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Context During early clinical exposure, medical students have many emotive experiences. Through participation in social practice, they learn to give personal meaning to their emotional states. This meaningful social act of participation may lead to a sense of belonging and identity construction. OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to broaden and deepen our understanding of the interplay between those experiences and students' identity development. Our research questions asked how medical students give meaning to early clinical experiences and how that affects their professional identity development. Methods: Our method was phenomenology. Within that framework we used a narrative interviewing technique. Interviews with 17 medical students on Year1 attachments to nurses in hospitals and nursing homes were analysed by listening to audio-recordings and reading transcripts. Nine transcripts, which best exemplified the students' range of experiences, were purposively sampled for deeper analysis. Two researchers carried out a systematic analysis using qualitative research software. Finally, cases representing four paradigms were chosen to exemplify the study findings. Results: students experienced their relationships with the people they met during early clinical experiences in very different ways, particularly in terms of feeling and displaying emotions, adjusting, role finding and participation. The interplay among emotions, meaning and identity was complex and four different 'paradigms' of lived experience were apparent: feeling insecure; complying; developing, and participating. Conclusions: We found large differences in the way students related to other people and gave meaning to their first experiences as doctors-to-be. They differed in their ability to engage in ward practices, the way they experienced their roles as medical students and future doctors, and how they experienced and expressed their emotions. Medical educators should help students to be sensitive to their emotions, offer space to explore different meanings, and be ready to suggest alternative interpretations that foster the development of desired professional identities. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Over the last decade, some UK Geography Departments have diversified their range of courses to offer Foundation degrees (Fds), providing students with alternative routes through higher education (HE). These courses are delivered either offsite at further education colleges (FECs), embedded within an undergraduate programme at higher education institutions (HEIs), or by work-based learning. These pathways present students, staff and institutions with new opportunities, issues and challenges. This study examines contrasting pathways of offsite and onsite Fds in Tourism Management and Development Geography offered by two HEIs and two FECs in southwest England. The needs and experiences of Fd students are varied, related to the individual's personal and academic background, the course pathway taken, institution-specific issues and the degree of support and preparedness for HE. The contrasting academic cultures, teaching methods and assessments encountered in FECs and HEIs, and the availability of resources, raise generic and specific issues, such as confidence building and learning to become independent and autonomous learners, which challenge Geography and Tourism students during their academic careers. This study concludes that closer collaboration between the HEI and the partner FEC is necessary for Geography and Tourism courses, and highlights the need for better alignment and reinforcement of HE systems in FECs, for instance through fieldwork, and the offering effective induction and support in study skills. Finally, it is important to facilitate the smooth transitions of students 'topping-up' to Year 3 of an Honours degree at the parent HEI. Managers of undergraduate courses in Geography and associated subjects can also learn from the vocational and contextualized learning promoted by Fd courses and direct entry students to undergraduate courses. © 2012 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Clinical communication education is now part of the core curriculum of every medical school in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has emerged over 30 years because of various societal, political, and policy drivers and is supported by an impressive evidence base.For a variety of reasons, however, clinical communication has become separated from other parts of medical education and tends to be positioned in the early years of the curriculum, when students have limited experience of being in the clinical workplace and working with patients. The teachers of clinical communication, whether medical-school-based or clinically based, may not share learning goals for the subject and this may, therefore, provide a disintegrated learning experience for students.Clinical communication teachers need to inject fresh thinking into the teaching and learning of the subject to unite it with clinical practice in the authentic clinical workplace. Engaging with theories of workplace learning, which aim to overcome the theory/practice gap in vocational education, may be the way forward. The author suggests various ways that this might be achieved-for example, by situating clinical communication education throughout the whole undergraduate curriculum, by integrating the topic of clinical communication with other areas of medical education, by developing coteaching and curriculum design partnerships between medical school and clinical workplace, and by developing a greater range of postgraduate education that offers opportunities for professional development in clinical communication for qualified doctors that is complementary with what is taught in undergraduate education.

