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The present study aims to contribute to the body of knowledge on HRD in small businesses by providing a detailed investigation of the role that owner-managers play in enabling social learning and performance in small firms. The investigation focusses particularly on the specific relationships of the social-interdependence orientation and social competence of owner-managers with their social learning behaviour, as well as with the performance of their small-businesses within the pig-production sector in the Republic of Korea. A survey was conducted amongst nearly 200 Korean owner-managers of pig farms. The results indicate that social interdependence orientations and social competencies have a significant relationship with social learning behaviour. Self-promotion and a cooperative orientation are especially important, with self-promotion taking precedence for social learning behaviour of a more ‘internal’ nature, and a cooperative attitude being more important social learning behaviour of a more ‘external’ nature. Social competence and social interdependence did not have a significant relationship with performance, but social learning behaviour did. The results further highlight the importance of individual social characteristics to social learning behaviour occurring outside highly structured educational settings, in addition to demonstrating that the competence and attitudes required are determined by the type of interaction partner.

This study investigates the role of social factors in the access to and equity in higher education (HE) for students with a low socioeconomic status (SES) in Indonesia, from multiple stakeholder perspectives. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the students, lecturers, and support staff at a large Indonesian university. Focus group discussions were organised to validate the interview results. Family and mentoring programmes appear to play a major role in accessing HE, while lecturers and peers play a significant role in equity. This study highlights the importance of mentoring programmes that guide students to continue their study at the university level. The result provides insights into programmes at the university itself that should focus on developing social skills. This study illustrates the necessity of social support factors, including family, peers, mentor programs, teachers, and lecturers, in supporting access to and equity in HE.

This literature review study aims to provide an overview of influencing factors of access to and equity in higher education. In this way, the research offers insight into specific factors that support or hinder access and equity, respectively. Forty factors from thirty-three peer-reviewed articles, mostly from three continents: Europe, Australia, and America, published between 2014 and 2018, were selected for further analysis. The articles were analyzed into four organizational levels: government, university, pre-university education, and student. Most findings on this topic discuss government policies and financial support. In addition to financial support, the significance of this paper discusses social support influence (by peers, by family, by teachers, by university officers, and via programs) to improve access and equity in higher education. Social support emerged as crucial for both access and equity. This study alerts researchers, teachers, administrators at the university level, and policy-makers at the national level to focus more on social relations between peers, students, and lecturers, support by the managerial level, and establishing programs that provide basic academic skills to disadvantaged groups.

In a context of land shortage with high rates of land degradation and soil erosion due to unsustainable agriculture practices in Burundi, vocational agriculture education needs to prioritize competencies that enable graduates to be effective change-agents in addressing sustainable agriculture challenges. This study aimed at identifying context-relevant competencies for change-agents to be able to foster sustainable agriculture.

PurposeThis study attempts to determine a set of characteristics for each educational component in the competence-based agricultural education system.Design This study reviewed 95 articles published in four relevant scientific journals to determine the characteristics of a competence-based higher agricultural education system. These characteristics were determined based on competence-based education principles.Findings: The results of this review indicated that, based on the CBE principles, the competencies for agricultural educational components identified in the reviewed articles could be summarized in 22 categories.Practical implications: The main practical implication is that the universities can consider the results of this study as a set of guidelines in the admission of qualified learners and educators, revising curriculum and organizing dynamic learning environment in line with the CBE characteristics.Theoretical implications: The results of this study could take CBE principles one step further in that, determining characteristics of a competence-based higher agricultural education system can be a guideline on how these principles could be implemented in an education system.Originality/value: This study is original because it tries to bring CBE principles as a valuable theory into practice by the agricultural education systems.

The number of entrepreneurship education (EE) programs that aim to foster opportunity identification (OI) as a key entrepreneurial capability has grown considerably in the past few decades. However, these EE programs mostly lack a robust theoretical framework that could help educators and researchers select teaching approaches in line with their philosophical perspectives. This study proposes a theory-driven framework for fostering OI by bridging entrepreneurship and education fields, considering the ontological and epistemological assumptions that exist in both fields. The proposed framework includes different philosophical perspectives on entrepreneurial opportunities and strategies for identifying opportunities coupled with the most relevant learning theories and teaching approaches for fostering OI. Based on this framework, behaviorism and cognitivism are the most consistent learning theories with the opportunity discovery perspective's philosophical assumptions, and social constructivist learning theory is more appropriate for developing EE programs based on the opportunity creation perspective. This framework suggests that for developing an efficacious EE program to improve individuals' OI performance, different perspectives on the emergence of opportunities and learning should be combined and integrated into a consistent, constructively aligned EE program. The paper concludes with implications for the theory and practice in the entrepreneurship education field.

The policy of the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science is to increase school autonomy. To be able to deal with such autonomy, schools must have a policy-making capacity. The level of teacher involvement appears to be an important indicator of the extent of this capacity. This paper is based on a study of the views of 1079 teachers from 98 schools for secondary agricultural education. Two main types of teachers were discovered: those with a more and those with a less extended professional orientation. While the former were more likely than the latter to be involved in policy making, neither was heavily engaged. The report concludes with a plea for a more participatory model of policy making in schools.

