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"Teaching"

The literature suggests that understandings of teaching and learning can be classified around two metaphors: acquisition and participation. It is further argued that neither metaphor is sufficient and that both are necessary. Drawing on material from a larger study related to the professional development of Special Educational Needs Coordinators, the paper uses concept maps and the associated interviews to explore the understandings of the course participants and changes in their conceptualisation over time. The data reveal that individuals do draw on both metaphors and that their progress can be viewed in terms of both acquiring knowledge and also progress from 'novice to expert.' If teaching and learning, and participants' progress are viewed in this way, there are implications for course development and evaluation. Some of these are considered. © 2010 The Authors. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs © 2010 NASEN.

The change toward competence-based education has implications for teachers as well as school management. This study investigates which professional development activities teachers undertake related to this change and how these activities differ among schools with various human resource (HR) policies. Two types of HR policy were involved: (1) a government-enforced, national system of Integrated Personnel Management and (2) a voluntary, integrative approach of Schooling of teachers, Organizational development of schools and teacher training institutes, Action- and development-oriented research, and Professional development of teachers. Semi-structured interviews with 30 teachers in nine schools with different HR policies were held and analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. Findings show that teachers undertake professional development activities in five categories: maintaining knowledge base, applying and experimenting, reflection, collaboration, and activities indirectly related to teaching practice. Teachers' professional development activities were found to be relatively similar across schools with different HR policies. It is concluded that neither government-enforced nor voluntary HR policies seem to play much of a role in the participation by teachers in professional development activities. Implications for further research and school practice are discussed. © 2010 The Author(s).

Field practical training is a requirement for all students who enrol in any program in the Botswana College of Agriculture, as it has been discovered that, experiential learning complements theoretical classroom teaching. The effectiveness of Field Practical Training (FPT) for competence acquisition among students was examined through a descriptive survey. A simple random sampling technique was used to select 71 students out of those that participated in FPT in 2008 and data on their personal characteristics and their perceived competence of agricultural tasks before and after FPT were collected with a structured questionnaire and analysed using frequency counts percentages and t-test statistics. Results showed that a majority of the respondents were males, between the ages of 20 to 24 years and were pre-service students. The level of competence among students changed from not competent to competent in 31 out of the 47 tasks. Students also reported that they were competent before undergoing the FPT programme in 12 tasks and the rating was retained as well after FPT. On the other hand, students reported that they were not competent before and even after undergoing the FPT programme in four of the agricultural practical skills examined. The results of paired t-test showing comparison before and after FPT among students showed that, significant differences were found among 32 tasks with students having higher competence mean score after the FPT training than the score before the training. The study recommends that, established farms should be used for the programme and students should be posted to farms that will enhance their skill development for the area of the academic programme specialisation. © 2011 Academic Journals.

Introduction: This survey set out to identify innovations in teaching of ageing and geriatric medicine delivered to medical undergraduates in the UK. Methods: An electronic questionnaire which asked respondents to report innovations in teaching of which they were particularly proud was sent to all 31 UK medical schools. Results: Twenty-eight schools agreed to participate and full responses were received from 17. Thirteen of these reported innovations that were categorised in six areas - computing and technology, curriculum design, assessment, student-led teaching, multi-professional teaching, and clinical apprenticeships. The use of technology and multi-professional education were the most common areas of innovation. A broad theme touched on by most respondents was the teaching of ageing as a longitudinal theme throughout the course, across many disciplines, rather than in a discrete module. Conclusions: These data reveal a number of innovations in undergraduate teaching of ageing and geriatric medicine within the UK. Work should now focus on how to disseminate current innovations and co-operate at a national and international level to develop future teaching interventions. © 2011 Elsevier Masson SAS and European Union Geriatric Medicine Society. All rights reserved.

Background: The ability to place sutures is an essential skill in dentistry. In our institution, the introduction of a video teaching aid and a checklist-based assessment has improved the standardisation of teaching as well as the transparency and objectivity of the assessment of suture skills. The aim of this study was to determine whether this skill once acquired is retained in the short term.Materials and methods: The same cohort of 67 fourth-year students performed the same assessment at two different time points 2 months apart. The first was a formative assessment and the second was a summative assessment. Feedback was collected on both occasions.Results: On the first sitting of the assessment, 93% of the students were successful compared with 79% on the second occasion. Student feedback was similar on both occasions with 77% and 75% reporting that they thought it was an easy exam. On the first occasion, 27% thought that it was a stressful examination compared with 43% on the second occasion, which may have affected their performance.Conclusions: These findings suggest that regular reinforcement is required to avoid deterioration of suturing skills even in the short term. This might involve exposing the students to surgery earlier in the course and introducing regular formative assessments which the students appear to associate with less stress. © 2011 John Wiley & Sons A/S.

