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This paper reports on a funded research project into the experiences of tourism, hospitality and cruise management students on internship outside the UK as part of their British university degree between 2007 and 2009. The research reflected on the perceptions of students, course managers, placement officers and members of university placement groups. The research makes use of data collected in focus groups, by interviews and from a survey, to examine the issues relating to student support, non-UK placements, the options for maintaining contact and institutional concerns. The project has generated useful findings and results to inform university work-placement managers about developing mechanisms for supporting students and it has highlighted important issues relating to policy making and the inherent problems associated with managing overseas placements. © 2009 The Vocational Aspect of Education Ltd.

Competence-based vocational education is based on a constructivist learning paradigm, where the development of students' personal professional knowledge is emphasised. However, there is a lack of insight into how students construct their own professional knowledge and what the content and nature of personal professional knowledge is. This article elaborates the concept Personal Professional Theory (PPT): a personal knowledge base in which professional knowledge and beliefs are internalised. PPTs are built upon a combination of declarative and procedural knowledge and are stored in the long-term memory. Furthermore, knowledge in PPTs refers to compiled knowledge which can be specified and applied to different professional situations. These PPTs develop through an interrelated process of internalisation and socialisation, in which students grow into the existing body of shared knowledge and collective norms, values and beliefs of professionals of an occupational domain. It is concluded that the elaboration of PPTs can be used to stimulate and monitor personal professional knowledge development in vocational education, but further research into the content and nature of PPTs is required. © 2009 The Vocational Aspect of Education Ltd.

This article explores the recent development of new spheres of public engagement within UK higher education through an analysis of the foundation degree qualification. These, according to the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), were designed to equip students with the combination of technical skills, academic knowledge, and transferable skills increasingly being demanded by employers, and they have been identified as being at the forefront of educational agendas aimed at increasing employer engagement in the higher education (HE) sector. As such, they might be regarded as an expression of the ‘increasing privatisation’ of HE. However, this article argues that, on the contrary, they have enabled the development of new areas of public engagement relating to the design and delivery of courses as well as providing new opportunities for the pursuit of public policy goals such as widening participation. Such outcomes, it is argued, are the result of a number of factors that explain the ‘publicness’ of the qualification and that should be sustained to ensure the implementation of the 2006 Leitch Report in a manner that further develops public engagement. © 2009, UCU.

Workplace learning is currently a crucial component of most programmes leading to professional and technical careers. Universities of Technologies expect their students to spend up to a year of their training programme at the site of envisaged work, while professional programmes in, e.g. teaching, are requiring a longer period of time to be spent in schools. The new framework for teacher education in South Africa gazetted in 2007 requires a student teacher to be in schools for up to a year. In fact, the length of school-based placement within teacher development programmes is central to the conceptualizations of theoretical models (e.g. master-apprentice model, applied science model and professional model fo teacher development) that frame teacher development across the centuries. This signals that workplace learning, either through internships or bouts of school placements spread across the programme, is now being conceptualized as a crucial component of learning. Currently, the major focus on workplace learning is on curriculum, policy and process issues. Little research has focused on discriminatory practices that impact on students learning and lives when students go on these workplace learning activities. This paper draws on empirical evidence from two different occupational specific training programme (Hospitality training and teaching), using surveys and narrative enquiry with students and staff of industries and schools, to identify the major forms of discriminatory practices that students are exposed to during their workplace learning and its resultant impact on their learning and lives. The paper finally alludes to curriculum intervention in the learning programme to help address theses gaps in training programmes. © Common Ground, Labby Ramrathan, Sathishah Ramrathan.