Opportunities and their identification are of significant importance for competitiveness in today’s complex and turbulent business environment because they serve as a key influencing factor for new value-creation. Opportunity identification (OI) is interesting not only from the perspective of new business start-ups, but also from the perspective of employees in existing organisations. Each entrepreneurial process starts with an imagined, rudimentary idea in the mind of an individual. The further exploration and development of such opportunities by employees can lead to the realisation of all kinds of corporate entrepreneurship outcomes, such as innovation, strategic renewal, and internal or external venturing. This dissertation reports on the capability of employees to identify opportunities, referred to as opportunity identification competence (OIC). The importance of OI by employees is widely recognised in practice, and scholars have contributed significantly to understanding what opportunities are, how opportunities come into being, and how OIC can be measured. Nevertheless, substantial research challenges still need to be addressed. More specifically, based on both entrepreneurship literature and literature on organisational learning and entrepreneurship education, three overarching research issues have been identified: The OI process has not been fully mapped out, including the role of individuals and teams. Defining and explaining OIC is problematic because scholars tend not to agree whether opportunities are discovered in the economic environment or created by individuals. Existing measurements of OIC have been criticised, because most of them include self-perceptions or the recall of earlier identified opportunities. The main goal of this thesis was to contribute to the literature by addressing these three overarching research issues. Accordingly, the central research question was: What characterises opportunity identification by employees on the individual and team level? In the dissertation, OIC is both conceptually mapped and empirically explored. A performance instrument to measure OIC is developed and tested in higher education. As well, 12 businesses, including 234 employees in 51 teams, participated in this research project. Most companies were in the category known as small and medium-sized enterprise (SME). The participating companies have in common that they felt an urgent need for entrepreneurship as a driver of competitiveness. Furthermore, they aimed to commit and stimulate their employees to contribute to the entrepreneurial process, without having formal mechanisms or structures for doing so. Main conclusions In light of the central research question of this dissertation, What characterises opportunity identification by employees on the individual and team level?, the results suggest that OI deserves attention in existing businesses, both as a meaningful process leading towards new value-creation and as a relevant capability of employees. OIC is a multi-phased phenomenon consisting of two main competencies, namely business idea generation and business idea evaluation. In business idea generation, individuals generate all kinds of (business) ideas that may have the potential to become a real opportunity. In business idea evaluation, those ideas are selected that actually have potential success. Employees can have one of the competencies (business idea generation or business idea evaluation) to a greater extent, or both of them. Organisations need employees that are able to generate business ideas and employees that are able to evaluate the potential success of business ideas. The results of this thesis suggest that, just like independent entrepreneurs, employees mainly acquire such competencies by a process of learning by doing; this means that employees should become involved in entrepreneurial activities on the shop floor. Creating teams can be a solution, bringing together the competencies needed for the successful identification of opportunities. Moreover, the results suggest that the commitment of teams in the early stages of the entrepreneurial process is highly relevant, because the team cognitive framework for identifying opportunities seems more effective than the individual cognitive framework. Taken together, at the defining, initial stage of the entrepreneurial process opportunities are identified by individuals or, preferably, by teams – in a process by which business ideas are generated and evaluated for their potential success. When studying opportunities and their identification, scholars should take into account the differences in OIC between SMEs, employees, and even within OIC itself (i.e., between business idea generation and business idea evaluation). In practice as well, these differences should be considered in the selection and management of employees, in assessing OIC and in composing teams, because teams need both business idea generators and business idea evaluators.

In recent years, improving primary science education has received considerable attention. In particular, researchers and policymakers advocate the use of inquiry-based science teaching and learning, believing that pupils learn best through direct personal experience and by incorporating new information into their existing knowledge base. Therefore, corresponding educational paradigms have shifted from merely reproducing knowledge to asking scientifically oriented questions and searching for evidence when responding to those questions. This approach is considered to be the starting point for motivating pupils to apply research skills, construct meaning, and acquire scientific knowledge. Teachers’ competencies are essential for increasing pupils’ learning and for stimulating their interest in science. Research has indicated that primary school teachers find it difficult to become effective inquiry-based science teachers because they often lack key knowledge regarding how science inquiry works and—in particular—how to implement inquiry-based teaching in their classrooms (Lee, Hart, Cuevas & Enders, 2004; Van Zee et al., 2005; McDonald, 2009). In the absence of these key competencies, qualitatively poor or insufficient guidance and insufficient feedback could be received during the discovery process. High-quality teacher education that yields competent teachers is the foundation of any system of formal education. However, the Netherlands lacks a recent formal agreement between professionals regarding the competencies that teachers need in order to teach inquiry-based primary science. In light of this issue, this thesis has two key aims. The first aim is to clarify which competencies are needed in order to teach inquiry-based primary science. The second aim is to determine how various components of science-teaching competence are related. The first aim was achieved by performing a literature study and a Delphi study, and the second aim was achieved by performing empirical studies using a knowledge test, a list of attitude questions, and a case-based questionnaire designed to assess Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK). De laatste jaren heeft het verbeteren van wetenschap onderwijzen in de basisschool veel aandacht gekregen. Onderzoekers en beleidsmakers pleiten voor de didactiek van onderzoekend leren, er van uitgaande dat leerlingen het beste leren door persoonlijke ervaringen en door integratie van nieuwe informatie in hun voorkennis. Daarom zijn onderwijskundige paradigma’s verschoven van de nadruk op reproduceren van kennis naar het stellen van wetenschappelijk georiënteerde vragen en het zoeken naar bewijs bij het beantwoorden van die vragen. Deze aanpak wordt verondersteld het startpunt te zijn van het motiveren van leerlingen voor het toepassen van onderzoek vaardigheden, het construeren van betekenis en het opdoen van wetenschappelijke kennis. De competenties van een leerkracht zijn essentieel voor het verbeteren van leerprocessen bij leerlingen en voor het stimuleren van hun interesse in wetenschap. Onderzoek heeft laten zien dat basisschool leerkrachten het moeilijk vinden onderzoekend leren effectief vorm te geven, omdat ze belangrijke kennis met betrekking tot het doen van onderzoek en hoe onderzoekend leren te implementeren in hun klaslokaal, missen (Lee, Hart, Cuevas & Enders, 2004; Van Zee et al., 2005; McDonald, 2009). Bij afwezigheid van deze competenties kan tijdens het onderzoek leerproces kwalitatief slechte of onvoldoende begeleiding en feedback worden ontvangen. Goede lerarenopleidingen die competente leerkrachten afleveren, vormen de basis van elk kwalitatief goed formeel onderwijssysteem. In Nederland mist echter een actuele, formele overeenkomst tussen professionals betreffende competenties die basisschoolleerkrachten nodig hebben om vorm te geven aan onderzoekend leren bij wetenschap. Dit proefschrift heeft aansluitend bij deze constatering twee doelen. Het eerste doel betreft het in kaart brengen welke competenties nodig zijn bij wetenschap onderwijzen volgens de didactiek van het onderzoekend leren. Het tweede doel is het vaststellen hoe verschillende competentiecomponenten, nodig om les te geven in wetenschap volgens de didactiek van onderzoekend leren, tot elkaar gerelateerd zijn. Het eerste doel werd behaald door het uitvoeren van literatuuronderzoek en het doen van een Delphi studie; het tweede door het uitvoeren van empirische studies waarbij gebruik werd gemaakt van een kennistest, een attitude vragenlijst en een case-based assessment instrument ontworpen om de Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) van leerkrachten vast te stellen.

