Search Results for
"learning"

This paper describes the development, implementation and evaluation of an educational resource, ‘On Track’, designed to support dental SHOs throughout their time in post, thereby helping them gain optimum benefit from this important stage in their early postgraduate training. The need for such a resource was highlighted by a previous study undertaken by the paper’s key authors with SHOs and their trainers in a UK dental school. Among several areas of change identified by both trainers and trainees were the needs to develop the SHO experience into more than an apprenticeship by improving the trainer/trainee relationship, and to encourage trainee-centred learning and self-appraisal. The key aims of ‘On Track’ were therefore to define the outcomes of SHO training, to facilitate the relationship between SHO and educational supervisor (trainer), and to encourage the SHO in reflective learning and self-appraisal. ‘On Track’ was subject to developmental testing with both trainers and trainees to ensure that it could achieve these aims and the resultant resource is described, along with its implementation and evaluation. ‘On Track’ met with mixed success and the reasons behind this and conclusions drawn for the introduction of any future similar resources are outlined. © 2004, Nature Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved.

E-learning is a rapidly emerging alternative for work-based training. However, those seeking to adopt online work-based training are handicapped by the lack of theory-based empirical evidence to guide their efforts. This paper reports on a study of the factors that influence the staff’s perception and adoption of work-based e-training. This study modifies the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and establishes a theoretical framework to analyse the determinants of adopting online work-based training. Unlike previous studies on technology acceptance/adoption, the adoption concept is divided into two facets, ‘Initial Adoption’ which refers to current usage in terms of frequency and degree of usage and ‘Post Adoption’ which refers to intention of continuous usage and knowledge implementation. This exploratory study shows that personal learning style, capability and perception on technology induce initial adoption; while sustained usage decisions are based solely on user-perceived, long-term benefits. © 2004 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

In the Dutch Vocational Education and Training (VET) system, competence-based education is the leading paradigm for innovation, both at the system level and at the level of learning environments. This article provides an historical analysis of the development of competence-based education in various countries and explores the concept of competence and its popularity. Possible pitfalls with respect to the concept of competence, standardisation, school and workplace learning, determining learning activities, assessment of competencies, changing teacher roles/identity and competence-based management will be discussed. Taking these pitfalls into account, roads for future development will be sketched. A learning policy connecting governance, practice and research is believed to be the most fruitful way to develop flexible VET systems that are suited to the emerging knowledge-based economy. © 2004 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

This article is concerned with the politics of lifelong learning policy in post-1997 Hong Kong (HK). The paper is in four parts. Continuing Education, recast as ‘lifelong learning’, is to be the cornerstone of the post-Handover education reform agenda. The lineaments of a familiar discourse are evident in the Education Commission policy documents. However, to view recent HK education policy just in terms of an apparent convergence with global trends would be to neglect the ways in which the discourse of lifelong learning has been tactically deployed to serve local political agendas. In the second part of this paper, I outline what Scott has called HK’s ‘disarticulated’ political system following its retrocession to China and attempts by an executive-led administration to demonstrate ‘performance legitimacy’—through major policy reforms—in the absence of (democratic) political legitimacy. Beijing’s designation of HK as a (depoliticized) ‘economic’ city within greater China must also be taken into account. It is against this political background that the strategic deployment of a ‘lifelong learning’ discourse needs to be seen. In the third section of this paper, I examine three recent policy episodes to illustrate how lifelong learning discourse has been adopted and has evolved to meet changing circumstances in HK. Finally, I look at the issue of public consultation. The politics of education policy in HK may be seen to mirror at a micro-level, the current macro-level contested interpretations of HK’s future polity. © 2004, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

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In this paper we review the literature on the impact of workplace basic skills training on individuals, as measured by their effects on wages and employment probability. In addition, we also examine studies on the returns to individuals of general training at the workplace. On the whole, the evidence suggests that better numeracy and literacy skills have a strong positive effect on individuals' earnings and employment stability, even when other relevant factors, such as qualifications levels, are taken into account. There is also good evidence to suggest that general training provided at the workplace has a positive impact on individuals' wages, particularly when this training is employer provided rather than off the job. However, the literature also suggests that improvement of basic skills levels in adults has very small or even no positive effects on wages and employment probability. We discuss the implications of these findings on the formation of government policy on basic skills provision. We also propose that there is a real need for more research in this area, not only in terms of longitudinal quantitative studies tracking the effects of basic skills programmes on firms and individuals but also in terms of detailed case studies focusing on specific training programmes and their impact at the level of the individual and firm. © 2004, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

This research note outlines a project designed to investigate the role of training institutions in providing effective training and development programmes for managers. The investigation is being carried out in the light of recent criticisms levelled against the nature of formal learning environments prevalent in most institutional settings. The traditional role of trainers and developers as the providers of knowledge and skills for the development of competent managers runs contrary to recent findings, which suggest that managers learn more effectively in informal settings, rather than the formal settings evident in many development programmes. The idea that explicitly extracted competencies are the target every manager should aim for to improve their effectiveness is also challenged because competencies alone are no longer regarded as a sufficient criterion for success. Recent research has attached greater importance to the need to help managers see knowledge as a social phenomenon and one factor that might distinguish successful managers from others is tacit knowledge. A major focus of this study is to explore the possibility that the level and content of tacit knowledge acquired by managers may be influenced by their individual learning styles, and the degree to which their dominant styles are matched with the context of their work environment.

This paper examines young workers' beginning engagement in learning through work, placing it in the context of Australian policy on entry-level training. Eleven young people were followed through their first year of full-time work and the significant adults involved in their working and learning lives were also interviewed. The study demonstrates that the presence of a contract of training (an apprenticeship or traineeship) is a strong predictor of a young worker's propensity to regard the workplace as a learning environment. However, unsatisfactory interactions with employment or training providers can create disillusionment with policy interventions that are meant to assist. Moreover, the habit of learning through work is not only a function of policy and training frameworks, but is also affected by individuals' abilities to learn how to learn. The paper concludes by arguing that, for those young people starting work who are not in a contract of training, additional assistance may be required in order for them to continue the habit of lifelong learning in the new environment of work.

Interprofessional education has long been cited in health and social care policy as a remedy to improve many of the problems faced by the National Health Service (NHS) around co-ordination and collaboration of staff. More recently, this form of education has been acknowledged as having a key role in delivering the government's modernisation agenda to produce a more 'flexible' workforce. Given the large number of logistical problems connected to developing interprofessional education before registration, this type of activity more often occurs after registration. It is interesting, therefore, to note that pre-registration interprofessional education has recently been hailed by NHS policy as a primary method for enhancing collaboration. However, these policy documents have both contributed to the conceptual confusion in this area and also overlooked the range of factors (educational, organisational and cultural) connected with implementing and sustaining this type of education in the pre-registration sector. In posing the question, 'pre-registration interprofessional education: mission impossible?' this paper examines the cultural, organisational and educational factors that affect the development of this activity. It also considers attempts to build an evidence-base for interprofessional education. This paper finally outlines how the implementation of interprofessional practice-based placements can be an achievable goat for the pre-registration curricula. © 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.