The Young Apprenticeship (YA) programme is the latest in a long line of vocational qualifications to exist fleetingly within the English education system. Introduced in 2004, the YA programme offered Key Stage 4 students the opportunity to combine academic and vocational study within specific industrial sectors. Evaluative studies of a quantitative nature evidence a positive response, both in terms of perceived usefulness and actual success (90% completion rate of the Sport YA, (SkillsActive, 2009)) from students, providers and employers. Never attaining more than pilot status, the programme was closed to new entrants in 2011 following recommendations made by the Wolf Report, condemning it to the role of yet another vocational education ‘experiment’. Little is known about how the students experience a programme that occupies a significant proportion of their Key Stage 4 timetable. Outside of their immediate institutional context, the YA students are a hidden population. This study seeks to examine and give voice to the experiences of the individuals who have participated in the programme, within their institutional context. Through a qualitative research methodology, it is proposed that observed changes in individual disposition during participation in the YA programme allow it to be considered as a ‘lived experience’ for the participants. It is argued that Situated Learning theory and the Community of Practice concept are useful analytical tools through which to make sense of the learning processes in which the YA students engage.

In 2006 The Children’s Workforce Development Council introduced the Early Years Professional (EYP) as a new a graduate level leader of practice and change agent. The EYP was tasked with improving quality in early childhood education and care (ECEC) in England, particularly in the private voluntary and independent (PVI) sector. Professional status was a new phenomenon in this sector and a narrative approach was taken in this study to explore, the experiences and perspectives of four experienced practitioners as they undertook a programme of training and education to become EYPs. Narrative in this study has informed the collection, interpretation and presentation of the data. The first layer of analysis presents the data as monologues which privilege the voices of the participants before the data is deconstructed for two subsequent layers of analysis. The second layer of analysis draws on the work of Bourdieu to explain how feminine stereotypes of care have shaped the participants’ experiences of professionalisation. This thesis argues that professionalisation does not entirely overcome primary conditioning but can increase access to cultural and economic capital and help the workforce resist exploitation. The data are considered in relation to contemporary debates, particularly those concerning performativity and the professional mandate. It is argued that performativity can threaten practice that is built on an ethic of care, leading to ontological insecurity. This thesis posits that the ontological insecurity, associated with EYPS, tends to be transitory and is outweighed by the value, status and access to resources that being a professional brings to the participants. It also argues that the professional mandate is found to be, at best, fragile and, at worst, rejected by significant stakeholders, thus threatening professionalisation of the sector. The final layer of analysis draws on the multiframe model of Bolman and Deal which offers insight into how organisational structures and practices shape participants’ experiences of becoming an EYP and their ability to lead practice, and bring about change. The findings suggest that the role of the professional in ECEC challenges traditional hierarchical organisational structures and the professional is often ill prepared for leadership. Drawing on this multiframe analysis the study synthesises an adapted Change Curve Model with the multiframe model to generate an integrated model of leadership which the practice leader can draw upon to identify the stages of change, and the actions which can be employed at each stage. This model extends knowledge of leadership in ECEC and underpins practice leadership in a sector which is increasingly framed by the raising standards policy context and increased accountability.

This study is an attempt to explore and explain tensions and anomalies associated with the role of Drama in Further Education. An initial intuitive framework suggests that there may be a natural antithesis between the expressive ideology of Drama and the instrumental ideology of Further Education. The frameworks proposed for the exploration include cultural reproduction theory, whilst Drama is perceived as carrying the dilemmas and contradictions of its marginal status. A two-by-two dichotomy is proposed which combines an analysis of Further Education milieu as potentially 'transparent' or 'opaque', and the role of Drama as potentially 'instrumental' or 'expressive'. The study moves accumulatively through three case studies. The first is an historical case assessing the extent, through two representative contrasting periods, to which the problems of Drama in Further Education can be said to reflect wider tensions and ambiguities pertaining to the role of Drama in culture at large. The second case study examines whether the legacy of Further Education is one of historical uncertainty and confusion, and whether Drama has responded in a consistent way to the cross-fire of ideas, interests and rhetorics of justification that it has found itself caught in. The third case study is an in-depth ethnography portrayal of the vicissitudes of Drama in a single institution, Sutton Coldfield College of Further Education, placed against a preliminary city-wide perspective concerning Further Education provision in Birmingham. As a contribution to theory, the thesis seeks tentative generalizations from multi-site and cross-time case studies in several areas, including cultural reproduction theory, modified to take account of sub-cultural tensions, and the moral behaviour and practical gambles associated with marginal subject areas in hostile milieu. It also takes an interactionist perspective on the ploys and strategies by which participants in the contested areas manage the problems of their potentially deviant identities, an account in which the collaborators and fifth columnists have their places. A final consideration is the extent to which the forces of social control in the colleges operate by hegemonic consent or by coercion in seeking to curb and contain Dramatic activity.

