Search Results for
"learning"

This essay argues for a paradigm shift in what counts as learning and literacy education for youth. Two related constructs are emphasized: collective Third Space and sociocritical literacy. The construct of a collective Third Space builds on an existing body of research and can be viewed as a particular kind of zone of proximal development. The perspective taken here challenges some current definitions of the zone of proximal development. A sociocritical literacy historicizes everyday and institutional literacy practices and texts and reframes them as powerful tools oriented toward critical social thought. The theoretical constructs described in this article derive from an empirical case study of the Migrant Student Leadership Institute (MSLI) at the University of California, Los Angeles. Within the learning ecology of the MSLI, a collective Third Space is interactionally constituted, in which traditional conceptions of academic literacy and instruction for students from nondominant communities are contested and replaced with forms of literacy that privilege and are contingent upon students' sociohistorical lives, both proximally and distally. Within the MSLI, hybrid language practices; the conscious use of social theory, play, and imagination; and historicizing literacy practices link the past, the present, and an imagined future. © 2008 International Reading Association.

The organization of work in call centres has been the centre of study and debate for a number of years. This article explores the adoption of nationally-recognized training (based on formal qualifications) in Australian call centres, which is now becoming quite widespread, and its relationship to work organization and human resource management practices. The article draws on a national research project that explored the take up of nationally recognized training by Australian employers. A number of call centres were included in this study that forms the basis for the present article. One of the major attractions for call centre employers, apart from the financial incentives involved in adoption, is the close fit between nationally recognized training and work organization. Because of its on-job nature, such training fits the close quantitative controls that characterize almost all call centres. Because of its integration into the workplace and into work organization, nationally recognized training seems to be moving human resource management processes towards an increased emphasis on employee development.

Does authentic assessment or the perception of it affect how students study and learn? Does practical experience affect how assessment authenticity is perceived? And does practical experience influence how an authentic assessment affects student learning? Mixed methods design yielded insight into the answers to these questions. This article presents the results of a study on the relationships between authenticity perceptions of different cohorts of students, who differed in the amount of practical experience, their study approach and their perceived degree of professional skill development. The results showed some salient differences in how freshman- and senior-student groups perceive the same authentic assessment and how this assessment influences their learning. These results suggest possible guidelines for developing and using authentic assessments during a curriculum in which learning and working are intertwined. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This paper reviews empirical evidence, especially from Europe, on how education and training policies can be designed to advance both efficiency and equity. Returns to educational investments tend to decrease over the life cycle. Moreover, they are the highest for disadvantaged children at early stages and for the well-off at late stages of the life cycle. This creates complementarities between efficiency and equity at early stages and trade-offs at late stages. The paper discusses specific policies for efficiency and equity at each educational stage, ranging from early childhood education and schools over vocational and higher education to training and lifelong learning. The available evidence suggests that both efficiency and equity can be enhanced by output-oriented reforms properly designed to each stage, where the state generally sets a regulatory framework that ensures accountability and funding, and uses the forces of choice and competition to deliver best results. Designed this way, education and training systems can advance efficiency and equity at the same time. © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

How can opportunities for teaching and learning be improved to ensure that many more people participate, gain qualifications and obtain decent jobs? Will government policies enable us to achieve these goals? What new ideas do we need to ensure a more inclusive, equitable and efficient learning system? These are some of the main concerns which underlie this thought-provoking book coming from a major research project looking at how policies affect learners, tutors, managers and institutional leaders in Further Education Colleges, Adult and Community learning centres and in Work Based learning sites. Post compulsory education in the UK has been constantly restructured by the New Labour government and has been subject to considerable policy turbulence over the last few years. This book attempts to understand this important but poorly understood sector by both talking to students and front-line staff and by interviewing the officials responsible for managing post-compulsory education and lifelong learning. By examining the sector simultaneously from the 'bottom up' and from 'top down', the authors show how recent policy is affecting three disadvantaged groups - 16-19 year olds who have fared poorly in official tests at school; unemployed adults learning basic skills; and employees at work learning basic skills. The authors conclude that there are serious failings and suggest principles and features of a more equitable and effective learning system. © 2008 Frank Coffield, Sheila Edward, Ian Finlay, Ann Hodgson, Ken Spours and Richard Steer. All rights reserved.