Several series studies related to school science teachers’ PCK. Chapter one first describes the social constructive framework related to the research model. Then it addresses the related literature concerning PCK of pre-service and in-service science teachers, as well as the merits of models. Finally, a research-based model for PCK is presented. The process of PCK development involves the PCK-COPR module (Comprehension, Observation, Practice and Reflection).Then, chapter two demonstrated a group of pre-service teachers (n=23) to participate a technology-based PCK-COPR model designed to restructure science teacher education courses. There were significant differences in ’‘pedagogical knowledge’', '‘technology knowledge’’ and '‘overall PCK’’ (F = 4.123, p < 0.05, F = 9.260, p < 0.01, and F= 6.372, p < 0.05, respectively.), but no significant differences in the other aspects. The innovative teaching experience could help pre-service teachers develop multiple teaching methods and strategies, and further enhanced their PCK. Chapter three was to examine the eighth-grade students’ perceptions of science teachers’ PCK difference between beginning teachers and experienced teachers, and the effects of applying the PCK-COPR model in the concepts of '‘electric circuits’'. The research methods of students’ perceptions and teachers’ reflection could increase the learning and research experience of both in-service science teachers and the instructors and also serve as useful reference for other in-service teacher education institutes. Chapter four aimed to explore the impact of integrating a peer-coaching model into team teaching on PCK development of team teachers of secondary integrated science from a social constructivist approach. The research design included two-semester peer coaching and one-semester team teaching. Two simultaneous interventions should be conducive to science teachers’ creative thinking and collaborative relationship. Chapter five evaluated a three-stage collaborative concept-mapping technique in the fourth-grade science classes. The major issue investigated includes the student performance and responses toward the experimental teaching method. The findings showed that the two teaching methods reached significant difference with respect to students’ test scores. The experimental teaching method provided interaction, presentation and a way of progressing to enhance the learning outcome. Two studies demonstrated the innovative approaches of teaching and learning mathematics. Chapter six evaluated a collaborative learning model integrated into team teaching in the sixth-grade math classes. Three mathematics classes were assigned to Experimental Groups and Control Group for eight weeks in this study. The findings of the study showed the experimental teaching method enhanced students’ performance. Chapter seven was to evaluate a technology environment integrated into collaborative learning in sixth-graders’ mathematics classes. The study focused the advantage of the constructivist view of teaching and learning process, which mainly highlighted three aspects including “active construction”, “experiential learning” and “social interaction”. © 2009 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Australia's higher education and vocational education and training (VET) systems have undergone major structural change over the last 30 years with significant ramifications for horticultural education and training. Unlike at higher education levels, where the presence of horticulture students and programs are on the decline, Australia's VET sector has experienced growth in program diversity, provider and student numbers. Significant changes that have occurred within this sector include: (i) evolution of a national curriculum framework, (ii) shift to a competency-based model of education, and (iii) an expansion in organizational profile of education and training providers. This paper focuses on structural changes to the VET sector with emphasis on the Victorian education and training system. Trends indicate that VET horticulture, in the current form of the Amenity Horticultural Training Package, will continue to evolve and grow particularly in the private sector. Employees and institutions appear to accept the overall sense of order achieved by VET sector reforms, although there are specific concerns on the adequacy of industry competency standards themselves that include issues of duplication, the practicalities of providing practical work placements and workplace assessments on a large scale, their ability to service recognition-of-prior learning (RPL), and concerns over quality control.