Hands-on simulaties, ofwel praktijksimulaties, worden zeer regelmatig ingezet in het (groene) middelbaar en hoger beroepsonderwijs, vooral voor het toepassen van procedurele en technische vaardigheden. Wat is de toegevoegde waarde van hands-on simulaties, ofwel praktijksimulaties, in een innovatief beroepsgericht curriculum dat zich naast vakmanschap ook op competenties zoals probleemoplossen, innovatief denken en flexibel werken richt? Het proefschrift laat zien dat praktijksimulaties competentieontwikkeling kunnen stimuleren. Voor meer competentieontwikkeling is het niet voldoende om de simulaties authentieker te maken (realiteitsgehalte verhogen) en studenten meer zelfsturing en zelfregulatie te geven. Praktijksimulaties moeten bij de studentpercepties te betrokken worden en studenten gedurende het gehele curriculum te leren zelfsturende en zelfregulerende strategieën in te zetten.

Given the positive influences of entrepreneurship in tems of increasing economic growth and creating jobs, considerable efforts have been made to promote entrepreneurship in both developed and developing countries. Scholars and policymakers are also increasingly interested in the factors which influence the decision to become an entrepreneur and thus understanding why some people decide to start a business while others do not. The research reported in this dissertation therefore explored the factors which influence the entrepreneurial intentions of students in higher education in the developing country of Iran.

cum laude graduation (with distinction). In collaborative settings, students of all ages need to learn to clearly explain their informed opinions and give reasons for the way in which they carry out tasks and solve problems. Engaging students in collaborative discussion and argumentation is an educational approach for preparing them to manage today’s complex issues and actively participate in knowledge societies. Despite the fact that argumentation is shaped in social conversation and also in learners’ online exchanges in daily life, learners in academic settings need to be taught to reason and argue in a way that is beneficial for knowledge sharing, domain-specific learning, and knowledge construction. Online support systems for collaboration or Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) environments in which learners argue in teams have been found to support the sharing, constructing, and representing of arguments with the aim of learning. This type of learning arrangement is called Argumentation-Based Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (ABCSCL) and it is seen as a promising environment in which to facilitate collaborative argumentation and learning. Het is noodzakelijk dat studenten ruime mogelijkheden krijgen om samen te werken in multidisciplinaire groepen. Zo kunnen studenten zich ontwikkelen tot professionals die niet alleen in staat zijn om te analyseren, conceptualiseren en synthetiseren, maar ook kunnen omgaan met complexe en authentieke problemen. In leeromgevingen waarin samenwerkend leren centraal staat, dienen studenten van verschillende onderwijsniveaus te leren om hun onderbouwde standpunten helder over te brengen en redenen aan te geven voor de manier waarop zij taken uitvoeren en problemen oplossen. Het betrekken van studenten in de opbouw van argumentaties en het voeren van gezamenlijke discussies kan beschouwd worden als een onderwijskundige benadering gericht op de voorbereiding van het managen van complexe vraagstukken én op het actief deelnemen aan de kennismaatschappij. Ondanks het feit dat argumentaties worden gevormd in sociale conversaties, die in het dagelijks leven ook online worden gevoerd, dienen studenten in academische leeromgevingen onderwezen te worden in het redeneren en argumenteren op een manier die het delen van kennis, leren in domein-specifieke situaties en de gezamenlijke constructie van kennis bevordert. Online systemen ter ondersteuning van samenwerken, ofwel Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL), waarin studenten debatteren in teams, stimuleren het uitwisselen en het construeren van argumenten en bevorderen zo te leren. Dit type leerarrangement wordt ook wel Argumentation-Based Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (ABCSCL) genoemd. Het wordt beschouwd als een veelbelovende leeromgeving waarin het onderling debatteren en zo het leren kan worden ondersteund.

