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This article explores how to enrich scaffolding processes among university students using specific Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) software. A longitudinal case study was designed, in which 18 students participated in a 12-month learning project. During this period the students followed an instructional process, using the CSCL software to support and improve their interaction processes, in particular the processes of giving and receiving assistance. The research analysed the evolution of the quality of the students' interaction processes and their learning results. The effects of the students' participation in the CSCL environment are described in terms of their development of affective, cognitive and metacognitive learning processes. The results showed that the specific activities that students performed while working with the CSCL system triggered specific learning processes, which had a positive incidence on their learning results.

The varieties of capitalism literature has put skill systems at the center of comparative politics. Yet its claims about skill specificity are driven by two large coordinated economies, Germany and Japan. This article examines political change of skills in two small coordinated economies. Switzerland has expanded its general skills orientation, whereas Austria retains a highly specific skills system. The cause of this divergence is the different interests of small and large employers: Small employers are more cost sensitive than are large employers, which leads them to oppose the introduction of more general education. The study also shows that the primary measure of skill specificity used in quantitative work-vocational training share-is unreliable. It fails to distinguish between secondary and tertiary vocational training, which have opposite effects on skill specificity. The article develops and justifies an alternative measure-tertiary vocational training-that better predicts the skills clusters observed in advanced capitalism. © 2007 Sage Publications.

The establishment of the European Higher Education Area has involved specifying lists of professional competencies that programs are expected to develop, and with this the need for procedures to measure how every course within a higher education program is aligned with the program's competencies. We propose an instrument for characterizing this alignment, a process that we call assessing the relevance of a course. Using information from the course syllabus (objectives, contents and assessment scheme), our instrument produces indicators for characterizing the syllabus in terms of a competence list and for assessing its coherence. Because assessment involves quality, the results obtained can also be used to revise and improve the course syllabus. We illustrate this process with an example of a methods course from a mathematics teacher education program at a Spanish university. © 2007.

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to explore how higher education (HE) institutions are responding to the workforce remodelling agenda of public services and the emergence of "para-professions" within traditionally low paid/low status employment. Design/methodology/approach: With reference to recent research, the article reviews the authors' experience of foundation degrees (FDs) in education and explores tensions in managing the competing needs of the varying stakeholders. Findings: A model of work-based learning (WBL) results from the study, which includes consideration of the following key areas: employer engagement; CPD and professional bodies - external validation and professional recognition; progression into HE through the workforce; and pedagogy of WBL Research limitations/implications: This article identifies a need for the systematic examination of the issues raised by the implementation of FDs as CPD for employed staff. The assumption that FD provision for employees results in more effective WBL is challenged. The importance of FDs in accreditation for a range of occupations in the Children's Workforce also suggests a need for research into the" professionalisation" of these occupations. Practical implications: The issue of employer engagement is fundamental and that paper argues that HE has a crucial role to play but that ensuring employer engagement requires responsiveness on the part of university structures, as well as the capacity to stimulate employer engagement and/or sanction lack of employer engagement at the level of individual programmes. Originality/value: This article provides information about the new phenomenon of implementation of FDs to support workforce development. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

OBJECTIVE: To report the ethical stances taken by newly-qualified dental graduates working in the south-east of England and how these changed over their first two years in practice. METHODS: A longitudinal self-completed questionnaire-based study using scenarios and closed questions was completed by an initial group of 135 vocational dental practitioners at the very beginning of their vocational training year, at the end of the year, and, finally, at the end of the subsequent year. Their answers were then analysed to see whether or not their views had changed during this period. RESULTS: At the commencement of the study in 2003, 133 (99%) newly-qualified dental graduates completed the questionnaire and answered the closed questions. The following year, 129 (96%) completed these documents and in 2005, at the end of the study, this figure was 97 (72%). There was considerable variation in the attitudes taken by the responding dentists. Reported attitudes changed over the study period in seven of the nine scenarios. Responses to the scenarios used could be grouped into three categories: those in which there was no change; those in which the change happened following completion of vocational training; and those in which there was a continual change. Answers to the four closed questions indicated a growing negativity to practice within the National Health Service over the study period. CONCLUSIONS: Dental educators need to be aware of the findings from this study. The importance of the ethical attitudes held and the reasons underpinning them should be explored if problems with delivery of care are to be avoided in the future.

