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How the validation of prior learning can be used to assess entrepreneurial human capital investments and outcomes
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to depart from the premise that human capital investments and human capital outcomes are often tacit – an aspect, which is often neglected in the current literature on entrepreneurial human capital. The idea of this conceptual paper is to shed light on the social process of how human capital investments and human capital outcomes can be valued and made visible through the validation of prior learning. Thus, this study conceptualises the validation of prior learning as a post hoc, the reflective process through which an aspiring entrepreneur is guided.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is conceptual and introduces a process model.
Findings
Findings indicate that the process of the validation of prior learning is well-suitable to inform aspiring entrepreneurs of their investments into human capital and their human capital outcomes. The process results in a (partial) certified qualification that provides entrepreneurial legitimacy.
Research limitations/implications
Thus far, the model is conceptual and should be validated via interviews and further empirical studies in the field.
Practical implications
Literature in the field of entrepreneurial human capital suggests that human capital outcomes are more important for success than inputs. Furthermore, context-specific knowledge, skills and abilities are more important than generalised outcomes. These findings have implications for the design of validation procedures.
Originality/value
Human capital has only been recently conceptualised as consisting of human capital investments and outcomes of human capital investment. However, thus far the literature falls short in acknowledging the tacit nature of human capital investments and human capital outcomes. This paper contributes a structured process of how human capital investments and human capital outcomes are linked and assessed. In so doing, this study extends a recent model of human capital investments and outputs (Marvel et al. , 2016, p. 616).
... Organisations must proactively support tacit knowledge exchange to fully exploit this valuable asset for organisational efficiency, and innovative workplace solutions. Tacit learning must become a key organisational staff activity -consisting of dialogue and structured reflection (Bohm, 2012;Fahrenbach, 2023) -which is interwoven into staff activities, and is communicated and actively supported as a key organisational output. ...
In the post-COVID environment, work flexibility is an increasingly important factor in employee attraction and retention. This new way of working is particularly challenging in the public sector as it is bound by high levels of rules, regulations and bureaucracy. Academic literature on the post-Covid ways of working is limited as the research takes time to catch up to current practices and does not fully capture or address the novel issues currently faced by public sector managers. With the increasing demand for flexible working, it is vital to explore how public sector organisations exploit opportunities and avoid potential risks in this new way of working. Through our empirical study with a public sector organisation, it is argued that the rapid shift to flexible working was possible as it leveraged off the pre-COVID organisational culture. High levels of organic tacit knowledge exchange were possible through staff’s physical proximity in the workplace. Under new flexible work practices, this is often no longer the case. For sustainable, effective knowledge exchange, operational policies must capture, consider and support operant knowledge exchange in this new geographically dispersed work environment. Drawing on service design theory and public sector management literature, this study generates managerial and policy learnings, practices, and methodologies for collaborative work policy development. Firstly, we demonstrate that, as traditional operational policies focus on quantifiable, explicit knowledge and communication, a new user-centred approach to policy development is required. It demonstrates the managerial need for collaborative policy development, which engages staff in capturing both explicit and tacit knowledge for effective operations. Secondly, it identifies the implications of the loss of tacit knowledge exchange, particularly for staff new to the organisation. It highlights the implications of moving to online forms of engagement and collaboration and the impact on knowledge development and exchange. Thirdly, we show the importance of critical reflection within co-creative policy development. Critical reflection provides staff with opportunities and resources to question old practices, reflect on new practices and construct knowledge collaboratively.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a vocational scientific constructivist concept meant for shaping competence-based and networked teaching and learning in vocational education and training (VET).
Design/methodology/approach
VET must enable learners to shape work within the context of conceptions based on the development of society. Refresher trainings cannot realise this. Concepts need a shaping competence-based and networked approach. Teaching and learning networks, learning projects and digital media are the keys to this approach.
Findings
The focus of the planned concept lies on shaping competence-based teaching and learning. This can be realised with innovative teaching and learning networks. Digital media can support this. The planned concept will be justified. The systematic planning of an exemplary learning project will be discussed.
Practical implications
This paper lays the ground to evaluate the relevance and range of shaping competence-based and networked teaching and learning.
Originality/value
The concept was (co-)developed by the University of Rostock. It was tested in first learning projects. These experiences are taken into account. The aim is to emphasise that the intended approach is a justified educational strategy in colleges, companies and other places of learning dealing with VET.