The hospitality industry emphasizes practical experience. In order to assist students in entering their future careers, the curriculum design of hospitality education usually include industry internship credits. The purpose of this study was to understand the student interns' parents in relation to internship programs of hospitality higher education in Taiwan. The research design combines document content analysis and focus group discussion. According to the results of analysis, the parental influence factors on internship programs included parental support to the internship program, parents' opinions during internships, parents' value judgment to internships, and parents' intervention in internships. The results compared with related studies and offered suggestion to all stakeholders in the internship program. © Common Ground, Ching-Sung Lee, Chen Wei Chao, All Rights Reserved.

The first part of the article presents the role of mentors in the practical educational training of students who are offered gradual and controlled access to teaching and mentors' help in teacher training and school practice. In the process students develop various skills. It is therefore extremely important that student teaching programmes are well-planned and implemented to the highest possible standards by the appropriately experienced and educated mentors In the second part of the article the results of a qualitative study involving twentysix mentors are presented. In the academic year 2009/2010, these mentors offered mentorship to the fourth-year students of the Primary Education academic programme at the Faculty of Education, University of Maribor. The study focuses on how mentor teachers evaluate their work and roles. The study further explores how the mentors evaluate the work of the students as teachers, what mentors gain from students, and the relationship between mentors and students The results indicate that the majority of mentors are neither sufficiently intrinsically motivated to take on the mentorship, nor are they professionally ready. The mentors believe that the mentorship support offered to students is not a burden and that the relationship between them and the students is professional. The mentors believe that students have limited teaching experience and their questions refer mostly to the preparation and implementation of the class. The mentors appreciate novelties and motivational games introduced by the students who thus indirectly affect the mentors' professional development.

This research seeks to look into a design process of the development of a model for teaching and learning traditional craft courseware called CDTC model. Specifically, this research focuses on analysis and design phase. The model was developed according to an established methodology and it is relied upon a conceptual framework consisting of four development phases starting from Analysis, Design, Development and Evaluation. The research begins with the preliminary analysis to look into the problems in conventional traditional apprenticeship method for teaching and learning traditional craft by looking at students and craft instructors' perceptions. Various weaknesses were identified in acquiring the craft skills taught to students especially when instructors need to teach a group of students. The results of analysis helps to suggest and determine a practical way to map out the suitable teaching environment and strategy that would best serve for teaching and learning traditional craft. As a result from initial analysis, the proposed CDTC model for educational courseware development for teaching and learning traditional craft was developed consisting of two main components. In Design phase, the proposed CDTC model's components was evaluated by selected craft instructors through initial validation process in order to verify its' components. The results from initial validation among instructors help in establishing and designing a preliminary version of the model. © 2005 - 2012 JATIT & LLS. All rights reserved.

Regardless of overall economic conditions, Canada's youth employment rate has been consistently above that of the adult population. This trend is especially pronounced during times of economic crisis and for young people with low levels of formal education. In response, federal and provincial governments have introduced various schemes aimed at helping young people make the transition from school to post-school life. Most of these schemes are rooted in the perception that Canada is transforming into a knowledge economy and that at-risk students require extra support to equip themselves with the skills necessary to succeed in a knowledge-intensive labour market. At the same time, Canada is also experiencing shortages in certain labour market segments. Although some of these shortages concern highly skilled, professional occupations (e.g., in engineering or rural medicine), the most pressing need has been expressed for skilled labour in the trades. In addition to targeting at-risk youth, policy programs in all Canadian provinces have therefore also tried to increase the number of young people entering training and careers in the skilled trades. Finally, transition programs in Canada have also been concerned with issues of equity and fairness in access to higher education opportunities. Universities and colleges have therefore introduced programs and bursaries to attract, for instance, more working-class and Aboriginal students. In this chapter, I outline a number of different programs and schemes and their educational and labour market contexts. I argue that most of these transition schemes and programs are concerned with the development of human capital, but tend to neglect the creation of employment opportunities and the removal of barriers that restrict access to training, education, and employment opportunities. Furthermore, I argue that Canada's federal structure and largely decentralised policy environment lead to a lack of cohesion in the development and delivery of these programs, which limits the achievement of the stated goals. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. All rights are reserved.