Introduction of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL), specifically in an intercultural learning environment, creates both challenges and benefits. Among the challenges are the coordination of different attitudes, styles of communication, and patterns of behaving. Among the benefits are the sharing of culturally diverse knowledge, hands-on preparation for working in an international climate. Five empirical studies reported in this dissertation were conducted to identify and respond to the cultural issues influencing collaborative learning in both face-to-face and online modes of communication. The ultimate goal of the fives taken together was to develop an instructional script for fostering collaboration and bridging intercultural differences in culturally diverse groups engaged in CSCL. The total sample for the present research included over 500 students representing a total of 55 countries. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses were undertaken in the studies. The findings of this dissertation suggest that the scripting approach can foster collaboration and bridge intercultural differences in culturally diverse groups working in a CSCL environment.

Competentiegericht beroepsonderwijs is zowel nationaal als internationaal een populair concept. Een eenduidige definitie ontbrak echter, maar is wel noodzakelijk als uitspraken moeten worden gedaan over de effectiviteit er van. Door middel van het vaststellen van acht principes, die zijn uitgewerkt in vier fasen is een comprehensive (ofwel allesomvattend en samenhangend) model ontwikkeld dat beschrijft wat competentiegericht beroepsonderwijs inhoudt. Het model laat onder andere zien dat als competentieontwikkeling het doel van beroepsonderwijs is, de instructiemethoden daarop moeten worden aangepast. Met behulp van dit model is nader onderzoek gedaan hoe competentiegericht beroepsonderwijs zich manifesteert in de onderwijspraktijk. Op basis hiervan kan worden geconcludeerd dat competentiegericht beroepsonderwijs daadwerkelijk plaatsvindt in het agrarische MBO en HBO in Nederland; zowel studenten als docenten herkennen in zekere mate de principes van competentiegericht beroepsonderwijs in hun dagelijkse onderwijspraktijk. Dit vereist vervolgens andere rollen en taken van docenten. Naast expert, zijn de rollen ontwikkelaar, onderzoeker, coach en manager belangrijk volgens de docenten. Tot slot biedt het model handvatten om de verbinding tussen leren in de school en leren in de praktijk te verbeteren.

