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"Teaching"

In the past fifteen years, increasing attention has been given to the role of Vocational Education and Training (VET) in attracting large numbers of international students and its contribution to the economic development of Australia. This trend has given rise to many challenges in vocational education, especially with regard to providing quality education that ensures international students stay in Australia is a satisfactory experience. teaching and learning are continuously scrutinised, and teaching quality and student assessment are subject to regular audit (Takerei, 2010). VET teachers are key stakeholders in international education and share responsibility for ensuring international students gain quality learning experiences and positive outcomes; however, their experiences are generally not well understood. Therefore, this paper reports on a study which responded to this research gap and investigated particular challenges that VET teachers experience when teaching international students. The research participants were 15 teachers from several public and private VET institutions in Brisbane, Australia. The method involved responsive interviewing and inductive data analysis to identify and categorize teachers' challenges and dilemmas. After briefly outlining the background of the research approach, this paper presents findings about challenges that VET teachers' experienced while teaching international students. The aim of the paper is to explore VET teachers' perspectives in order to contribute essential understandings that contribute to a holistic approach to vocational education of international students. It reveals that the teachers experienced challenges of three main types: professional, personal and educational. © eContent Management Pty Ltd.

From the perspective of instructional design, when facing the different knowledge domains, the instructional strategies and activities should be matched for the different contents It is equally important when using LMS as a delivering platform for the web-based learning. However, regardless the popular mutual functions, most of LMSs do not provide teaching supporting tools or activities in particular knowledge domains for instructor to use. Therefore, LMS is only working as a better looking FTP, but not able to help instructors to deliver better instruction.In order to tackle this issue, this study first employed content analysis to induce the teaching strategies of conceptual knowledge domain and analyze the basic functions of LMSs on market. Then, following the content analysis, based on the open source code LMS Moodle, a plug in, strategical learning tool "concept pointer" has be designed and developed. Via the formative evaluation from experts, instructors and students, its advantage and usage have been discussed.According to the formative evaluation, the "concept pointer" could help instructors to highlight the learning content and inspire learners' understanding. As the results, the strategical learning tool "concept pointer" provided the positive effects to teaching and learning in the conceptual knowledge domain. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.

There is a growing demand in higher education for universities to introduce teaching methods that achieve the learning outcomes of vocational education. The need for vocational educational outcomes was met in this study involving a service learning activity designed to provide basic professional auditing competencies. The details of the design and implementation of the auditing project are explained. The methodology employed in this study is qualitative in nature. Analysis was based on a survey designed to elicit feedback regarding the experience gained from participating in the audit project. The analysis indicates that the students perceived the audit project to be beneficial to their learning and development of accounting, communication and teamwork skills. Due to the limited number of participants and the qualitative methodology the results are not geralizabable. However, the results do provide support for the use of service learning activities to provide experiential learning and an awareness of community service consistent with the existing literature.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to highlight the benefits of implementing the Project method, by applying the technique in adult vocational training environments. Design/methodology/approach: While the central idea of this method stems from Greek antiquity, the method itself began to evolve within American pragmatism based on the principles of cognitive and Gestalt psychology. In the present paper, the assessment process of the Project method was undertaken with the multi-methodical approach and use of combined levels of triangulation to determine whether it can be applied to a group of adults, training in the subject of marketing communications. Findings: Since the projected conditions from the bibliography are observed through the implementation of the Project technique it appears that adult trainees activate learning skills and competencies of emotional intelligence. Thus, the creation of knowledge operates as a "spiral" process starting from the individual level and expanding to the business and social environment with significant benefits for participants. Practical implications: This application proposes fertile speculation about alternative, practical instruction, in the future environments of the broader vocational education, as well as their effective connection with society and the economy in general. Originality/value: This paper provides empirical results from the application of Project technique in vocational training for adults. It highlights the benefits of this method in teaching standards, personal and social development, human resource development and, consequently, in the development of the business, economic and wider environment. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Medical professionals and public consumers expect that new physical therapy graduates possess cognitive, technical, and behavioral skills required to provide safe and high-quality care to patients. The purpose of this study was to determine if a repertoire of ten professional behaviors assessed at the beginning of doctorate of physical therapy education and before the first significant clinical internship could be enhanced in a semester course in gross human anatomy using individual formative feedback. During the human anatomy course, 28 first-year physical therapy students completed six biweekly, anonymous self- and peer assessment surveys that targeted ten professional behaviors important to physical therapists. All professional behaviors were assessed using a five-point Likert scale. Feedback reports occurred at week eight (mid-semester) and week 16 (end-of-semester) and comprised the direct intervention components of this study. At the midpoint of the semester, professional behavior scores and narrative comments from weeks two, four, and six were compiled and shared with each student by one of three faculty members in a feedback session. Students then submitted biweekly self-and peer professional behavior assessments (weeks 10, 12, and 14) for the remainder of the human anatomy course. Differences between preintervention and postintervention scores for each of the ten professional behaviors were compared using the Wilcoxon signed-ranks test. Upon receiving mid-semester individual feedback, students demonstrated significant improvement in each of the ten professional behaviors. Results from this study indicated a gross anatomy laboratory dissection experience during the first academic semester provided an effective opportunity for teaching and assessing professional behaviors of doctoral students in physical therapy. © 2013 American Association of Anatomists.

