Search Results for
"learning"

[No abstract available]

UK higher education institutions are now expected to be able to demonstrate that they are adhering to the Code of Practice for the Assurance of Academic Quality and Standards in Higher Education in Placement learning. The responsibility for ensuring that a placement provides an adequate opportunity for its intended learning outcomes rests with the educational institution. This paper draws on the author's experience of the management and evaluation of placements in the construction sector. In recognition of the increasingly global nature of the business, a placement programme has been developed to meet the particular challenges of students operating in multidisciplinary and multicultural environments. Participation in the European Commission's Leonardo da Vinci Vocational Training Programmes and pilot projects has enabled the identification of further criteria for evaluating and disseminating experience gained in work-based learning across the frontiers of language and culture. However, the paper also identifies problems peculiar to the UK market for construction professions and higher education programmes in construction-related disciplines. A study by Northumbria University highlighted challenges for both industry and higher education arising from economic pressures on students and the positioning of construction-related courses in the higher education market. Given the global nature of the construction business, it is clear that there are significant benefits to be gained from taking a global view of relevant issues. © 2004, © 2004 SAGE Publications.

Increasing emphasis is being placed in dentistry, as in other areas, on outcome-based education and on the specification of learning outcomes. This paper describes the adaptation for dentistry of the medical three circle model as described by Harden to specify learning outcomes. The model offers an effective and user-friendly format based on the three dimensions of the work of a dentist. What the dentist is able to do ('doing the right thing'), how the dentist approaches their practice ('doing the thing right'), and the dentist as a professional ('the right person doing it'). The model also facilitates curriculum and examination planning, reconciles tensions between vocational and academic education and is readily understood and accepted by students and teachers.

This paper is based on the project ‘Recognition of Tacit Skills and Knowledge in Work Re-entry’ carried out as a part of the ESRC-funded Research Network ‘Improving Incentives to learning in the Workplace’. The network aims to contribute to improved practice among a wide range of practitioners. The study has investigated the part played by tacit forms of personal competences in the education, training and work re-entry of adult learners. The models of learning produced within this study with the assistance of the Dynamic Concept Analysis method are used to provide a better understanding of individual case studies. © 2004, John Wiley and Sons Inc. All rights reserved.

The authors describe the significance of learning in the medium of working processes in the case of companies introducing measures of so-called organizational learning. On the basis of a study of pertinent literature, criteria of organizational learning are developed and translated into both a qualitative and a quantitative empirical survey in which scientific institutes and large enterprises from the sector of chemical industry in Belgium, Germany, Italy, and England participated. The factor common to all four companies studied lies in the attempt to stimulate the development and acquisition of knowledge about working processes, to evaluate and document this knowledge and to spread it throughout the organization. This attempt is supported and acknowledged by the employees. The vocational-biographical significance of organizational learning, however, remains an open question.

[No abstract available]

The paper provides an analysis of the take-up of modern apprenticeships in Scotland for the period 1999-2001. The methodology includes secondary data sources and a case study. The findings indicate that, although the numbers participating in the MA scheme have increased, there remain major concerns both with completion rates and the quality of the programme. The authors also question the relevance of using pedagogically driven theoretical models to understand the complex and dynamic nature of work-based employment practices.

Developing learning programmes to enhance the formation of generic skills is an international concern in education and training policy. This paper provides a broad survey of the development of generic skills policy in England from 1975 to 2002, drawing on both the economic and educational literature. It demonstrates that, despite an evident demand for generic skills in the English economy, successive waves of education and training policy intended to stimulate the supply of such skills have failed to deliver the desired results. Such failure is accounted for using a policy instruments and institutions framework. This suggests that the failure of generic skills policy can be attributed to a combination of weak policy design, the interaction of generic skills policy with other market-led reforms of education and training in England, and broader exogenous socio-economic trends. The paper concludes that current initiatives to develop key skills for all 16-19 learners in England are unlikely to succeed without substantial changes in the current education policy environment.

In Australia, as in many other countries, initiatives are constantly being developed which aim to assist school students’ transition into work. One such initiative, which was introduced towards the end of the 1990s, was the introduction of school-based apprenticeships and traineeships, often referred to by the umbrella term “school-based new apprenticeships” (SBNAs). Students taking part in these programs, normally in the final two years of schooling (Years 11 and 12), combine part-time work, study towards a vocational education and training (VET) qualification, and normal attendance at school. This paper reports on the first large-scale research study of school-based apprentices and trainees, which was carried out in late 2001 through a survey of students involved in the programs. The survey was carried out in the three Australian States with the highest numbers of school-based apprentices and trainees, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia. The paper commences with a description of the nature of school-based apprenticeships and a description of their introduction and rapid growth. It then gives an overview of the young people's jobs, their learning and training, and concludes by discussing four problematic areas. © 2004, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

The purpose of this study, in an environment of Internet project-based learning, is to undertake research on the effects of thinking styles on learning transfer. In this study, we establish an environment that incorporates project-based learning and Internet. Within this environment, we divide our sample of elementary school students into four groups: Executive Group, Legislative Group, Judicial Group, and Mixed Group. Taking the learning of 'Natural Science' as an example, we investigate the effects of different thinking styles on learning transfer. The results of this study are: (a) significant differences between the near transfer of the Executive Group and the Legislative Group, (b) no significant differences in far transfer are found among groups of different thinking styles, (c) the near transfer of the Mixed Group is superior to that of the Legislative Group and the Judicial Group, and (d) the far transfer of the Mixed Group is superior to that of the Legislative Group.