink)

Older people are encouraged to participate more in the economic, social, and governmental sectors as part of progressive aging policies worldwide. Very little is known about applying engagement techniques or carrying out strategies in Bangladesh that are important for involving seniors in social engagement. Therefore, this qualitative research was conducted in Dhaka, Bangladesh, among 385 people aged sixty or above to assess their understanding of the quality of life and the gap in government policy. Results showed that between 60 (...) and 65 were more mobile, creative, engaged in productive activity, and had significantly higher decision-making power (p<0.000). Aging greatly enhances dependency (p<0.000). Lower-educated people were significantly dependent on their families (p<0.000).Moreover, elderly income and the cost of treatment were significantly correlated to abuse (p<0.001). Furthermore, 10% of participants reported negative relationships with family members (p<0.031). However, most (61.6%) were unaware of the 2013 Parent's Care Act. Though most participants (73.2%) knew of the government-funded Old Age Allowance, 92.5% received no non-governmental assistance. The research concluded that education and economic condition have a long-term relationship with reducing dependency. In recommendation, Government can increase the retirement age from 59 to 65 years which may increase self of security, respect, and self-esteem and reduce harassment. Parent's Care Act 2013 should implement. Government should include Community Health and Social Service centers for the quality of life of the elderly. (shrink)

Cross-cultural dialogue between the Kyoto School of modern Japanese philosophy and the classical pragmatist tradition in American philosophy can help educators to clarify aims for greater ecological responsiveness in moral education. This dialogue can contribute to meeting an urgent practical need to cultivate ecological imagination, and an equally practical need to make theoretical sense of the way in which ecological perception becomes relevant to moral deliberation. The first section of this chapter explores relational thinking in the Kyoto School and (...) American pragmatism to help develop, in the second section, a concept of ecological imagination. A fine-tuned ecological imagination is a capacity we already count on in our best environmental writers, educators, scientists, and policy analysts. Moral deliberation enlists imagination of a specifically ecological sort when the imaginative structures we use to understand ecosystemic relationships shape our mental simulations and what John Dewey calls our “dramatic rehearsals.” The final section draws from the foregoing to clarify some appropriate aims for contemporary moral education. Enriched through cross-cultural dialogue about the relational networks in which our finite lives are embedded, a finely aware ecological imagination can make the deliberations of the coming generation more trustworthy. (shrink)

Moral fundamentalism is the habit of acting as though one has access to the exclusively right way to diagnose problems, along with the single approvable practical solution to any particular problem. This approach causes us to oversimplify situations, neglect broader context, take refuge in dogmatic absolutes, ignore possibilities for finding common ground, assume privileged access to the right way to proceed, and shut off honest inquiry. In this way, moral fundamentalism-exacerbated by social media silos-also makes the worst of native impulses (...) toward social bonding and antagonism. This makes it impossible to debate and achieve superordinate social goals, such as public health, justice, security, sustainability, peace, and democracy. Drawing from John Dewey's pluralistic and pragmatic approach to philosophical questions, Steven Fesmire develops an alternative to both the oversimplification of moral fundamentalism and the arbitrariness of relativism. His pragmatic pluralism is set up as a response to particular conditions and consequences, so it gains practical leverage with complex ethical, political, educational, and policy problems without flattening variability among values or presuming that abstract theories can determine what we ought to do. He argues that the reductive monistic premise that logically underlies moral fundamentalism is both unwarranted and constrictive, and there is little to be said in favor of the grand philosophical quest for a unifying principle that cannot be accommodated within a wider pluralistic approach. In a concrete and engaging style, Fesmire clarifies and illustrates the promises and challenges of democratic decision-making in societies struggling to grow beyond moral fundamentalism. (shrink)

The article considers what arbitrary law-making is and what may count as arbitrary law-making in the field of migration policy. It contributes to the discussion of arbitrary law-making in relation to migration policy in two ways. First, it offers an analysis of arbitrariness, pointing out that rhetorical definitions abound – perhaps not surprisingly, given that migration is a highly-contested policy area – and argues for why transposing a conception developed in ethical theory to the (...) law has high theoretical costs. An alternative conception is described and found to be better equipped to deal with arbitrary law-making in migration policy. It is argued that if we want to understand how arbitrariness plays out in the field of migration law – which is necessary to find ways to hinder its spread by the adoption of specific law-making practices – we first need to distinguish arbitrariness from legitimate choices of legislators. Secondly, a typology of forms of arbitrariness is fleshed out in relation to contemporary migration policy. The policy area is here broadly construed to include not only naturalisation processes, but also migration, asylum and refugee policies and more generally border control. The examples are taken from a broad selection of countries. They have been chosen for illustrative purposes only. Keywords: arbitrariness, discretion, arbitrary power, forms of arbitrary power, borders, migration policy, citizenship policy. (shrink)

One recurring criticism of the best interests standard concerns its vagueness, and thus the inadequate guidance it offers to care providers. The lack of an agreed definition of ‘best interests’, together with the fact that several suggested considerations adopted in legislation or professional guidelines for doctors do not obviously apply across different groups of persons, result in decisions being made in murky waters. In response, bioethicists have attempted to specify the best interests standard, to reduce the indeterminacy surrounding medical decisions. (...) In this paper, we discuss the bioethicists’ response in relation to the state's possible role in clarifying the best interests standard. We identify and characterise two clarificatory strategies employed by bioethicists —elaborative and enumerative—and argue that the state should adopt the latter. Beyond the practical difficulties of the former strategy, a state adoption of it would inevitably be prejudicial in a pluralistic society. Given the gravity of best interests decisions, and the delicate task of respecting citizens with different understandings of best interests, only the enumerative strategy is viable. We argue that this does not commit the state to silence in providing guidance to and supporting healthcare providers, nor does it facilitate the abuse of the vulnerable. Finally, we address two methodological worries about adopting this approach at the state level. The adoption of the enumerative strategy is not defeatist in attitude, nor does it eventually collapse into (a form of) the elaborative strategy. (shrink)