The papers compiled in this symposium bridge human capital ideas across research domains (economics, entrepreneurship, human resources, industrial-organizational psychology, labor economics, organizational theory, and strategy) and research levels (macro and micro). These articles draw on conversations that took place during a human capital conference held in the spring of 2014 at the Darla Moore School of Business. The articles address the role of value capturing, networking, firm-specific human capital, micro contributions to strategy, the missing role of context, the role of the practitioner, and the processes that may be helpful for advancing science through pulling knowledge from across disciplines. In combination, the articles reveal ample opportunity for cross-discipline collaboration to extend knowledge by working in concert with researchers who hold different perspectives. However, these articles (and the lessons learned through the conference) show that differences in terminology, assumptions, and focus are deeply held; hence, overcoming the substantive challenges will require great effort and an enthusiastic willingness to learn.
Human capital has emerged as a highly utilized theoretical lens through which scholars can better understand entrepreneurship. To synthesize the progress of this stream and promote its use, we review 109 articles in leading management and entrepreneurship journals over two decades. We organize our discussion in terms of multi-theory approaches, methods and analyses, constructs, and study focus. A number of research gaps and promising areas for inquiry are put forward. We develop a typology of human capital and discuss how future investigations of types of human capital related to the entrepreneurship process can benefit research and practice.
Effective human capital formation through the medium of entrepreneurship education and training (EET) is of increasing concern for governments, as EET is growing rapidly across the world. Unfortunately, there is a lack of consistent evidence showing that EET helps to create more or better entrepreneurs. We undertake the first quantitative review of the literature and, in the context of human capital theory, find that there is indeed support for the value of EET. Based on 42 independent samples (N = 16,657), we find a significant relationship between EET and entrepreneurship-related human capital assets (rw = .217) and entrepreneurship outcomes (rw = .159). The relationship between EET and entrepreneurship outcomes is stronger for academic-focused EET interventions (rw = .238) than for training-focused EET interventions (rw = .151). We find evidence of heterogeneity in many of our correlations, and recommend that future studies examine potential moderators to more clearly delineate EET effect sizes. We also find a number of methodological weaknesses among the studies analyzed and that those studies with lower methodological rigor are overstating the effect of EET. Recommendations to improve the quality of future work in the field are provided.
The purpose of this article is to describe and analyze how recognition of prior learning acts as a dividing practice and a technique for inclusion/exclusion of immigrants in their vocations in Swedish working life. It is a qualitative study of three pilot programs in Swedish urban centers, and the data consist of interviews and documents pertaining to these programs. The theoretical starting point of the analysis is three Foucauldian concepts: order of discourse, dividing practice, and technology of power. The results show how recognition of prior learning acts as a dividing practice; in the process of recognition, the targeting of certain vocations for assessment, the degrading of competence in the process, and the differing opportunities vis-à-vis further training and the labor market are part of the process of inclusion/exclusion in/from the orders of the labor market. Technologies of power—surveillance, observation, and examination— are part of this process.
By definition and purpose, education is the development of human capital towards meeting the individual and social needs of learners and their societies. This transdisciplinary collaboration parallels the underpinning principle of Lave and Wenger's Legitimate Peripheral Participation (Lave & Wenger, 1990) to South Africa's post-colonial legitimation of alternative sites and enskilment canons. Central to both is legitimation of knowledge acquisition from communities of practice or sites and ‘knowers’ (Mphahlele, 1992) ‘outside formal institutions’ of teaching/learning. Considered and termed ‘informal’ and by deduction, less legitimate for meritorious enskilment, the South African Qualifications Authority (1995, 2002) decrees a transformative paradigm and method of validating these sites and their skills production. SAQA highlights the fact that the pedagogical approach of such sites is context- and learner-centred with demonstrable socially valuable skills. This post-colonial mandate thus centres the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) as an acknowledgement of multiple foci of skills production, decreeing their overdue certification, as in our case study of the Van Wyk situation. The approach confronts and deconstructs the colonial marginalisation of human capital from outside ‘formal’/official institutions. It is part of the ideological framework of redressing the race and class exclusion mechanisms of artisans and others from the landscape of skills possession. It subscribes therefore to the canon of different ‘ways of knowing’ (Mosala, 1998). Van Wyk's narrative exemplify the merits of ‘outside-institutions’ learning and enskilment to various levels of complexity. The objective of such legitimation is that certification provides credibility and legitimacy, thereby widening the marketability of apprentices' skills. The social recognition and accorded certification thereof carries uncontested confirmation of expertise.