Background: Research on the relation between teaching and learning approaches has been mainly conducted in higher education and it is not yet clear to what extent the results can be generalised when it comes to secondary education.Purpose: The purpose of this study was to research how students in secondary education perceive their teachers' approaches to teaching in different disciplines, and how this relates to their own learning approaches. Additionally, differences in teaching approaches between mathematics and language teachers were investigated.Sample: The participants in this study were 128 students randomly selected at two secondary schools in two different cities in the Netherlands. Both schools are located in a city with more than 200,000 inhabitants. The students are spread across three different educational levels: lower secondary vocational education (VMBO, 12-18 years), higher secondary education (HAVO, 12-18 years) and academically oriented vocational education (VWO, 12-18 years).Design and methods: In this cross-sectional study, instead of teachers' self-reporting, teaching approaches were measured by student perceptions, which were gathered by means of a questionnaire (N=128). Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to identify whether perceived teacher approaches predicted students' learning approaches. Finally, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) were carried out to explore differences in how students in mathematics and Dutch-language courses perceived the teaching approaches of their teachers and which learning approaches they consequently adopted.Results: Results indicate that a teacher-centred approach predicts a surface approach to learning and a student-centred approach predicts a deep approach to learning. Next, it was found that students in Dutch-language courses perceive their teachers as more student-centred, and are hence more likely to adopt a deep approach to learning than students in mathematics courses.Conclusions: These results suggest that when schools aim to support students in developing deep-learning approaches, attention on a school level should be paid to teachers' approaches to teaching. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Human Resource Management for the Hospitality and Tourism Industries 2nd Edition, takes an integrated look at HRM policies and practices in the tourism and hospitality industries. Utilising existing human resource management (HRM) theory and practice, it contextualises it to the tourism and hospitality industries by looking at the specific employment practices of these industries, such as how to manage tour reps or working in the airline industry. It initially sets the scene with a broad review of the evidence of HRM practice within the tourism and hospitality industries. Having identified the broader picture, the text then begin to focus much more explicitly on a variety of HR policies and practices such as: recruitment and selection, legislation and equal opportunities, staff health and welfare and remuneration strategies in the industry. This 2nd edition has been fully updated: with new legal information, data, statistics and examples new chapter looking at HRM policies and practice in Events new international examples of best practice for prescriptive teaching and discussion, and international case studies to exercise problem solving techniques and contextualise learning enhanced companion website for students and lecturers including: power point slides, student test bank, additional case studies and links to additional resources Written in a user friendly style, each chapter includes chapter outlines and objectives, HRM in practice - boxed examples, reflective review questions, web links, discussion questions and further reading to aid understanding and test knowledge. © 2007, 2013 Dennis Nickson. All rights reserved.

Within the last decade, synergetic fusion of the progress in telecommunications technologies with the progress in computing technologies, plus accompanying developments in the cognitive sciences, has accelerated the rate of change ofmany services and functions that are basic to the operation of a modern society. Among these services and functions, education is beginning to undergo a dramatic transformation in terms of its design and delivery. Not only is distance education becoming a much more common and much more viable alternative to the conventional classroom-based model for educational delivery, but also within this conventional context, many unconventional learning and teaching strategies, based on the exploitation of possibilities offered by the new technologies, are being implemented. This chapter examines current and projected developments in educational practice brought about by the new technologies, in particular telematics, the result of the fusion of telecommunications and informatics. It also examines the implications of these new educational delivery systems for the practice of instructional design. We start with a review of the technological trends that have opened up the possibilities of telematics in education. © 1997 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

The purpose of this paper is to present the view that planning to use computers for instruction is secondary to planning or designing a course of instruction in a broader sense. Important heuristics that can help the design process were generated many years ago. They provide a functional, use context model for instruction. They are consistent with advice for teaching derived from recent research and instructional theorizing. The primary idea is that the instructional environment must represent to the learner the context of the environment in which what is learned will be or could be used. Knowledge learned will then be appropriate for use and students learn to think and act in appropriate ways. Transfer should be direct and strong. © 1988 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

Student teachers' conceptions of learning and teaching influence the way they approach situations in teaching practice. To provoke a focus on student learning in student teachers during teacher education, new learning environments are needed. This study reports on results of a newly designed learning environment characterized by the use of authentic contexts, authentic tasks and reflective dialogues. Questionnaires, drawings, metaphors and learner reports were used to gain insight into the development of student teachers' conceptions and the influence of the learning environment on this. Results indicate that the learning environment contributed to more learning-focused conceptions of learning and teaching. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.