The study takes a qualitative approach to the study of lecturers’ practice in FE colleges. The meanings and ideas that individuals hold about their practice and their narratives about work experiences are captured through an exploratory methodology. The study is based in four FE colleges and offers a comparison of experienced lecturers, novice lecturers and managers to discuss dimensions of lecturers’ practice, namely their autonomy, responsibility and knowledge. Macro policies are introduced to FE colleges by external players and are driven top - down in FE colleges. Here, colleges are defined as the meso level of the Learning and Skills Sector. Within each college’s unique context lecturers have to negotiate their daily work routines and practices, that is, forming the micro arena. At the micro level, termed ‘the lecturer’s space’ the ongoing reconciliation by lecturers of the outside-in vectors (factors in the work environment that impinge on lecturers) with the insideout vectors (factors that emerge from their personal orientations and understandings) is examined to gain an understanding of practice. Degraded practice found in two of the three case-study colleges is compared with the third which emerged as having less degradation. Drawing on the evidence for nondegraded practice in this latter college, recommendations are made with regards to improving learning opportunities and the workplace, so that lecturers can realise their potential for flourishing in their teaching. In conclusion, the position of the colleges in the structured field of post compulsory education and training was explored in an attempt to explain the pattern of degraded practice amongst the case-study colleges. It was proposed that those colleges with weaker reserves of academic capital were more subject to the macro level discourses that advocated treating lecturers’ practice as a form of delivery. Moreover, the casestudy college with more extensive reserves of academic capital was less dependent on external stakeholders’ priorities and as a consequence was able to develop its own approach with regards to forming a community of practice.

Thesis (M.Ed.(Computer Integrated Education))-University of Pretoria, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references. Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

The aim of this thesis is to provide a theoretical critique of the Knowledge Economy discourse, the dominant discourse in which development is equated with the economic exploitation of knowledge. The nature of the critique is political in the sense that the problem with 'building a knowledge economy' as a model for development is that the accounts (such as they are) of how to go about doing so seem fatally undermined by their neglect of questions of power and politics - questions which this thesis will argue are essential to understanding the relationship between knowledge and development. The emergence of the discourse itself and the way in which its ideas are implemented can also be seen in political terms, in that the depoliticisation of development that it entails is itself a political position. The thesis is structured as an introduction followed by three main parts and a conclusion. In the Introduction and Part 1, I explain the nature of the research and the methods used, and provide a genealogy of the Knowledge Economy (KE) discourse, which includes the empirical element of this research, namely a series of interviews with key actors in the emergence of the discourse. In so doing, I historicise the discourse within the specific institutional history and politics of the major organisations (World Bank and the OECD) which have done the most of any to promote it. From this I identify the key theoretical ideas (Human Capital Theory, Innovation Systems, Hayekian Neoliberalism, Information Economics and Endogenous Growth Theory) which underpin the discourse and which are then the subject of critical analysis in Part 2. I make the case that the Knowledge Economy should not be understood as a robust analytical framework, empirical methodology or policy template, but instead as the reconceptualisation of 'questions of knowledge' in terms of markets. Specifically, the discourse depends upon a number of qualitatively different ways in which knowledge can be represented in, and transformed by, the operations of markets. These representations derive from three main schools off economic thought. I describe how each offers a critique of the others and yet how the Knowledge Economy is obtained as a synthesis of the three. In Part 3, I firstly illustrate a case of the Knowledge Economy discourse in action, namely Higher Education reform in India. I explain how the approaches that were studied in Part 1 and which were developed at the World Bank and the OECD in the late 1990s and early 2000s were applied in practice in India in the mid 2000s. I argue that these applications illustrate the claims of Part 2 regarding knowledge and markets. I then describe the politicised nature of Indian Higher Education and argue that no satisfactory account can be given without an engagement with these political economy factors. Following on from this, I then consider how adopting a KE approach of conceptualising knowledge in terms of markets might be subject to various forms of political analysis and develop a political economy critique that synthesises three theoretical approaches: (a) the politics of markets; (b) commodification; and (c) governmentality. From this I conclude that the KE approach is fundamentally flawed as an account of development.

