UCCI set to unveil new degree program for working adults | Education - Cayman Compass

University College of the Cayman Islands President Roy Bodden believes the country’s adult population is an untapped resource for college study, inform Mark Muckenfuss, Journalist. 

Photo: University College of the Cayman Islands

“I was always interested in growing the numbers of the institution,” Mr. Bodden said, noting that enrollment in recent years has plateaued at about 1,200 students, almost all of whom are in their late teens or early 20s.

Recently, he said, he was at a conference when he heard Goldie Blumenstyk, a senior writer at the Chronicle of Higher Education, talking about adult learning.
“I said, ‘Voilà!’” Mr. Bodden said.

Ms. Blumenstyk will be the keynote speaker on Nov. 29, when UCCI hosts a “soft launch” of its Prior Learning Assessment program. Mr. Bodden said he expects the school will soon begin evaluating and accepting students for the program, with the first courses beginning in fall 2019.

The new program is designed to give adults with experience in the working world a leg up on pursuing or completing a college degree. Program administrators will grant prospective students with appropriate work experience course credit toward a degree, thus shortening the time it takes to graduate...

The initial course offerings are expected to be limited to business studies. Mr. Bodden said students will be assessed individually.
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Source: Cayman Compass

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How do mathematicians think?| The London Mathematical Society

This 60 minute documentary film features nine UK-based mathematicians offering insights into their mathematical thinking across a broad range of mathematical research fields.

Watch the Video - Vimeo

Through explorations of their various thought processes, the film portrays mathematicians who are grappling with advanced mathematical ideas. We are presented with the concepts of imagination, intuition, and wonder, as well as rigorous mathematical deduction.

The film features Kevin Buzzard, Peter Donnelly, Tim Gowers, Martin Hairer, Roger Penrose, Caroline Series, Richard Thomas, Reidun Twarock, and Karen Vogtmann.

Thinking Space is directed and produced by Heidi Morstang. The interviews were conducted and selected by Martin Hyland.

Source: The London Mathematical Society and Vimeo

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Adventures in Memory - The Science and Secrets of Remembering and Forgetting | Books - greystone books

Novelist Hilde Østby and neuroscientist Ylva Østby uncover the secrets of human memory.
 

Adventures in Memory
The Science and Secrets
of Remembering and Forgetting

What makes us remember? Why do we forget? And what, exactly, is a memory? Forgetting things is a positive sign. A new book by a Scandinavian neuropsychologist and her sister concludes that forgetfulness is essential for a healthy brain.

With playfulness and intelligence, Adventures in Memory answers these questions and more, offering an illuminating look at one of our most fascinating faculties. The authors—two Norwegian sisters, one a neuropsychologist and the other an acclaimed writer—skillfully interweave history, research, and exceptional personal stories, taking readers on a captivating exploration of the evolving understanding of the science of memory from the Renaissance discovery of the hippocampus—named after the seahorse it resembles—up to the present day. Mixing metaphor with meta-analysis, they embark on an incredible journey: “diving for seahorses” for a memory experiment in Oslo fjord, racing taxis through London, and “time-traveling” to the future to reveal thought-provoking insights into remembering and forgetting.
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Source: greystone books

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11 Things You Need to Know About Generation Z | Hunt Scanlon Media

Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor; and Andrew W. Mitchell, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media.

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Photo: Kevin Sheridan

Kevin Sheridan, a renowned talent consultant, provides 11 traits you should know about this digital native generation, along with insights from expert recruiters from Bridge Partners and Executives Unlimited. - They have known the digital world since birth, and now they are entering the workforce.
 

Photo: Hunt Scanlon Media

Generation Z. It is the first generation to know only a digital world. Its members grew up playing on their parents’ mobile devices, and many had their own smartphone as early as elementary school. Now that they’re on the brink of entering the job market, older workers are wondering how these ‘digital natives’ will impact the workforce.
There are many other monikers given to this generation, including Digital Natives, Globals, Post-Millennials, Millennials-On-Steroids, iGeneration, Plurals, the Homeland Generation, Centennials, and Delta Generation, or Deltas. That the generation has such an array of names in many ways illustrates the general lack of understanding about them, says a new report by talent consultant Kevin Sheridan.

