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"Students"

Action research with international Masters in Business Administration students reported here builds on action research carried out at Anglia Polytechnic University to better enable international postgraduate students develop learning and research strategies and research methods to succeed in their study. The Reflection on Learning Inventory (Meyer and Boulton-Lewis, 1997) and IELTS (International English Language Testing System) examination, which tests competence in reading, writing, listening and speaking skills, 1 identify student learning styles and language levels from which conclusions about teaching and learning needs are deduced. A programme of academic-oriented language support, including both the APU-originated CD-ROM Excel at Academic English and specific workshop sessions, has been developed. This programme is piloted with the 2000-2001 cohort, and accompanied by action research which includes focus group interviews and mid-year evaluation of the support and development programme. It has led to radical overhaul of elements of the course itself, with widespread implications for support and development for international postgraduates studying at APU.

Over the past 5 years, an innovative portfolio of degrees in complementary therapies has been developed at the University of Westminster. Most of the degrees were the first of their kind in the UK, and the provision is now the widest range of complementary therapies courses in Europe.With an intake of 80 students in 1996, the provision has grown rapidly to a total of over 500 in 2000.The opening of the unique multidisciplinary Polyclinic in 1998 marked the beginning of an exciting clinical training and research dimension. The context that has lead to the growth of mainstream higher education provision of complementary therapies is explored.The current offer is reviewed, and criteria for degree provision and the role of the professional bodies discussed. The development of the University of Westminster's provision is described, including the early collaboration with established providers, design, influence of nursing and midwifery, experiences with the professional bodies, development of the unique Polyclinic and the plans for the future. © 2001 Harcourt Publishers Ltd.

Learning journals are used to help advanced-level undergraduate students construct a personal understanding of Gaia Theory. In this context, students like the journal technique and consider it appropriate to the course. They also agree that writing journals contributes to promoting subject learning, introspection and self-awareness of their own learning processes. For the instructor, the journals provide detailed insight into the development of student learning and students' interactions with the other components of the curriculum. The journals highlight which instructional devices work, which have problems, who is affected and what learning strategies they adopt. They provide a better perspective on the extent of students' reading and reflection than is obtainable from more formal scripts. The chief problem in the use of learning journals is their bulk and the time required for assessment and analysis. The journal technique has also helped demonstrate how the Gaia Theory may provide an appropriate curriculum for the practice of constructive learning. The unorthodox ideas and contradictions of Gaia Theory successfully challenge students to think deeply, critically and self-consciously about their prior understanding of the world.

This article examines what Foundation level GNVQ students say about their learning experience drawing on findings from a case study of staff and students involved in GNVQ programmes at a further education college. The college has a Foundation Studies department, where all Foundation level GNVQ is taught, and the article reports on interviews with a small group of seven Foundation students. It is argued that the most important issue for them is the shift from being disaffected learners to becoming accepted as students within the college. In achieving this, relationships with teachers are crucial, and appear to be the most significant factor in helping these students move from being apparent failures within the education system, to starting out on a more successful path to learning. © 2001 Journal of Vocational Education and Training All rights reserved.

Reports on the evaluation of a programme which was designed to enable students to complete a traineeship or apprenticeship, and their senior certificate in accordance with a variety of combined school and work programmes, including the New Apprenticeship Scheme. A multimethod approach was adopted which includes interviews with students, vocational educators and employers regarding their perceptions of: competencies, learning outcomes and training acquired during the programme. The results of the interviews with the students illustrated some similar and different perceptions between teachers and students, and showed that students’ main reason for undertaking the vocational education programme were the opportunity to gain “hands on” experience, and a “headstart” to employment. Implications for further research included: an investigation into the perceived status barrier between vocational and general education, the development of work attitudes; and the implementation of a strategic business and marketing plan. © 2000, MCB UP Limited

