On may 16th. 2011, IBM, Baycrest and the Public Policy Forum convened Innovation and the Human Brain. This conference was convened, in part, at the request of the Minister of Research and Innovation in an effort to bring together business, academia and government to tackle one of the main issues which will define Ontario's innovation agenda over the coming decade - brain research.
This paper first discusses cooperative learning and provides a rationale for its use in higher education. From the literature, six elements are identified that are considered essential to the success of cooperative learning: positive interdependence, face-to-face verbal interaction, individual accountability, social skills, group processing, and appropriate grouping.
Three distinct approaches at the postsecondary level are described in the fields of Medicine, Dentistry and Mathematics, and feedback from faculty and students is reported. The three approaches are presented within the context of the disciplines and are compared across the disciplines with respect to the essential six elements. Finally, the authors share some lessons learned from their research and experience in order to assist faculty who wish to incorporate cooperative learning into their teaching.
Revenues and expenses
• In 2012-13, college system revenues totaled almost $3.7 billion. Grant revenue from all sources accounts for half of college system revenue.
• College system expenses amounted to about $3.5 billion. Like other organizations in both the public and private sectors, salaries and benefits are by far the largest expense item for colleges.
Trends in college funding
• In 2013-14, real operating funding per student (FTE) was about five per cent higher than in 1998-99 – but 16 per cent lower than during the peak in 2007-08.
• Per student revenue from operating grants and tuition fees for Ontario colleges continues to be the lowest among the provinces. Funding per student for Ontario colleges continues to be significantly lower than that for secondary schools and universities.
• Space per student is much lower for Ontario colleges (90 square feet per student) in comparison to universities and secondary schools.
• In current dollars, the apprenticeship per diem has decreased slightly since 1998-99. However, after inflation is taken into account, the per diem has decreased by 28 per cent. The student in-school fee, which was implemented in 2002-03, has not been increased since its introduction.
Human resources
• Colleges employ more than 43,000 people. From 1997-98 to 2012-13, the number of full-time staff employed at colleges increased by 28 per cent, while enrolment increased by 31 per cent.
Student financial aid
• In 2012-13, almost 125,000 college students were OSAP recipients. This represents about two-thirds of the total full-time post-secondary enrolment.
• The default rate for student loans for all post-secondary institutions in 2012 was 9.8 per cent. For the college system, it was 13.4 per cent.
A fraternity member from the University of Oklahoma is videotaped chanting a racist song. At the University of Missouri, a slow response to racial slurs and graffiti fueled protests and led to the resignation of top administrators. At Bowie State University, a
swastika was spray-painted on the Martin Luther King Jr. Communications Art Center. Other incidents on campuses ranging from Yale University and Ithaca College on the east coast to Claremont McKenna College in California, led to campus protests and calls for change.
All of this and more occurred in 2015, leading the Washington Post’s Michael E. Miller to conclude “Whatever you call it, what’s clear is that unrest is spreading across American universities. One by one, campuses are lighting up with protests, demonstrations and — in a handful of cases — death threats, plunging the country into a broader debate about lingering racism
more than half a century after the Civil Rights Act.”
To be sure, today’s college students are helping to shine a spotlight on race, cultural differences, and the need for more inclusive, respectful campuses. It’s no surprise that faculty play an important role.
The 2011 Meeting of the OECD Council at Ministerial level is the first milestone in the Gender Initiative, which was launched by the OECD to help governments promote gender equality in Education, Employment and Entrepreneurship (the “three Es”). Reducing persistent gender inequalities is necessary not only for reasons of fairness and equity but also out of economic
necessity. Greater economic opportunities for women will help to increase labour productivity, and higher female employment will widen the base of taxpayers and contributors to social protection systems which will come under increasing pressure due to population ageing. More gender diversity would help promote innovation and competitiveness in business. Greater economic empowerment of women and greater gender equality in leadership are key components of the OECD’s wider agenda to
develop policies for stronger, better and fairer growth.
When viewed holistically, Canada lacks a clear and common understanding of the future directions and top priorities of its post-secondary education (PSE) sector. Perhaps as a result, Canada has not yet comprehensively addressed a fundamental question: How do we demonstrate quality in PSE? To answer this question requires clarification of many issues, including the roles that various institutions and sectors play. It also requires the development of a shared vision of PSE, of what can and should be achieved. Despite much discussion among leaders of various education sectors in Canada, an agreement on
a plan of action has yet to be reached. Indeed, a national dialogue on this critical issue is needed.
