Search Results for
"Higher education"

This article examines the development of the higher National Certificate (HNC) in Occupational Therapy Support against the background of recent reforms and changes in health, social and educational arenas. Learning theories relevant to educational initiatives are addressed briefly and a rationale for liberal humanism is proposed. The significance of role clarification, task analysis and skill mixing is highlighted within the context of the drive for effectiveness and efficiency of services. Eternal shortages of occupational therapists necessitate an increasing use of support staff. It is suggested that their role is now, more than ever, important in terms of client care and raising the profile of the profession, and that support staff may be empowered to become more flexible and reflective practitioners. Employers demand a trained and responsive workforce. Competence-based vocational education, such as the HNC, employs experiential learning programmes to encourage the link between theory and practice, thus encouraging staff to develop and update their knowledge continually.

A growing research enterprise surrounds the implementation of General National Vocational Qualifications (GNVQs). It encompasses a diverse array of researchers and consultants from different organisations who work to different agendas and imperatives. Between 1992 and 1997, the National Council for Vocational Qualifications developed a large research and support programme for GNVQs and this has become closely linked to projects carried out by other government bodies. This programme has now moved into the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA). The official research programme dominates political and research agendas for GNVQs. It also inhibits radical and critical thinking about developments in the vocational curriculum. The paper uses Lakatos's criteria to evaluate the research programmes which have evolved around GNVQ developments. It argues that researchers in higher education face two particular problems in deciding how their own research contributes to debate and policy in the vocational curriculum. The paper proposes that there is a need to identify discernible research programmes and to evaluate their effectiveness:Lakatos's criteria may provide a basis for this. © 1998 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Objective: Occupational skin changes in hairdressers are very common. Morbidity, however, has not yet been quantified precisely. Methods: A cohort of 2352 hairdressing apprentices (of the 2570 invited to participate, i.e., 91.5% response) was prospectively followed for the duration of their vocational training (3 years) by three examinations. Three waves (years) were recruited in 1992, 1993, and 1994 from 15 vocational training schools in northwestern Germany. Results: The point prevalence of (mostly slight) irritant skill changes of the hands increased from 35.4% in the initial examination to 47.5% in the intermediate examination and to 55.1% in the final examination. Given a more conservative definition of a case of 'hand dermatitis,' these estimates were 12.9%, 23.5%, and 23.9%, respectively. Altogether, 34.3 and 15.2 cases of 'skin changes (any degree)' and 'hand dermatitis,' respectively, in 100 person-years were observed during the study period. The incidence rate, i.e., the number of newly diseased study participants in relation to the person-time at risk contributed, decreased in the course of the study. The proportion of dropouts until final follow-up was 51.8%. Conclusion: The present results appear to lie in a range with those found in other, much smaller cohort studies. However, comparison of the results is hampered either by the lack of a clear definition or by a different definition of 'person-time at risk' or 'a case of hand dermatitis.' As compared with an external control group of office apprentices, the incidence was several times higher in hairdressing apprentices, which points to the high risk for skin damage in this occupation.

Most higher education institutions in the UK have managed, until recently, to avoid addressing the issue of work-based learning, not least because they have only recently begun to seriously consider the workplace as a site of learning. It is agreed that learning itself, rooted in individual experience, is playing a different part in the generation of knowledge since that experience is increasingly taking place at work. Work has thus become a key site of learning and a key focus for continuing educators, and it is work and the opportunities offered by global communication and information technologies which are transforming learning for individuals. New professional skills and new organisational structures are needed to identify, develop and support these new contexts of learning and sponsor the idea of “learning self-competency” which is concerned with how we learn and with learning to learn. © 1998, MCB UP Limited

The National Council for Vocational Qualifications established assessment procedures for qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in which portfolios play a central role. The relevant qualifications (National Vocational Qualifications and General National Vocational Qualifications) have been taken by large numbers of young people in upper secondary schooling, and young people and adults in work or in government training schemes; and are intended to have labour market currency and to provide routes into further and higher education. The use of portfolios derives from a commitment to direct and comprehensive assessment of the whole ‘syllabus’, but also from a belief in certain pedagogical approaches and in enhancing students' independence and initiative. There is evidence that the approach has affected learning styles, but major problems have arisen relating to the manageability of the approach and the reliability of assessor judgements. © 1998, Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

This article uses data from a five-year ethnographic study of a single higher education institution to assess aspects of the 'realism' of managerialist approaches articulated through the credit framework in higher education in the United Kingdom. By 'credit framework' is meant the constellation of more or less compatible features facilitated by the assignment of credit to assessed learning, including modularity, the semester system, franchising, the accreditation of work-based learning and of prior learning. From the perspective of managerialist ideology the framework as a whole and its individual components offer a number of attractions, including greater economy, efficiency, manageability and market responsiveness in higher education institutions. Data from the site of the study and a theoretical framework derived from policy sociology are used to show that managerialist ideology oversimplifies and occludes aspects of social reality in higher education, the effect of which is to undermine many of the benefits claimed for the credit framework by managerialists. © 1998, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

This paper examines the "connection" between higher education and economic development in Massachusetts, a state whose renowned academic institutions have fueled the rise of a premier high technology industrial district. But in the aftermath to the abrupt demise of the "Massachusetts Miracle", the state higher education system sought to develop a new mandate for public service in the 90s keyed to upgrading the state's industrial base and coordinating with labor market needs. These growing involvements in manifestly vocational endeavors seem to reflect a major shift in the models that articulate the higher education-economic development "connection" in Massachusetts. Thus, it appears that the elite model of the "world-class" research university sparking numerous industry spin-offs has been joined by newer diffusion-oriented models of academic outreach that extend out from the community colleges into the workplace and even into the K-12 schools. © 1998 Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Why should instructors in traditional higher education institutions consider the re-design of their courses? The paper begins with a defense of four compelling reasons for changes in didactics: a review of some key principles of good teaching and learning, the increasing diversity of student characteristics and associated needs, the strategic and educational rationales for five types of flexibility increase in our current courses, and the particular need for instructors in faculties of education to provide leadership and models. Given the why, the next question is how? The remainder of the paper discusses the how in terms of a conceptually grounded approach to the pedagogical re-engineering of existing courses so that they become more flexible, with more student engagement, more-targetted communication, and more-attuned instructor scaffolding of increased student responsibility for his or her own learning. These concepts are made concrete through the extension of six standard sets of course-related tasks into redesigned sets involving the new didactics and WWW-based course-support functionalities. Examples from current practice at the Faculty of Educational Science and Technology at the University of Twente are used to illustrate the new didactical categories and their use of WWW-based course environments. The paper concludes with a consideration of key challenges that will confront the implementation of such new didactics in practice. © 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Concentrates on the mentoring support for teachers in further education (FE) and higher education (HE), rather than the mentoring of students following qualification programmes. Raises issues of definition and argues the need for peer mentoring. Evaluates mentoring models and explores issues of role modelling, selection, styles, skills and qualities. Covers literature from the USA, Canada, Australia and Europe and spans the period 1793-1996, starting with a British Library reference called “The Female Mentor” and including the recent upsurge in mentoring interest across business and the professions. © 1997, MCB UP Limited

Several Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary education (FIPSE) and National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded exchange projects are presented by reviewing proposals for FIPSE, and doing `pre-submission' reviews for clients. The problems that can be fatal to a funding proposal are discussed, after which recommendations are given for planning an exchange program. The observations are based on proposals for the program entitled `European Community/USA Joint Consortia for Cooperation in higher Vocational education'. This program supports new working relationships among academic institutions, non-governmental organizations, and industry, with a special interest in student internships.