Context: The recommendations of the General Medical Council in Tomorrow's Doctors renewed efforts to define core knowledge in undergraduate medical education. They also encouraged better use of the medical knowledge base in nurturing clinical judgement, critical thinking, and reflective practice. What then does the medical world understand by 'science', 'critical thinking' and 'competence', given the need to address both growth and uncertainty in the knowledge base and to practise evidence-based healthcare? Aim and objectives: This review aims to outline the role of these key concepts in preparing undergraduate medical students for professional practice. Specifically, it explores: the fallibility of the 'scientific' foundations of medical practice; the role of understanding and thinking in undergraduate medical education; the need for a broad interpretation of competence and its relationship to transferability, and the nature of clinical judgement. Comment: Tensions are seen to lie in the varying interpretations of clinical decision making as art or science; the varying characterizations of the nature of skilled performance in the novice, the competent and the expert practitioner, and the varying reactions to the acceptability and usefulness of 'meta-' concepts in capturing the essence of professional practice. Habitual self-conscious monitoring of mental processes may be the key to the flexible transfer and application of knowledge and skills across the contexts, characterized by uncertainty and incomplete evidence, for which doctors must be prepared.

This article reports some of the findings from a research project on students’ perceptions of education business link activity. Using a self report questionnaire, it contrasts student perspectives on the education business (EB) link activity in schools with ‘well-developed’ links with those having ‘less well-developed’ links. The results suggest that where ‘welldeveloped’ links exist they tend to have overall positive effects on certain key aspects of students’ perceived vocational insight, vocational concerns, locus of control, self-efficacy and work-based learning. These results held up irrespective of the way in which the EB links were organised. Furthermore, the effects were found, on a number of variables, to be most positive in respect of male students. The study concludes that there are differences between schools in their approaches to EB links, which merit further research. © 2000 Journal of Vocational Education and Training. All Rights Reserved.

This paper reports on an evaluation of competence-based vocational education practice in Scotland, with particular reference to higher level professional awards. students (n=236) who registered for level 4 and 5 Scottish Vocational Qualifications (SVQs) returned questionnaires providing data on their experience of the programmes, the criterion-based assessment methodology and the quality of learning. It was found that participation in the ‘new vocationalism’ was highly gender patterned, had little impact on education and training targets and was skewed in favour of particular awards and occupational groups. The criterion-based assessment methodology proved more time-consuming for the students than the staff, with the emphasis on producing paper-based portfolios of evidence. A particular concern emerging from the research was the superficial nature oflearning taking place on competence-based vocational education programmes. These findings are discussed in the context of the growth in ‘outcome-based’ approaches to education adopted by policy makers in Scotland. It is argued that the narrow instrumentalist employer-led standards used to underpin education practice are ill-suited to developing a highly skilled professional workforce for the next century. © 2000 Taylor & Francis Ltd.

The current investigation examined whether apprentices differed from nonapprentices (Gymnasium and teacher's college students) in rates of deviant behavior. Questionnaire data were collected on more than 4,000 Swiss adolescents (mean age = 18.0, SD = 1.1) between the ages of 16 and 19. The following important findings were made: (a) Male nonapprentices were less deviant than male apprentices; no differences were found for females; (b) nonapprentices perceived more connectedness with and greater peer disapproval from parents than apprentices; nonapprenticeship males, in particular, reported greater maternal monitoring and supervision than apprentice males. At the same time, no differences were found in the affective quality of parent-adolescent relations for males or females by educational track; and finally, (c) a model-free USREL comparison of developmental processes by educational track indicated great similarity between apprentices and nonapprentices. Results from the investigation suggest that background variables may account for some variability in adolescent deviant behaviors.

National governments and employers have argued that it is important for all sectors of education to prepare individuals who are able to think well and for themselves. 'Good thinking' and 'thinking well' are commonly used terms bound up with what is called 'critical thinking' in the research literature. Evidence is presented in this paper, however, which suggests that not all students may be good at critical thinking; nor do some teachers appear to teach students 'good thinking' skills. A review of the research literature in this area was undertaken and the methods and conceptions of teaching likely to inhibit and enhance critical thinking are outlined, as well as what is required to improve students' thinking skills. Ways forward in teaching critical thinking, and in helping students to learn to think well and for themselves, are described and discussed.