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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore three diverse case studies in higher education that provide learners with innovative, disruptive and potent ways of seeing, thinking and acting. It considers pedagogical structure and phenomenological dimensions over an array of study abroad and immersive learning conditions. This paper illustrates rich and impactful ways that learning can unfold, including the unintended consequences of education that opens eyes, changes perspectives and builds empathy.Methodology This paper deploys a case study method whereby three unique programs for studio education are critically considered/analyzed. The research connects cases and delineates approaches in environmental design, whereby greater understanding and deeper knowledge can be attained.Findings This paper, through study of cases of immersive learning, reveals effective ways in which studio teaching can serve to heighten sensitivity, construct rich self/world views and render visible more profound knowledge. Such knowledge transcends disciplinary boundaries and professional borders – encompassing a fuller spectrum of awareness that includes the social, the cultural and the spiritual.Research limitations/implications This paper investigates studio-based graduate education in Environmental Design, with a particular focus on Architecture/Planning. As such, there are limitations to the applicability of discoveries and revelations. That said, the general model for teaching and learning may have value across disciplines well beyond those examined in the current research.Practical implications In an increasingly complex world, where cultures and values routinely collide, the research presents pedagogical approaches that promise to erode walls, dissolve barriers and counter fragmentation. The case studies illustrate effective ways to heighten learning beyond the ethos of traditional classes and conventional classrooms.Originality/value This paper proffers bold creative models for teaching that defy everyday strategies. It encourages moving students to places/spaces, both concrete and abstract, that challenge their assumptions, test their capabilities and permit exceptional personal/professional growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – For self-training of nursing students, this paper developed a mannequin to simulate and measure the movement of a patient’s arms while nurses changed the patient’s clothes on a bed. In addition, using the mannequin the purpose of this paper is to determine the difference in the handling of a patient’s arms between nursing teachers and students. Design/methodology/approach – The target patient was an old man with complete paralysis. Three-degrees-of-freedom (DOF) shoulder joints and one-DOF elbow joints were applied to the mannequin. The angles of all joints were measured using a potentiometer, and those angles were transmitted to a computer via Bluetooth. Findings – In a preliminary experiment, the two nursing teachers confirmed that the mannequin arms simulated the motion of the arms of a paralyzed patient. In the experiment, two teachers and six students changed the clothes of the mannequin. The average joint angle of the left elbow and the moving frequency of the left elbow, right shoulder adduction/abduction and right shoulder internal/external rotation were lower in the case of teachers dressing the mannequin than when students were dressing it. Originality/value – The proposed system can simulate a completely paralyzed patient that nursing students would normally be almost unable to train with. Additionally, the proposed approach can reveal differences between skilled and non-skilled people in the treatment of a patient’s body. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive and detailed review of the state-of-the-art mechanisms of knowledge sharing in the education field as well as directions for future research.Design/methodology/approach In the current study, a systematic literature review until June 2017 is presented, which has been on the education’s mechanisms of knowledge sharing. The authors identified 237 papers, which are reduced to 71 primary studies through the paper selection process.Findings By providing the state-of-the-art information, the challenges and issues, this survey will directly support academics, researchers and practicing professionals in their understanding of knowledge sharing developments in education.Research limitations/implications There are several limitations in this study. First, this study limited the search for articles to Google scholar and four online databases. There might be other academic journals, which may be able to provide a more comprehensive picture of the articles related to the knowledge sharing in education. Second, non-English publications were excluded from this study. The authors believe research regarding the application of knowledge sharing techniques have also been discussed and published in other languages. In addition, more studies need to be carried out using other methodologies such as interviews.Originality/value The paper presents a comprehensive structured literature review of the articles’ mechanisms of knowledge sharing in the education field. The paper’s findings can offer insights into future research needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The traditional data envelopment analysis (DEA) model as a non-parametric technique can measure the relative efficiencies of a decision-making units (DMUs) set with exact values of inputs and outputs, but it cannot handle the imprecise data. The purpose of this paper is to establish a super efficiency interval data envelopment analysis (IDEA) model, an IDEA model based on cross-evaluation and a cross evaluation-based measure of