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"learning"

Clinical education is an important component of undergraduate nurse education, in which clinical teachers facilitate students' application of theoretical classroom knowledge into the clinical practice setting. Mothering as part of clinical teachers' work was a major finding from a larger study exploring clinical teaching work to identify what shaped their work and barriers to their work in clinical settings. The study used semi-structured interviews, informed by the work of Foucault. Maternal discourses emerged as a predominant one as participants presented their relationships with students describing examples of nurturing, protecting, supporting, guiding and providing discipline. The unexpected finding contradicted the dominant view of students at adult learners, and potentially positions them as dependent in their learning in clinical environments. Exploration of this discourse in the context of the study forms the basis of this paper. It is argued that the overall impact of maternal discourses on clinical teaching and learning is unclear but warrants more detailed investigation. © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

This article analyses the importance of apprenticeship systems in the current contexts of the UK and Germany. It discusses the policy and practice of apprenticeship in connection with skills formation and vocational learning. It argues that despite its declining popularity, apprenticeship continues to play a role in contemporary education policy with possibilities for progress and improvement. However, its practicality and feasibility is dependent on policies which are influenced by the different national socio-political, economic and educational contexts. Indeed, the reason why the UK's attempts to revitalise its apprenticeship system has not been successful is not because apprenticeship is becoming irrelevant, but rather because policy objectives are not consistent with national capacities. If an apprenticeship system is based on strong institutional arrangements and is adaptable to the labour market and its evolving demands, it has enormous potential to produce different types of intermediate-level skills. © Springer-Verlag 2009.

Entry to Employment (E2E) is a work-based learning programme aimed at 16-19 year-olds in England deemed not yet ready for employment, an apprenticeship or further education and training. Taking into account educational, social and personal circumstances which are often severely disadvantaged, it aspires to provide these young people with training experiences aimed at improving their 'employability'. This paper places E2E within its social and economic context and uses Bernstein's work on pedagogic discourses to problematise its curriculum. It is argued that, however laudable its aims, by concentrating largely on occupational socialisation and generic skills, E2E may serve to promote an impoverished form of employability and reinforce the class-based divisions of labour that continue to characterise the English economy. © 2009 Taylor & Francis.

Cardiff University has offered a medical engineering undergraduate programme since 2001 and hence delivers one of the longest-running and most established medical engineering programmes within the UK. It currently offers BEng (Hons) and MEng (Hons) programmes that are both accredited by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and include the option to undertake a year in industrial employment. The admissions policy ensures that the intake consists of a diverse range of students and is typically very successful in attracting female students. The programmes consist of six key academic threads which ensure that the content is both relevant and continuous, with all threads tailored to provide a patient-focused learning environment. Students initially learn core and fundamental principles in years 1 and 2, supported by a range of laboratories and practical experimentation. The latter years then encourage the students to corroborate and apply this knowledge, including involvement in a range of project-based learning exercises. The programme is delivered by a core of experienced academic medical engineers, with support from other engineering colleagues, as well as colleagues from the School of Biosciences, the School of Medicine, and the National Health Service. Thus, the programme delivers a wide range of modules which guarantee that graduating students have a thorough understanding of all possible career options. These two factors are significant in making it possible for students to follow their chosen career path upon graduation.

Formal diplomas and certificates have been accepted as proof that students may receive exemption for parts of their educational programme. Nowadays, though, it is socially desirable that informal and non-formal learning experiences are also recognised. Assessment of prior learning (APL) addresses this issue. In APL, the candidate's knowledge, skills or competences required in informal and non-formal learning are measured against a standard to determine whether they match the learning objectives. Although APL is frequently used in workplaces and vocational education, it is practised less in universities, and research is lacking in this context. This study aims to evaluate the first APL procedure in an academic computer science programme, and an adjusted APL procedure in an educational science masters programme. This is done from the perspective of the APL candidates, tutors and assessors, using the theoretical framework by Baartman et al. (2006). The computer science participants comprised 23 candidates from a police software company, four tutors and four assessors. From educational science, nine candidates, two tutors and two assessors participated. The results show that the APL procedure in educational science is viewed significantly more positively than that in computer science; further, the computer science assessors differ considerably from the other participants in their perceptions relating to the quality criterion 'cognitive complexity'. Explanations for the difference between the two programmes are discussed in this article and assessor and tutor training highly recommended.

