Teaching systems thinking to general education 1 1‘General education’ is a term applied to curricula that may be required of first-year college students in which they are required to take courses in liberal arts and a variety of sciences and math to ensure that the students enter a major field of study with more broadly applicable thinking and communication skills. See Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curriculum#United_States_2 for background. Accessed 12/18/2017. students

Professional literacy that Taiwan's bag manufacturing industry talents should possess: Analyzing from a practical perspective

Aim

This research aimed to explore the professional literacies that should be possessed by Taiwan's bag manufacturing industry talents. This understanding will also help the technical and vocational education system to cultivate talents in Taiwan's bag manufacturing industry.

Methods

A qualitative research design was adopted. The outline of the interview on the professional literacy of Taiwan's bag manufacturing industry talents was compiled, and seven interviewees were selected by purposive sampling from those who had worked (including supervisors) in Taiwan's bag manufacturing industry for 21 to 42 years. One-on-one in-depth interviews with semi-structured interview questions were conducted. Using grounded theory, the content of the in-depth interviews was analyzed and discussed.

Results and discussion

This study discusses what professional literacy of Taiwan's bag manufacturing industry talents should possess from the practical perspective of Taiwan's bag manufacturing industry leaders or senior managers. This study shows that bag manufacturing industry talents should possess knowledge, skills, and attitudes and values of common professional literacies. Moreover, bag designers, manufacturing technicians, patternmakers, hand stitchers, and production supervisors should acquire these professional literacies. The results of this study will help Taiwan's bag manufacturing industry leaders or senior managers to highlight the importance of professional literacy that Taiwan's bag manufacturing industry talents should possess.

Conclusion

This study summarized the professional literacy of bag manufacturing industry talents into three major aspects: knowledge, skills, and attitudes and values. Based on this, suggestions are made as a reference for the implementation of curriculum development for talent cultivation in higher education institutions, and a reference for the learning and on-the-job training of bag manufacturing industry practitioners in the workplace.

Environment, Business, and Health Care Prevail: A Comprehensive, Systematic Review of System Dynamics Application Domains

System dynamics, as a methodology for analyzing and understanding various types of systems, has been applied in research for several decades. We undertook a review to identify the latest application domains and map the realm of system dynamics. The systematic review was conducted according to the PRISMA methodology. We analyzed and categorized 212 articles and found that the vast majority of studies belong to the fields of business administration, health, and environmental research. Altogether, 20 groups of modeling and simulation topics can be recognized. System dynamics is occasionally supported by other modeling methodologies such as the agent-based modeling approach. There are issues related to published studies mostly associated with testing of validity and reasonability of models, leading to the development of predictions that are not grounded in verified models. This study contributes to the development of system dynamics as a methodology that can offer new ideas, highlight limitations, or provide analogies for further research in various research disciplines.

Fostering Systems Thinking in Biological Education Using the Example of Plant Hormones

Systems thinking is an increasingly recognized paradigm in education in both natural and social sciences, a particular focus being, naturally, in biology. This article argues that plant biology, and in particular, plant hormonal signaling, provides highly illustrative models for learning and teaching in a systems paradigm, because it offers examples of highly complex networks, ranging from the molecular- to ecosystem-scale, and in addition lends itself to the use of real-life biological objects.