Global competition and specialisation have resulted in an innovation trend called ‘open innovation’, in which companies develop new products, services or markets collaboratively, by using each others’ know-how, technology, licenses, brands or market channels. A complex form of open innovation is pooled R&D or co-development in strategic partnerships, i.e., open innovation teams. These partnerships embody mutual working relationships between two or more parties aimed at creating and delivering a new product, technology or service. Although inter-organizational collaboration has often proved to be a prerequisite for successful innovation processes, not each external collaboration results in a success story. It appears that the diversity of organizational backgrounds in open innovation teams can be a source of creativity, but also a source of social and communicative dilemmas resulting in conflicts and project failures. Success factors for (open) innovation projects have been investigated extensively, but most studies undervalue and under-investigate the human side. Therefore, the research presented in this PhD dissertation focussed on individual competence in open innovation teams. The concept of competence is used to describe the range of skills and personal qualities people need for a certain job or task. Competence consists of competencies: integrated capabilities, consisting of knowledge, skills and attitudes, which are necessarily conditional for task performance, and for being able to function effectively in a certain job or situation. The main research question guiding this research was: Which competencies do professionals in an open innovation team need in order to contribute to a successful co-development? A rationalistic multimethod-oriented approach was adopted to tackle the main research question. In line with this approach, five sub-questions were formulated, which addressed (1) the activities that need to be performed in open innovation teams, (2) competency elements needed to perform these activities (3) an optimal clustering of the competencies and competency elements in a competence profile (4) context variation of the resulting competence profile and (5) the link between open innovation competence and team performance. Multiple sources of evidence were gathered to answer the questions, combining qualitative, quantitative, objective and self-reported data to identify and assess competence. Three studies were conducted: an inter-disciplinary literature study, a qualitative study and a quantitative study. The literature study consisted of an extensive literature review combining literature on learning, (inter-) organizational learning, (open) innovation management, business alliances and networks in organizational, management, Human Resource (HR) and educational studies. The qualitative study consisted of explorative interviews and focus group discussions, which adopted the critical incidents technique and took place with professionals and experts from different organizations and intermediaries who had been working in or with open innovation teams (N=37). The quantitative study consisted of a cross-sectional online survey and group interviews with professionals from 15 open innovation teams from mainly prospector companies (N=73). The results showed that there are three main activities to perform in open innovation teams: managing the overall innovation process, managing the collaborative knowledge creation process (consisting of the four stages externalizing and sharing, interpreting and analysing, negotiating and revising, combining and creating), and dealing with the challenges caused by inter-organizational collaboration (consisting of being a good partner, but preventing free-riding; balancing openness and closure and building trust in a non-trusting environment; balancing individual and alliances interests, creating common meanings, goals and work plans; finding a balance between exerting influence and having no influence; fostering optimal dynamics; finding a balance between being in control and having no control; efficiently and effectively organizing teamwork; mobilizing commitment; balancing short- and long-term goals, stability and risk). The first two studies identified various competency elements to perform these activities, which were confirmed by the third study. Factor analysis on the data showed that the most optimal clustering of the competency elements resulted in thirteen competencies, which were: being able to ‘involve’, ‘influence’, ‘handle conflicts’, ‘create learning climate’, ‘take on’, ‘prevail’, ‘monitor’, ‘decide mindfully’, ‘communicate clearly’, ‘analyse’, ‘explore’, ‘combine’ and ‘compete’. Multiple regression analysis and one-way ANOVA on the data showed that the competencies ‘take on’, ‘prevail’ and ‘communicate clearly’ were perceived as more important in more complex forms of alliances types. Moreover, it appeared that professionals in charge of project management perceived the competencies ‘involve’, ‘influence’, ‘prevail’, ‘create learning climate’ and ‘monitor’ as more important for their role in the project, compared to professionals in charge of product development or process control. Another finding was that participants perceived the competencies as more important when the team had a good team climate, apart from competencies that dealt with competitive behaviour. However, although slight differences were found across different contexts, the competencies were generally perceived as being important; the competence profile can thus be said to be generic, at least within the research population. Multiple regression analysis on the data showed that the competencies significantly contributed to the success of general innovation processes and specific creation processes and were even stronger predictors of team performance than (some of the) environmental factors. More specifically, the reported application of the competency ‘monitor’ was significantly positively related to the success of general innovation and specific creation processes and the application of ‘compete’ was significantly negatively related to the success of general innovation processes. This study not only found a link between competence and team performance, but also found that the competencies explained much variance in the data. These outcomes suggest that for open innovation professionals in general the application of the competency ‘monitor’ will enhance open innovation team performance. The competency not only entails communicating well enough to do one’s job effectively, but also making results visible and trusting others. The findings contribute to the fields of (open) innovation management and HR in several ways. First, the collaborative knowledge creation model developed adds to the literature by clearly visualizing how knowledge is created at individual and group level, and how the participation and acquisition metaphor and different views on knowledge can be combined into one collaborative knowledge creation model. Second, the outcomes add to HR literature by eliciting information on real problems and challenges, which may occur in complex collaborative knowledge creation processes but were largely overlooked until now. Third, the developed open innovation competence profile adds a new perspective to studies on (open) innovation management that undervalued the human factor in collaborative knowledge creation and innovation processes. Fourth, the results contribute to the fields of (open) innovation and HR, by being one of the first studies that empirically reveals a link between individual competence and team performance controlled for factors at higher aggregation levels. Fifth, the most crucial competency that came out of this study, ‘monitor’, sheds another light on the concept of transparency and trust in inter-organizational alliances. It suggests that the knowledge that needs to be shared specifically concerns the results of one’s own work and that of the team, and sufficient communication to do one’s own work efficiently and effectively. Sixth, the findings confirm earlier suggestions that open innovation teams need strong leadership or a ‘heavyweight’ manager, and the importance of a good team climate in open innovation teams, by revealing a link between team climate and perceived importance of desired competencies. Seventh, the facts that the model contains opposing behaviours and a lack of strong differences across contexts confirm the theory of behavioural complexity. This implies that effective open innovation professionals are those who have, apart from the competencies mentioned in the profile, the capacity to recognize and react to paradox and complexity in their working environment. Finally, the open innovation competence profile covers a broad area of competencies applicable across contexts and describes certain specific behaviours in detail. This result contributes to competency modelling literature by showing that the rationalistic multimethod-oriented approach, results in a profile that contains both information specific to a certain context and at the same time is applicable across contexts. Future research should focus on comparing open innovation teams, closed innovation teams and other collaboration forms in organizations to reveal areas in which the competence profile can best be applied and the distinctiveness of open innovation competence. Moreover, further research should investigate the robustness of the open innovation competence profile in different situations and the impact of any specific situation in enhancing the use of open innovation competence. Finally, further research should investigate whether HR professionals should support open innovation competence and if so how they should do it. The developed competence profile is highly relevant to practice, since it can be used as a selection, diagnosis, and (self-) evaluation tool in open innovation teams. Organizations are advised to explore the possibility of involving HR professionals in open innovation processes.

In the last few decades, primary agricultural production in the Netherlands has been significantly influenced by firm expansion, innovation and diversification. These developments suggest that, increasingly, farmers and growers require entrepreneurial competence to continuously recognize and pursue new business opportunities. Though entrepreneurial competence is seen as a potentially promising concept, current research efforts i) have paid little attention to firms already in existence (like in agriculture), ii) provide few methodological starting points for studying entrepreneurial competence on the individual level, iii) and have paid little attention to social and task-related influences on entrepreneurial competence development. The objective of this thesis is to analyse how entrepreneurial competence can be characterized and identified, how it develops and how it can be fostered in small agricultural firms. In order to do so, entrepreneurial competence was studied using a comprehensive approach to competence, which implies that a multi-method methodology was adopted. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used in four empirical studies which included a total of 500 participants. A first characterization was made by researching self-awareness and beliefs about improvability of general, but context-appropriate, descriptions of entrepreneurial competencies. The results show an almost consistent underestimation of entrepreneurial competencies and reveal that entrepreneurial competencies are seen as subject to at least some development. Conceptions of entrepreneurial competencies are not uniform within workplaces: elements of what is developed and can be developed further are partly idiosyncratic. Secondly, entrepreneurial competence was identified in more detail based on item-level descriptions which empirically define a competence domain. It was revealed that three domains constitute the heart of entrepreneurial competence, namely analysing, pursuing and networking. Thirdly, results obtained through comparing highand low-performing firms, focusing on the task itself and using concrete work activities as descriptors for competence, suggest that the relationship between entrepreneurial performance and competence is not only influenced by business goals but also by the owner-managers’ awareness. It is proposed that entrepreneurial performance is correlated with the development of competence associated with the beginning of the entrepreneurial process. Furthermore, the results suggest interdependence between existing competence and competence development within competence domains (horizontal development), and between competence domains (vertical development). Finally, four factors in the small-business work environment were identified as being crucial in the entrepreneurial learning process. In order of importance, these were: support and guidance, external interaction, internal communication and task characteristics, though differences in type of business opportunities represent slightly different dynamics. The results suggest a two-layered interaction between learner and work environment. Entrepreneurial learning of the owner-manager is influenced by the work environment, which is in turn shaped/defined by the owner-manager. The results of this thesis provide professionals active in sector development and (vocational) education with clear steppingstones for developing competence-based curricula and learning-oriented assessments, as well as general ideas for developing learning environments that better reflect small-business dynamics.