Mr. Sheridan is an internationally-recognized keynote speaker, a New York Times bestselling author and a sought-after voice on the subject of employee engagement. Having spent 30 years as a human capital management consultant, he has helped some of the world’s largest corporations rebuild cultures that foster productive engagement, earning him several distinctive awards and honors.
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Source: Hunt Scanlon Media

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How To Create A People-First Culture In The Digital Age | BrandVoice - Forbes

This story also appears on Medium: Innovation Spotlight.

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I recently had the opportunity to chat with Future of Work Expert and Founder of NextMapping, Cheryl Cran, about the future of the workplace and leadership strategies that foster employee growth across digital platforms, says Daisy Hernandez, Global VP, Product Management, Enterprise Collaboration, SAP

Ultimately, companies should create a culture where people want to be working there — whether that’s in the office, remote, or a combination.
Photo: SAP

With the rise in digital technologies and remote work, the workplace is in a state of transition. Today’s leaders must find a way to bring technological advancements and people-first cultures together. 
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Source: Forbes  

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Are the digital natives ready to come to work yet? | Automation - Tech Wire Asia

Soumik Roy, business and technology specialist summarizes, Understanding millennials have been a challenge for companies as the group has different expectations from their career and their life than their previous generation.

Is the Gen Z ready to join the workforce?
Photo: Shutterstock

Now, as companies finally seem to have understood how to provide millennials with the ideal ecosystem where expectations are met and productivity soars, they have yet another demographic to understand. The Gen Z.

These are “the youngest executives” joining the workforce today — being between 19 and 23 years old.

It’s a group that could represent up to 20 percent of the workforce by 2020, especially in countries currently benefiting from the “demographic dividend” such as India, Bangladesh, and Indonesia. 

Here, hundreds of thousands of young people join the workforce every month.

According to a new study, Gen Z could be a tough group to manage — after all, their confidence in their tech skills doesn’t equate to workforce readiness.

However, being digital natives, they may have a unique edge compared to “their seniors” and could provide significant support to the digital transformation agenda and accelerate the journey to digital maturity in most industries...

Overall, as organizations prepare to welcome Gen Z-ers into the workplace, the study recommends that schools teach students how, not just what, to learn, and suggests that companies help Gen Z-ers build soft skills and confidence through internships, job rotations, and other programs.
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Source: Tech Wire Asia 

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4 UK Business Schools triggering agile MBA talent | University - Study International News

The Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a golden ticket into a vast array of graduate jobs, as Study International Staff reports.

Photo: University of Leicester

From a different angle, however, an MBA also has the power to enhance a business executive’s life by elevating their career to the next level.

Filled with invaluable management skills and offering entry into an extensive network of business contacts, it’s clear to see why so many international applicants apply for a UK MBA.

But what are top employers searching for from today’s fresh pool of MBA graduates?

That’s the question the Financial Times decided to tackle in a recent investigation.

During their discovery, four key advantages were disclosed...

To address the need for agile talent, the Financial Times suggests that schools build dynamic classrooms that allow students to work with a unique selection of individuals on unfamiliar challenges.

By encouraging MBA students to take a huge leap into the unknown, they are empowered by resilience and increased adaptability for the future workplace. This leads them towards ultimate success.

Here are four UK Business Schools that trigger agile talent with the MBA degree
Read more... 

Additional resources 
University of Leicester School of Business – A world-leading MBA education
"The University of Leicester School of Business is a vibrant, international and interdisciplinary community of over 200 academics." 

Source: Study International News 

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Ofsted Watch: Difficult week for FE as providers hit with low grades | FE Week

FE has faced a difficult week in Ofsted inspections as three providers were hit with ‘inadequate’ ratings, notes Pippa Allen-Kinross, Senior Reporter at FE Week.

Photo: FE Week

Three others were graded as ‘requires improvement’ in a week which saw 15 inspection reports published for FE and skills providers.

Norfolk’s Easton and Otley College was hit with its second grade four rating in a row in a report published on November 12, which raised concerns about poor quality study programmes and adult education courses and low completion rates on both.  

More than a quarter of students on study programmes and adult learning programmes, which together make up a large majority of the college’s provision, do not achieve their qualifications,” the report said.