super efficiency IDEA model. And the authors apply the proposed approach to data on the 29 public secondary schools in Greece, and further demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach. Design/methodology/approach – In this paper, based on the IDEA model, the authors propose an improved version of establishing a super efficiency IDEA model, an IDEA model based on cross-evaluation, and then present a cross evaluation-based measure of super efficiency IDEA model by combining the super efficiency method with cross-evaluation. The proposed model cannot only discriminate the performance of efficient DMUs from inefficient ones, but also can distinguish between the efficient DMUs. By using the proposed approach, the overall performance of all DMUs with interval data can be fully ranked. Findings – A numerical example is presented to illustrate the application of the proposed methodology. The result shows that the proposed approach is an effective and practical method to measure the efficiency of the DMUs with imprecise data. Practical implications – The proposed model can avoid the fact that the original DEA model can only distinguish the performance of efficient DMUs from inefficient ones, but cannot discriminate between the efficient DMUs. Originality/value – This paper introduces the effective method to obtain the complete rank of all DMUs with interval data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose In an ideal situation, the author would like to answer each of the following questions: What is Conversation? What is Theory? What is Conversation Theory, anyhow? How did it arise? Who participated? How is it a theory? Where did it end up? Is it interesting? How might it be useful? Where has it been applied? Why should you care? What does it offer the practice of education? Of design? Of ethics? Where is it headed? (Sorry, steering joke, since Conversation Theory is situated in cybernetics, the art of steering). The purpose of this paper is to answer as many of these questions as practical.Design/methodology/approach The seeds of Conversation Theory lie in Gordon Pask’s instincts and in his “making”. This paper begins by describing some of the machinery he constructed to explore human interaction. Next, a skeletal model of conversation is offered, and connections to Pask’s own diagrams are drawn. Complementary to these models of the structure of conversations are their consequences, which are described in broad terms rather than given in detail. Lastly, Pask’s approach to proposing a scientific theory, and his means of achieving it, are explained.Originality/value Conversation Theory is a thoroughly original body of work, unmatched by its range and specificity. It is little known and yet potentially profound, with a scope that has already influenced educational psychology, second-order cybernetics, knowledge modeling and software design. By describing its origins, models and implications, the author hopes its value can be extended to new generations and to new domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This paper aims to examine how poetry and prose relate to each other in the context of architectural design education. While the two notions tend to be presented as distinct opposites, this paper shows how design processes are made possible by designers moving dynamically between poetic and prosaic viewpoints. Design/methodology/approach – The paper illustrates and supports the argument made in the paper through a series of images taken from an educational case study. The case study further shows how perceptions of poetry and prose can vary between different cultural backgrounds. Findings – Building on the case study, the paper shows how architectural design education teaches students to establish links between poetic and prosaic realms in a dynamic and flexible manner. The discussion further provides a basis for understanding how perceptions of the prosaic and poetic can be understood as choices made by observers. Research limitations/implications – Limitations of this paper arise from the specificity of the reported case study and its reliance on the personal experience of the author as a teacher of architectural design primarily at universities within the greater China area. Originality/value – This paper shows how the learning to move between perceptions of poetic and prosaic is employed in architectural designing and taught in architectural education. In discussing designers' moving between perceptions of poetic and prosaic, the paper relates epistemologies of cybernetics, design, traditional Chinese thought and radical constructivism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose This paper aims to utilize machine learning and soft computing to propose a new method of rough sets using deep learning architecture for many real-world applications.Design/methodology/approach The objective of this work is to propose a model for deep rough set theory that uses more than decision table and approximating these tables to a classification system, i.e. the paper propose a novel framework of deep learning based on multi-decision tables.Findings The paper tries to coordinate the local properties of individual decision table to provide an appropriate global decision from the system.Research limitations/implications The rough set learning assumes the existence of a single decision table, whereas real-world decision problem implies several decisions with several different decision tables. The new proposed model can handle multi-decision tables.Practical implications The proposed classification model is implemented on social networks with preferred features which are freely distribute as social entities with accuracy around 91 per cent.Social implications The deep learning using rough sets theory simulate the way of brain thinking