Search Results for
"Teaching"

Communicating complex scientific and technical information presents a challenge for food science educators. The most efficient learning occurs when all senses are engaged, one reason that many educators believe that scientific principles are best taught with hands-on laboratory experiences. Today there are many challenges to the continuation of these "wet labs" including the cost of building the labs as well as equipment, materials, and personnel to run them. Many current e-learning technologies are based on 2-dimensional delivery systems, and are often inadequate to provide a substitute for a laboratory exercise. However, recent advances in technology have evolved to more closely reflect the kinds of learning experiences that students typically have in a laboratory class. This review describes the role of these emerging technologies as teaching tools for educators, with the clear understanding that similar concepts can be utilized by management of technical teams in the work place. © 2014 Institute of Food Technologists®.

Learning in the teaching workplace is crucial for the development of all trainee teachers. Workplace learning is particularly important for trainee teachers in the lifelong learning sector (LLS) in the UK, the majority of whom are already working as teachers, tutors, trainers or lecturers while undertaking initial teacher education. However, literature indicates that LLS workplace conditions often inhibit teacher learning. This article reviews the research base on LLS trainees' workplace learning. Billett's (2008) concept of relational interdependence, between the affordances (activities and interactions) that workplaces offer for learning and the ways in which individuals perceive and engage with these, is used as a framework to synthesise research evidence. Support and experience of teaching were found to be crucial affordances for trainees' learning. The nature and availability of these affordances were shaped by workplace culture, organisational strategy, process and structures and the allocation and structuring of work. The ways in which trainees perceived and interacted with workplace affordances for learning were influenced by their prior experiences, confidence and self-esteem, career intentions, workplace position and status and orientation toward theoretical tools. The key properties of support and teaching experience and the workplace conditions needed to promote trainees' learning are proposed. These provide a starting point for employers, mentors, teacher educators, policy makers and trainees to improve workplace learning. The findings and proposals are also relevant to HE and school initial teacher education. Proposals are made for addressing the gaps in the scale and scope of research into LLS trainees' workplace learning. © 2014 © 2014 UCU.

In this study, the assumption that motivation is relevant for preservice teachers' engagement to the profession is investigated using the Factors Influencing teaching (FIT) Choice theory. This assumption is tested in two Dutch teacher training contexts. Survey data from preservice teachers training in training for secondary education level (n=168) and primary education level (n=53) were used in stepwise regression analyses. In both contexts, working with children and adolescents was in the top three of important motives to become a teacher. As well, this motive predicted many factors relevant for the engagement to the profession (e.g., planned effort, planned persistence, and leadership aspirations). Differences between the contexts were observed regarding which motives contribute to the preservice teachers' engagement to the profession. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

A student-centred approach to learning encourages students to have more responsibility for their learning and is a process that relies heavily on professional confidence to 'let-go' of traditional teaching responsibilities. This paper describes the introduction of a student-centred approach within one further education college in Ireland, explores the facilitation role of the lecturer and identifies strategies that have enabled effective transition from traditional pedagogical practice. The research incorporated semi-structured interviews with five lecturers who adopted student-centred learning in their teaching, focus group sessions with 36 students who engaged in a student-centred module and two classroom observations. The research identified some common understanding of a student-centred approach, although the emphasis differed slightly between lecturers and students, highlighting some implications for on-going practice. © 2013 Taylor & Francis.

Background: Pathology, imaging and other tests have an essential role in the diagnosis and screening for disease in medical practice. However, over-testing has recently emerged as a significant issue and has implications for the patient, doctor and health system. Vocational training is arguably the most critical period in the development of future patterns of clinical practice for the GP. This includes the development of test ordering behaviour. The general practitioner (GP) supervisor, therefore, has a key role to play in educating registrars to avoid over-testing. Objective: In this article, we discuss general approaches and practical strategies for GP supervisors to teach their registrars rational test ordering. Discussion: teaching should take a patient-centred focus and an emphasis on fostering a greater tolerance of uncertainty. Role modelling and demonstrated use of relevant clinical guidelines is a strong influence on registrar behaviour. Specific strategies for teaching rational test ordering include random case analysis, investigation audit, topic tutorials and use of targeted resources.