Individuals actively and continually construct the knowledge required for their working lives. Two outcomes arise from this constructive process: (i) individual change (i.e. learning) and (ii) the remaking of culturally-derived practices comprising work. These arise through a relational interdependence between the contributions and agency of the personal and the social. The relationship is interdependent because neither the social nor personal contributions alone are sufficient. The social experience is important for articulating and providing access to work performance requirements. However, personal factors such as individuals' capacities, subjectivities and agency shape how workers interpret and engage with what they experience and, consequently, how they learn and remake practice throughout their working life. This case is elaborated through a discussion about learning with considerations of intersubjectivity, personal epistemologies, pedagogy and curriculum as experience. © 2008 SES. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

The article presents a thematic review of the recent research on workplace learning. It is divided into two main sections. The first section asks what we know about learning at work, and states four propositions: (1) the nature of workplace learning is both different from and similar to school learning; (2) learning in the workplace can be described at different levels, ranging from the individual to the network and region; (3) workplace learning is both informal and formal; and (4) workplaces differ a lot in how they support learning. The second section focuses on workplace learning that is related to formal education. Different models of organising work experience for students and the challenges of creating partnerships between education and working life are described. It is concluded that the worlds of education and work are moving closer each other and that the integration of formal and informal learning is an essential prerequisite for developing the kinds of expertise needed in response to the changes taking place in working life. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists1 is responsible for the training of 1,500 resident2 anaesthesiologists throughout Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. The training program is conducted over a minimum of five years and is taught within 174 training hospitals. The training program is primarily practically focused with a strong emphasis on the apprenticeship approach to mastery of applied knowledge, skill development, and enhancement of pertinent abilities. Important theoretical and fundamental knowledge is taught using a modular based framework covering the key aspects of anaesthesiology. Additional learning occurs during various voluntary residential courses and through a compulsory simulation course. The simulation course specifically focuses on the impact and importance of human factors in the anaesthetic environment, as well as mainstream trauma and high frequency or critical clinical scenarios. The training program includes two examinations; the first assessing candidate competency in the basic sciences of pharmacology and physiology and the second assessing candidate competency in more applied anaesthesiology. These examinations are supplemented by additional hospital based In-Training Assessments (ITAs), computerised web delivered Self Assessment Tests (SATs), and a learning Portfolio. The overall aim of the program is to evolve an undifferentiated medical graduate into a competent independent anaesthesiologist. Copyright © 2008 JMS.

PROBLEM ADDRESSED: The Family Medicine Residency Program at the University of Alberta has used academic sessions and clinical-based teaching to prepare residents for private practice. Before the new curriculum, academic sessions were large group lectures given by specialists. These sessions lacked consistent quality, structured topics, and organization. OBJECTIVE OF PROGRAM: The program was designed to improve the quality and consistency of academic sessions by creating a new curriculum. The goals for the new curriculum included improved organizational structure, improved satisfaction from the participants, improved resident knowledge and confidence in key areas of family medicine, and improved performance on licensing examinations. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION: The new curriculum is faculty guided but resident organized. Twenty-three core topics in family medicine are covered during a 2-year rotating curriculum. Several small group activities, including problem-based learning modules, journal club, and examination preparation sessions, complement larger didactic sessions. A multiple-source evaluation process is an essential component of this new program. CONCLUSION: The new academic curriculum for family medicine residents is based on a variety of learning styles and is consistent with the principles of adult learning theory. This structured curriculum provides a good basis for further development. Other programs across the country might want to incorporate these ideas into their current programming.

The paper investigates the relationship between assessment and learning through an empirical study of apprenticeship training. The paper suggests that well-established modes of learning, which facilitate meaningful assessment in apprenticeship training, present an "antidote" to a traditional emphasis on assessment as selection and control. In contrast to rejection of apprenticeship modes of assessment as being inappropriate and obsolete at the present time, the paper suggests that the concept of apprenticeship assessment can be seen as a highly attractive and effective alternative to current assessment practices in both schools and workplaces. Taking a situated and relational perspective on knowledge and learning, we argue that assessment practices should focus on contextually-anchored reviews of the core competencies of the person. This contextual assessment contrasts with an emphasis on assessment as essentially controlling and selecting students for further education and, on the other hand, with assessment as a process of self-monitoring and self-reflection.