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The purpose of study was to explore the current status for special education program students' vocational field practice in vocational high schools. Hopefully the results will be taken as the references in making field practice in the future. The main axis of this research is by questionnaires. The study adopted stratified random sampling technique based on the location of the school. The population came from 80 special classes of vocational schools in Taiwan area, and gains 54 schools via purposive sampling. The study chooses the "administrative personnel and coaching teachers" as the studying subjects, were investigated by using a self-developed questionnaire, with 348 surveys mailed,273 of which returned, and 78.4% being the rate of valid sampling. The results are summarized as follows: 1. It was best for school to start to arrange the vocational field practice for the junior grade students at the first semester; and it was appropriate for students to arrange the vocational field practice out of school 3 days per week. 2. It was most way to have students practice in generality and several separated vocational fields for special education program students' vocational field practice. 3. The order of the top five jobs for vocational field practice were bakery, car washing, waiters and waiters in the restaurants, clerks in the convenient stores and wrapping workers. 4. The top three difficulties in vocational field practice were the difficulty in finding proper jobs to practice, being refused because of the degree of disability and incompetence. 5. Vocational field practice from special classes of vocational schools was good. 6. There were insignificant differences in the variables of teachers' gender, academic degree, category, duty, specialized background, school area, school location, special classes seniority and install vocational guidance personnel on the vocational field practice from special classes of vocational schools. © Common Ground, Yoau-Chau Jeng, Hong-Min Lin, Shih-Li Hsu, Tsai-Chu Chang.

This study investigated special education teachers' perceptions of the benefits, barriers, and components of community-based vocational instruction (CBVI). Participants included special education teachers (N = 68) from randomly selected high schools in Illinois who had experience delivering vocational curriculum to students with disabilities. Data collection occurred via a survey. Special education teachers perceived CBVI to result in numerous benefits for students with disabilities. Limited resources, requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act, and student issues were identified as barriers to implementation. Incongruence existed between teachers' ratings of the importance and use of the components of CBVI. Years of teaching experience, types of students with disabilities served, size of school, and experience with CBVI affected teachers' perceptions of CBVI. © American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.

This study investigated the effect of performance-based versus competence-based assessment criteria on task performance and self-assessment skills among 39 novice secondary vocational education students in the domain of nursing and care. In a performance-based assessment group students are provided with a preset list of performance-based assessment criteria, describing what students should do, for the task at hand. The performance-based group is compared to a competence-based assessment group in which students receive a preset list of competence-based assessment criteria, describing what students should be able to do. The test phase revealed that the performance-based group outperformed the competence-based group on test task performance. In addition, higher performance of the performance-based group was reached with lower reported mental effort during training, indicating a higher instructional efficiency for novice students. © 2010 The Author(s).

Objective: International reports on school-to-work transition make it clear that worldwide youth are at-risk for educational disengagement and are three times as likely to be unemployed as their adult counterparts. Work-based education (WBE) is one of the most frequently recommended solutions for youth disengagement which suggests that WBE serves as a protective factor and encourages resilience in at-risk youth. The objective of this study was to describe and compare the experiences of two at-risk youth enrolled in WBE. Participants: Two 18-year old at-risk youth enrolled in WBE were chosen for study because they were learning in workplaces judged likely to promote resilience. Both had been disengaged from school prior to enrolling in WBE. Method: Each multiple-perspective case study includes the perspective of the youth, the workplace employer, and the work-based educator. Data consisted of ethnographic observations and interviews conducted at the workplace, and with the teacher in the school. Results: Each case study highlights how supportive adults and an at-risk youth engage in interactions that facilitate the emergence of resilience in the workplace. Conclusions: In these two cases, risk and resilience are context specific, suggesting that at-risk youth may require tailored workplace programs to meet their career development needs. © 2010 - IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved.

Objective: To describe the way in which the rural press portrays a rural clinical school and its staff and students. Design: Textual analysis of a collection of newspapers kept by the local campuses of the University of New South Wales Rural Clinical School (UNSW RCS). The study: The UNSW established a RCS in January 2000. This study sampled a total of 225 articles from eleven rural newspapers, a collection held by the campuses of the rural clinical schools. The major themes of the articles were identified; the descriptive terms the newspaper articles used for medical students, the UNSW RCS and rural doctors were also identified. The way in which clinical schools, their staff and students, are portrayed in the rural press has the potential to influence recruitment and retention. Conclusions: The study showed that the rural press was strongly supportive of the rural clinical school in their local region. This was particularly true for medical students, the school itself and the potential impact on workforce. The newspapers provided information for future students, depicting work-experience programs and current students. They were less illustrative of current medical and academic staff, with the exception of the Head of School. © 2010 The Authors. Australian Journal of Rural Health © 2010 National Rural Health Alliance Inc.