INTRODUCTION: Australian medical education is increasingly influenced by rural workforce policy. Therefore, understanding the influences on medical graduates' practice location and specialty choice is crucial for medical educators and medical workforce planners. The South Australian Flinders University Parallel Rural Community Curriculum (PRCC) was funded by the Australian Government to help address the rural doctor workforce shortage. The PRCC was the first community based medical education program in Australia to teach a full academic year of medicine in South Australian rural general practices. The aim of this research was to identify what factors influence the career choices of PRCC graduates. METHODS: A retrospective survey of all contactable graduates of the PRCC was undertaken. Quantitative data were analysed using SPSS 14.0 for Windows. Qualitative data were entered into NVIVO 7 software for coding, and analysed using content analysis. RESULTS: Usable data were collected from 46 of the 86 contactable graduates (53%). More than half of the respondents (54%) reported being on a rural career path. A significant relationship exists between being on a rural career pathway and making the decision prior to or during medical school (p = 0.027), and between graduates in vocational training who are on an urban career path and making a decision on career specialty after graduation from medical school (p = .004). Graduates in a general practice vocational training program are more likely to be on a rural career pathway than graduates in a specialty other than general practice (p = .003). A key influence on graduates' practice location is geographic location prior to entering medical school. Key influences on graduates choosing a rural career pathway are: having a spouse/partner with a rural background; clinical teachers and mentors; the extended rural based undergraduate learning experience; and a specialty preference for general practice. A lack of rural based internships and specialist training places is influencing both urban- and rural-origin graduates to practise in urban locations. Further analysis of graduates' career pathway choices (rural or urban) and geographic background (rural or urban) was conducted. This resulted in the development of a new model, 'The Four Qs Model'. This model consists of four quadrants derived from the variables career pathway choice (rural or urban) and geographic background (rural or urban). Clustering of consistent demographic and qualitative trends unique to each quadrant was demonstrated. The distinctive clustering that emerged from the data resulted in the quadrants being renamed 'The True Believers', 'The Convertibles' 'The Frustrated' and 'The Metro Docs'. CONCLUSIONS: The PRCC is influencing graduates to choose a rural career path. The PRCC program affirms the career preferences of rural origin students while graduates with little rural exposure prior to the PRCC report being positively influenced to pursue a rural career path. The Four Qs Model is a useful model in that it demonstrates consistent themes in the characteristics of PRCC graduates and assists understanding of why they choose a rural medical career. This could be relevant to the selection of medical students into rural medical education programs and in the construction of rural curricula. The model also offers a useful framework for further research in this field.

Education is a common means to prepare oneself for a career, be it in government, industry, or academe; profit or non-profit organization; for self-employment or as part of the human resource talent of someone else's organization. Consequently, one of the responsibilities of higher education institutions is to prepare students for their careers. A concept that began to take off in the 1960s is to sandwich a period of actual work exposure within a student's curriculum. This paper explored different variations of that concept within a private university and demonstrated how it impacts the first job experience of its graduates. Data seem to point that students who are exposed to work for longer hours on a full-time basis are likely to receive higher salaries at better first-job level positions after they graduate. © 2009 De La Salle University.

Those who educate medical students and physicians work in a world suffused with the concept of competency. This article examines the intellectual origins and hidden assumptions of this concept and argues that it is an inadequate, and even harmful, concept to use as a guiding motif for professional education. The competency model-which tends to be top-down and prescriptive-does not provide the framework for objective educational assessment that it claims to provide. The alternative apprenticeship model is more appropriate for professional education and is more consistent with what psychological research has shown about the acquisition of expertise. © 2009 by The Johns Hopkins University Press.

The humanities offer great potential for enhancing professional and humanistic development in medical education. Yet, although many students report benefit from exposure to the humanities in their medical education, they also offer consistent complaints and skepticism. The authors offer a pedagogical definition of the medical humanities, linking it to medicine as a practice profession. They then explore three student critiques of medical humanities curricula: (1) the content critique, examining issues of perceived relevance and intellectual bait-and-switch, (2) the teaching critique, which examines instructor trustworthiness and perceived personal intrusiveness, and (3) the structural/placement critique, or how and when medical humanities appear in the curriculum. Next, ways are suggested to tailor medical humanities to better acknowledge and reframe the needs of medical students. These include ongoing cross-disciplinary reflective practices in which intellectual tools of the humanities are incorporated into educational activities to help students examine and, at times, contest the process, values, and goals of medical practice. This systematic, pervasive reflection will organically lead to meaningful contributions from the medical humanities in three specific areas of great interest to medical educators: professionalism, "narrativity," and educational competencies. Regarding pedagogy, the implications of this approach are an integrated required curriculum and innovative concepts such as "applied humanities scholars." In turn, systematic integration of humanities perspectives and ways of thinking into clinical training will usefully expand the range of metaphors and narratives available to reflect on medical practice and offer possibilities for deepening and strengthening professional education. © 2009 Association of American Medical Colleges.