The purpose of this paper is to argue that it is important to focus on the apprentices' collaborative learning processes when addressing issues of learning transfer.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to argue that it is important to focus on the apprentices' collaborative learning processes when addressing issues of learning transfer.
Design/methodology/approach
The claims about the importance of addressing processes of collaborative activities and learning in relation to learning transfer are based on the study following the completion of questionnaires by 243 apprentices and interviews in which 19 baker apprentices participated.
Findings
The research results prove that it is important to pay attention to collaborative activities among learners in order to ensure learning transfer.
Research limitations/implications
One limitation of the study is that it does not elaborate on reasons that some apprentices are motivated to integrate what they were taught at vocational college in a workplace setting while others are not motivated to do so.
Practical implications
Educators will become more aware of individual and collective initiatives to cross the boundaries between vocational school and workplace practice.
Originality/value
The study adds to the discussion of learning transfer through an investigation of learning transfer from a collaborative perspective. Most transfer studies have focused on the nature of knowledge or the structural barriers between college and workplace practice, while this study emphasizes the collaborative nature of learning transfer.
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Lene Tanggaard, Klaus Nielsen and Christian Helms Jørgensen
Since 2007, it has been mandatory for all vocational schools in Denmark to assess the prior qualifications of all students when they begin at the school and to use this assessment…
Abstract
Purpose
Since 2007, it has been mandatory for all vocational schools in Denmark to assess the prior qualifications of all students when they begin at the school and to use this assessment to divide students into different ability-based courses (streaming) with the aim of increasing the retention of students. The purpose of this paper is to explore students’ experiences of being placed on a low-ability course by using case studies of two classes from separate vocational schools in Denmark with different practices regarding the streaming of students.
Design/methodology/approach
The study draws on theories of student drop-out and engagement (Rumberger, 1993; Finn, 1989) and on the differentiation-polarization theory (Gamoran, 2010) concerning the effects of streaming students into ability-based classes. Two cases are described, representing on the one hand predominately positive experiences of streaming (better relations to teachers and peers) and on the other hand predominately negative experiences of streaming (low teacher expectations and negative peer-learning).
Findings
The study shows that the two schools have organized streaming differently and that the students have very diverse experiences of being placed in a low-ability class depending on the way the schools organize streaming.
Originality/value
The paper discusses the basic dilemma that schools face when they have to teach students with very diverse backgrounds and levels of engagement. The study shows that the division of students into separate streams involves a risk of reducing the level of engagement among students in the low-ability courses, but it also suggests how streaming can be organized to increase the engagement of students and possibly reduce their risk of dropping out of vocational education.
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Interest in developing institutional explanations of political and economic behavior has blossomed among social scientists since the early 1980s. Three intellectual perspectives…
Abstract
Interest in developing institutional explanations of political and economic behavior has blossomed among social scientists since the early 1980s. Three intellectual perspectives are now prevalent: rational choice theory, historical institutionalism and a new school of organizational analysis. This paper summarizes, compares and contrasts these views and suggests ways in which cross‐fertilization may be achieved. Particular attention is paid to how the insights of organizational analysis and historical institutionalism can be blended to provide fruitful avenues of research and theorizing, especially with regard to the production, adoption, and mobilization of ideas by decision makers.
Reema Singh and Magnus Söderlund
This study aims to assess factors influencing customers’ online grocery shopping experiences, and it evaluates the central role of customer service and consumers’ responses to…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to assess factors influencing customers’ online grocery shopping experiences, and it evaluates the central role of customer service and consumers’ responses to satisfying grocery shopping.
Design/methodology/approach
A mixed-methods approach was used; linguistic inquiry and the word count (LIWC) method captured qualitative aspects of consumers’ grocery shopping experience, whereas partial least square-structure equation modeling tested hypotheses regarding antecedents to consumers’ overall online grocery shopping experience.