Since we moved into the third millennium, there has been a gradual shift from the so-called information society to a networked society. One of the main characteristics of this new society is working in distributed companies and teams. The big challenge for educational systems in a networked society is preparing students for living, working and enjoying themselves in such a society. New advanced information and communication technology (ICT) influences all aspects of human life. One of the main applications of e-learning which captivates and fascinates so many researchers in the field of education is “Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL)”. According to Stahl (2003), CSCL environments are tools designed to support the building of shared knowledge and knowledge negotiation. In CSCL environments students try to learn collaboratively through the Web and they practice working in distributed teams which seems to be a crucial competency for living in a networked society. Although, theoretically, e-learning and CSCL environments are seen as powerful tools for learning processes, the results of empirical research in the field are contradictory. While some research in the field reported low levels of participation, interaction and depth of learning, many studies described and concluded positive effects of CSCL environments, positive effects of face-to-face teaching supported by CSCL applications, and positive effects of CSCL environments applied in combination with face-to-face learning situations. This dissertation reports a PhD study which concentrated on performing tasks in asynchronous computer-supported collaborative learning environments as a blended learning approach for on-campus students. The blended learning approach, which aims at integrating e-learning techniques and traditional teaching methods, is seen as a way to improve the quality of education and reduce the costs of education for all students. The blended learning approach in higher education is a combination of regular, conventional, face-to-face and individual learning activities with web-based learning activities. It aims at integrating different learning approaches and modes of course material delivery into education. The current PhD project was designed to investigate students’ processes of learning (knowledge construction) and learning outcomes (quality of constructed knowledge) while performing different study tasks in university courses in which CSCL has been implemented. More specifically, the main objective of the study was to investigate the implementation of ACSCL environments in conventional face-to-face and on-campus higher education following a blended learning approach. The following research questions were addressed: What is the current use of e-learning environments in general and CSCL environments in particular in higher education?What is the opinion of teachers about e-learning environments in general and CSCL environments in particular in higher education?What is the opinion of students about implementing tasks in ACSCL environments in higher education?How do students participate in learning processes and knowledge construction while performing tasks in ACSCL environments? How can peer group feedback, supported by ACSCL, improve learning quality and facilitate learning processes? The dissertation is composed of four different studies which address several specific research questions to investigate different aspects of implementing ACSCL in higher education. The first two studies concern two main parties involved in the process of learning: teachers and students. The third study aims at exploring the process of knowledge construction and quality of learning outcomes while performing tasks in ACSCL environments, and finally, the fourth study is designed to investigate the effect of PGF supported by ACSCL on the process of learning. Study 1: teachers’ use of e-learning environments The purpose of the first study was to investigate teachers’ use of e-learning environments as teaching and learning tools in higher education and to explore factors which explain teachers’ use of those e-learning environments. In the study the following research questions were formulated: 1. Which functions of e-learning environments do teachers most often use? 2. What added value do teachers perceive of e-learning environments? 3. Which factors influence teachers’ use of different functions and capabilities of e-learning environments? 4. What are the barriers for implementing e-learning environments in the learning process? In e-learning environments, general course information functions (like course calendar and schedule and course announcement and news), content management functions (like presenting course material and literature and PowerPoint presentations) and non-interactive communication functions (like mail and mailing lists) are used most frequently. Other communication functions (like video conferencing, chatting, and voice conferencing) and collaboration functions (like online discussion, online collaboration, shared whiteboard, and application sharing) are the least used features of the e-learning environments. Comparable to the pattern of the actual use of e-learning environments mentioned above, results indicate that teachers believe that presentation of course materials and literature, presentation of information about the courses, PowerPoint presentations, and E-mail have the most added value for teaching and learning processes. Voice conferencing, shared whiteboard, videoconferencing and net-meetings are believed to have the least added value for teaching and learning processes. The assumed added value of online discussion and online collaboration is low as well. In addition, teachers believe they do not face serious technical problems when working with ICT tools and e-learning environments. Finally, teachers are satisfied with the facilities and connectivity but they feel that they do not have access to relevant software, websites and content. Running exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis we identified different factors like Knowledge Construction Teaching and Learning Approach (KC), Teachers’ Opinion about Computer-Assisted Learning (CAL), Teachers’ Opinion about Web-based Activities (WA), Ease of Use (perceived difficulty), and Time which might contribute to the explanation of teachers’ actual use of e-learning environments (USE). We found that a teacher’s previous experience with e-learning environments, WA, CAL, and ease of use can help us to explain teachers’ perceptions of the added value and usefulness of e-learning environments and their actual use of these environments. At the end, we were able to introduce the Teachers’ Use of E-learning Environments Model (USE Model) which consists of Teachers’ Opinions about Web-based Activities (WA) and Teachers’ Opinions about Computer-Assisted Learning (CAL) as predictors, and Teachers’ Perceived Added Value of E-learning Environments (AV) as the mediating variable. Study 2: Student satisfaction with, and perceived learning effects of, performing tasks in ACSCL environments The second study was aimed at investigating student satisfaction with, and perceived learning effects of, performing asynchronous online collaborative learning tasks in courses in higher education. The specific questions addressed in this study were: 1. Are on-campus students satisfied with performing learning tasks in this asynchronous computer-supported collaborative learning environment (ACSCLE)? 2. Do on-campus students perceive any added value of performing learning tasks in an asynchronous computer-supported collaborative learning environment (ACSCLE)? 3. What factors influence student satisfaction with, and perceived learning in, this asynchronous computer-supported collaborative learning environment (ACSCLE)? Overall, 61.5% of the students were satisfied with their learning experiences with ACSCLE in their courses and, on average, 43.5% of the students agreed with all the items concerning their satisfaction with different aspects of performing tasks in the ACSCLE; with 45.7% of the students taking a neutral position. From the students’ points of view there were no differences between F2F and asynchronous online collaboration in terms of difficulty of performing tasks and perception of learning. These results led to the conclusion that students evaluate the quality of asynchronous online collaborative learning as equal to the quality of F2F learning. In total, 30.35% of the students positively agreed with all the statements meant to capture their opinions about the learning effects of performing tasks in ACSCLE and 50.35% of them were neutral (Mean=3.12). Study 3: Students’ learning activities and quality of knowledge construction while performing tasks in ACSCL environments The third study was conducted to explore how on-campus university students in the context of green (food, animal, plant, social and environmental) sciences collaborate and construct knowledge in asynchronous CSCL environments. Therefore, attention was paid to learning activities during the process of knowledge construction. Moreover, we analysed students’ participation