Virtual reality is a rapidly growing technological innovation that continues to garner attention for use in education. This self-study of two teacher educators spans immersive head-mounted virtual reality implementation from 2014-2023 with middle-grades students, preservice teachers, and adult learners. Empirical data sources include learner…

In this chapter, the major concepts from program planning in adult education will be applied to health professions education (HPE). Curriculum planning and program planning will be differentiated, and program development and planning will be grounded in a systems thinking approach.

Workforce development is a set of processes that govern the identification, recruitment, assessment and training of job seekers into employment as well as the maintenance and advancement of these persons in their careers. Given the complexity of what workforce development entails, a systems approach is illustrated to ensure that the broader goal…

Workplace inclusion is a hot topic, defined as an organizational environment where everyone can reach his or her full potential. Much has been written over the last decade or so and themes of various annual conferences across the country have emphasized the need for socially conscious museums. Creating inclusive work environments and work…

This article reviews changes in pedagogical approaches in higher education at the turn of the twentieth and twenty-first century from a creative perspective, by looking back from the future on the shifts that occurred in conceptions and approaches relating to teaching and learning. Reflecting on moves from one-dimensional thinking to…

Children are intrigued by moving objects, even more so when they can engineer the movement. This volume in the STEM for Our Youngest Learners Series uses Ramps and Pathways as a context to provide children ages 3-8 with opportunities to engage in STEM every day. Ramps and Pathways is a meaningful and fun way for children to develop engineering…

The understanding and use of systems has been studied in numerous environments, particularly among leadership and management. However, as yet it is unclear what people at large know about systems thinking, where they gained their knowledge, or how important the role they perceive it to have in their decision making processes. Through a mixed model…

Purpose: The fields of competence development and capacity development remain isolated in the scholarship of learning and innovation despite the contemporary focus on innovation systems thinking in agricultural and rural development. This article aims to address whether and how crossing the conventional boundaries of these two fields provide new…

Purpose: The rapidly evolving nature of agricultural innovation processes in low-income countries requires agricultural extension agencies to transform the classical roles that previously supported linear information dissemination and adoption of innovation. In Bangladesh, strengthening agricultural innovation calls for facilitation of interactive…

Team teaching is a great strategy to convey systems thinking to students, families, and communities and to help learners gain multiple perspectives. Learners benefit from the professional interaction among skilled instructors. This article uses a program of land stewardship to demonstrate the advantages of team teaching. Both the advantages and…

Developing and delivering curricula that are integrated and that use blended learning techniques requires a highly orchestrated design. While institutions have demonstrated the ability to design complex curricula on an ad-hoc basis, these projects are generally successful at a great human and capital cost. Model-driven design provides a…

This article explores the impact of the sustainable development (SD) agenda on the occupational and professional needs of those who have undergone educational and training programmes in the environmental field either at the undergraduate or the postgraduate level or through relevant professional institutions' continuing professional development…

Understanding antecedents to superintendent leadership development is crucial for the continued improvement of schools. This qualitative study seeks to identify skills superintendents consider critical to their position, antecedents that developed those skills, and provide an increased understanding of the methods needed for developing current and…

We live in an era of unique challenges requiring us to face a new reality mired in information overload for the 21st Century. This new reality emphasizes the critical need for educational leaders who can think and act systemically rather than bureaucratically. The bureaucratic model inherited from the Industrial Era still prevails in many…

Systems thinking underpins "lean" management and is best understood through action-learning as the ideas are counter-intuitive. The Toyota Production System is just that--a system; the failure to appreciate that starting-place and the advocacy of "tools" leads many to fail to grasp what is, without doubt, a significant…