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The role of higher education in today's world is immense, complex and vital. A wide
range of challenges and opportunities are emerging, most significant of which
are the challenges associated with the shifting perspective of
knowledge itself, which are strongly influencing the role and responsibility of the
institutions of higher learning. As a result, these institutions have a major responsibility
of sharing, applying and creating knowledge in a globalizing world. They fuel
the driving forces of the transformation towards a global knowledge
society, and have certain capacity to steer, and eventually to
correct, the direction of trends within
globalization.
In this regard, it is necessary to understand the type of knowledge required to
be provided in different institutions, the type of curriculum to be
developed, and the type of pedagogical approaches that
need to be adopted, to bring about a sea change in
the transaction of the curriculum. The present issue attempts to focus on some of
the above pertinent topics.
The journal opens with an article titled "Humboldt's Unity of Research
and Teaching: Influence on the Philosophy and Development of Higher
Education in the US". The author, Frankie P Albritton
Jr., strongly recommends the application of Humboldt's philosophy in the
21st century, as it provides scope for
the inclusion and scrutiny of all subjects, under the principles of
scientific examination, and be free from religious or governmental
dogma. This philosophy believes that scientific research should
develop the overall education of an individual.
The demands of the world can only be addressed when human potential
is fully tapped and refined. This is possible by introducing special courses on
business management based on local resources in
their business curricula, so as to tap the latent
natural talent of the students. The paper, "The Need of
Region-Specific Resource-Focused Education for Affiliated B-Schools in Andhra Pradesh", by
Tapal Dulababu, proposes introducing business education that encourages the utility
of local resources and local talent.
The paper, "Strategies for Technology-Based Learning in Higher Education",
by Ioan Andone and Napoleon-Alexandru Sireteanu, explains how to use
the results and technology of new fields of research and development, such as
semantic web and web intelligence, to make web-based education more effective
and appealing to learners, teachers, and authors alike.
The authors integrate the examinations of learning-oriented topics such as learner modeling,
learning management, learning communities, ontological engineering of web-based
learning, and related topics, with these technical topics. It is a thorough and highly
useful presentation on the confluence of the technical aspects of the semantic web and
the field of education, or the art of teaching.
Changes in the economic and social fundamentals call for transformation
in the skills, capabilities and attitudes of the masses. This requires a shift in
the delivery and pedagogy used in the current education system, right from
breaking time and distance barriers to facilitating collaboration and knowledge
sharing among geographically distributed students. In the current information
society, there is an emergence of lifelong learners, as the shelf life of knowledge
and information decreases. In such a scenario, education, which always plays a
critical role in the economic and social growth of any country, becomes even
more important. Distance Education (DE) is a boon to many underprivileged
and illiterates who are in need of jobs, yet are simultaneously seeking to
continue further education. With such high significance of the distance mode of
education, handling knowledge is important. The paper, "Process Mapping in
Educational InstitutionsA Tool to Enhance Knowledge-Based Approaches: A Study of
the Distance Education System", by Shulagna Sarkar, advocates the use of
process mapping as a technique to identify the grey areas of the DE system, and how
it ultimately provides a platform for enhancing knowledge.
Student ratings of teaching serve as an important component of many
faculty evaluation systems. Either by design or default, institutions often place
great weightage on student rating data to make decisions that impact faculty
rewards, career progress and professional growth. It is critical that student rating forms
be designed and constructed in such a way that it provides valid and reliable
information for these purposes. Keeping the above objective as the focus, the paper, "Should
We Trust Students' Evaluation? A Study in an Italian University", by Daniel Piana
and Tommaso Agasisti, attempts to suggest a few guidelines to introduce
student evaluation in universities, so as to make it more effective and beneficial to
the students and the teachers.
School dropouts is a very common term found in the daily vocabulary. It refers
to those who leave studies midway for a variety of reasons, ranging from lack of
finances to family problems, to early marriage. Though this decision may be endorsed
by people who actually face the problems, it may backfire in a totalitarian
situation. The final article, titled "Marginalization of School Dropouts in the New
Economy", by Devi Prasad Mahapatra, addresses this
particularly sensitive issue. The author proposes to
arrest the rate of school dropouts in the country, as he feels that it is
the only way to stop their undue exploitation. He provides several inputs
regarding child labor, corporate social responsibility, social enlightenment and
economic empowerment. The inclusive model proposed by Dr.
Reddy's Foundation (DRF) adds authenticity to the article.
An extremely pragmatic approach to address the problem of
marginalization, the LABS model, is used by DRF to impart a
specific training-oriented program to the learners. It is a one-of-its-kind model
which recognizes the problems of these dropouts and attempts to find
long-lasting solutions.
-- N C Padmini
Consulting Editor |
