Dissemination of innovations in higher education: A change theory approach

Factors affecting educational innovation with in class electronic response systems

“…Organisations can provide competitive funding for educational innovation where collaborative project teams are proposed since Bates (2000), Lueddeke (1999) and McKenzie et al (2005) note that innovation by lone rangers often fails to produce an end product or succeed in achieving embedded change beyond their own course and tenure. Given that teaching is still largely a private and at times secretive behaviour (Elton, 2003), it is not surprising that innovation and change are often attempted by individuals.…”

“…A project team was established in the second pilot to overcome the limitations identified with higher education innovations, such as bottomup innovation being pursued individually (Luddeke, 1999) and the passive dissemination of top-down innovation (Elton, 2003). The project team comprised four academics from various disciplines, an academic developer and a project manager who did the bulk of the liaison with technical staff and other support staff as well the vendor.…”

Sustainable spatial development in higher education

“…Because the concept of "sustainability" is expected be defined in standard Slovenian as "development direction" only in the future, this paper uses the concept of sustainable development, which is currently used by large global organisations. In the past, higher educational institutions played an important role in shaping society through education decisionmakers, leaders, entrepreneurs and academics (Cortese, 2003;Elton, 2003;Lozano, 2006Lozano, , 2011Lozano, , 2012 and serving the public good (Mulder, 2010;Waas et al, 2010). In many ways, these institutions are still extremely traditional (Elton, 2003) because they contribute to or even promote unsustainable development (Sterling & Scott, 2008;Wals, 2008) and remain resistant to change.…”

“…In the past, higher educational institutions played an important role in shaping society through education decisionmakers, leaders, entrepreneurs and academics (Cortese, 2003;Elton, 2003;Lozano, 2006Lozano, , 2011Lozano, , 2012 and serving the public good (Mulder, 2010;Waas et al, 2010). In many ways, these institutions are still extremely traditional (Elton, 2003) because they contribute to or even promote unsustainable development (Sterling & Scott, 2008;Wals, 2008) and remain resistant to change. The result is the preservation of the Cartesian paradigm (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 2001;Lovelock, 2007), which was beneficial to society in many cases, but also contributed to the focus on conquering nature and industrialisation of the planet, which produced unbalanced, over-specialised and mono-disciplinary graduates (Costanza, 1991;Orr, 1992;Wemmenhove & de Groot, 2001;Lozano, 2006;Cortese, 2003).…”

“…The following measures have been proposed to overcome the resistance of higher education institutions to integrate sustainable development: implementing the principles of sustainable development into academic activities and into everyday life and work, including more realistic teaching methods, including the content of sustainable development in all subject areas with an appropriate degree of cross-curricular links, gradually integrating sustainable development into the curriculum, taking advantage of the multiplier effects of sustainable development (Ferrer et al, 2010), preparing high-quality educational resources in sustainable development, enabling teachers to have access to examples of good practice and teaching materials for sustainable development, establishing new models of professional development and continued education and teacher training in sustainable development (Lourdel et al, 2005;Fadeeva, 2010), facilitating the integration of sustainable development through cooperation and promotion by the ministry and other departments, cooperating with other higher education institutions at the local and global levels, maintaining a vision and implementation plan for sustainable development, stating the reasons for change (Lozano, 2006), increasing or improving communication and providing feedback, holistically addressing issues of sustainable development, integrating social and economic issues, and motivating teachers and students to become actively involved in the process (Huisingh & Mebratu, 2000;Rogers, 1995;Elton, 2003). Peter Glavič et al (2009) state that it is necessary to incorporate the principles of sustainable development not only in the structure and organisation of universities, but also in educational programmes.…”