The purpose of this study was to explore perceived importance of cultural values and affective components in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and their relationships. This study identified which of the nine affective components of global competence and four higher order cultural values were perceived to be important in the MENA region. It also examined the correlations between cultural values and affective components and whether significant differences existed based on gender, age, and country of citizenship. This research involved the combination of Wallenberg-Lerner’s Affective Component Questionnaire (ACQ) and Schwartz’s Portrait Value Questionnaire (PVQ). In conjunction with a demographic information form, the Affective Component Value Questionnaire (ACVQ) was developed. A panel of experts assisted in establishing the validity of the instrument. All nine affective components were perceived to be important in this global era. Self-assurance, Tolerance for Ambiguity, and Connectedness were perceived to be the most important affective components of global competence, while the cultural value of Self-transcendence was recognized as the most important. Several positive correlations existed between three cultural values and eight affective components. The cultural value of Self-transcendence had the highest number of positive correlations with the seven affective components. Self-enhancement did not reveal any correlations. Analysis of variance was conducted to determine the differences in perceptions based on age, gender, and country of citizenship. No significant differences were present in the perceptions of the affective components and the cultural values based on gender. Perceptions by age were similar for the affective components, but differed for the cultural values. MENA citizens between the ages of 18-25 years more highly regarded the cultural value of Openness to Change and the 46 years and older age group more highly regarded Conservation than the other groups. Perceptions by country of citizenship differed for the affective components, but were similar for the cultural values. Lebanon more highly regarded the affective components, of Adaptability and Empathy. Morocco more highly regarded Connectedness while Tunisia more highly regarded Curiosity. The findings of this research could have a global benefit of raising the awareness and the integration of the MENA’s perceptions of global competencies into the areas of education, research, policy initiatives, and the private sector.

This study compared learning strategies in an effort to determine which strategy would be most beneficial to transfer of learning. A number of approaches were suggested in the related literature for maximizing learning, one of which was to use "learning how to learn," also known by the term content general learning strategy. This study hypothesized that the use of content general learning strategies would produce more transfer of learning across both related and less related tasks than content specific learning strategies. Both learning strategies were combined with either a visual and semantic method of encoding or a semantic only method of encoding. A factorial analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) which combines regression analysis with analysis of variance tested the null hypothesis that the adjusted population means were equal for the covariate of the pretest and the dependent variable of the posttest. Analysis procedures of the ANCOVA on data results reflect that for related and less related tasks, content general with visual and semantic encoding outperformed all other methods tested. The results indicate that a general learning strategy (learning how to learn) is more productive for learning achievement in situations where transfer of learning is desired.

This study examined the effectiveness of intelligent tutoring system instruction, grounded in John Anderson's ACT theory of cognition, on the achievement and attitude of developmental mathematics students in the community college setting. The quasi-experimental research used a pretest-posttest control group design. The dependent variables were problem solving achievement, overall achievement, and attitude towards mathematics. The independent variable was instructional method. Four intact classes and two instructors participated in the study for one semester. Two classes (n = 35) served as experimental groups; they received six lessons with real-world problems using intelligent tutoring system instruction. The other two classes (n = 24) served as control groups; they received six lessons with real-world problems using traditional instruction including graphing calculator support. It was hypothesized that students taught problem solving using the intelligent tutoring system would achieve more on the dependent variables than students taught without the intelligent tutoring system. Posttest mean scores for one teacher produced a significant difference in overall achievement for the experimental group. The same teacher had higher means, not significantly, for the experimental group in problem solving achievement. The study did not indicate a significant difference in attitude mean scores. It was concluded that using an intelligent tutoring system in problem solving instruction may impact student's overall mathematics achievement and problem solving achievement. Other factors must be considered, such as the teacher's classroom experience, the teacher's experience with the intelligent tutoring system, trained technical support, and trained student support; as well as student learning styles, motivation, and overall mathematics ability.