Over the past few years we have seen an increasing number of legal proceedings related to inappropriately implemented technology. At the same time career paths have diverged from the foundation of statistics out to Data Scientist, Machine Learning and AI. All of these new branches being fundamentally branches of statistics and mathematics. This has meant that formal training has struggled to keep up with what is required in the plethora of new roles. Mathematics as a taught subject is still based (...) in decades old teaching specifications and has not been updated centrally as a curriculum to include new technologies, coding or ethics. This subject area is firmly split between ICT and Mathematics in secondary school, continuing on to be split between Computer Science and Mathematics at University. As we move forwards with technology we see these once seperate fields becoming increasingly intertwined. We propose that existing provision for concepts such as ethics and societal responsibility in analysis currently exist but have not been incorporated into the mainstream curriculum of School or University. This is partially due to the split between fields in an educational setting but also the speed with which education is able to keep up with Industry and its requirements. Principles and frameworks of socially responsible modelling beginning at school level means that ethics and real-life modelling are introduced much earlier than normal. Integrating these concepts with philosophical principles of society and politics ensures a suitable background for future modellers and users of technology to draw on. Modelling is currently undertaken in technical sciences at University but the Subject Benchmark Statements are not current (Subject Benchmark Statements describe the nature of study and the academic standards expected of graduates in specific subject areas. They show what graduates might reasonably be expected to know, do and understand at the end of their studies). Even in 2019 the UK did not yet have Benchmark Statements that discuss the learning to be done in Higher Education around AI and advanced Machine Learning. Where there is provision for AI and Data Science within degree courses ethics is not generally highlighted as a key concept. As such there can be a lack of focus on the teaching of modelling or ethics as specific skills. The skills required to use a basic statistical model, for example would not be sufficient to start from scratch and build an ethical model reflecting real-world scenarios with which to inform policy or organisational decision making. This is a skill in itself and includes such aspects as awareness of data quality, ethics, user implementation problems, context and an understanding of the environment that the model is being created in. As the field of analytics has progressed so quickly in the last decade modules such as those covering AI have simply been bolted on to Maths or Computing degrees rather than being fully detailed as key areas of study or driving new, more integrated courses of study. This paper posits that gaps at primary, secondary and tertiary educational levels need to be addressed. Implementing and integrating key concepts from school level is essential so that areas such as assumptions, caveats, quality assurance and answering the right questions with constructive challenge become a cultural fixture. This not only helps developers of technology but users of rapidly developing technology also. In addition, leadership and soft skills as part of this education will ensure that a cultural shift can take place and promote continuous improvement in analysis within organisations. The addition of key concepts throughout the educational system and the updating of potentially outdated curriculums is key to ensuring a functional society. A society where every citizen is a user of tech and those that develop it can be ethical and socially responsible in its development. (shrink)

In recent years, the practice of tax exemption for churches has become a source of open scrutiny, argument, and controversy on the part of both government and religious leaders. The study attempted to assess the main principles that government base on to impose taxes on its citizenry and to assess the tax exemption status of the churches in Ghana. Exploratory, descriptive and cross-section surveys were used to investigate and discover from respondent’s information on the topic to provide a report on (...) the background, facts, settings and concerns about the principles of taxation and the tax exemption status of churches. The study considered 120 people as its targeted sample of which 114 responded by the use of questionnaires. Also, descriptive analysis such as frequency and percentages were used to analyse the data. From the information gathered on the research, it was revealed that most Ghanaians representing 65.8% prefer the government to allocate taxes based on the benefits that taxpayers receive for paying taxes rather than the ability to pay or any other principle for the allocation of taxes. In addition, 57% of Ghanaians would like the religious organizations to enjoy their tax-exempt status despite allegation by critics that they are amassing wealth for themselves and not contributing to the development of Ghana. Some of the reasons given were that: churches are not profit-making businesses; churches contribute to the development of the nation; churches care for the people more than the government. Some of them concluded that failure to grant the church tax exemption may give room for the churches to engage in business activities. For those with the opposing view, some gave reasons such as: churches have become some sort of commerce; the churches have more money in this world; the payment of taxes by churches may as well boost the revenue of the government. Despite the various arguments, there was an agreement that the Ghana Revenue Authority should check the sales of rosaries, anointing oil, holy water, charge of consultation fees, as these should attract taxation. The paper recommends that Tax-Exempt Division should develop policies and administer tax exempt organizations (including religious organizations) laws. The division should be responsible for exempt organizations tax education and training to enable them understand their tax law obligations. This will improve tax compliance by the exempt organizations. (shrink)

To combat the ecological crisis, fundamental change is required in how humans perceive nature. This paper proposes that the human-nature bifurcation, a metaphysical mental model that is deeply entrenched and may be environmentally unsound, stems from embodied and tacitly-held substance-biased belief systems. Process philosophy can aid us, among other things, in providing an alternative framework for reinterpreting this bifurcation by drawing an ontological bridge between humans and nature, thus providing a coherent philosophical basis for sustainable dwelling and policy-making. (...) Michael Polanyi's epistemology can further help us understand these environmentally-oriented tacit processes of knowing, and also provide a basis for the political and educational implementation of process-philosophical insights, particularly via the nudging of mental models. (shrink)