Search Results for
"education"

The popularity of the Residents' Competition at the annual meeting of the Canadian Anaesthetists' Society inspired this 25 yr review of the competitors and their presentations. Data were collected from a questionnaire survey of all participants and all current Anaesthesia programme directors, review of the Canadian Anaesthetists' Society records, and a Medline database search. Over the 25 yr review period, 226 presentations have been given by 211 different participants, with the annual number of participants ranging from 6 to 13. The majority of participants have been male (85.3% vs 14.2% female, P < 0.001), and the majority of presentations have been clinical in nature (74% vs 26% laboratory, P < 0.01). Over half of all the presentations (53.1%) subsequently were published as scientific papers, and 71.7% of all participants practised anaesthesia in an academic environment at some point in their career. The Residents' Competition appears to have been successful in encouraging scientific excellence in physicians' training in anaesthesia in Canada. © 1994 Canadian Anesthesiologists.

As America's occupational society moves from a low skills to a high wages nature, the popularity of both work‐based learning in general and youth apprenticeship in particular is growing rapidly. Both counseling and counselors in educational settings are currently being downplayed, and job mentors are being played up by leaders in the youth apprenticeship movement. The need to counsel persons regarding a variety of forms of postsecondary education is growing rapidly. The counseling profession should become actively involved in meeting this need with respect to all forms of work‐based learning. The challenges are especially great with respect to youth apprenticeship programs. 1994 National Career Development Association

In virtually all advanced capitalist industrial societies, transitions from compulsory education into employment have been prolonged since the 1970s. The basic reasons are the same everywhere, but there have been contrasting interpretations of youth's new social condition by different countries' social scientists. Here a particularly sharp contrast is between Britain and Germany. In the former country most researchers have taken a negative view of the trends, whereas German scholars have stressed the spread of flexibility, individualisation, and opportunities for self-directed growth. This paper discusses the similarities and differences between transitions into employment in Britain and Germany using evidence from matched samples of 16-22 year olds. It is argued that there are fundamental, systemic differences between the organisation of entering the labour forces in Britain and Germany. In Germany transitions take longer, are more structured, and are rooted in a training culture. However, each country's young people are made to feel that they themselves make significant choices, and their transitions have become individualised. Simultaneously, individuals' opportunities in each country continue to be governed by the familiar predictors - family background, sex, place of residence, and attainments in secondary education. It is argued that in each country young people are prototypical cases of broader trends towards structured individualisation and the fragmentation of formerly more homogeneous social groups. © 1994, British Sociological Association Publications Limited. All rights reserved.

A certain period of work experience is required in most programmes of teacher preparation before individuals are certified as vocational teachers. Students who do not meet this requirement prior to enrolling in degree programmes do so before graduation through a cooperative work experience programme. For such students, earning an income while meeting a college requirement is an incentive for active participation. However, given Nigeria's present economic crisis, most employers are unwilling to provide paid work experience to students. This study investigated the outcomes of an unpaid work experience programme. The results showed that positive outcomes were achievable, in spite of the absence of income and the problems associated with it. Implications for more effective work experience programmes are discussed. © 1994 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

This paper summarises the results of a literature review conducted in late 1993 on issues related to the credentialling of competency based education and training. The credentialling review focused on seven major issues: describing the minimum requirements for a qulification; distinguishing different qualification levels; issuing statements and qualifications gained by the recognition of prior learning; using short courses to build a qualification; recording the results of competency based assessments; responsibility for keeping the records of individual achievement; and, whether the exact competencies held should be recorded on a qualification. The recent (1993) move by the National Training Board to abandon any general criteria for the determination of qualification levels and to rely solely on the advice of the relevant Competency Standards Body when determining the level of a qualification emerges as a significant development in Australian credentialling. This abandonment of general criteria, which mirrors a development in the UK system, may yet undermine the goal of achieving a more rational qualifications system in Australia. It was clear from the review that the issues and trends in the accreditation of competency based education and training in Australia, and the problems encountered, have broad parallels in the UK experience. It was also clear that much of the story is yet to unravel, and that many issues remain unresolved. © 1994, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

The debate concerning quality assurance in higher education is frequently conducted in terms originating outside the culture of academic institutions, such as fitness for purpose' and ‘meeting customer expectations’, which are often experienced as jarring with traditional conceptions of higher education. However, quality assurance issues surrounding the accreditation of work-based learning within academic awards suggest how these terms may serve to pose some useful general challenges to current modes of assessment. In particular, the recognition of the need to be as precise as possible about anticipated learning outcomes, characteristic of procedures for accrediting work-based learning, offers some useful lessons in managing the quality of traditionally taught courses. © 1994, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

The paper explores the imbalance between the ethnography of further education and the policy‐orientated literature. Bates (1991) describes this as being the discrepancy between rich sociological analysis and the economics of training. The paper redraws this imbalance into one between the optimism of policy literature and the pessimism of ethnography. This pessimism has its roots in theories of reproduction and even the most recent work fails to escape this. Post‐fordists' notions support the optimism of policy literature; it is unlikely that the promise of a high trust/high skill society can be delivered within a capitalist society. It is argued that the insights of reproduction theory should be married to the concerns of policy literature with a view to developing critical and transformative practices. © 1994 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

It is currently proposed that National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) should be developed to replace existing teacher education qualifications. NVQs are based on profiles of ‘competent’ practice drawn from behavioural analyses of job roles. This paper argues that, while they may help to generate outcomes‐based criteria for assessment and accreditation, profiles of this sort provide static and partial models of teaching. On their own they therefore offer an inadequate basis for the development and accreditation of professional practice in teaching. An alternative qualification model is offered which combines core professional criteria and reflective practice in an attempt to move beyond the limitations of competence‐based qualifications. © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Three major elements in the Australian national workplace reform agenda are the introduction of key/generic workplace competencies, national occupational employment standards and a competency‐based education‐training system that recognises prior learning and assures development of identified competencies, both generic and occupationally specific. Attempts to develop effective and efficient assessment schemes to determine participant competence are underway. A continuing major concern, however, is how best to report information to potential employers. While employers need sufficient relevant information to make informed hiring decisions there is the distinct danger of providing too much detailed information in a competency‐based education system that it is not able to be used in a timely and efficient fashion. This paper reviews the merits of selected reporting schemes being considered, and then presents questions for further research about employers' reactions to reporting of competency information. © 1994 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

The expanding influence of competence-based education (CBE) through the activities of the National Council for Vocational Qualifications (NCVQ) now extends to all levels of the system, including the work of higher education institutions. The NCVQ approach is, however, ill-equipped to deal with education and training beyond the level of basic skills, and is largely irrelevant to the sort of learning that goes on in higher education. A critique of the NCVQ model of CBE is presented and, in place of the behaviourist obsession with performance outcomes, models of learning and development drawn from the cognitive and experiential tradition are recommended for higher education. Educators in this sphere need to maintain an attachment to critical practice and the humanistic tradition in order to resist the narrow utilitarian models of practice represented by CBE strategies. © 1994, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.