and quality of knowledge construction while performing collaborative tasks in asynchronous CSCL environments. The following research questions were addressed with respect to students performing collaborative tasks in asynchronous CSCL environments: To what extent do on-campus students participate in the process of knowledge construction? How can on-campus students’ learning and how can knowledge construction processes be characterised in terms of cognitive, affective, and meta-cognitive learning activities?What is the quality of the constructed knowledge? Are there any changes in on-campus students’ learning activities over time and what are the patterns of those changes?Are there any differences in students’ learning activities in different courses and settings? Considering the fact that, on average, students wrote two notes and read fifty five notes per week, we concluded that students’ active participation in the learning environment was rather/fairly successful and their passive participation was quite successful. We also found that while, on average, each note was read 26.7 times and those contributions written in the first week were read more (Mean =60.4) than notes written in the last weeks (Mean = 5.17). Through content analysis of the students’ written notes and learning activities by means of a coding scheme developed by Veldhuis-Diermanse, 89.2 % of students’ contributions were coded as cognitive learning activities, 8.4 % as meta-cognitive and 2.1 % as affective learning activities. Looking at the subcategories of the coding scheme, we found that ‘debating’ in the cognitive category and ‘keeping clarity’ in the meta-cognitive category appeared more. Another coding scheme was used to assess the quality of students’ contributions. For each of the four quality levels (levels increasing from D to A) corresponding verbs were identified and described. Our findings showed that 75.1 % of students’ contributions were assessed as level B, which is reasonably high, 6.1 % as Level D (lowest quality) and 7.7 % as level A (highest quality) and 11.1 % as level C. Conducting in-depth interviews and focus groups with participants and looking at the open questions of the questionnaire, we concluded that task structure, level of support that students receive, teacher’s role, task complexity, and group composition, which can all be discussed under the term ‘scripting CSCL’, are the main factors that students believed to be important for their learning activities and the quality of their contributions to ACSCL environments. Study 4: Asynchronous Computer-Supported Peer Group Feedback in Higher Education In the forth study we concentrated on the application of peer group feedback in face-to-face class meetings and asynchronous computer-supported collaborative learning (ACSCL) environments. More specifically, we surveyed student participation in, satisfaction with, and perceived learning effects of, participating in peer group feedback and studied functions and quality of student contributions to the PGF processes in both F2F and ACS conditions. For this purpose the following research questions were formulated: 1. To what extent do students participate in Peer Group Feedback (PGF) in both Asynchronous Computer-Supported (ACS) and Face to Face (F2F) conditions? 2. What are students' perceptions of the value of Peer Group Feedback (PGF) in both Asynchronous Computer-Supported (ACS) and Face to Face (F2F) conditions? 3. What is the function of the students' feedback in both Asynchronous Computer-Supported (ACS) and Face to Face (F2F) conditions during Peer Group feedback (PGF)? 4. What is the quality of the students' feedback in both Asynchronous Computer-Supported (ACS) and Face to Face (F2F) conditions during Peer Group feedback (PGF)? Our findings revealed that students in the ACS-PGF condition participated more in the process of feedback and all students were active (the distribution was better). In F2F conditions some students took over the discussions and teachers contributed more. The minimum amount of contributions under ACS conditions was much higher than under F2F conditions. We also found that students in both conditions were satisfied with participating in group feedback and perceived PGF as effective for learning. Students in ACS groups were positive, to a higher level, about the quality of PGF and its added value. However, there was no significant difference between students’ perceptions of the effect of PGF on motivation, interaction, and satisfaction. We found that both ACS and F2F conditions differed with respect to students’ contributions. For example, the students’ notes posted in the ACS groups were significantly clearer, more structured, and more to the point than students’ utterances in F2F groups. Students in ACS conditions posted more notes that were encoded as “evaluation/criticism” and as “motivate/praise” than students in F2F conditions. Concluding remarks From the study the conclusion can be drawn that although well-arranged technical support and reliable infrastructure are important for teachers’ use of e-learning environments, they are not enough. A teachers’ first experience with using e-learning environments and their attitude toward ICT are more important. Moreover, those who use e-learning environments most frequently use non-interactive and superficial features and functions. Interactive features, like CSCL, are rarely used. It seems that, in practice, more attention has been paid to the technological aspects of e-learning than to the pedagogical aspects and, as a result, these advanced learning environments have only been considered as tools to facilitate traditional learning and teaching approaches. Tasks in CSCL environments need more attention than in face to face collaborative learning. In order to integrate CSCL effectively into the learning process characteristics/issues like structure and the level of structuring of the task, complexity of the learning process, task complexity, the formulation of the task, support that learners receive, and the way that they receive that support are very important. Based on our study the conclusion is justified that, as a blended learning approach, integrating asynchronous CSCL environments can effectively engage students in the process of learning. Implementing tasks in CSCL environments increases students’ participation in learning activities and their interaction with each other and with their teachers outside of class time. We also conclude that asynchronous CSCL does not only foster more students’ participation, but more equal participation, in the learning process and might be used successfully to encourage and engage the silent side of the class into the processes of discussion and collaboration. The results of the study lead us to the conclusion that ACSCL environments can foster higher-order learning skills. However, we should remember that the quality of discussion was significantly related to the design and setting of the course. Learning to work in distributed teams is one of the main competencies that should be developed in higher education to prepare students for working in a knowledge and network society. The findings of this study revealed that performing tasks in asynchronous CSCL environments has the potential to increase the level of participation and interaction among students and to foster processes of shared and social knowledge construction. Performing these kinds of tasks has the potential to provide a meaningful supplement to conventional teaching and learning approaches and can help teachers to overcome the limitations of face-to-face collaboration and discussion. We conclude that following a blended learning approach and taking course objectives into consideration, we can benefit from the added value of e-learning and CSCL environments. For example, our fourth study revealed that ACSCL can enable teachers to successfully embed ‘formative assessment’ and ‘process-oriented feedback’ (which aims at learning rather than assessment) into the learning process. As stated before, the quality of students’ contributions in groups operating under ACS conditions was significantly higher than in F2F groups and they posted more critical comments. This allows us to conclude that asking students to conduct tasks in CSCL environments and combining these activities within the learning process can improve depth of learning and critical thinking. It is commonly expected that in ACSCL environments students benefit from “asynchronicity” of the environment. By reading background literature in the field and written course material, and thinking deeply about the topic, students can provide in-depth and well-grounded “delayed feedback”. However our study showed that this is not the normal strategy followed by students. In other words, first we need to learn how students work in ACSCL environments, which is not necessarily as we expect, and second to develop an instructional design and script CSCL activities in a way that persuades students to take advantage of the power of ACSCL environments. Without doing so CSCL environments will lose one of their main advantages over conventional F2F conditions.

