This thesis is concerned to show that, in the development of educational provision in England during the nineteenth century, the need for adequate technical education was a continuing incentive to change and growth, and that the role of the state in education during this period was by no means as clear-cut as has been widely supposed. The ending of statutory apprenticeship in 1814 did not mean the complete ending of state involvement in technical education. Far from it : the state maintained close supervision of various categories of apprenticeship (paupers, industrial training, etc.), and gave encouragement (moral, and increasingly, physical) to several voluntary educational movements (mechanics' institutes, the denominational societies). Nor did the important Education Act of 1870 mark, a sudden return of the state to the field of education : laissez-faire had long since been eroded by state support for teacher training, examinations, the Great Exhibition, and similar institutions. Moreover, much remained to be done after 1870 : it took a further generation of campaigning on behalf of technical education to produce a system with a substantial and well-equipped provision for technical education from school to universities. The tradition, based upon the experience of apprenticeship, that the only effective training for industry was practical, took a long time to wear down. By the time that technical education had become securely established, the machinery by which the state dispensed and supervized educational policy had itself come to require urgent overhaul, and in the consequent reform of educational administration in 1902 and the revised definition of spheres of education which followed the Balfour Act of that year, technical education declined in importance compared with the general extension of secondary education. A renewed stress on 'liberal' education and the tendency of technical education to continue its emphasis on practical training led to a more rigorous distinction between different types of secondary education, in which technical education suffered a decline in prestige.

Polytechnic education in Singapore is currently going through a watershed period. The redesign of economic development in Singapore is necessitating changes to many institutions and establishments within the county. Polytechnic education that nurtures 45% of each school-going cohort to be job-ready upon graduation is emerging as a critical player in these changes. The establishment of SkillsFuture Council and various national level reports with particular reference to polytechnic education are signposts of the watershed period. Polytechnics, with an astute focus on applied study orientation since their inception, have served the needs of the Singapore economy well. Over the past five decades, polytechnics have gained a reputation of preparing job-ready graduates for industry. Pedagogy plays a crucial role in the process of nurturing polytechnic graduates for the demands of the industry. However, the scarcity of published research on polytechnic education and pedagogies indicates a need for research in this area. Hence, my research is focused on reviewing current pedagogical practices and clarifying the developments required for the impending changes affecting polytechnic education in Singapore. Adopting a constructivist conceptual framework, the study sought evidence for Polytechnic pedagogical needs through interviews with staff, i.e. the key stakeholders. The principal findings from my study highlights a need: (i) for clarity of definition and the principles underpinning pedagogy for Polytechnic; (ii) to emphasise the role of constructivist principles in aiding future pedagogy development for the polytechnic; (iii) to prepare students for workplace learning; (iv) to do an in-depth profile of polytechnic students; (v) to renew the graduate profile of polytechnic graduates; and (vi) to encourage educational research and the establishment of professional learning communities within the polytechnic.

This thesis examines the significance, influence and limitations of the apprenticeship and technical education system which was developed between the 1900s and 1950s by the Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Engineering Company under its Director of Research and Education, Sir Arthur P M Fleming. Metropolitan-Vickers was well known in the industry for its highly developed technical skills, industrial research facility and the quality of its technical and vocational education. This thesis argues that this reputation made a significant contribution to the corporate culture which Metropolitan-Vickers fostered within the company and the wider community as an organisation at the forefront of modern engineering training and practices. It assesses the significance of Fleming, the architect of its innovative apprentice training system, which replaced ‘premium’ apprenticeships with a tiered system of trade, college and schools apprentices who were intended to become skilled ‘craftsmen’ and professional engineers. This system continued after Fleming’s retirement in the mid-1950s and the thesis debates its continuing limitations for females operating in a male-dominated engineering industry in which women’s skills and competencies were questioned. Women who trained to become professional engineers faced many difficulties from the First World War until the 1960s and the thesis examines the extent to which a combination of societal pressures, cultural expectations and class issues limited the ambitions of girls who entered grammar schools in the postwar period. It focuses on the implications for the ‘exceptional’ young girls who did gain entry to the level of technical education in which Metropolitan-Vickers took such pride. These experiences are set within the context of the work undertaken by Isabel Hardwich, a physicist, largely neglected in the history of technical education, who was responsible for ‘technical women’ in the company’s research department. Hardwich played a prominent part in the Women’s Engineering Society which developed initiatives to encourage more girls into engineering and the thesis questions the extent to which these measures were, or could be, successful in a period when women’s skills were so strongly defined by broader social and cultural pressures. In so doing the thesis highlights the pressures placed on the small number of women who did develop careers in engineering, even within a company like Metropolitan-Vickers that was so intimately associated with innovative training both within the industry and beyond.