The explosion of interest in knowledge and its management reflects the trend towards ‘knowledge work’ and the Information Age, and recognition of knowledge as the principal source of economic rent. The papers in this Special Issue represent an attempt by strategy scholars (and some outside our traditional field) to come to terms with the implications of knowledge for the theory of the firm and its management. They are the product of a convergence of several streams of research which have addressed management implications of knowledge, including the management of technology, the economics of innovation and information, resource-based theory, and organizational learning. At the theoretical level, knowledge-centered approaches of Penrose, Arrow, Hayek and others have been enriched by contributions from evolutionary economists (notably Nelson and Winter) and epistemologists (notably M. Polanyi). At the empirical level, research into innovation and its diffusion originated by Mansfield, Griliches and others has been extended through studies which investigate tacit as well as explicit knowledge, and explore knowledge transfer within as well as across firms.
Given assumptions about the characteristics of knowledge and the knowledge requirements of production, the firm is conceptualized as an institution for integrating knowledge. The primary contribution of the paper is in exploring the coordination mechanisms through which firms integrate the specialist knowledge of their members. In contrast to earlier literature, knowledge is viewed as residing within the individual, and the primary role of the organization is knowledge application rather than knowledge creation. The resulting theory has implications for the basis of organizational capability, the principles of organization design (in particular, the analysis of hierarchy and the distribution of decision-making authority), and the determinants of the horizontal and vertical boundaries of the firm. More generally, the knowledge-based approach sheds new light upon current organizational innovations and trends and has far-reaching implications for management practice.
This study focused on the relationships between experiences with portfolio assessment, students’ approaches to learning and
their assessment preferences by means of a pre- and post-test design in an authentic class setting. The participants were
138 first-year professional bachelor’s degree students in office management. They were assessed by means of portfolio assessment
in a course that combined constructivist design principles and lectures. Approaches to learning and assessment preferences
were measured by means of the Revised Two-Factor Study Process Questionnaire and the Assessment Preferences Inventory. Results
showed that students’ preferences for student participation in examination and for permanent evaluation decreased significantly.
Moreover, deep approaches were not enhanced. On the contrary, surface learning increased significantly. Notwithstanding, the
surface approach proved to be a significant negative predictor of the portfolio assessment score.
The study meta-analytically integrates results from three decades of human capital research in entrepreneurship. Based on 70 independent samples (N = 24,733), we found a significant but small relationship between human capital and success (rc = .098). We examined theoretically derived moderators of this relationship referring to conceptualizations of human capital, to context, and to measurement of success. The relationship was higher for outcomes of human capital investments (knowledge/skills) than for human capital investments (education/experience), for human capital with high task-relatedness compared to low task-relatedness, for young businesses compared to old businesses, and for the dependent variable size compared to growth or profitability. Findings are relevant for practitioners (lenders, policy makers, educators) and for future research. Our findings show that future research should pursue moderator approaches to study the effects of human capital on success. Further, human capital is most important if it is task-related and if it consists of outcomes of human capital investments rather than human capital investments; this suggests that research should overcome a static view of human capital and should rather investigate the processes of learning, knowledge acquisition, and the transfer of knowledge to entrepreneurial tasks.
Researchers have used the absorptive capacity construct to explain various organizational phenomena. In this article we review the literature to identify key dimensions of absorptive capacity and offer a reconceptualization of this construct. Building upon the dynamic capabilities view of the firm, we distinguish between a firm's potential and realized capacity. We then advance a model outlining the conditions when the firm's potential and realized capacities can differentially influence the creation and sustenance of its competitive advantage.
This paper differs from previous examinations of organizational learning in that it is broader in scope and more evaluative of the literatures. Four constructs related to organizational learning (knowledge acquisition, information distribution, information interpretation, and organizational memory) are articulated, and the literatures related to each are described and critiqued.