and can solve the problem of existence of different information about same problem in different decision systemsOriginality/value This paper utilizes machine learning and soft computing to propose a new method of rough sets using deep learning architecture for many real-world applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to make a small contribution to reflections on general methodology, not specific methods, in social science. Design/methodology/approach – Systemic methodology. Findings – First, schematic typology of six conceptual models. Second, typology for determining levels of abstraction for different models and degrees of generalisation. Third, typology for generalisation on the basis of a case study. Fourth, strategy for developing conceptual models. Research limitations/implications – Research falls into two main categories: conceptual generalisation and empirical generalisation. Conceptual generalisation is an investigation whereby the researcher uses other researchers’ empirical findings in conjunction with his or her own process of conceptualisation in order to generalise and identify a pattern. This contrasts with empirical generalisation, where the researcher investigates a phenomenon or problem that is apparent in the empirical data, and only thereafter generalises in the light of his or her own findings. Practical implications – A low level of understanding of conceptual generalisation among masters and PhD students. With this paper the authors try to change this perception among students. Originality/value – Developing a systemic methodology in order for students and university teachers to understand conceptual generalisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to consider the use of corporal punishment in schools in Sri Lanka, and to offer reflections on how cybernetics could shed light on its persistence despite initiatives to ban it. Design/methodology/approach -- The ASC 2013 Heinz von Foerster Award for the most significant contribution to the conference was awarded following discussion of the use of the cane in Sri Lankan schools. This paper provides a personal account of difficulties in overcoming the use of corporal punishment in a school in Sri Lanka. Findings -- The Sri Lankan education system is introduced. The response of the ASC 2013 is discussed. The feedback between social forces and the education system is seen as being too complex for analysis, and Bateson's conception of ethos is proposed as an appropriate starting point for making progress on this issue. Social implications -- The use of corporal punishment has been forbidden by the Ministry of Education, but the practice evidently continues and there is evidence that this has negative impact on young people. The paper offers an approach to understanding the reasons for the prevalence and persistence of corporal punishment, as a first step towards designing measures to eliminate it. Originality/value -- The paper takes a new approach to understanding the persistence of corporal punishment in Sri Lanka by applying Bateson's concepts of ethos and schismogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the paper of professor John Rose which offers his insights on the environmental barrier and education, the cybernetic revolution, and the function of education. It highlights the concepts by cyberneticians and systemists in the late 1960s. It says that the paper is part of the tributes to Rose, who was the founding editor of "Kybernetes: The International Journal of Systems & Cybernetics."

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a way of understanding the resistance shown by teachers to the adoption of some educational technologies. Design/methodology/approach – The Wookie Widget Server is taken as a case study. This has been a long-term development project at the Institute for Educational Cybernetics, located at the University of Bolton, and has been used with teachers in a number of implementations. The efforts to enhance teachers’ adoption of the system are outlined, and an explanatory framework is proposed called “MegaTech and MiniTech” which clarifies the reasons for teachers’ resistance to adoption. Findings – The explanatory framework combines theoretical approaches from Harré’s positioning theory, Heidegger’s concept of “to hand” and Popper’s utopian and piecemeal social engineering. Application of this framework indicates that in deploying the Wookie Widget Server with teachers the researchers were adopting a position of power in relation to teachers. The nature of this power is explored by building on Bateson’s writings. Practical implications – The explanatory framework and analysis of power provide a tool for analysis of the adoption of educational technologies. Social implications – Increasingly ambitious claims are being made for educational technology. This paper recognises the potentially oppressive nature of these technologies, and provides a starting point for a coherent analysis, which enables this danger to be avoided. Originality/value – The combination of theories which makes up the proposed explanatory framework is new, as is the application to educational technology of Bateson’s writing on power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a model of education that is non-reproductive; that is, productive of non-trivial machines. The reason for this is the postulate that society’s main problems are second-order deficiencies, which cannot be fixed by doing what we do better or more intensely, but rather by changing what we do. Design/methodology/approach – This paper proposes several guidelines for non-reproductive education based on Von Foerster’s concept of a non-trivial machine and of legitimate questions, and Ashby’s law of requisite variety. The ideas presented are corollaries and the result of a