Are books a condition of our labour? Do we need libraries with stacks and physical collections? Recent discussions within libraries across the country have highlighted faculty anxiety and displeasure with the fate of university libraries, as cuts are made to purchasing and operating budgets, collections culled, and the very nature of acquisitions transformed by changes in the
methods of conducting and disseminating our research. Are libraries not an intrinsic part of our working conditions? How can we teach a student about the history of slavery, for example, if they do not have access to a wide range of interpretive sources that reflect changes in the writing of history over time? How can we encourage students to seek out many different kinds of evidence and to ask new and innovative questions, if libraries do not offer a variety of materials from a variety of different time periods? How can we encourage students to be venturesome and curious if they can no longer browse shelves? Those of us at smaller institutions long ago gave up the idea of having a ‘research’ library, but we do need very basic book collections, as well as collections of government documents and other sources that have not been digitized and, in fact, may never be. Without these, our teaching will be impoverished and our students’ learning will too.
Working while learning is now the accepted pathway to education and training for both young and mature working learners.
When working with aggregate data, it’s easy to lose sight of the voices and experiences of the people being studied. As part of the research for this report, the authors interviewed a number of actual working learners — some of whom were part of ACT’s working learner advisory council — and utilized their personal experiences and stories to illuminate the report and to develop policy proposals that would satisfy their needs. The following are some of the individuals who helped to provide insight into the lives of today’s working learners:
A learning studio is a classroom or specialized learning space that typically features enhanced teaching and learning technologies, comfortable seating, flexible furniture and an open layout. The learning studio concept is gaining popularity in many educational institutions. The increasing use of the learning studios, with the concomitant construction and equipment costs, inevitably raises questions regarding their effectiveness.
This study poses and tests five questions concerning the effectiveness of learning studios when compared to the traditional classroom.
Do the students better achieve course learning outcomes in a learning studio?
Do the students experience greater course completion rates in a learning studio?
Are students more satisfied with the learning experience in a learning studio?
Are the instructors more satisfied teaching in a learning studio?
Does the learning studio enable and allow for greater use of technologies or alternative teaching methods than the traditional classroom?
As Lambton College converted a few classrooms into learning studios and the faculty migrated courses from the former to the latter, the opportunity arose to examine the effect of the learning studios. For this study, 11 courses were identified in which a section of the course was taught one year in a classroom and the following year in a learning studio. In the successive deliveries of each of these courses, the instructor, course outline, evaluation scheme and student academic program remained constant, and the student demographics remained relatively steady. With the classroom as the control and the learning studio as the experimental venue, the achievement of the learning outcomes and the completion of the course by the students, and the satisfaction of the students and of the faculty could be compared for the two venues.
As Canada’s youth consider their increasingly broad and complex array of post-secondary education (PSE) options, they are faced with potentially costly decisions. Moreover, they often do not have the information they need to make appropriate choices, which can negatively impact their participation and persistence in PSE. For many students, it is a challenge to choose, design and follow a post-secondary pathway to its conclusion without deviating from their original plan. Students are increasingly taking non-linear pathways through PSE. Some may need to relocate and attend a different institution. Many students may decide to change the focus of their study, while others may wish to change their program entirely. Some may shift their goals from academic to applied forms of study, or vice versa. However, the structures of post-secondary systems in our provinces, and the various mechanisms that bind them, do not always provide clearly apparent and unobstructed pathways for students, particularly for mobile students. These problems are exacerbated by shifting mandates, roles, and labels of institutions across the Canadian PSE sector.
Each year, Universum runs the largest global survey on millennial career preferences. In each of our 30+ survey markets,
we partner with top universities to survey the most desirable future talent and find out who they want to work for and
why. The more votes a company receives, the higher they rank on the Ideal Employer list.
The 2014 Canadian student survey was conducted online, between mid-October 2013 and late-February 2014, under
Universum’s student brand, Wetfeet. The results in this report reflect the aggregated perceptions of nearly 30,000
undergraduate students from 107 universities and colleges.*
Background: A growing empirical base suggests that there is a positive relationship between teacher social interaction
and student achievement. However, much of this research is based on standardized summative assessments, which,
while important, may have limited applicability to timely instructional decision making. As such, in this work, we examine
the relationship between teacher social interaction and interim benchmark formative assessments, which have been
argued to play a more useful role in instructional decision making.