The literature on knowledge acquisition is voluminous and multi-faceted, and so the knowledge acquisition construct is portrayed here as consisting of five subconstructs or subprocesses: (1) drawing on knowledge available at the organization's birth, (2) learning from experience, (3) learning by observing other organizations, (4) grafting on to itself components that possess knowledge needed but not possessed by the organization, and (5) noticing or searching for information about the organization's environment and performance. Examination of the related literatures indicates that much has been learned about learning from experience, but also that there is a lack of cumulative work and a lack of integration of work from different research groups. Similarly, much has been learned about organizational search, but there is a lack of conceptual work, and there is a lack of both cumulative work and syntheses with which to create a more mature literature. Congenital learning, vicarious learning, and grafting are information acquisition subprocesses about which relatively little has been learned.
The literature concerning information distribution is rich and mature, but an aspect of information distribution that is central to an organization's benefitting from its learning, namely how units that possess information and units that need this information can find each other quickly and with a high likelihood, is unexplored. Information interpretation, as an organizational process, rather than an individual process, requires empirical work for further advancement. Organizational memory is much in need of systematic investigation, particularly by those whose special concerns are improving organizational learning and decision making.
Emily Dickinson wrote, “I dwell in Possibility—A fairer House than Prose—More Numerous of Windows—Superior—for Doors” (Johnson, 1961, p. 657). Dickinson’s simple yet profound reference to the expansive nature of poetry over prose may be taken as a metaphor for the possibilities of information and communication technologies (ICTs) over written modes of expression. Whether we identify with this analogy or not, what we can say today with some certainty is that the advent of ICTs has impacted prior learning assessment and recognition (PLAR) by expanding the potential for knowledge acquisition, expression, and delivery.The purpose of this article is to examine the potential of experiential learning e-portfolios to promote connections between several different types of learning – academic, workplace, and web-based. The author contends that this type of PLAR enables undergraduate adult learners to not only articulate and equate experiential learning to academic knowledge but also, and most importantly, to demonstrate knowledge visually and audibly through the utilization of ICTs. Two pilot case studies of e-portfolio development are described to support the author’s position.
Current theories propose that professional competence is primarily constituted by scientific and tacit knowledge, knowing-in-action, understanding of work or practice. While providing valuable insights we contend that they present a fragmented understanding of professional competence. In particular, they do not adequately explain how central aspects of practice such as knowledge and understanding are integrated into a specific professional competence in work performance. An existential ontological perspective is proposed as offering a more comprehensive and integrative analysis of professional competence. It is explored through an empirical study of corporate lawyers and the findings suggest that professional competence should be understood as ways of being. The results show that different ways of practising corporate law distinguish and integrate a specific understanding of work, a particular self-understanding, other people, and tools into distinct forms of competence in corporate law. Copyright (c) Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2009.
This article builds on a previous 2004 Journal of Vocational Education and Training (JVET) contribution by Biemans et al., in which several possible pitfalls in designing and implementing competence-based education (CBE) were discussed. The present article reports on the results of an extensive research programme on competence development and CBE consisting of four empirical studies carried out in schools for secondary and higher vocational education in the life sciences in the Netherlands in the years 2004 to 2008. Based on the research findings, the article examines how the CBE pitfalls have been dealt with in Dutch VET. The conclusion can be drawn that the various pitfalls have received attention during the design and implementation of CBE, but not all problems have been solved yet. The article provides clues as to how the various pitfalls might be further addressed in the future to improve the quality of competence-based VET. Keywords: competence; competence-based education; vocational education; VET
Adam Smith (1723-1790), economista inglés, identificado dentro de la llamada escuela clásica de economía. El contenido de su obra lo expone en cinco apartados, En los cuatro primeros, aporta elementos teóricos que permiten determinar el crecimiento económico de una nación a partir del análisis de las categorías: trabajadores, división del trabajo y capital. En el último apartado, analiza las contribuciones económicas al soberano por parte de los gobernados.
The literature review presented here was conducted as part of an English National Board for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting funded project to evaluate the use of portfolios in the assessment of learning and competence. Initial consideration of the topic revealed the need to clarify the terminology and approaches used to assess competence using portfolios, and therefore the literature review was conducted to inform the study.
To clarify definitions, theoretical bases and approaches to competence and the use of portfolios in the assessment of learning and competence in nursing education.
A comprehensive literature review was conducted using the CINAHL and MEDLINE databases and the keywords competenc*, portfolios and nursing. Articles published in the period 1989-2001 in English were obtained and their reference lists scrutinized to identify additional references. Twenty articles were found using a combination of the keywords competenc* and portfolios, and 52 using the combination portfolios and nurse education. Articles were included in the review if they focused on the use of portfolios in nursing, and those concerned with professional or transitional portfolios were excluded. This article will analyse definitions of and approaches to competence and its measurement and to portfolios and their use as discussed in the articles identified.