Mention competency standards in Australia and you will invariably get a response involving rolling the eyes, as well as enthusiastic acceptance. Why? The Australian competency standards framework, like any education system, has its supporters and detractors among educators and the profession or occupation to which the standards apply. The record-keeping competency standards are no different. This article by examining the conundrum that surrounds the record-keeping competencies in Australia, by examining them, the way they are used, the way they relate to other competency frameworks and, in particular, the challenges facing the record-keeping professions using them, will raise questions for any professional body or organisation which is exploring the possibility of using competencies.

In addition to dental hospital clinical activity, dental students at Paris Rene Descartes University have the opportunity in their final year of study to practise clinically in a dental office, as associates. This paper outlines a pilot, experimental study designed to assess student reaction to this Vocational Clinical Activity (VCA) in order to identify relevant weaknesses of the undergraduate programme. Using questionnaires, data were collected for each of the following clinical or management skills: clinical difficulty, therapeutic decision-making, patient/ practitioner relationship, time management, administrative matters and technical problems. Students were asked to rank each item in order of difficulty (1, high level to 6, low level). A high response rate was observed (90%) among the 50 undergraduate VCA students. The results pointed out three main difficulties encountered by undergraduate students during the VCA: time management (90% of the students), administrative matters (85% of the students) and clinical decision-making (80% of the students). These preliminary results need further investigation. However, they give us the incentive to carry on with this type of assessment and to extend it to young, qualified colleagues' perceptions and to other French Universities. © Blackwell Munksgaard 2006.

Vocational training in dentistry in Ireland was first established in 1999 to introduce new graduates to the practice of dentistry and to provide general dental training. The Vocational Dental Practitioner (VDP) spends two days per week in private practice, two days in the health board and one day on day-release attending lectures. Their salary is paid by the Health Service Executive (HSE). The VDP completes a portfolio book throughout the year to demonstrate their progress. Vocational training is not currently mandatory in Ireland. However it does come highly recommended as an excellent start to any dental career.

Background. Undertaking term-time employment is increasingly commonplace for university students. Much research suggests that combining 'earning and learning' may be detrimental to university life, generating role conflicts, increasing stress and reducing academic success, participation and overall adjustment to university. Potential positive effects of term-time employment on well-being are often neglected. Aims. This study adopted a balanced perspective, investigating the relationship between role congruence in academic, social and career domains and adjustment, with state and trait psychological factors as mediators/moderators. Methods. A questionnaire measuring perceived role congruence, adjustment to university life and psychological state and trait characteristics was mailed to all undergraduates at a Scottish university during term-time. Sample. Results for a subsample of 625 university students currently in term-time employment were included in this paper. Results. Findings suggested that students generally perceived employment and university roles to be in balance, and there was no difference in adjustment for students whether currently in term-time employment or not. However, psychological factors, particularly positive affectivity and stress were important mediators of the relationship between role congruence and adjustment. Conclusions. Since promoting role congruence may enhance students' adjustment and well-being, the study has implications for universities, student welfare organizations and employers offering term-time employment. © 2006 The British Psychological Society.

The development of concepts of social inequity and the understanding of occupational prestige is a significant aspect of children's and adolescents' economic socialization. This socially transmitted knowledge base is subject to values and norms of the socializing institutions (family, school). It is argued that the perception and judgment of occupational prestige are in part shaped by the social position of the perceiver. The empirical section of this article presents prestige judgments of East and West Berlin adolescents from lower and middle social backgrounds. In line with hypotheses, judgments significantly differ from measures obtained by cross-societal aggregation and vary with different social origin. © 2006 by Verlag Hans Huber, Hogrefe AG.