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"education"

Background. The literature review presented here was conducted as part of an English National Board for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting funded project to evaluate the use of portfolios in the assessment of learning and competence. Initial consideration of the topic revealed the need to clarify the terminology and approaches used to assess competence using portfolios, and therefore the literature review was conducted to inform the study. Aims. To clarify definitions, theoretical bases and approaches to competence and the use of portfolios in the assessment of learning and competence in nursing education. Methods. A comprehensive literature review was conducted using the CINAHL and MEDLINE databases and the keywords competenc*, portfolios and nursing. Articles published in the period 1989-2001 in English were obtained and their reference lists scrutinized to identify additional references. Twenty articles were found using a combination of the keywords competenc* and portfolios, and 52 using the combination portfolios and nurse education. Articles were included in the review if they focused on the use of portfolios in nursing, and those concerned with professional or transitional portfolios were excluded. This article will analyse definitions of and approaches to competence and its measurement and to portfolios and their use as discussed in the articles identified. Results. Three approaches to competence were identified, each with its appropriate forms of assessment. With regard to portfolios, a number of definitions were again found, but there was a consensus that the theoretical basis of their use is theories of adult learning. A number of reasons for and advantages and disadvantages of their use were found, as well as varying ideas about what a portfolios should consist of and how it should be assessed. Conclusions. A holistic approach to competence seems to be compatible with the use of portfolios to assess competence in nursing students, but the concept and its implementation is still evolving. A variety of assessment methods are needed for assessment and portfolios appear to have the potential to integrate these. Reflection is an essential component of a portfolio, as are the student-teacher relationship and explicit guidelines for constructing the portfolio. Issues of rigour in assessment of portfolios need to be addressed, but the assessor's professional judgement will inevitably enter into this assessment.

The aim of this chapter is to raise awareness of the points of view of students in post16 education who are required to learn mathematics, or deal with mathematical ideas, whilst studying other subjects. These students are likely to be following vocational courses, such as the General National Vocational Qualifications (GNVQs), the National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs), the Modern Apprenticeship scheme or BTEC. Many of the ideas and issues raised in this chapter could also be of relevance to teaching on more academic courses. © 2002 Compilation, original and editorial matter, The Open University. All rights reserved.

From the time of Booker T. Washington to today, and William Julius Wilson, the advice dispensed to young black men has invariably been, "Get a trade." Deirdre Royster has put this folk wisdom to an empirical test—and, in Race and the Invisible Hand, exposes the subtleties and discrepancies of a workplace that favors the white job-seeker over the black. At the heart of this study is the question: Is there something about young black men that makes them less desirable as workers than their white peers? And if not, then why do black men trail white men in earnings and employment rates? Royster seeks an answer in the experiences of 25 black and 25 white men who graduated from the same vocational school and sought jobs in the same blue-collar labor market in the early 1990s. After seriously examining the educational performances, work ethics, and values of the black men for unique deficiencies, her study reveals the greatest difference between young black and white men—access to the kinds of contacts that really help in the job search and entry process. © 2003 by the Regents of the University of California.

This article investigates the experiences and training needs of student teachers as they learn to teach post-16 English on a secondary Post Graduate Certificate in education. A case-study was conducted on a sample of Open University PGCE English students and mentors over a six-month period. Five research instruments were developed and used iteratively to generate qualitative data. The study reveals significant problems, resulting in students feeling underprepared at the end of their 11–18 PGCE for the demands of post-16 English teaching. The results illuminate the need for more effective models of learning to teach post-16 English. © 2003, Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Educators in a number of disciplines rely on field strategies to show their students how to apply concepts they have learned in their coursework. Very little guidance has been provided to criminal justice educators on ways to successfully bring the field into their classroom. Three strategies for bringing “the real world” into criminal justice courses include field trips, police ride-alongs, and the use of guest speakers. Using our experiences and ideas from the educational literature, this paper addresses the use of each method and suggests a number of strategies to make these field experiences pedagogically successful in criminal justice courses. © 2003, Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences.

In 1992, the National System of Vocational education Training (ESEEK) was established by law 2009/92 to enhance the training of the middle-echelon workforce in the context of competitiveness for economic growth within the single European market. The Organisation for Vocational education Training (OEEK), a legal entity created by the same law, was charged with the establishment, organisation and operation of Vocational Training Institutes (IEKs). The report introducing the law refers to the incomplete technical and vocational training provided at Comprehensive Upper Secondary Schools (EPLs), Technical and Vocational Schools (TES) and Vocational education and Training Colleges (TEE) due to lack of modernisation. On the basis of this necessity, IEKs officially opened on 1st February 1993. In this article I look at the organisational structure of IEKs and their coherence with the formal education system and the labour market, the target groups and the types of training programmes and vocational opportunities, and the problems and future perspectives of an institution that ten years after its establishment has not yet been able to prove its market value. © 1998 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

We argue that the case of technology education in British Columbia demonstrates quite readily the invulnerability of teachers, as a group, to curriculum reform. While technology teachers have been able to negotiate centralized control with relative political ease and autonomy, they have been much more vulnerable to economic and cultural forces. The result of this mix of autonomous, union‐based politics and an ambiguous cultural stance is a stagnant curriculum that averages tradition and innovation. In making this argument, we draw on historical and survey data related to school practices and on Ministry of education enrolment data disaggregated by sex. Theoretically, we cast these data in a politics of curriculum framework informed by the work of scholars such as Goodson and Hargreaves. © 2003 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Canada’s system of technology educationis complex and diverse. Each province hasjurisdiction over its own curriculum, standards, program delivery, graduation requirements, and finances. Technology education in Canada is an evolving subject. Not only are technologies themselves constantly changing the importance of technologyeducation within the curriculum is periodically modified according to educational reform policies in individual provinces. Unlike in other countries, there is little research that documents the state of the field or the changes that are currently taking place. Furthermore, while curriculum documents from the various provincial ministries of education provide guidelines for teachers, technology teaching as practised in the classroom often deviates considerably from these official statements. Given these variations no attempt is made in this article to describe technology education on a province‐by‐province basis. Rather, the various approaches totechnology education are grouped into three categories and summarized, and illustrative examplesare provided. Descriptions focus on the objectives of the curricula, on the way the content of the programs is structured, and on recent developments. © 2003 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.