The main aim of this study was to explore student nurses and lecturers’ perceptions of directed study time (DST) within an undergraduate nursing curriculum. Previous research pertaining to the phenomenon has predominantly focused on how students approached learning, and the pedagogical preferences of lecturers and students. A wealth of quantitative literature demonstrates attempts to measure students’ preparation for self directed learning (SDL). Whilst a substantial amount of research has identified that students are unprepared to study independently and direct their own learning; no research has explored the underlying reasons behind this, nor has any research explored the perceptions of DST within undergraduate nursing curricula. A hermeneutic phenomenological approach was used to understand and interpret the participants’ perceptions of DST. The research was undertaken in two phases. In Phase One three focus group interviews were undertaken with student nurses on an undergraduate adult branch nursing course at an English university. In Phase Two, individual semi-structured interviews were carried out with nurse academics from the same university. Template Analysis was used to analyse the data and to determine key themes. Significant findings revealed that both groups perceived DST to be owned by student nurses, who controlled DST. The identities of the groups was not reflective of their roles and resulted in a lack of belonging to the university; this led to limited levels of engagement by both parties with academic activities. Many student nurses did not engage with SDL during DST and the majority of lecturers did not value academia. The culture was influenced by the ‘hidden curriculum’ within which nurse lecturers lacked authority and relied on traditional pedagogical methods to regain a sense of control. The participants also described how some students’ mentors did not value academia and did not always recognise the importance of linking theory to practice. The implications of this research study emphasise the need for a multi-faceted approach to promote the value and importance of academia within the nursing profession.

This is an ethnographic study of a sample of Hindu students in a Further Education college. The students are all following a course leading to the Certificate of Pre- Vocational Education. The data consists of transcripts of informal interviews and of classroom teaching situations; and is analysed from the perspective of an interpretive paradigm. The purpose of the study is to reveal the methods used by the students in reaching an understanding of their own social world. The study seeks to construct a series of world views which reflect the ways in which the students perceive their own sense of reality. The research attempts to explore the views of students on several areas including religion and culture, their feelings about the education system, and their aspirations for employment and a career. Generally speaking, research studies in the sociology of education tend to focus on the schools sector, and it is the intention of this research to redress the balance somewhat in the direction of Further Education. Moreover, studies in multicultural education often describe their samples in non-specific ways such as "Asian students" or "ethnic minorities", and place little emphasis upon the social influences of specific religion and culture. By investigating a particular religious group it is hoped to encourage more studies which place an emphasis upon the importance of religion in defining the social life of Asian people. The study of this sample of Hindu students suggests that there exists a specifically Hindu perception of the world, and that the maintenance of this is of importance to the students. The students appeared to have a profound desire to succeed in the educational system, and to apply that success to particular vocational contexts. An apparently strong motivation to achieve something of value in life was sustained in part by a sense of parental support and interest. The students did not appear to be preoccupied with the racism which they encountered in society. It was also noted that the female students tended to reject firmly the traditional Hindu gender roles. Generally there was a tendency for these young people to develop considerably greater proficiency in spoken rather than written English. The thesis concludes with a reflexive account which seeks to describe the particular perspectives and approaches of the author in arriving at an understanding of the data.

The aim of this study was to investigate the perceptions held by health care professionals, of multi -disciplinary education. In addition, possible areas for the development of a multi-disciplinary approach were identified. The research focused on the views of nurses, physiotherapists, radiographers, speech therapists and occupational therapists. The study adopted a case study methodology, incorporating a mixed-method approach in terms of data collection. A questionnaire was used to review the perceptions of multi-disciplinary education amongst health care professionals, and interviews were then conducted with a sample of the respondents to explore their views further. From the outset, the research process assumed a multi-disciplinary perspective. During the study it became clear that organisational and professional factors were important influences on how health care professionals perceived multidisciplinary education. The research appeared to indicate that the idea of "multidisciplinary education" is a problematic concept and that multi-disciplinary education is acceptable, where it is appropriate. Most of the professions involved recognised the benefits of the process, but were anxious to protect the integrity of each individual profession, in the long term. Moreover, they maintained that the medical profession needs to be included in the process. The organisational findings were, primarily, that multi-disciplinary education might benefit from a cross-agency approach. Perhaps significantly, it was suggested that multi-disciplinary education should be introduced at the pre-registration stage. It was apparent that teamwork does not always occur in practice and that this was an area that could be a focus for multidisciplinary education. The research concluded that there should be joint ownership of any multi-disciplinary education programme across professions and organisations.

No description available.