Knowledge management is a response to the growing realization of knowledge as the deliverer of organizational success. Because much attention has been given to the private sector, knowledge management initiatives in educational settings seem to be lacking. Considering that knowledge activities – capturing, creating, sharing, applying and storing – are important activities in education, particularly schools, the failure to fully appreciate the potential of managing knowledge within education is surprising. A review of the literature suggests that factors such as management, technology and culture contribute differently to managing knowledge in many organizations. The management factor, for example, was a catalyst in providing a conducive work environment, whereas technology provides the mechanism as an enabler for knowledge management initiatives. Culture was important for the knowledge context and could play a significant role in the uptake of managing knowledge. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between these contextual factors – management, technology and culture – and the knowledge activities. The study took place in Malaysian secondary schools and highlighted the Smart School Project as one of the seven flagships of Malaysia Multimedia Super Corridor. A mixed method approach was used as a strategy of inquiry in order to explore the knowledge management contextual factors in relation to knowledge activities. The quantitative method focused on collecting data based on a survey instrument. There were 1313 respondents and Smart Schools and non Smart Schools participated in responding to the questionnaire. As for the interview method, the study focused on 21 individuals who were purposely selected based on their special implementation roles in the schools – school principals, information technology coordinators and teachers. The survey data were analysed by using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. There were three types of statistical application used, namely the descriptive statistics, the t-test and regression, whereas the interview data were analysed manually by looking and searching for noticeable patterns to be connected to the research framework. The findings suggest that although there is no explicit knowledge management system used in managing knowledge in the educational sector, there are a lot of elements and positive practices of knowledge management already in place that could help schools to develop and encourage activities such as knowledge sharing. As far as the contribution of the contextual factors to knowledge activities, technology was an important instrument in all of the knowledge activities, but it was certainly not the only or the most prominent one. The culture factor played a more significant role in all knowledge activities particularly when knowledge sharing was considered as a social and spiritual obligation in the communities of practice. Despite this, there were also barriers in the uptake of knowledge management initiatives in schools which seemed to limit knowledge activities due to time constraints and teacher workload.

This study used qualitative (interviews) and quantitative methods (questionnaires) to investigate and describe (a) Papua New Guinea (PNG) village elders' traditional ideas and beliefs on natural phenomena, (b) PNG secondary school student's traditional science beliefs, (c) the sources of PNG secondary school students' explanations of natural phenomena, (d) the types of explanations PNG secondary school students provide to describe natural phenomena, and the views of science teachers and curriculum officers on the inclusion of traditional knowledge in the science curriculum.. Analysis of data included interviews with eight village elders and completed questionnaires from approximately 200 secondary school students in one rural provincial high school in the Gulf Province. Village elders' beliefs were analysed and categorised into (a) spirits, magic spells and sorcery, (b) Christianity, (c) personal experience, and (d) modern science. Secondary school students' sources of explanations were based on what they have heard at (a) home, (b) in the family and village, (c) in church and (d) from school. Approximately half of the secondary school students strongly hold on to traditional beliefs while learning formal school science and these were related to spirits, magic spells and sorcery that were similar to those of the village elders. Students also used scientific explanations of natural phenomena based on their learning in school and from their own personal experiences and interactions with the physical world. / Interviews with science teachers and curriculum officers supported the need to include traditional knowledge in the science curricula. The study identified students holding both traditional and scientific explanations of natural phenomena. There is both a need and value for traditional knowledge being incorporated in science education programs that harmonise with school science. The thesis concludes with six recommendations to bring these ideas to fruition.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 245-249). Also available on microfiche.

No description available.

The aim of this study is to investigate the environmental knowledge level of teachers, who teach the elementary science and technology course, and to explore possible relationships between environmental knowledge level and their demographic attributes. In this study, data was obtained by the instrument developed by the researcher to 183 teachers from 91 selected elementary schools throughout &Ccedil / ankaya and Yenimahalle districts of Ankara in spring 2005-2006 semester. The results of the study indicated that participant did not take adequate environmental education neither preservice nor inservice education. Teacher in the study used media (visual or printed) to reach environmental information. Majority of the teachers in the study had average knowledge about environmental concepts and only small number of teachers had adequate knowledge level about environmental concepts. The main predictor of teachers&rsquo / knowledge were teaching experience, class hours taught in a week and being a part of an environment project.

Title from title page of PDF (University of Missouri--St. Louis, viewed March 2, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 265-274).

This research explores the development of a framework appropriate to evaluate the readiness of a university to engage with knowledge management. Many universities are evolving from traditional bureaucratic, hierarchical structures to become more flexible, adaptable, commercially viable and competitive and knowledge management is becoming increasingly important in this respect. An over view of knowledge management clarifies what the concept is, and a critical review of current frameworks and models identifies gaps and weaknesses specifically in relation to empirical testing, theoretical underpinning and a holistic approach. This framework addresses those gaps and weaknesses and draws on organisational management, strategy, structure and culture, and systems thinking to ensure a holistic approach. These key elements provide the basis upon which a knowledge management framework is developed. A Soft Systems Methodological approach with a critical dimension is used to underpin this research because enquiry into organisational problem situations is complex and unstructured, based on human activity and social systems. The framework is innovative and offers contributions to knowledge because it: - is a new development within the domain of knowledge management. (it is intended to help evaluate the readiness of universities to engage in knowledge management); - provides a new application of critical systems thinking (critical systems thinking is applied to knowledge management); - uses a new synthesis (it was developed using a synthesis of soft systems principles, knowledge management concepts, and organisational theory); - enables organisations to consider their situations in new ways (by enabling self-critique of KM readiness); - offers new insights into the domain of knowledge management by means of the comprehensive and substantial literature review that helped its development.