In Portugal, like in other European countries, people with strong professional competencies are encouraged to obtain higher education, no matter their age or their social condition. With their strong professional background and some theoretical aspects linked to scientific and technological domains, they become more helpful for the companies and for the society they belong. Considering these facts, the Portuguese Government developed specific legislation to attract new students for the technological higher education system. This legislation, intends to attract students older than 23, and also aims the improvement of technological education after the secondary school level. Pursuing this goal the Technological Specialization Courses (TSC) were created. The TSC are post-secondary, non superior training courses that will lead the students to obtain level 4 of professional training, according the 85/368/CEE decision of the European Union Council, published on the European Communities official journal. The TSC also allow people from different professional backgrounds to get technological training. The best students are allowed to access higher education in technological domains (basically in Engineering fields) and/or to the job market relied with the country's technological industries. Before the beginning of a TSC, the students are submitted to technological tests to determine their profile, which will be taken into account on the initial training, before the starting of the TSC. In this paper, the success of TSC courses in Portuguese context is demonstrated, and the implementation of a successful partnership between University of Minho and the Technological Association for the Professional Education of Beira Interior (AFTEBI) is shown. The illustration of the successful partnership is done by presenting a case study of a TSC in Industrial Maintenance where the best students can pursue their studies in University of Minho, in the Mechanical Engineering Department in order to obtain a Mechanical Engineering Degree. The main role of UMinho (as Superior Education Institution) at different levels of this post-secondary (non superior) education is also discussed and highlighted. © 2010 IEEE.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine which categories and indicators of quality are best suited to evaluating associate degree culinary arts programs (ADCAP). Design/methodology/approach: The researchers surveyed a national sample of culinary educators and industry chefs in the USA. The instrument asked the participants to rate the importance levels of 50 potential quality indicators for ADCAP. The data were analyzed to determine the most important indicators as well as categories of indicators. Findings: Data analysis revealed the five most important indicators of quality, based on mean scores, to be: sanitation of kitchen laboratories; industry experience of faculty; subject experience of faculty; required internship; and job placement rates. From these data, the researchers developed a list of 20 suggested quality indicators. The indicators were originally divided into eight categories. The majority of the suggested indicators came from the faculty, organization and administration, and facilities categories. However, factor analysis revealed that the list of indicators could more appropriately be divided into 13 categories. Research limitations/implications: The members of the American Culinary Federation surveyed may not be representative of all chefs in the USA. Practical implications: The results provide a basis for educators, students, employers and other stakeholders of ADCAP to evaluate these programs and suggest future research to further evaluate ADCAP quality. Originality/value: This paper applies multiple theories of evaluating quality in higher education to a type of program that has been under-researched in the academic literature. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Teaching method is the means and ways to implement the task of teaching. The purpose of this study is to select the appropriate teaching methods for a newly developed school-based curriculum Introduction to Zhejiang Business Culture. A validated and reliable self-administered questionnaire developed by the investigators was used in the study. 70 students from Zhejiang Economic & Trade Polytechnic were chosen as samples randomly. It was emphasized that participation was voluntary, and respondent confidentiality was assured. Results shows majority of students believe that visits to businesses, real circumstance training, and group discussion may work well. Questionnaire results also indicated that the examination form should be flexible. In stead of the solely writing examination, the performance of students in the discussions and training should be given full consideration and appropriate rating. Flexible teaching methods can stimulate student's passion for learning, develop their independent problem-solving skills, and markedly increase the student's satisfaction to the curriculum. ©2010 IEEE.

Undergraduate research experiences have been shown to enhance the educational experience and retention of college students, especially those from underrepresented populations. However, many challenges still exist relative to building community among students navigating large institutions. We developed a novel course called Entering Research that creates a learning community to support beginning undergraduate researchers and is designed to parallel the Entering Mentoring course for graduate students, postdocs, and faculty serving as mentors of undergraduate researchers. The course serves as a model that can be easily adapted for use across the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines using a readily avail- able facilitator's manual. Course evaluations and rigorous assessment show that the Entering Research course helps students in many ways, including finding a mentor, understanding their place in a research community, and connecting their research to their course work in the biological and physical sciences. students in the course reported statistically significant gains in their skills, knowledge, and confidence as researchers compared with a control group of stu- dents, who also were engaged in undergraduate research but not enrolled in this course. In addition, the faculty and staff members who served as facilitators of the Entering Research course described their experience as rewarding and one they would recommend to their colleagues.