Three approaches to competence were identified, each with its appropriate forms of assessment. With regard to portfolios, a number of definitions were again found, but there was a consensus that the theoretical basis of their use is theories of adult learning. A number of reasons for and advantages and disadvantages of their use were found, as well as varying ideas about what a portfolios should consist of and how it should be assessed.
A holistic approach to competence seems to be compatible with the use of portfolios to assess competence in nursing students, but the concept and its implementation is still evolving. A variety of assessment methods are needed for assessment and portfolios appear to have the potential to integrate these. Reflection is an essential component of a portfolio, as are the student-teacher relationship and explicit guidelines for constructing the portfolio. Issues of rigour in assessment of portfolios need to be addressed, but the assessor's professional judgement will inevitably enter into this assessment.
Capital goods are embodied knowledge of how to produce. Therefore, capital development is a learning process, through which knowledge gets embodied in new capital goods. Because the necessary knowledge is dispersed among many people who must interact to communicate their particular, often tacit knowledge, capital development is a social process. Because this interaction takes time and continually changes the capital structure, capital development is an on-going process. Capital development is a social learning process. Neither traditional nor "new" growth theory illuminates how the capital structure evolves. Traditional growth theory, by modeling capital as a single variable in the production function, ignores the heterogeneity of capital goods and their varied structural relationships of complementarity, substitutability, feedback, and feed-forward. New growth theory, while accounting for technological change, still treats capital as aggregable and thus implicitly homogeneous. That capital development is a learning process suggests that growth rates can increase. What prevents exponential growth is neither diminishing returns nor upper bounds to human capital, as growth models assume. It is the constant challenge of maintaining capital complementarities in a world of incomplete and rapidly changing knowledge. Copyright 2000 by Kluwer Academic Publishers
We provide a unified theory of the transition in income, life expectancy, education, and population size from a nondeveloped environment to sustained growth. Individuals optimally trade off the time cost of education with its lifetime returns. Initially, low longevity implies a prohibitive cost for human capital formation for most individuals. A positive feedback loop between human capital and increasing longevity, triggered by endogenous skill-biased technological progress, eventually provides sufficient returns for widespread education. The transition is not based on scale effects and induces population growth despite unchanged fertility. A simulation illustrates that the dynamics fit historical data patterns.
Purpose
This paper aims to introduce an information and communication technology (ICT) artifact that uses text mining to support the innovative and standardized assessment of professional competences within the validation of prior learning (VPL). Assessment means comparing identified and documented professional competences against a standard or reference point. The designed artifact is evaluated by matching a set of curriculum vitae (CV) scraped from LinkedIn against a comprehensive model of professional competence.
Design/methodology/approach
A design science approach informed the development and evaluation of the ICT artifact presented in this paper.
Findings
A proof of concept shows that the ICT artifact can support assessors within the validation of prior learning procedure. Rather the output of such an ICT artifact can be used to structure documentation in the validation process.
Research limitations/implications
Evaluating the artifact shows that ICT support to assess documented learning outcomes is a promising endeavor but remains a challenge. Further research should work on standardized ways to document professional competences, ICT artifacts capture the semantic content of documents, and refine ontologies of theoretical models of professional competences.
Practical implications
Text mining methods to assess professional competences rely on large bodies of textual data, and thus a thoroughly built and large portfolio is necessary as input for this ICT artifact.
Originality/value
Following the recent call of European policymakers to develop standardized and ICT-based approaches for the assessment of professional competences, an ICT artifact that supports the automatized assessment of professional competences within the validation of prior learning is designed and evaluated.
This article synthesizes the large but diverse literature on organizational legitimacy, highlighting similarities and disparities among the leading strategic and institutional approaches. The analysis identifies three primary forms of legitimacy: pragmatic, based on audience self-interest; moral, based on normative approval: and cognitive, based on comprehensibility and taken-for-grantedness. The article then examines strategies for gaining, maintaining, and repairing legitimacy of each type, suggesting both the promises and the pitfalls of such instrumental manipulations.