SUMMARY
This paper analyses business-driven innovation in education by looking at education-related patents. It first draws a picture of the challenges for innovation in the formal education sector, which suffers from a poor knowledge ecology: science is hardly linked to core teaching and administrative practices. It then turns to a common indicator of innovation: patents. In the case of education, patents typically cover educational tools. An analysis of education-related patents over the past 20 years shows a clear rise in the production of highly innovative educational technologies by businesses, typically building on advances in information and communication technology. While this increase in educational innovations may present new opportunities for the formal education sector, the emerging tool industry currently targets the nonformal education rather than the formal education system. We shortly discuss why business entrepreneurs may be less interested in the market of formal education.
RÉSUMÉ
Cet article porte sur l’innovation entrepreneuriale dans le secteur de l’éducation, à partir d’une analyse des dépôts de brevets dans le secteur éducatif. Premièrement, il propose un tableau des défis de l’innovation dans le secteur de l’éducation formelle, dont l’écologie du savoir est faible : la science y est peu liée avec le cœur des pratiques pédagogiques et administratives. L’étude porte ensuite sur un indicateur courant de l’innovation : les brevets. Dans le cas de l’éducation, les brevets couvrent généralement des « outils » éducatifs. L’analyse des brevets éducatifs durant les vingt dernières années montre une claire croissance de la production de technologies éducatives hautement innovantes par des entreprises privées, qui s’appuient souvent sur les progrès des technologies d’information et de communication. Bien que cette croissance des innovations éducatives puisse donner de nouvelles opportunités au secteur formel de l’éducation, l’industrie émergente d’outils éducatifs cible actuellement les secteurs informels d’éducation. Nous discutons brièvement les raisons pour lesquelles les entrepreneurs privés semblent moins intéressés par le secteur de l’éducation formelle.
The Ontario university sector is already somewhat differentiated. A policy decision to increase the differentiation of the postsecondary system brings the following benefits:
• Higher quality teaching and research programs
• More student choice with easier inter‐institution transfer and mobility
• Greater institutional accountability
• A more globally competitive system
• A more financially sustainable system
When professors advise early-career academics on grant writing, we often focus on the common mistakes and pitfalls. But up-and-coming researchers don’t just need advice on what not to do.
They need to know what goes into a successful grant proposal, too. I have some suggestions on that front — that I have gleaned from teaching grant writing for 20 years, and being continually funded by the National Institutes of Health as a principal investigator. Here, then, are my top 10 tips on how to draft a grant proposal that has the best odds of getting funded.
The present system of academic credentials awarded by Ontario’s colleges was established nearly a half century ago. It is thus appropriate to consider how well some of those credential titles fit in the global lexicon of academic credentials as it has evolved over the last half century and whether they are still appropriate today.
Presently the term for the credential that is awarded by colleges in Ontario upon completion of a program of two years’ duration is diploma. In 1995, noted community college scholar John Dennison of the University of British Columbia observed that “there is not a clear appreciation of what a diploma means”, and this “results in an undervaluation of the diploma from a CAAT” (Dennison, 1995, p. 13).
In response to stronger demand for access to degree programs and changing expectations from employers due to labour market needs, the Ministry made a number of decisions about how to increase access to a broader range of degree opportunities in April 2000. One of those decisions was to allow Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology (CAATs) to offer degrees in applied areas of study. These degrees differ from research-focused degrees because they have a strong focus on preparation for entry to practice occupations. The first degree programs began development in 2001. As of the evaluation period, thirteen of the twenty four colleges in Ontario were offering college degree programs.
The University community has an interest in improving the happiness and well-being of graduate students for a straightforward reason: to enable graduate students to do their best work. Balanced, happy people are more productive, more creative, more collaborative, better at pursuing long-term goals, more likely to find employment, and more physically and psychologically resilient, among other things. Positive emotion is associated with curiosity, interest and synthetic thinking. In contrast, depression is associated with loss of interest, helplessness, difficulty concentrating and remembering details, and worse. For more on this, see Part VI, “The Objective Benefits of Subjective Well-Being,” from the World Happiness Report.
Aboriginal women living off-reserve have bucked national trends, with employment rates rising since
2007 alongside labour force participation.
As a trusted partner to more than 725 college campuses nationwide, our mission at Barnes & Noble College is to work
closely with our campus partners to enhance the academic and social experience for those we serve – students, faculty, staff, alumni and communities. Given that student career readiness is a core goal for colleges/universities and their students, we partnered with Gen Y consulting company Why Millennials Matter to conduct this initial nationwide study. Our goal is to gather insight, share strategies and build programs to help the students we serve succeed in and out of the classroom,
and to help our campus partners’ achieve their retention, recruitment and career placement outcomes.