David Stern argues that some basic features of the American high school must be modified if it is to serve all students successfully. He notes, for example, that only three-quarters of U.S. high school students graduate four years after beginning ninth grade and that the National Assessment of Educational Progress found no improvement in reading or mathematics for seventeen-year-olds between 1971 and 2004. The nation's system for educating teenagers, says Stern, seems to be stuck, despite the constant efforts of teachers and repeated waves of reform.Citing two widely accepted public purposes of educating teenagers-preparation for civic participation and for economic self-sufficiency-Stern proposes four new strategies to achieve those goals. He draws on empirical evidence suggesting that these are promising directions for research and policy, but acknowledges that existing studies provide only limited guidance. First, he says, schools should continue the current trend toward integrating educational options to provide young people with skills and experiences that pave the way to both college and careers. Second, states and districts should tie education funding not simply to the number of students attending school, but also to what young people learn, whether they graduate, and whether they find jobs or enroll in postsecondary education. Such a move, he argues, would encourage teaching and learning formats that use students' time more effectively. Third, more adults in addition to classroom teachers should be involved in educating teenagers. Other adults acting as academic advisers, learning coaches, student advocates, internship supervisors, mentors, and college counselors could help guide the education of teenagers inside and outside of school and provide some relief for the chronic shortage of teachers. Fourth, schools should expand the options for educating teenagers outside of geographically fixed schools. Combining improved Internet-based curriculum with internships and civic engagement projects, for example, may produce better results for many young people and also may promote academic achievement for teenagers who do not thrive in conventional classrooms and for those who face academic and social challenges when they move from one place to another. Stern argues that the limited success of today's high schools makes such new initiatives well worth trying and evaluating.

Against a backdrop of some two decades of sustained economic growth in Ghana, this paper argues that there are a series of sustainability challenges related to technical and vocational skills development (TVSD) that need to be addressed. This paper analyses several sustainability dimensions of TVSD related to: promoting the sustainability of education-for-all achievements through expanding post-basic education and TVSD; identifying sustainable financing mechanisms for an expansion of TVSD; promoting and sustaining equitable access; ensuring that expansion in quantity does not lead to a compromise on the achievement and sustainability of quality and relevance issues; promoting the sustainability of TVSD expansion by widening opportunities for lifelong learning; creating an enabling environment for skills utilization through sustainable employment growth. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to argue that it is important to focus on the apprentices' collaborative learning processes when addressing issues of learning transfer. Design/methodology/approach - The claims about the importance of addressing processes of collaborative activities and learning in relation to learning transfer are based on the study following the completion of questionnaires by 243 apprentices and interviews in which 19 baker apprentices participated. Findings - The research results prove that it is important to pay attention to collaborative activities among learners in order to ensure learning transfer. Research limitations/implications - One limitation of the study is that it does not elaborate on reasons that some apprentices are motivated to integrate what they were taught at vocational college in a workplace setting while others are not motivated to do so. Practical implications - Educators will become more aware of individual and collective initiatives to cross the boundaries between vocational school and workplace practice. Originality/value - The study adds to the discussion of learning transfer through an investigation of learning transfer from a collaborative perspective. Most transfer studies have focused on the nature of knowledge or the structural barriers between college and workplace practice, while this study emphasizes the collaborative nature of learning transfer. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

'Incorporation' in Further Education in England and Wales centralised policy control and implemented a per-pupil funding formula that promoted equity, in that colleges were paid more for enrolling 'disadvantaged' students, and for performance, in that funding was contingent on retention and student success rates. This article analyses the impact of funding policy on student success rates for adults in general further education colleges using five years of student-level administrative data from 1998/99 to 2002/03. Results from descriptive statistics show that student success rates rose by 10% during the five-year period, with the largest gains made by ethnic minorities, adult basic education students, and students from disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Logistic regression results mirror the descriptive statistic results but find especially strong gains for adult basic education students and students receiving additional learning support funding.

Shortlisted for the NASEN Special Educational Needs Academic Book Award 2009. Inter-professional collaborations are invaluable relationships which can prevent the social exclusion of children and young people and are now a common feature of welfare policies worldwide. Drawing on a four year study of the skills and understanding required of practitioners in order to establish the most effective interagency collaborations, this comprehensive text. Gives examples from practitioners developing inter-professional practices allow readers to reflect on their relevance for their own work Emphasises what needs to be learnt for responsive inter-professional work and how that learning can be promoted Examines how professional and organisational learning are intertwined Suggests how organisations can provide conditions to support the enhanced forms of professional practices revealed in the study Reveals the professional motives driving the practices as well as how they are founded and sustained Full of ideas to help shape collaborative inter-professional practice this book shows that specialist expertise is distributed across local networks. The reader is encouraged to develop the capacity to recognise the expertise of others and to negotiate theor work with others. This book is essential reading for practitioners in education and educational psychology or social work, and offers crucial insights for local strategists and those involved in professional development work. The book also has a great deal to offer researchers working in the area of cultural historical activity theory (CHAT). The four year study was framed by CHAT and offers a well-worked example of how CHAT can be used to reveal sense-making in new practices and the organizational implications of enhanced professional decision-making. As well as being important contributors to the developing CHAT field, the five authors have worked in the area of social exclusion and professional learning for several years and have brought inter-disciplinary strengths to this account of inter-professional work. © 2009 Anne Edwards, Harry Daniels, Tony Gallagher, Jane Leadbetter and Paul Warmington.