Search Results for
"learning"

This is the second of two papers which look at the relationship between the development of individual physiotherapists and the development of physiotherapy as a profession. It explores the nature of professional knowledge and the process of professional learning which is seen to be crystallised through an integration of theory with practice in the workplace. Important influences of situated cognition and situated learning on physiotherapy practice are identified and discussed in the context of theories of social action and symbolic interaction. These theories challenge the curricular assumptions on which many undergraduate education programmes are based. It is concluded that education programmes which aim to facilitate professional development may more effectively link theory and practice to promote professional learning which is relevant to changes in the ethos and delivery of health services and work in healthcare teams.

We examined the acquisition of incidental information and observational learning of incidental information by adolescents with moderate intellectual disabilities during school-directed systematic instruction. Effectiveness of constant time-delay instruction for vocational-skill acquisition was evaluated within a multiple-probe design across six dyads. Dyadic instructional arrangements allowed the assessment of incidental information acquired through observation. The constant time-delay procedure was effective in teaching the target vocational skill. In addition, participants acquired and retained approximately 50% of the incidental information to which they were exposed during the consequent events of constant time-delay instruction either through direct verbal presentation or through observation of their peers' instruction.

This article is concerned with an exploration of some of the policy and research implications of lifelong learning. It is devoted to the description and critical analysis of the emergence of lifelong learning as the central strategy in the EU's policies towards education and training. The article is organized in three sections. The first section explores the incremental development of the EU's policies towards education and training and the policy-making process up to the mid-1990s. The second section looks more closely at the emergence of lifelong learning on the policy agenda of the EU since 1990. In the third section, attention is focused on a critical analysis of the EU's current understanding of lifelong learning as manifested in the 1995 White Paper on education and training entitled Teaching and learning—Towards the learning Society. © 1999, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Vocational education has become the instrument in Australia to create a more effective workforce in an age of technological change and intense international competition. Policies have been introduced which have focused narrowly upon competency-based training (CBT), the end product, with empirical research revealing that CBT has not been effective or effectively introduced. The importance of processes, particularly effective learning and curriculum, and teacher pedagogical and pedagogical content knowledge (Shulman, 1986), as well as implementation issues, have been ignored. There has also been failure to recognise that many vocational education and training (VET) teachers/ trainers have received minimal or no teacher training and even those formally trained have not been exposed to sufficient educational psychology, especially more recent research on skill learning and the development of expertise, transfer of learning and lifelong learning, key areas for effective learning in VET. Good curriculum documents can help maintain content knowledge currency and increase teaching capability through incorporation of knowledge from these key areas of psychology. Some implications for curriculum of these key areas are explored. Increased efficiency in the workplace can only be achieved through recognition of the importance of learning and serious efforts to develop curricula which provide adequate guidance and in-service education for teachers/ trainers. © 1999 Journal of Vocational Education and Training All rights reserved.

The theoretical foundations of competency-based education are described. Among these are definitions of learning in terms of the situations one can function in rather than the accumulation of knowledge or skills, and of professional growth as a succession of stages from novice to expert. Competence is the midpoint on this continuum where individuals are capable of practicing independently and of assuming responsibility for their continued professional growth. Dental education has functioned well at the early stages of this process, but the assumption that "more of the same" will complete the process is questioned. Also considered are the implications of competency in the political context of dentistry, in curriculum design, and for evaluation. © Munksgaard, 1998.

This article suggests that the experiences of implementing General National Vocational Qualifications (GNVQs) have offered a number of insights into the limitations of the criterion-referenced assessment practices of GNVQs, modelled as they are upon the unit, elements and performance criteria structure of NVQs. As GNVQs evolve and, it would appear, move away from this NVQ ‘template’ on which they were designed, an opportunity has arisen for clarifying the purposes and scope of assessment practices in vocational courses such as GNVQ. This article attempts to (re)establish some broad principles of assessment in relation to GNVQs and to locate these principles in the day-to-day practices of lecturers. The article has arisen from ongoing research into the way lecturers in Further Education are coping with the changes brought about by GNVQs in Health and Social Care and, as such, owes much to the insights offered by practitioners and to their explanations of their own assessment practices. © 1998 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

The new vocationalist policies, exemplified by youth training schemes, do virtually nothing to foster economic development. Such moves are very different to the vocational training of apprenticeships. However, a simple return to apprenticeships is not appropriate. The future of training should be less specific and more general, thereby reflecting and promoting future demands: relearning, and flexibility. Industry and education should point to the errors of current government policy and seek this economically relevant training. © 1998, MCB UP Ltd.

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 paper addresses issues arising out of a small, naturalistic study involving young women in a competency-based training (CBT) course in Office Administration. The study, conducted in Victoria, Australia, was designed to explore how Technical and Further Education (TAFE) student groups, differing in ethnicity and social class backgrounds, responded to certain aspects of a CBT programme. From a socio-cultural perspective, it appears that this programme presents students with many dilemmas about learning, for example, how to obtain a comfortable degree of teacher assistance during learning sessions, methods of resolution of these dilemmas through the improvisation of new group practices appearing to differ along cultural lines. Importantly, some of these practices are likely to interfere with the development of proficiency, thus potentially leading to further educational disadvantage related to ethnic origin and social class. Practical implications for VET practitioners are explored. © 1998 Journal of Vocational Education and Training. All right reserved.