Findings
The PLS-based analysis confirmed the qualitative insights, establishing the significance of customer service, which accounted for 68% variance in the overall experience and 42% variance in customer satisfaction, along with other experience antecedents such as website, product and delivery.
Research limitations/implications
Future researchers could further analyze experience as a dynamic process focusing on consumer and retailer brand-focused constructs, specifically focusing on creating a holistic understanding of customer service that establishes coherence between retailers’ marketing values and their customer service.
Practical implications
Managers should acknowledge the importance of customer service in creating a satisfying customer experience, and they should respond to consumer concerns, resulting in enhanced brand-related experience.
Originality/value
Responding to the call for a better understanding of customer service, this study brings out the challenges online grocery shoppers are facing in terms of customer service and empirically establishes customer service as a key driver of customer experience, thereby extending the earlier work on customer service and online customer experience.
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The folk or fairy tale is a complex combination of factors and functions and it is the analysis of these where nuances in the tales appear (Propp et al., 2015, p. 10). Propp was…
Abstract
The folk or fairy tale is a complex combination of factors and functions and it is the analysis of these where nuances in the tales appear (Propp et al., 2015, p. 10). Propp was interested in plots, whereas this chapter aims to create an analysis of the visual perception of masculine identity, its relationship to the texts and to social and political expression in the early 1900s.
Challenges to masculine identity are found throughout fairy tale imagery of the 1900s. Artists of the time demonstrated their perceptions of societal change by creating illustrations that spoke to a changing audience. They began to depict versions of masculinity that played with, and celebrated a queer male character, amongst others. Although not always represented in a positive manner – Dulac's 1929 King in ‘Puss in Boots’, is a foolish fop – they were often portrayed with softness, flamboyancy and panache in opposition to the aggressive, hegemonic, or dominant persona who had until then been the staple of the fairy tale's visual masculine identity.
These new illustrations resisted the stereotypical depiction of masculine norms. They explored an identity that had not existed in the fairy tale until the changing rhetoric of social, political, and artistic movements was inculcated into them. The illustrations began to provide an opportunity to identify an atypical description of masculine norms in an unexpected domain. They challenged physical expectations and the hegemonic expectation of masculine identity, at a time where a predominant patriarchal hegemonic identity was the norm.
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The concept of online customer service experience (OCSE) has recently received great interest from academia and businesses alike. Despite the belief that providing superb online…
Abstract
Purpose
The concept of online customer service experience (OCSE) has recently received great interest from academia and businesses alike. Despite the belief that providing superb online experiences will influence customers' online buying behavior, most of the research focuses solely on the controllable factors of the online experience. This paper seeks to address these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the means-end approach in 62 semi-structured interviews with a representative sample from three countries, and a new tool to elicit behavioral aggregation, the emerging consensus technique (ECT), the author conceptualizes online customer service experience (OCSE).
Findings
The study identifies functionality and psychological factors as the two main dimensions of online customer service experience. Functionality encompasses the technical attributes of the web vendor, namely the sub-dimensions usability, product presence, communication, social presence, and interactivity. Psychological factors consist of the attitudinal based sub-dimensions context familiarity, trust, and value for money. The conceptual model extends and expands existing literature on online customer service experience models. In particular, the study identifies that the individual importance of the online customer service experience dimensions differ depending on which stage of the experience, namely prior to, during, or after the transaction the customer is in. Moreover, the study reveals the presence of one previously unexplored key component of the online customer service experience: social presence.
Originality/value
Based on its empirical findings, this article proposes a dynamic conceptual framework of online customer service experience, which incorporates the individual dimensions of the online experience according to the stage of the customer journey. Using and validating a new tool of extracting elicit behavioral aggregation, the ECT, the study conceptualizes the online customer service experience, exploring previously unexplored key dimensions of OCSE. The model highlights the dynamic nature of OCSE by exploring the relative importance of each identified dimension in relation to the stage of the interaction, i.e. before, during, or after the transaction/purchase, between the customer and the service provider.