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"Teaching"

Standards for further education teachers in England and Wales were launched in January 1999 by the newly established Further Education National Training Organisation. They are intended to inform the initial training and continuing professional development of those involved in teaching and learning in further education. Despite an announcement by the Labour Government in The Learning Age Green Paper in 1998 that a qualification for teachers in further education would become mandatory, this decision was withdrawn at the launch of the Standards, and a more cautious wait-and-see approach announced. As part of the consultation and development process prior to the launch of the Standards, the University of Wolverhampton and partner further education colleges undertook a mapping exercise of the draft standards against the University's Further Education Certificate in Education programme, and elements of the Standards will be incorporated into the Certificate in Education from September 1999. This article discusses the implications of the Standards for FE teacher training and considers what sort of ‘teaching and learning professional’ is implied by the Standards. It argues that, in themselves, the Standards could provide a useful basis for training and development. However, they need to be considered in the wider context of education and training, including college incorporation, institutional inspection and standards. Set in this context, it is argued, they could be used as an additional means of monitoring and control, rather than the basis for the development of an innovative and forward-looking profession. © 2000 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

National governments and employers have argued that it is important for all sectors of education to prepare individuals who are able to think well and for themselves. 'Good thinking' and 'thinking well' are commonly used terms bound up with what is called 'critical thinking' in the research literature. Evidence is presented in this paper, however, which suggests that not all students may be good at critical thinking; nor do some teachers appear to teach students 'good thinking' skills. A review of the research literature in this area was undertaken and the methods and conceptions of teaching likely to inhibit and enhance critical thinking are outlined, as well as what is required to improve students' thinking skills. Ways forward in teaching critical thinking, and in helping students to learn to think well and for themselves, are described and discussed.

Due to the different ways in which students learn, professors must vary their teaching styles. This variation in teaching styles will aid students in their understanding of course materials and enhance student learning. Richard Felder, a leading scholar in the area of learning styles reports, "Students preferentially take in and process information in different ways: by seeing and hearing, reflecting and acting, reasoning logically and intuitively, analyzing and visualizing, steadily and in fits and starts." Project-Based learning (PBL) is an innovative teaching methodology available to teachers to provide student a different type of classroom experience. PBL is designed to make learning relevant and useful to students though the establishment of connections outside of the classroom. This style of teaching changes the relationship between teachers and students. It focuses on the central concepts and principles of a discipline, involves students in problem-solving investigations, and allows students to work autonomously, to integrate concepts across disciplines, to apply principles to real life scenarios, and situations and practices. This article looks at the incorporation of PBL into a Statistical Quality Control Course. The incorporation of projects synthesizes information that the students have been presented via formal/traditional lecture. Also the use of projects serves to solidify and expand students' understanding of the covered material.

The movement of the health care and education professions from an apprenticeship model in the early half of the century to the tertiary education sector has brought an awareness of the key role field experience or practicum plays in professional development. The literature has demonstrated that field experience during teacher education and clinical education is a valuable part of preparation for entry into the teaching and nursing professions. The purpose of this study was to compare and contrast the perceptions of final year students from three distinct undergraduate field experiences. Queensland University of Technology students from adult and workplace education, secondary education, and nursing participated in the study. Data were collected through a series of focus group interviews with groups of five to nine participants across the three discipline areas. Students described their expectations of the practical side of their learning and the learning outcomes that eventuated during the practicum.

A concept of teaching basic mathematical knowledge and skills related to the vocational training of master craftsmen in the field of electrical engineering and metal engineering is described. The provision of application-oriented mathematics is pointed out as an important basis of competence needed by master craftsmen in their professional surroundings. A framework for the development of training supporting materials for mathematics learning is explained on the basis of earlier experiences as well as on newer constructivistically oriented instructional approaches of educational psychology and in consideration of current professional guidelines and examination regulations of the Chambers of Industry and Commerce. These materials are developed into three CBT-units which are to be of fundamentally different design in order to enable learning on different levels using the material on the learners' own initiative. Active self-organization is offered to the course participants via the use of interactive multimedia-based presentations.

The benefits of incorporating the concepts of contextual learning and cognitive apprenticeships into a cross-functional safety curriculum within industrial technology, are discussed. Interactions between industrial technology disciplines can lead to a more efficient use of departmental resources across a larger number of classes. The safety students take the real-life challenges seriously because manufacturing faculty are interested in their suggestions and recommendations. Successful cross-curricula interactions can lead to experiences that are more realistic for the students and heightens interest level among students for content outside of their area of focus.

Puts forward the author's view of key issues affecting hospitality education into the new millennium. Issues identified as particularly impacting on UK centres are graduate standards, quality and quality assessment, research assessment, key skills and learning and teaching including the impact of information technology. Amongst these issues, information technology is identified as having the greatest potential impact to bring about radical change. It is suggested that there is now the capability to develop global hospitality education brands. This capability is not confined to existing education suppliers. Corporations, business schools and commercial management development organisations may also be attracted by this opportunity. © 1999, MCB UP Limited

Post-compulsory teacher training in England has been under review, and standards developed by the Further Education Staff Development Forum were to be launched in January 1999 as a precursor to a mandatory qualification for teachers in further education in England and Wales. Until now, many further education colleges have worked in partnership with higher education institutions to run Certificate in Education programmes, which aim to develop both practical teaching skills and critical knowledge and understanding of teaching and learning in a post-compulsory context. A review of one such programme is outlined here. In a context where further education teachers must help to widen participation and promote lifelong learning, it is argued that any new arrangements for initial teacher training and continuing professional development need to include ‘competence’ in the practical skills involved in teaching and learning, but must also go beyond this, and aim to develop critical knowledge and understanding of the changing context in which staff work. It is argued that turning the new Further Education National Training Organisation standards for further education teachers in England and Wales into a National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) is inadequate to this task. A strengthened partnership between further and higher education providers to develop more robust and coherent approaches to professional capability is advocated. © 1999, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

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.