The paper presents the results from a quality framework to measure the effectiveness of a new engineering course entitled 'school-based learning (SBL) to work-based learning (WBL) transition module' in the Technical and Vocational Education (TVE) system in Bahrain. The framework is an extended version of existing information quality frameworks with respect to pedagogical and technological contexts. It incorporates specific pedagogical and technological dimensions as per the Bahrain modern industry requirements. Users' views questionnaire on the effectiveness of the new transition module was distributed to various stakeholders including TVE teachers and students. The aim was to receive critical information in diagnosing, monitoring and evaluating different views and perceptions about the effectiveness of the new module. The analysis categorised the quality dimensions by their relative importance. This was carried out using the principal component analysis available in SPSS. The analysis clearly identified the most important quality dimensions integrated in the new module for SBL-to-WBL transition. It was also apparent that the new module contains workplace proficiencies, prepares TVE students for work placement, provides effective teaching and learning methodologies, integrates innovative technology in the process of learning, meets modern industrial needs, and presents a cooperative learning environment for TVE students. From the principal component analysis finding, to calculate the percentage of relative importance of each factor and its quality dimensions, was significant. The percentage comparison would justify the most important factor as well as the most important quality dimensions. Also, the new, re-arranged quality dimensions from the finding with an extended number of factors tended to improve the extended version of the quality information framework to a revised quality framework.

School-to-work transitions in Germany for a long time were characterised by the dual system of standardised vocational training which combined company-based apprenticeship training with school-based vocational education. This model was attractive for school leavers because it provided them with secure non-academic career options as well as for employers-especially in manufacturing-for whom it meant a reliably skilled labour force. Thus, the dual system contributed to low rates of youth unemployment. However, in the past two decades, this model has been confronting considerable challenges as the supply of apprenticeship places has declined significantly while also young people's preferences have changed. In this situation, another specificity of the German transition system comes into play: the selective differentiation of secondary education which allocates students into different educational tracks after 4 years of primary school according to achievement and performance. As a consequence, more and more young people have remained without post-compulsory qualifications. Transition policies undertaken in this recent period are characterised by repairing rather than reforming with the result that the split between included and excluded trajectories is widening. The chapter commences with describing the fundamental institutional structures and historical development of the German transition system. Second, key problem areas are outlined and, third, respective policy trends and discourses are documented. In the fourth section, the current situation-which can be characterised as a tension between a transition model of industrial labour societies and post-industrial knowledge societies-is analysed in a comparative perspective. For this purpose, reference is made to a comparative model of transition regimes which has been developed in the context of EU-funded transition research. The final section refers to some pedagogical dilemmas emerging from this situation and draws some conclusions in this respect. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. All rights are reserved.

This paper diagnoses the implementation of a new engineering course entitled 'school-based learning (SBL) to work-based learning (WBL) transition module' in the Bahrain Technical and Vocational Education (TVE) learning environment. The module was designed to incorporate an innovative education and training approach with a variety of learning activities that are included in various learning case studies. Each case study was based on with learning objectives coupled with desired learning outcomes. The TVE students should meet the desired outcomes after the completion of the learning activities and assessments. To help with the implementation phase of the new module, the authors developed guidelines for each case study. The guidelines incorporated learning activities to be delivered in an integrated learning environment. The skills to be transferred were related to cognitive, affective, and technical proficiencies. The guidelines included structured instructions to help students during the learning process. In addition, technology was introduced to improve learning effectiveness and flexibility. The guidelines include learning indicators for each learning activity and were based on their interrelation with competencies to be achieved with respect to modern industrial requirements. Each learning indicator was then correlated against the type of learning environment, teaching and learning styles, examples of mode of delivery, and assessment strategy. Also, the learning activities were supported by technological features such as discussion forums for social perception and engagement and immediate feedback exercises for self-motivation. Through the developed module, TVE teachers can effectively manage the teaching and learning process as well as the assessment strategy to satisfy students' individual requirements and enable them to meet workplace requirements.