Learning, Trusting, Sharing

Dr Katalin Illes

18th SPACE Conference hosted by Cyprus College, Nicosia (CY)

21-24 March 2007

Overview

Higher Education in the 21st Century

Trusting

Learning

Sharing

Millennium Goals and Higher Education

Balancing the Tangible and the Intangible in Education

Higher Education in the 21st Century

Major Challenge:

19th century mindset

20th century processes

21st century needs

Gallup survey on effectiveness in UK organisations:

17% employees are engaged in their work

83% employees put in less than 100% of effort

67% not-engaged

16% actively disengaged

Data, information, knowledge

Gap between ideal and reality

The age of discontinuity or paradox

Need to take time and make sense of our activities and relationships

Change= trading a certain present for an uncertain future

“In theory, practice and theory are the same.

In practice they are not.”

Albert Einstein

Trust

Key component of human life

Discussed in different disciplines

Treated as a noun or gerund; as a ‘must have’ or ‘should have’

Trust as a verb, as action

Trusting as a process

Internal view of trusting

Learning

Human desire to grow

Sense making

Satisfy curiosity

Gaining recognition

Fulfilling purpose

“In pursuit of knowledge, every day something is acquired;

In pursuit of wisdom, every day something is dropped.”

(Lao Tzu)

Karl Weick’s advice:

Drop your focus on decision making

“If I make a decision it is a possession, I take pride in it, I tend to defend it and not listen to those who question it. If I make sense, then this is more dynamic and I listen, and I can change it. A decision is something you polish. Sensemaking is a direction for the next period.”

(Journal of Management Education, February, 2007. p.12)

You can’t drop what you consciously do not posses

“The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice there is little we can do to change until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds.”

(Mangham & Pye, 1991, The doing of managing, p.31)

“In Africa they say that there are two hungers, the lesser hunger and the greater hunger. The lesser hunger is for things that sustain life, the goods and services, and the money to pay for them which we all need. The greater hunger is for an answer to the question ‘why?’ for some understanding of what life is for.”

(Handy, C. 1997)

Millennium Goals and Education

1.Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger2.Achieve universal primary education3.Promote gender equality and empower women4.Reduce child mortality5. Improve maternal health6.Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases7.Ensure environmental sustainability8.Develop a global partnership for development

Pause for Thought

Reflect on fundamental concepts:

School – ‘schole’ = free spaceEducate –‘educe, educare’ =to lead forth, to bring outEnlighten – shed light on somethingLead as a master The master’s work is people

Balancing the tangible and the intangible in education

Intellectual Capital cannot be measured in the same way as tangible properties

Knowledge X Morality X Talent X Effort= Intellectual Capital

(Kopatsy,1999)

Conclusion

Happiness cannot be attained by wanting to be happy – it must come as the unintended consequence of working for a goal greater than oneself.

(Victor Frankl,1963)

Conclusion

“A person who is fully differentiated and integrated becomes a complex individual – one who has the best chance at leading a happy, vital and meaningful life.” (Csikszentmihalyi, M. 2003)

Learning, Trusting, Sharing

Aim to become an accomplished, complex individual

Help others on their journey

Our Choices Define Us

EFHARISTO (Thank You)

Questions?