In this case study a novel educational programme for students in preparatory vocational education was studied. The research questions were: (1) Which teaching/learning processes occur in a simulated workplace using the concept of a knowledge-rich workplace? (2) What is the role of models and modelling in the teaching/learning processes? The curriculum project consisted of design and construction tasks. The students were collaboratively involved in the process of designing a tricycle for a real customer. This real-life activity creates opportunities for students to develop and use models, which can be used in more than in one context. The case study explored how the teachers deal with the students' explicit and implicit need for knowledge and skills. The main findings are that teachers more often provide this knowledge, rather than guide the students in reconstructing it, and towards the end of the project, knowledge tended to remain situated. 2011 British Educational Research Association.

Background: General practitioners need the skills to perform a core set of procedures. The increase in community based medical education gives GPs more opportunity and responsibility to facilitate medical students and junior doctors' acquisition of these core skills. Objective: This article summarises how procedural skills are learned and describes a practical framework for constructing a supportive learning environment that is safe for patients and learners. Discussion: Procedural skills are learned in stages starting with a 'big picture' concept of the skill and its place in clinical care. Next the skill becomes fixed through deliberate practice with specific, constructive feedback based on observation. Autonomous practice is reached after further practice and exposure to increased complexity. General practitioners can facilitate skill development by using a staged learning cycle, building on their learner's prior knowledge and skill.

This book defines over 3,000 terms from the field of education to assist those charged with teaching students to become global citizens in a rapidly changing, technological society. John W. Collins and Nancy Patricia O'Brien, coeditors of the first edition of The Greenwood Dictionary of Education published in 2003, have acknowledged and addressed these shifts. This revised second edition supplements the extensive content of the first through greater focus on subjects such as neurosciences in educational behavior, gaming strategies as a learning technique, social networking, and distance education. Terms have been revised, where necessary, to represent changes in educational practice and theory. The Dictionary's focus is on current and evolving terminology specific to the broad field of education, although terms from closely related fields used in the context of education are also included. Encompassing the history of education as well as its future trends, the updated second edition will aid in the understanding and use of terms as they apply to contemporary educational research, practice, and theory. © 2011 by John W. Collins III and Nancy Patricia O’Brien. All rights reserved.

A growing feature of global higher education policy is the explicit link with economic performance. Indeed there is much that mirrors the development in the major economic regions of the world. From Singapore to Melbourne and from Mumbai to San Francisco, directing public educational institutions to provide public capital for their student bodies and then charge them has become a driving imperative of policy. The example I offer here is how European educational strategy has assertively included the vast and varied field of vocational education and training within the lifelong learning perspective. Its commitment to entwine formal education, workplace learning and governmental policy has a leading part in the economic debate on the role of higher education in Europe’s economic development. A desire to develop transparency and comparability in all forms of learning and qualifications, together with the associated required quality of assessment and teaching, has been an underlying and recurring theme in the Bologna Process. The commitment of European educational policy to lifelong learning generates a progressive transnational framework supporting innovative practice by higher education institutions at the local and national levels. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011.

In E-learning Theory and Practice the authors set out different perspectives on e-learning. The book deals with the social implications of e-learning, its transformative effects, and the social and technical interplay that supports and directs e-learning. The authors present new perspectives on the subject by: Exploring the way teaching and learning are changing with the presence of the Internet and participatory media; Providing a theoretical grounding in new learning practices from education, communication and information science; Addressing e-learning in terms of existing learning theories, emerging online learning theories, new literacies, social networks, social worlds, community and virtual communities, and online resources; Emphasizing the impact of everyday electronic practices on learning, literacy and the classroom, locally and globally. This book is for everyone involved in e-learning. Teachers and educators will gain an understanding of new learning practices, and learners will gain a sense of their new role as active participants in classroom and lifelong learning. Graduate students and researchers will gain insight into the direction of research in this new and exciting area of education and the Internet. © Caroline Haythornthwaite and Richard Andrews 2011.