The theory of mental models owes its origins to Peirce's logic in the nineteenth century and to Craik's psychological research during the Second World War. This Special Issue marks the 30th anniversary of a book that tried to pull these and other strands together into a unified approach to comprehension and reasoning: Mental Models. The principal assumption of the theory is that individuals reason by trying to envisage the possibilities compatible with what they know or believe. The present paper reviews recent developments in the theory. It describes the issues that arise as a result of cognitive changes both in the short term and in the long term. And it introduces the set of papers in this Special Issue that explore such changes in mind.
Recognizing that not all employees possess knowledge and skills that are of equal strategic importance, we draw on the resource-based view of the firm, human capital theory, and transaction cost economics to develop a human resource architecture of four different employment modes: internal development, acquisition, contracting, and alliance. We use this architecture to derive research questions for studying the relationships among employment modes, employment relationships, human resource configurations, and criteria for competitive advantage.
We examine how susceptible jobs are to computerisation. To assess this, we begin by implementing a novel methodology to estimate the probability of computerisation for 702 detailed occupations, using a Gaussian process classifier. Based on these estimates, we examine expected impacts of future computerisation on US labour market outcomes, with the primary objective of analysing the number of jobs at risk and the relationship between an occupations probability of computerisation, wages and educational attainment.
Abstract In this paper, we describe and utilize methods to estimate the consequences,for,children's,schooling,and,birthweight,of the,exogenous variability in the supply of births in one low income country, Malaysia. The method,utilizes,information,on,contraceptive,techniques,employed,by,couples,to estimate,directly,the,technology,of,reproduction,and,provides,a means,of disentangling,the biological,and demand,factors,that,contribute,to the variation in,fertility,across,couples,under,a regime,of,imperfect,fertility,control.,Our results,suggest,that,imperfect,fertility,control,significantly,influences,both the average schooling attainment and birthweight of children in Malaysia, with couples,having,above-average,propensities,to,conceive,reporting,higher,levels,of actual fertility, significantly lower expectations of and actual schooling attainment for their children, and lower birthweight children, on average, due to,smaller,intervals,between,births. Correspondence,to:,Mark,R. Rosenzweig
We propose that management scholars can improve their research by triangulating alternative philosophies of science to gain a richer and more holistic understanding of complex managerial problems. We illustrate the proposition by triangulating with three scientific philosophies – positivism, postmodernism, and critical realism – to design a study in response to a debate in the sociology of professions. After summarizing and applying positivism, postmodernism, and critical realism to reveal their differing research approaches, we discuss how to deal with the convergent and divergent information often produced by triangulating philosophies of science. Although common views of triangulation emphasize reliability by focusing on convergent information from different methods, we emphasize validity by discussing how divergent information from different methods reveal important aspects and values of a complex phenomenon that often go unrecognized without triangulation.
Recognizing that not all employees possess knowledge and skills that are of equal strategic importance, we draw on the resource-based view of the firm, human capital theory, and transaction cost economics to develop a human resource architecture of four different employment modes: internal development, acquisition, contracting, and alliance. We use this architecture to derive research questions for studying the relationships among employment modes, employment relationships, human resource configurations, and criteria for competitive advantage.
The process of giving official acknowledgment to formal, informal and non‐formal prior learning is commonly labelled as assessment, accreditation or recognition of prior learning (APL), representing a practice that is expanding in higher education in many countries. This paper focuses specifically on the assessment part of APL, which undoubtedly is central to the whole process, through a review of research in this area and an analysis of the reviewed studies from a validity perspective. The research reviewed (published 1990–2007) is categorised into empirical as well as more theoretically oriented publications, with a quantitative dominance of the latter. According to the validity analysis, a majority of the studies conducted in this area relate to the evidential basis of test interpretation and use, primarily providing theoretical rationales and theories for a variety of practices. The consequential basis of test interpretation and use has not been studied to any larger extent, resulting in a lack of both theoretical and empirical studies dealing with this aspect of validity.
Background. The literature review presented here was conducted as part of an English National Board for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting funded project to evaluate the use of portfolios in the assessment of learning and competence. Initial consideration of the topic revealed the need to clarify the terminology and approaches used to assess competence using portfolios, and therefore the literature review was conducted to inform the study.
Aims. To clarify definitions, theoretical bases and approaches to competence and the use of portfolios in the assessment of learning and competence in nursing education.