philosophical fleshing-out of said concepts and laws. Findings – In order to have a non-reproductive education, it is necessary to limit the role of central control and promote self-evaluation in education at every level of recursion: that is, in the relationship between state and educational institutions, educational institutions and teachers, teacher and students and students as evaluators of themselves. Originality/value – First, the concept of genuine self-evaluation is proposed, to distinguish this from what is currently called self-evaluation; which, it is shown, is not truly so. Second, the concept of authentic research is proposed, as distinguished from original research. This is useful for seeing how legitimate questions work at all levels of education. Third, a number of relationships between cybernetics and philosophical thought are established. Fourth, a model for non-reproductive education is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the author revisits his excitement in learning Pask's conversation theory that gave immediate prescriptions for the construction of training systems and adaptive, personalized information browsers. Named after Pask's first implementation of an interactive knowledge structuring tool, the THOUGHTSTICKER system described here came to maturity in 1986, some ten years before the Web's wide acceptance, yet it had all the components of modern Web browsers plus an organising principle for the hyperlinks – something the Web still needs. THOUGHTSTICKER's techniques for modelling each user's unique experiences and conceptual learning style embodied the concept of "personal computer" still unattained in other commercial software products. Over a 15-year period, many software prototypes were constructed and gave proof to the applicability of Pask's theory. It remains to be seen if these and other aspects of his theory will rise to the consciousness of the marketplace, becoming popular and, afterwards, irremovable and "obvious". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to learn from successful educational frameworks how to inform a possible framework for design education that includes ecological literacy, systems thinking leading to more sustainable and ecological designs. Design/methodology/approach – The author comparing two models for education, the first being that of the Polynesian Voyaging Society which re-emerged as a cultural and educational framework in Hawaii. Second that of the Center for Ecological Literacy in connection with the edible schoolyard. Both frameworks involve systems thinking. Findings – Certain elements that may inform design education. Among these are attention and vision, values, care for nature, culture, community and learning based on systems thinking, exploration and perception of the environment. Language, traditions and a strong local grounding also play a role in the Hawaiian framework. Research limitations/implications – The sources are from personal observations in design education and documentation material provided by educators. The groups with which these principles were enacted are children, whereas my goal is to inform a framework for higher education. Practical implications – The shared characteristics used in the two frameworks might be used to inform curricula for design education from both theoretical perspectives and practical applications. Originality/value – Polynesian voyaging and ecological literacy have both been very successful as educational frameworks since their implementation. Designing is necessary and design education can possibly learn much from these two examples to adapt to future changes. Ecological literacy, an educational perspective, incorporates ideas around sustainability, networks, nested systems, circularity and flows, and using this knowledge to create “sustainable human communities.” Traditionally this is not part of design education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to interconnect pedagogy and biology via second-order cybernetics. Design/methodology/approach – The approach taken is that of a synthesis. Findings – Biology can better deal with intersubjectivity within and between species by incorporating approaches and theory from education inquiry. Conversely, educators can de-anthropocentrize their discipline by entering into learning relationships with other species. By rallying around the concept of “eduction”, second-order cybernetics plays a role in both syntheses. Practical implications – De-anthropocentrizing education could have practical value in creating ecologically relevant education for children and in developing more integrated environmental impact assessments. Originality/value – Finding convergence between the study of life and forms of practitioner inquiry in education research, and connecting these to the environmental movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to interconnect pedagogy and biology via second-order cybernetics. Design/methodology/approach – The approach taken is that of a synthesis. Findings – Biology can better deal with intersubjectivity within and between species by incorporating approaches and theory from education inquiry. Conversely, educators can de-anthropocentrize their discipline by entering into learning relationships with other species. By rallying around the concept of "education", second-order cybernetics plays a role in both syntheses. Practical implications – De-anthropocentrizing education could have practical value in creating ecologically relevant education for children and in developing more integrated environmental impact assessments. Originality/value – Finding convergence between the study of life and forms of practitioner inquiry in education research, and connecting these to the environmental movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]