Sixth form colleges have a long established and valued position within the post-16 education sector in the UK. Despite maintaining a reputation for high quality provision and student success rates, there is very little literature which focuses on this as an institution compared to schools and general further education colleges. Furthermore, there is little research which focuses on students undertaking vocational programmes of study at sixth form, as opposed to the academic A-level qualification which is viewed as its’ ‘staple provision’. This research attempts to address this through an exploration of sixth form college practices and how these serve to shape the learning experiences of the students. Immersed within the SFC context, the researcher adopted the dual role of researcher and student support assistant. Informed by the interpretivist epistemology of symbolic interactionism the researcher employed an ethnographic methodology over one academic term, utilising the methods of participant observation and interviews. The participants comprise a cohort of BTEC First Diploma Health and Social Care (level 2) students and teachers. The data are presented in a story followed by a thematic analysis. The subsequent discussion of findings is structured according to a theoretical framework which rejects deterministic assumptions of intelligence located within the minds of individuals and instead posits learning as an inherently social, reciprocal process with others. It draws upon Communities of Practice theory (Wenger, 1998) as a way of understanding how participation in learning is enabled or disabled and Vygotskian theory (1978) as a way of understanding the mechanisms of learning. Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model (1979, 2005) provides an overarching and unifying aspect of the theoretical framework, enabling consideration of the complex proximal and distal factors which shape the learning experiences of students. This research reveals some important considerations for policy makers and providers of SFC. It discusses ways in which college practices and the learning relationships established between students and teachers serve to enable or disable participation in the learning process. Furthermore, it illustrates the complex and intricate web of factors present in the lives of students and how these are shaped not only by the proximal features of their learning community, but by the more distal, wider features of government educational policy.

Sonderausgabe des 'Dresdner Universitätsjournal' von 2003:BRÜCKEN ZUR GESELLSCHAFT Wie die TU Dresden mit der Stadt kooperiert S. 5 Sparen, strukturieren, profilieren – die TU Dresden kämpft um effiziente Profilkonzepte S. 6 Mit Zielvereinbarungen und Globalhaushalt zu einer modernen Uni S. 8 Der Studentenboom hält an: erstmals über 30 000 Studierende S. 9 Lehre an der TU Dresden – modern und dynamisch S. 10 Internationalität wird groß geschrieben S. 11 Aus der Ferne studieren S. 13 Ein Studium im Ausland gehört dazu! S. 14 Absolventen: aus den Augen, aus dem Sinn? S. 16 Die TU Dresden als Weiterbildungsfaktor S. 17 Standortvorteil: TU Dresden als Mittler zwischen West- und Osteuropa S. 18 Die SLUB: ein neues Haus des Wissens S. 19 Augusthochwasser richtet schwere Schäden an S. 20 BRÜCKEN ZWISCHEN DEN WISSENSCHAFTEN Interdisziplinarität kennzeichnet Lehre und Forschung an der TU Dresden S. 21 Sonderforschungsbereiche auf gutem Wege S. 22 Kooperation mit außeruniversitären Instituten ist (fast) alles S. 23 BRÜCKEN ZUR WIRTSCHAFT Nicht zu übersehen – TU Dresden als Wirtschaftsfaktor S. 24 Forschung an der TU Dresden – praxisnah und transferfähig S. 26 TU Dresden als Partner der Praxis S. 28 »Wissen schafft Brücken« – Die TU Dresden ist 175 Jahre S. 30

Sonderausgabe des "Dresdner Universitätsjournal" von 2003