Search Results for
"education"

The author presents the 6 stages in the development of career counseling in the United States. In the 1st stage (1890-1919), placement services were offered for an increasingly urban and industrial society. In the 2nd stage (1920-1939), educational guidance through the elementary and secondary schools became the focal point. The 3rd stage (1940-1959) saw the focus shift to colleges and universities and the training of counselors. The 4th stage (1960-1979) was the boom for counseling and the idea of work having meaning in a person's life came to the forefront; organizational career development began during this period. The 5th stage (1980-1989) saw the beginning of the transition from the industrial age to the information age and the growth of both the independent practice of career counseling and outplacement counseling. The 6th stage (1990-present), with its emphasis on technology and changing demographics, has seen an increased sophistication in the uses of technology, the internationalization of career counseling, the beginnings of multicultural career counseling, and the focus on the school-to-job transition.

In this paper I use a single case-study to map the transition of a young person as he moved from school into work. My purpose is to illuminate the shape and character of his learning in work and its relation to education. Not only do I authenticate the social and situated composition of his learning, but show that this was grounded as a continuing accomplishment in his unfolding experience. Out of school, Jimmy did not cease to be a learner. Indeed, the character and manner of his learning in work was not dissimilar to that which was experienced by other young people who chose to continue, directly and formally in school or college, with their training and education.

Universities are at a pivotal point in their history and are undergoing dramatic changes. One of the more significant of these changes is the move towards instrumental programmes of learning, as manifest for instance in workplace and work-based learning. This paper argues that this trend threatens the existence of the liberal university, where knowledge is pursued predominantly for its own sake. The paper identifies four dominant discourses in higher education and suggests that these discourses co-exist with one another, and are sometimes dominant, at other times recessive. It argues that the trend to a post-industrialised labour market has seen the emergence of a vocationalised discourse in higher education, which stresses the instrumental at the expense of the liberal.

Compares labour market transitions of young people in Germany and Italy using panel data from the GSOKP and the SHIW. The aim is to investigate whether there are significant cross-country differences in the patterns of labour market entrance and whether explanatory factors can be identified. The analysis shows that Germans have a significantly higher probability of moving from school to work and from unemployment to employment. They are also more likely to move back to studies if already in the labour force. Further investigation suggests that cross-country differences in the educational and labour market systems are responsible for the differences found.

The current investigation examined whether apprentices differed from nonapprentices (Gymnasium and teacher's college students) in rates of deviant behavior. Questionnaire data were collected on more than 4,000 Swiss adolescents (mean age = 18.0, SD = 1.1) between the ages of 16 and 19. The following important findings were made: (a) Male nonapprentices were less deviant than male apprentices; no differences were found for females; (b) nonapprentices perceived more connectedness with and greater peer disapproval from parents than apprentices; nonapprenticeship males, in particular, reported greater maternal monitoring and supervision than apprentice males. At the same time, no differences were found in the affective quality of parent-adolescent relations for males or females by educational track; and finally, (c) a model-free USREL comparison of developmental processes by educational track indicated great similarity between apprentices and nonapprentices. Results from the investigation suggest that background variables may account for some variability in adolescent deviant behaviors.

National governments and employers have argued that it is important for all sectors of education to prepare individuals who are able to think well and for themselves. 'Good thinking' and 'thinking well' are commonly used terms bound up with what is called 'critical thinking' in the research literature. Evidence is presented in this paper, however, which suggests that not all students may be good at critical thinking; nor do some teachers appear to teach students 'good thinking' skills. A review of the research literature in this area was undertaken and the methods and conceptions of teaching likely to inhibit and enhance critical thinking are outlined, as well as what is required to improve students' thinking skills. Ways forward in teaching critical thinking, and in helping students to learn to think well and for themselves, are described and discussed.

In response to recent developments in the labour market, in occupational structure and in occupational practice, many aspects of vocational education and training are subjects of discussion and in transition. The tertiary sector is growing, some occupations are integrating while others are differentiating. New methods of production and organization require new types of employee competencies: problem-solving and social-communicative skills are becoming more and more important. The article focuses on the importance and the possibilities of shaping these developments from a gender perspective. First, the significance of changing qualification requirements is discussed for the technical sector, the service and care sector and the economic-administrative sector. Second, two innovations in vocational education and training are discussed: the recognition of prior learning and the development of flexible, modular educational pathways.

Educators have long considered assigning a grade in the assessment of s tudent clinical practice performance as too variable, too subjective, or educationally inappropriate. Consequently, most undergraduate nurse education programs have maintained non-graded pass/fail criteria assessment for evaluating and reporting student clinical performance. This paper argues that, while the varied clinical environments do make assessing students' clinical performance difficult, the reliability and validity of assessment practices should be maintained no matter what the grading system. Furthermore, many assumptions about criterion-referenced assessment, and the associated preclusion of graded assessment, are seen to be baseless when dealing with competencies rather than with traditional behavioural objectives. By combining both criterion-referenced and norm-referenced assessment, graded assessment can clarify and impress on students the minimal competency requirements, while at the same time describing and rewarding meritorious practice. It is argued that to do so would provide a more appropriate way of communicating the assessment of theory application in praxis, a highly relevant issue in a practice-based discipline such as nursing. It is now appropriate to reconsider the debate of graded student clinical performance assessments, and to investigate both the practicalities and benefits of this approach. © 2000 Harcourt Publishers Ltd.

The political decision to implement competency-based training widely throughout vocational education systems in Australia, before rigorous evaluation through adequate pilot programs, was made because it was viewed as essential for increasing skill levels and work productivity. Recent data indicate that Australia's relative international competitiveness actually declined during 1994-97, suggesting an urgent need to reassess underpinning policies. Despite the marked reluctance of the Australian National Training Authority to commission studies specifically assessing the effectiveness of competency-based training, several independent studies have been carried out. These and other commissioned studies indicate some major problems with competency-based training which has not achieved stated objectives of increasing skill levels. Research also indicates that competency-based training has not been adopted widely by business and industry. The appropriateness of using public agencies to implement innovations which are untested, and may not be supported by the wider community intended to benefit from their introduction, is queried.

Learning is high on the political agenda for post-compulsory education and training in England. Official discourses about learning assume a predominantly individualist stance, despite the development of theoretical models that stress the contextual and situated nature of learning. In a study following 50 young people through further education over 4 years, it became apparent that the institutional culture of the colleges had a significant impact upon students' dispositions towards their learning. In this paper, we explore the nature and significance of this impact in a case-study sixth form college: an under-researched sector of educational provision. This is followed by a brief discussion of the implications of our analysis for issues of access, widening participation and inequality in relation to current proposals to reform age 16-19 educational provision in England. We conclude by identifying some of the questions about the fine-grained nature of that college culture that our data does not permit us to address directly.