This thesis is aimed at developing a competency profile for instructors in the agricultural extension service in theprovinceofEsfahaninIran. These instructors are part-time subject matter specialists who cooperate with the Ministry of Agriculture and teach short-term extension courses in different disciplines to farmers. Previous research revealed that the target group of the research generally experience many problems in their role of instructor during extension courses for farmers. The PhD project was conducted to develop a competency profile for this role in the next three to five years. In doing that, a comprehensive review of the literature was carried out, the competency models presented by McLagan (1982) were selected and adjusted to the Iranian extension system, and were tested for the role of instruction. To increase the reliability of the model, different respondents were involved: participating and non-participating farmers in extension courses, agricultural experts, agricultural managers, and instructors.The research carried out in the project is presented in this book, which contains three main parts and nine chapters. The first chapter is the general introduction, which provides the literature review, problem statement, research design, definition of concepts, study area and the outline of the thesis. Part one of the thesis presents four farmers' studies, part two encompasses two agricultural experts' studies and part three includes the key study of the research and the synthesis. In the synthesis chapter the implications of all previous chapters about the competency profile of the target group are aggregated and the model is triangulated.The findings of this research show that the evolution of agricultural development and extension has not been convincing during the last decade and that farmers were confronted with many unexpected changes and problems in their work. The Ministry of Agriculture (MAJ) has supported farmers to a limited extent, and much more support is needed in the future. However, the governmental extension services are assumed as being the most important information source for farmers. Farmers were generally pleased with the services of the extension organization and with their courses, as well as with the instructors, but they expect revisions in evaluation methods, the use of instructional technologies, and the duration of the courses and follow up strategies delivered by the instructors. The most important motives of farmers for participation in the courses were performance improvement and personal development.Respondents of the key study (chapter eight) gave high scores to all components (future forces, ethical issues, outputs, standards and competencies) of the competency profile of the instructors. It was concluded that instructors should perform additional roles apart from instruction. New general and common competencies were inserted into the final version of the competency profile of the instructors. Ultimately, this research revealed that designing a common competency profile for instructors is possible but the profile should be differentiated based on the stratification of the farmer population by variables such as gender, age, level of education, and motives for course participation. Further research is proposed both for the role of instructors and other human resource professionals in the field of agricultural extension inIran. Also, repeating this study at national and international level, also in different sectors, could enhance professional development in various occupations and thereby socio-economic development in these sectors, and could further elaborate the instrumental use of the model.