Marijke Kehrhahn

Challenges to the Field of Human Resources Development

The problem and the solution. Although the future of the field of human resource development (HRD) cannot be precisely foretold, trends and analyses provide us with insight into the challenges likely to be faced by professionals in the field. How we, as HRD professionals, react to these challenges will determine our contribution to organizations and society. This article explores the major challenges identified from within this journal issue.

Adult Learning in a Non-Western Context: The Influence of Culture in a Senegalese Farming Village:

In Senegal, as in many developing countries, the education of adults is often guided by theories of adult learning developed in Western societies. There is little evidence, however, that such theories are useful for educating farmers living in rural African villages. This study, conducted in a rural fanning village in Senegal, explored what, when, why, how, and from whom do adults in African villages learn? Using ethnographic research methods, information was collected from the village chief, six key informants, and individual villagers (N = 38). The results suggest that a communitys social-cultural norms and values exert a powerful influence on the learning of African adults. For this reason, educational programs in African villages would be most effective if they were woven into the social-cultural fabric of the community. The results also suggest that cultural traditions influence the what, when, why, and from whom-but not the how-of adult learning.

Toward an Integrated Model of Expertise Redevelopment and Its Implications for HRD.

Traditionally, expertise theories have focused on skills acquisition with little regard for the domain or contextual factors affecting expertise development and retention. Because the development, retention, and recruiting of individuals with expertise is critical to organizational success, it is essential that HRD professionals understand the influence of such factors on individuals, and how to address these changes and the redevelopment of expertise. This article proposes a Model of Expertise Redevelopment (MER) illustrating the redevelopment of expertise in three states—dependence, independence, and transcendence. Connected through continuous development, the states are influenced by three territories: content, constituency, and environment. Although the model can explain the initial development of expertise, it is the models representation of the impact of change on existing expertise that makes it unique. It also contributes to a broader theoretical foundation for research on this topic and calls for further investigation of the interconnectedness among the three states and the territories influencing expertise redevelopment.

PHOTON2: A web-based professional development model for photonics technology education

In this paper, we present a web-based teacher professional development model for photonics technology education funded by the National Science Foundation Advanced Technology Education (ATE) program. In response to the rapidly growing demand for skilled photonics technicians, the PHOTON2 project will increase the number of high school teachers and community college faculty across the US proficient in teaching photonics technology at their own institutions. The project will also focus on building the capacity of educators to engage in lifelong learning through web-based professional development. Unlike the traditional professional development model whereby educators receive training through intensive short-term workshops, the PHOTON2 project team has developed a pedagogical framework designed specifically for adult learners in which technical content, curriculum development, and learner self-regulatory development are integrated into an active, collaborative, and sustained online learning environment. In Spring 2004, two cohorts of science and technology educators, career/guidance counselors, and industry mentors from eleven states including California, Pennsylvania, Texas, Arizona, Hawaii, and the six New England states commenced participation in the three-year project. Qualitative and quantitative research, focused on individual and environmental factors related to web-based learning, will examine the viability of web-based teacher/faculty professional development in engineering technology education.

PHOTON PBL: problem-based learning in photonics technology education

Problem-based learning (PBL) is an educational approach whereby students learn course content by actively and collaboratively solving real-world problems presented in a context similar to that in which the learning is to be applied. Research shows that PBL improves student learning and retention, critical thinking and problem-solving skills, and the ability to skillfully apply knowledge to new situations – skills deemed critical to lifelong learning. Used extensively in medical education since the 1970’s, and widely adopted in other fields including business, law, and education, PBL is emerging as an alternative to traditional lecture-based courses in engineering and technology education. In today’s ever-changing global economy where photonics technicians are required to work productively in teams to solve complex problems across disciplines as well as cultures, PBL represents an exciting alternative to traditional lecture-based photonics education. In this paper we present the PHOTON PBL project, a National Science Foundation Advanced Technology Education (NSF-ATE) project aimed at creating, in partnership with the photonics industry and university research labs from across the US, a comprehensive series of multimedia-based PBL instructional resource materials and offering faculty professional development in the use of PBL in photonics technology education. Quantitative and qualitative research will be conducted on the effectiveness of PBL in photonics technician education.