Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking

Author: Gregory Bassham

Publisher:

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 497

ISBN-13: 9780071101547

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Through the use of humour, fun exercises, and a plethora of innovative and interesting selections from writers such as Dave Barry, Al Franken, J.R.R. Tolkien, as well as from the film 'The Matrix', this text hones students' critical thinking skills.


Creating Value in Nonprofit-Business Collaborations

Creating Value in Nonprofit-Business Collaborations

Author: James E. Austin

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2014-03-03

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 1118531132

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Collaboration between nonprofits and businesses is a necessary component of strategy and operations. Creating Value in Nonprofit-Business Collaborations: New Thinking & Practice provides breakthrough thinking about how to conceptualize and realize collaborative value. With over a hundred case examples from around the globe and hundreds of literature references, the book reveals how collaboration between businesses and nonprofit organizations can most effectively co-create significant economic, social, and environmental value for society, organizations, and individuals. This essential resource features the ground-breaking Collaborative Value Creation framework that can be used for analyzing the sources, forms, and processes of value creation in partnerships between businesses and nonprofits. The book is a step-by-step guide for business managers and non-profit practitioners for achieving successful cross-sector partnerships. It examines the key dimensions of the Collaborative Mindset that shape each partner's collaborative efforts. It analyzes the drivers of partnership evolution along the Collaboration Continuum, and sets forth the key pathways in the Collaboration Process Value Chain. The book concludes by offering Twelve Smart Practices of Collaborative Value Creation for the design and management of cross sector partnerships. The book will empower organizations to strategically increase the potential for value creation both for the partners and society. Praise for Creating Value in Nonprofit-Business Collaborations: New Thinking & Practice! "This is a playbook for enabling business and nonprofits to co-create shared value. These new types of collaborations about creating value, rather than the tense standoffs of the past, are part of the way we will create actual solutions to society's challenges." Michael J. Porter, Bishop William Lawrence University Professor, Harvard Business School "Co-creating value is a powerful concept Jim Austin and May Seitanidi are sharing with us that will bring business and non-profit leaders to a new level of understanding and performance. This new book is the indispensable guidebook for leaders of the future." Frances Hesselbein, Founding President and CEO of the Frances Hesselbein Leadership Institute, Former CEO of the Girl Scouts of America, and Holder of Presidential Medal of Freedom "I love the book! While it focuses on "cross sector" collaboration, it should be read by every executive in the "for-profit" sector. Business is about how to collaborate with stakeholders to create value. This book tells you how to do it. Bravo!" R. Edward Freeman, University Professor and Olsson Professor The Darden School University of Virginia "Finally a book that demystifies what is probably the single most indispensable strategy for advancing social change: cross sector collaboration that creates genuine, measurable value for all. The book is an original and valuable resource for both the nonprofit and business sectors, providing a promising new roadmap that shows how to go beyond fighting for one's share of the pie, to collaboration that actually makes the pie grow." Billy Shore, Founder and CEO of Share Our Strength and Chairman of Community Wealth Ventures "Professors Austin and Seitanidi provide essential guidance for managers determining how to produce benefits for their organizations and high impact for society. This is an informed, thoughtful, and practical analysis." Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ernest L. Arbuckle Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School and author of SuperCorp: How Vanguard Companies Create Innovation, Profits, Growth and Social Good


Measuring What We Spend

Measuring What We Spend

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2013-02-15

Total Pages: 217

ISBN-13: 0309265789

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The Consumer Expenditure (CE) surveys are the only source of information on the complete range of consumers' expenditures and incomes in the United States, as well as the characteristics of those consumers. The CE consists of two separate surveys: (1) a national sample of households interviewed five times at three-month intervals; and (2) a separate national sample of households that complete two consecutive one-week expenditure diaries. For more than 40 years, these surveys, the responsibility of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), have been the principal source of knowledge about changing patterns of consumer spending in the U.S. population. In February 2009, BLS initiated the Gemini Project, the aim of which is to redesign the CE surveys to improve data quality through a verifiable reduction in measurement error with a particular focus on underreporting. The Gemini Project initiated a series of information-gathering meetings, conference sessions, forums, and workshops to identify appropriate strategies for improving CE data quality. As part of this effort, BLS requested the National Research Council's Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT) to convene an expert panel to build on the Gemini Project by conducting further investigations and proposing redesign options for the CE surveys. The charge to the Panel on Redesigning the BLS Consumer Expenditure Surveys includes reviewing the output of a Gemini-convened data user needs forum and methods workshop and convening its own household survey producers workshop to obtain further input. In addition, the panel was tasked to commission options from contractors for consideration in recommending possible redesigns. The panel was further asked by BLS to create potential redesigns that would put a greater emphasis on proactive data collection to improve the measurement of consumer expenditures. Measuring What We Spend summarizes the deliberations and activities of the panel, discusses the conclusions about the uses of the CE surveys and why a redesign is needed, as well as recommendations for the future.


Understanding Second Language Acquisition

Understanding Second Language Acquisition

Author: Lourdes Ortega

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-02-04

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 144411705X

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Whether we grow up with one, two, or several languages during our early years of life, many of us will learn a second, foreign, or heritage language in later years. The field of Second language acquisition (SLA, for short) investigates the human capacity to learn additional languages in late childhood, adolescence, or adulthood, after the first language --in the case of monolinguals-- or languages --in the case of bilinguals-- have already been acquired. Understanding Second Language Acquisition offers a wide-encompassing survey of this burgeoning field, its accumulated findings and proposed theories, its developed research paradigms, and its pending questions for the future. The book zooms in and out of universal, individual, and social forces, in each case evaluating the research findings that have been generated across diverse naturalistic and formal contexts for second language acquisition. It assumes no background in SLA and provides helpful chapter-by-chapter summaries and suggestions for further reading. Ideal as a textbook for students of applied linguistics, foreign language education, TESOL, and education, it is also recommended for students of linguistics, developmental psycholinguistics, psychology, and cognitive science. Supporting resources for tutors are available free at www.routledge.com/ortega.