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"Students"

students' social psychological adjustment to school is an important determinant of achievement growth as well as school continuation and post-secondary educational attainment. Yet many students begin high school with low levels of efficacy and self-worth, and low levels of identification with and liking of school. In this study, we investigate the hypothesis that vocational education in high school provides disengaged students with an educational clean slate, leading to a recovery of engagement for at-risk students. Using propensity score models, we assess the relationship between vocational course taking and changes in effort, extracurricular participation, sense of belonging, interest in school, attitudes toward school and teachers, educational expectations, career aspirations, locus of control, and self-concept with the NELS:88 database. © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, in conjunction with key Canadian stakeholders, has developed a guideline outlining 18 core competencies for those working with clients with addiction issues. The curriculum of Canada’s 35 faculties and schools of social work were examined using the core competencies to determine the extent of addiction education received by undergraduate and graduate social work students. All social work addiction courses were elective offerings, although faculty teaching in this area did express a desire to shift the focus of addiction studies away from elective to core course offerings. The majority of competency- based education at the faculties and schools of social work is taught at a generalist level, and graduate schools of social work teach fewer core addiction competencies than undergraduate. Although competency-based education is generally viewed positively and adopted at faculties and schools of social work, only one third of addiction courses matched with the 18 core competencies developed through the auspices of the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse. © 2009, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

Introduction: This longitudinal tracking project by the University of Queensland Rural Clinical School (UQRCS) provides data on the early career pathways of alumni since its inception in 2002. Specifically we report on; (1) perceptions of the UQRCS regarding its influence on current career choice, (2) current speciality choices, and (3) factors that influenced these choices. Methods: A retrospective web-based survey of all graduates who undertook clinical Year 3, Year 4 or Years 3 & 4 at UQRCS from 2002 to 2006. Associations with demographics, Year(s) at UQRCS, current workplace and speciality choice were assessed. Results: Response rate was 69, (N 180). Alumni who spent two years (Years 3 & 4) at UQRCS reported significantly higher degrees of encouragement to pursue a rural career. Alumni currently working in a non-urban location had spent two years at UQRCS and were significantly higher in desire to remain rural. 'Time spent at the UQRCS' contributed most to interest in a rural career. General practice and emergency medicine were most preferred specialities. Conclusions: Findings confirm that a longer rural clinical experience is more effective in eventual choice of workplace location and future interest in a rural career. This corroborates the positive impact of Australian rural clinical schools toward rural medical workforce improvement. © 2009 Informa UK Ltd All rights reserved.

This study was conducted to examine the extent of work value differences among ethnic classifications of baccalaureate nursing students. Major findings revealed significant differences between ethnic classifications and work ethic behaviors. Contrasts resulting from post-hoc tests indicated that Asian nursing students reported significantly lower scores of work ethic behavior when compared to African American, Caucasian, and Hispanic students. These differences remain unexplained due to low effect sizes. © 2009 International Society for Performance Improvement.

Across advanced industrial economies, programs in higher education are increasingly becoming occupationally specific and universities are being seen as providers of 'higher vocational education'. With this have come expectations that graduates from these programs will enjoy smooth transitions into professional practice. Aligned with these expectations is an educational emphasis on providing students with access to and engagement in authentic instances of practice, and an expectation that these will be effectively integrated within higher education programs. Consequently, it is important to understand how these kinds of educational purposes and processes can be realised, and how higher education students' experiences in both university and practice settings should be best organised and integrated to realise these purposes. This article discusses the worth of these educational purposes and bases for realising the effective integration of these work experiences. This discussion includes considerations of the kinds of curriculum and pedagogic practices needed to be enacted to secure this educational worth. © 2009 Society for Research into Higher Education.

The opportunity to experience work placements that complement taught and practical courses in higher education has become a central strand of many undergraduate degree programmes. While there is tacit agreement that such placements are a good thing, in recent years the numbers of students opting for work placements has been declining. This paper uses a mixed method research design to probe the learning outcomes, attitudes and perceptions of undergraduate students who choose not to go on a work placement. Findings highlight some areas of concern that could be considered by institutions of higher education working to enhance good practice in students' work placement experiences. © 2009 HERDSA.

Development of career goals that are adapted to self and opportunities is a central component of adolescent career preparation. The present longitudinal study (conducted throughout the eighth grade with three assessment points) investigated how 330 Swiss adolescents simultaneously adapt career goals to interests, scholastic achievement and environmental opportunities. Results demonstrated that students increasingly adapt their goals to the environment. Mean adaptation to environment related positively to degree of adaption to interests and achievement. Increased adaptation to environment over time related to increased adaptation to achievement but to decreased adaptation to interests. Gender, attended school type and nationality moderated adaptation processes. Structurally disadvantaged students (girls, lower requirements school track, immigrant students) reported more conflict in aligning adaptation to environment with adaptation to interests. © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

This paper describes how a frame has been used to articulate the intentions of a pre-service chemistry education course to students of that course. The frame, which draws on appropriate knowledge bases for teachers of science, was also used through the teaching of the course as a diagnostic and development tool to assist the learning of these pre-service teachers. However, the success of using such a frame also relies on the use of reflective tools to monitor student learning, such as learning logs and portfolios. While participants in this course were initially reluctant to participate in reflective practices that would help them monitor their own learning and make judgements about what learning they needed to engage in to develop further, by the end of this year long course all participants had changed in their beliefs about the value of reflection. The frames have been instrumental in providing these pre-service chemistry teachers with mechanisms for improving their conceptual knowledge base for the teaching of chemistry. © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2009.

Context-aware ubiquitous learning (u-learning) is an innovative approach that integrates wireless, mobile, and context-awareness technologies to detect the situation of learners in the real world and provide adaptive support or guidance accordingly. In this paper, a context-aware u-learning environment is developed for guiding inexperienced researchers to practice single-crystal X-ray diffraction operations. Experimental results showed that the benefits of this innovative approach are that it is "systematic", "authentic", and "economical", which implies the potential of applying it to complex science experiments, such as physics, chemistry or biotechnology experiments, for graduate and PhD students in colleges, or research workers in research institutes. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A majority of engineering courses in the university have these characteristics such as much period, extensive content, very strong practice etc. The paper takes auto detecting and maintenance specialty as an example to analyze problems of engineering courses in the university in the practice teaching, and put forward many methods, means and new teaching mode to resolve these problems to improve further classroom teaching effect. The virtual instrument technology and the network technology are applied in teaching practice, which resolves the contradiction between more students and short teaching resource. © 2009 IEEE.