This chapter introduces the concept of benchmarking and how higher education institutions began to use benchmarking for a variety of purposes. Here, benchmarking is defined as a strategic and structured approach whereby an organization compares aspects of its processes and/or outcomes to those of another organization or set of organizations to…

While references to the Treaty of Waitangi and/or biculturalism are an accepted part of the New Zealand education policy landscape, there is often a lack of consensus around the meaning, and therefore the practice implications, of the term 'biculturalism'. This difficulty can be explained by viewing biculturalism as a discourse that has continued…

Research done over the last 15 years has promoted the need for a concise, common definition of cybercrime. Hardesty and Ball (NW3C, 1996) contended that once a universal definition was agreed upon, common procedures for investigation could be established. Cybercrime training is also essential in the investigation of this type of crime. This…

In 1999, the changing goals of American schools were explored in "Education Week" through the events, achievements, and personalities that had formed United States education in the 20th century. First a series of articles, the collection was later published in book form as "Lessons of a Century: A Nation's Schools Come of Age."…

How holistically is human creativity defined, investigated, and understood? Until recently, most scientific research on creativity has focused on its positive side. However, creativity might not only be a desirable resource but also be a potential threat. In order to redefine creativity we need to analyze and understand definitions, collocations,…

Wilhelm offers us a definition of "third spaces" as "more democratic and dialogic spaces than a classroom, as well as a metaphor for a space in which new, hybrid, and challenging discourses and real-world knowledge and applications are created." With helpful background and examples, he urges us to create such spaces for our students, adamant that…

While many talk about the cloud, few actually understand it. Three organizations' definitions come to the forefront when defining the cloud: Gartner, Forrester, and the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST). Although both Gartner and Forrester provide definitions of cloud computing, the NIST definition is concise and uses…

Schools today continue to evolve into increasingly complex organizations, as the diversity of students continues to expand. In tandem with these developments is the expectation for all students to meet increasingly higher learning standards--thus the vision of maximum educational success for all students. Escalating standards and changing…

Stanley Fish wrote a column for the "New York Times" entitled "Will the Humanities Save US?" Here, Fish asserted that the humanities can't save humans, and in fact they don't really "do" anything, other than give pleasure to "those who enjoy them." This sustained shrug elicited a blast of energetic and…

The research reported in this article builds on work commenced eight years ago with reviewing the literature and models of successful school leadership for improved student outcomes. When the findings of this review were combined with the results from case studies of successful schools it resulted in a preliminary model of successful school…

The Open Educational Resources (OER) movement and the Open Access began only over a decade ago. During this period, the progress of the Open Educational Resources movement took place in developed countries for the most part. Recently, new projects have begun to emerge with a strong emphasis on open education. Yet, the concept of openness in…

Humanistic principles emphasize the importance of the individual and specific human needs. Humanism in education has been in concern during the last few decades. However, there are controversies as whether to use its principles in foreign language classrooms or not. The present paper provides an overview of the major assumptions underlying…

In order to be successful, students must acquire the language of science for both oral and written communication. In this article we examine an oral language learning technique called choral repetition for its role in building literacy in the context of an animal physiology course. For 3 weeks, the instructor conducted choral repetitions of nine…

In recent years, citizenship, particularly what it means to be an engaged and active citizen, has received considerable attention from researchers and theorists in the field of education. This burgeoning interest is not surprising, given that in most societies educational institutions have been accorded primary responsibility for educating young…

This article examines definitions, rationales, and calculations associated with higher education performance measures: persistence, retention rate, attrition rate, drop-out rate, and graduation rate. Strengths and limitations of these measures are scrutinized relative to online master's programs. Outcomes of a sample of students (N = 96) enrolled…