Methods. A comprehensive literature review was conducted using the CINAHL and MEDLINE databases and the keywords competenc*, portfolios and nursing. Articles published in the period 1989–2001 in English were obtained and their reference lists scrutinized to identify additional references. Twenty articles were found using a combination of the keywords competenc* and portfolios, and 52 using the combination portfolios and nurse education. Articles were included in the review if they focused on the use of portfolios in nursing, and those concerned with professional or transitional portfolios were excluded. This article will analyse definitions of and approaches to competence and its measurement and to portfolios and their use as discussed in the articles identified.
Results. Three approaches to competence were identified, each with its appropriate forms of assessment. With regard to portfolios, a number of definitions were again found, but there was a consensus that the theoretical basis of their use is theories of adult learning. A number of reasons for and advantages and disadvantages of their use were found, as well as varying ideas about what a portfolios should consist of and how it should be assessed.
Conclusions. A holistic approach to competence seems to be compatible with the use of portfolios to assess competence in nursing students, but the concept and its implementation is still evolving. A variety of assessment methods are needed for assessment and portfolios appear to have the potential to integrate these. Reflection is an essential component of a portfolio, as are the student–teacher relationship and explicit guidelines for constructing the portfolio. Issues of rigour in assessment of portfolios need to be addressed, but the assessor's professional judgement will inevitably enter into this assessment.
Cet article presente les resultats d'un inventaire europeen evaluant politiques et pratiques dans les Etats membres et la Norvege dans le cadre de la validation de l'apprentissage formel, non formel et informel. Le contexte etudie est la cooperation croissante entre les Etats de l'Union Europeenne afin de convenir de mecanismes permettant d'ameliorer la transparence des qualifications professionnelles entre les pays et d'evaluer les mecanismes actuels de validation de l'apprentissage formel, non formel et informel dans les differents systemes nationaux dans la perspective d'un developpement des strategies d'education permanente.
The Occupational Information Network (O*NET) has recently been developed as a replacement for the Dictionary of Occupational Titles. As a comprehensive system designed to describe occupations, the O*NET incorporates the last 60 years of knowledge about the nature of jobs and work. This article summarizes its development and validation by first discussing how the O*NET used multiple descriptors to provide “multiple windows” on the world of work, utilized cross-job descriptors to provide a common language to describe different jobs, and used a hierarchical taxonomic approach to occupational descriptors. Second, we provide an overview of the O*NET's Content Model of descriptor domains (i.e., worker characteristics, worker requirements, occupational requirements, experience requirements, occupation characteristics, and occupation-specific requirements) and their potential uses. Third, we discuss some of the technical issues surrounding the O*NET Finally, we discuss some of the implications for research and theory, as well as some limitations of the O*NET system.
With the emergence of the resource-based view of the firm and of the concept of core competencies, intangible resources, and tacit knowledge in particular have been argued to occupy a central place in the development of sustainable competitive advantage. This is because tacit knowledge is argued to be difficult to imitate, to substitute, to transfer and it is rare. However, there is little empirical research to support this theoretical proposition. Tacit knowledge has so far resisted operationalization. This paper sets out to define the term tacit knowledge and proposes to redefine it, within the context of the resource-based view of the firm, as tacit skills. A methodology (based on causal mapping, self-Q and storytelling) for empirically researching the subject is outlined.
Despite the widely recognised importance of knowledge as a vital source of competitive advantage, there is little understanding of how organisations actually create and manage knowledge dynamically. Nonaka, Toyama and Konno start from the view of an organisation as an entity that creates knowledge continuously, and their goal in this article is to understand the dynamic process in which an organisation creates, maintains and exploits knowledge. They propose a model of knowledge creation consisting of three elements: (i) the SECI process, knowledge creation through the conversion of tacit and explicit knowledge; (ii) ‘ba’, the shared context for knowledge creation; and (iii) knowledge assets, the inputs, outputs and moderators of the knowledge-creating process. The knowledge creation process is a spiral that grows out of these three elements; the key to leading it is dialectical thinking. The role of top management in articulating the organisation's knowledge vision is emphasised, as is the important role of middle management (‘knowledge producers’) in energising ba. In summary, using existing knowledge assets, an organisation creates new knowledge through the SECI process that takes place in ba, where new knowledge, once created, becomes in turn the basis for a new spiral of knowledge creation.
