New knowledge on cognition and learning generated in the various fields of neuroscience is now being incorporated into the learning sciences. This development might have broad significance for the theoretical development of the field of education, in particular leading to a renewed and more nuanced understanding of learning as an embodied process.…

More and more, social technologies and virtual work methods are facilitating new ways of crossing boundaries in professional development and international collaborations. This paper examines the peer development of higher education teachers through the experiences of the IVBM project (International Virtual Benchmarking, 2009-2010). The…

We are delighted to welcome you to the International Conference on Education and New Developments 2013, taking place in Lisbon, Portugal, from 1 to 3 of June. Education, in a global sense, is a right since we are born. Every experience has a formative effect on the constitution of the human being, in the way one thinks, feels and acts. One of the…

This paper summarizes initial field-test results from data analytics used in the work of the Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills (ATC21S) project, on the "ICT Literacy--Learning in digital networks" learning progression. This project, sponsored by Cisco, Intel and Microsoft, aims to help educators around the world enable…

This article focuses on ethical issues faced in evaluation practice from the viewpoint of third generation of activity theory, which gives a constructive perspective on how contradictions can be a driving force behind interorganizational learning and development in multiactor networks. The problem field is firstly addressed through an illustration…

Purpose: The aim of this article is to examine whether the boundary between the separate worlds of evaluation and frontline work in a hospital can be overcome. The study provides an example of a rare, innovative creation process of an assessment tool in which the tool users and the tool producer participated. The article aims to widen the…

Chapter 1 starts out with a short historical view on "academisation" and "professionalisation," illustrating how much professional higher education (PHE) in Europe has been in flux in the past years. With examples from France and Ireland, the chapter argues how a new spectrum of missions, differences in national organization of…

This report will discuss the process of evaluation for development in a collaborative project that integrated teaching between the Language Centre and the Law School at the University of Eastern Finland. The focus of this report will be on a model the authors devised for the purposes of developing teaching, called "E.A.S.Y,"…

This study investigated the process of implementing professional development plans (PDPs) as a tool for teachers' continuing professional learning in Finnish Lapland. The PDP model was developed through two cycles following a design-based research (DBR) approach. The data were collected by interviewing teachers and principals, and then analysed…

Interest in higher education institutions (HEIs) as instruments for development has increased in recent years. The main objective of this paper is to address the contribution of HEIs to development through their missions, models, and challenges. With this purpose, we perform a historical analysis and characterise higher-education systems through…

In this paper we examine the kinds of mentoring models and practices employed in Finnish higher education and working-life to support continuous skill development, focusing especially on the working-life-centric digital mentoring of students. The theme interviews at 11 HE institutions and four enterprises were conducted as part of an eAMK project.…

Learner-centered blended learning approaches, such as Knowledge Creation, emphasize the self-organizing characteristic of thought and action, and value the students' autonomy and self-regulation during the engagement in collaborative learning tasks. In blended contexts, the students need to organize their learning paths within a complex…

Background: Productive learning processes and good learning outcomes can be attained by applying the basic elements of active learning. The basic elements include fostering discussions and disputations, facing alternative conceptions, and focusing on conceptual understanding. However, in the face of poor course retention and high dropout rates,…

Despite the proliferation of social media, few learners make effective use of digital technology to support their learning or graduate with the skills necessary for developing and communicating their expertise in the knowledge-driven networked society of the digital age. This article makes use of the concept of Personal Learning Environments (PLE)…

While researchers have suggested that mentorship positively affects academic and learning outcomes in higher education, little is known about the impact of peer mentoring on graduate students' academic experiences. We conducted a systematic review to explore the impact of peer mentorship on graduate students' learning, and formal approaches to…