Two independent learning providers also received ‘inadequate’ grades this week. Inspectors found that the 500 learners at the Harrow-based Academy Training Group had received “no teaching” and some were “not aware” they had taken out an advanced learner loan...

Bolton’s Focus Training was criticised for having too many learners leave their course early and too few achieve their qualifications.
Focus Training’s courses consist of distance learning via an online learning platform and planned telephone support tuition sessions. However, inspectors said leaders had not “been swift enough to improve the quality of the telephone support tutorials” and said tutors “do not provide effective telephone support”.
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Source: FE Week

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Math needs more stories | Blog - American Mathematical Society

Photo: Beth Malmskog

Math needs more stories. All kinds of stories: about where ideas come from and what they mean; about the people who do math–how, why, and where they came from; about the beautiful and messed up parts of the community, and how these are and are not changing, says Beth Malmskog, Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Colorado College.

Welcome to AMS Blogs

Stories are the connective tissue of a body of ideas, essential to making these many theorems into a community. The kinds of stories we hear and the people who tell them influence how we imagine and understand this community, and ourselves in relation to it. 

That’s why math needs more stories–because so many of the stories we hear come from voices and are about people similar to those that have been dominant in math for hundreds of years. If we want a broader, fairer, more inclusive mathematics, we need to make a point to hear everyone’s stories.

In some ways, stories are the whole point of this blog–we share our stories as early career mathematicians to connect with others who are, will be, or were early career mathematicians themselves.  However, I confess that I’m more interested in other people’s stories than my own.  In one part of my dream life I would be a sort of mathy Studs Terkel, interviewing people about their lives and their reflections on mathematics.  I probably need to get tenure before I can start spending too much time on that. Luckily, there are other people out there doing a great job of gathering stories.  You may have gotten the same email I did from the AMS yesterday about two new books of stories about mathematicians: Limitless Minds: Interviews with Mathematicians, by Anthony Bonato, and Mathematicians: An Outer View of the Inner World, by Mariana Cook.  These look great, and I just impulse bought them (when I’m going to have time to read them, who knows).  Probably the right choice would have been to ask my library to buy them so that everyone at my institution could read them… okay, now that I think about it, I will probably do that after I get done writing this blog.
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Source: American Mathematical Society

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How to Help Students Heal From 'Math Trauma' | Teacher Voices - Education Week

A previous version of this piece was published on The Conversation.
Read the original article.

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Timed tests and "drill-and-kill" approaches to math education can leave students with long-lasting anxiety, writes researcher Jennifer Ruef, Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education at University of Oregon.

Photo: Getty

I teach people how to teach math, and I’ve been working in this field for 30 years. Across those decades, I’ve met many people who suffer from varying degrees of math anxiety. In its worst manifestations, math anxiety becomes what my colleagues and I call math trauma—a form of debilitating mental shutdown when it comes to doing mathematics.

When people share their stories with me, there are common themes. These include someone telling them they were “not good at math,” panicking over timed math tests, or getting stuck on some math topic and struggling to move past it. The topics can be as broad as fractions or an entire class, such as algebra or geometry.

The notion of who is—and isn’t—a math person drives the research I do with my colleagues Shannon Sweeny and Chris Willingham on people earning their teaching degrees...

The myth that fast recall of basic math facts should be drilled into children has deep and pernicious roots. It comes from the best of intentions—who wouldn’t want kids to be good at calculating? But research shows that automaticity (the ability to easily recall facts, like 3 x 5 = 15) is best developed from first making sense of arithmetic operations. In other words, the first step in building a mathematical memory is understanding how that math works.

As an example, the area, array, and equal groups models in the image below represent multiplication and division fact families. These models can help students focus on making sense of the related facts 3 x 5 = 15, 5 x 3 = 15, 15 ÷ 3 = 5, and 15 ÷ 5 = 3. They can be used to assess fact fluency and automaticity.

Skipping the sensemaking step makes for fragile understanding and cognitively expensive memorization. When someone only memorizes, every new fact is like an island unto itself, and is more readily forgotten. In contrast, understanding patterns in math facts compresses the cognitive load required to recall related facts. Sensemaking promotes deep, robust, and flexible understanding, allowing people to apply what they know to new problems.
So what can teachers do to support fact fluency?
Read more... 

Source: Education Week

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