This essay examines elements of a theory of organizational knowledge creation. To this end, a model for the management of the dynamic aspects of organizational knowledge is offered, using hands-on research and practical experience of Japanese firms. Two dimensions are examined to assess the importance of knowledge management: tacit and explicit knowledge. Four modes of knowledge creation through the interaction of tacit and explicit knowledge are presented: 1) socialization; 2) externalization; 3) internalization; and 4) combination. The process of organizational knowledge creation is also described in a corporate organizational setting. The model helps to explain how the knowledge of individuals, organizations, and societies can be enriched through the amplification of tacit and explicit knowledge of each. The key to this process is a joint creation of knowledge by both individuals and organizations. Organizations play an important role in mobilizing the tacit knowledge that individuals possess, as well as providing forums for knowledge creation through socialization, combination, externalization, and internalization. The concept of organizational knowledge creation allows for the development of a perspective that reaches beyond straightforward notions of organizational learning. Practical proposals, such as hypertext and middle-up-down management, are offered as modes of implementing more effective knowledge creation. (CBS)
It is increasingly recognized that what makes a theory interesting and influential is that it challenges our assumptions in some significant way. However, established ways for arriving at research questions mean spotting or constructing gaps in existing theories rather than challenging their assumptions. This paper proposes problematization as a methodology for identifying and challenging assumptions underlying existing literature and, based on that, formulating research questions that are likely to lead to more influential theories.
Incl. bibl., index. It is argued that professional education should be centered on enhancing the professional person's ability for "reflection-in-action," which is learning by doing and developing the ability for continued learned throughout the professional's career. Examples are drawn from an architectural design studio and the arts to demonstrate how reflection-in-action can be fostered in students and therefore in professionals in all areas. The approach involves active coaching by a master teacher, including giving students practice facing real problems, testing solutions, making mistakes, seeking help, and refining approaches. Extensive dialogues between teachers and students illustrate how reflection-in-action works, what encourages it, and behavior or attitudes that can prevent the development of reflectiveness. [ERIC]
As a consequence of the rapid growth of temporary agency employment in Germany, the debate on the remuneration of temporary agency workers has intensified recently. The study finds that the earnings gap of temporary help workers in Germany is indeed large and increased during the past decade. Decomposition reveals that the widening gap mainly is driven by changes in relative skill prices and less by differences in the workforce composition. Temps already have to accept a marked earnings decline before entering the temporary help sector. Nevertheless, after leaving the sector temporary help workers no longer have to accept a pay penalty. A recent reform set a high incentive for temporary help agencies to pay their workers according to a collective agreement. Surprisingly, the unionization of the sector could not bring thewidening earnings gap to a halt.
Investigates the differences in decision-making processes used by managers in large organizations and entrepreneurs. These differences are examined with respect to two biases and heuristics: overconfidence and representativeness. Overconfidence is defined as overestimating the probability of being right, while representativeness is defined as the tendency to overgeneralize from a few characteristics or observations. The following two hypotheses were studied: 1) entrepreneurs will demonstrate more overconfidence than managers in large organizations, and 2) entrepreneurs will show a greater tendency toward representativeness than will managers in large organizations. Data were obtained via surveys of two populations: 1) entrepreneurs from plastic, electronics, and instrument manufacturing firms, and 2) managers who are responsible for two functional areas (such as marketing or finance) and work for publicly owned organizations with more than 10,000 employees. Results from the logistic regression analysis support both hypotheses and show that there are substantial behavioral differences between managers in large organizations and entrepreneurs. (SFL)
This study analyzes the effects of right-wing extremism on the well-being of immigrants based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) for the years 1984 to 2006 merged with state-level information on election outcomes. The results show that the life satisfaction of immigrants is significantly reduced if right-wing extremism in the native population increases. Moreover ; the life satisfaction of highly educated immigrants is affected more strongly than that of low-skilled immigrants. This supports the view that policies aimed at making immigration more attractive to the high-skilled have to include measures that reduce xenophobic attitudes in the native population. --
Recommendation of the european parliament and of the council on the establishment of the European qualifications framework for lifelong learning
- Council of the European Union
Council recommendation of 22 May 2017 on the European Qualifications Framework for lifelong learning and repealing the recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2008 on the establishment of the European Qualifications Framework for lifelong learning – 2017/C 189/03
- Council of the European Union
European inventory on validation of non-formal and informal learning – 2016 update: synthesis report
- Cedefop, European Commission and ICF
Cedefop, European Commission and ICF (2017), "European inventory on validation of non-formal and
informal learning -2016 update: synthesis report", Luxembourg.