Young workers are frequently injured at work. Education and awareness strategies to prevent injuries among young workers are common but they are often ineffective. These approaches emphasize teaching, rather than learning strategies, and appear to contradict recent competency-based developments in education science. This study aimed to gain insight into the actual safety skills learning process of adolescents in an internship in a high school vocational training program. The results are based on auto and allo-confrontation interviews from an ergonomics intervention study with nine apprentices and five experienced coworkers involved in the training. This technique is suited to obtaining qualitative data on work activities; it consists of interviewing apprentices and co-workers about videotaped work observations to capture the thought processes behind their action. The findings reveal that learning in an actual situation poses challenges because working conditions and also learning conditions are not always optimal. Such conditions prompt apprentices to develop novel strategies to manage unexpected situations. At times, this involved side-stepping a safety rule in order to meet work demands. The use of an ergonomics actual work activity approach allowed the merging of two research topics rarely found together: the socio-ecological paradigm in education and the development of original interventions to prevent occupational injuries among young workers. This intersection of educational theory and injury prevention strategies provides new avenue for improving vocational training programs and developing primary prevention interventions in occupational health and safety programs that target youth. © 2014 The Authors.

The chapter reports work that investigated the use of e-portfolios developed by teaching practitioners as part of an award-bearing academic development programme in the UK. The project aimed to enable teaching practitioners to access and gain familiarity with pedagogically sound e-portfolio opportunities. The project was designed to foster a reflective approach, promote critical thinking focused on learning and teaching, and enhance continuing professional development. The outcomes of this project are discussed in terms of an appreciation of e-assessment by the teaching practitioners involved, recommendations for an e-portfolio environment that uses technology enhanced learning resources to foster a reflective approach that can enable and enhance continuous professional development for academic staff. © 2014, IGI Global. All rights reserved.

After centuries of rethinking education and learning, the current theory is based on technology's approach to and affect on the planned interaction between knowledge trainers and trainees. Online Tutor 2.0: Methodologies and Case Studies for Successful Learning demonstrates, through the exposure of successful cases in online education and training, the necessity of the human factor, particularly in teaching/tutoring roles, for ensuring the development of quality and excellent learning activities. The didactic patterns derived from these experiences and methodologies will provide a basis for a more powerful and efficient new generation of technology-based learning solutions for high school teachers, university professors, researchers, and students at all levels of education. © 2014 by IGI Global. All rights reserved.

Although industry acknowledges university graduates possess strong technical knowledge, it continues to lament the lack of commensurately strong personal and professional skills that allow graduates to apply their technical knowledge and to become effective members of the workforce quickly. This chapter outlines a research-backed course design that blends experiential learning to create an industrial simulation, the rewards of which go well beyond the usual benefits of group-project capstone design courses. The simulated industrial context facilitates the graduation of software engineers who possess the requisite personal and professional attributes. Innovations include combining two cohorts of students into one, engaging industry partners through the provision and management of projects, and implementing proven education approaches that promote the development of personal and professional skills. Adoption of the suggested practices will help institutions produce 'work-ready' graduates repeatedly, year after year, even by software engineering academics who may not have received teacher training and who may not possess significant industry experience themselves. © 2014, IGI Global. All rights reserved.

The need to develop key competencies to meet the changing demands of industry has made the introduction of competency-based training (CBT) reforms in the Vocational Education and Training (VET) system a priority in many countries. This article explores the views of polytechnic students in Ghana on the effect of CBT on the acquisition of competencies to perform professional tasks. The results show that the modular structure has indirect effects on the acquisition of skills through quality teaching and feedback. It is argued that assessment in CBT needs to move away from emphasising more on routine tasks towards the development of broad sets of generic skills and adaptable workforce. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.