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"Students"

Background: Apprentices form the major subgroup in adolescents aged between 16 and 25 years in Germany. Prospectively today's apprentices will display an important role within the society by being the backbone of the future middle class, a socio-economic group of high significance. However, there is little knowledge about the health of apprentices, a major determinant of economic and social capacity. A number of surveys has focussed on the health of adolescents, but these studies failed to provide specific data regarding the subgroup of apprentices. Aims of the study: The aims of this study were to survey the health status and the health behaviour of apprentices in a large range of qualified jobs and to point out possible differences between the occupantional fields and gender-specific items. These differences could serve as a starting point for the development of specially-tailored prevention and health promoting strategies in the dual vocational education system. Methods: 528 vocational first-year scholars aged between 16 to 25 years were enrolled in the study. A standardised questionnaire concerning life-style attitudes, (physical activity, smoking, alcolhol consumption, drug-abuse, the amount of sleep and dietary habits) was provided in different vocational school settings. The survey was conducted as a pilot-study in vocational schools of Bielefeld in spring 2005. Results: The response rate was 100%. Health risk behaviours were common in apprentices. The percentage of smokers was higher than 50%, exceeding the average rate found in contemporary students. Physiological activity and sleeping quantity was significantly reduced compared to the period of regular scholarship, while drug-abuse slightly decreased. Gender, graduation and the vocational choice had an influence on the health behaviour of the apprentices. Conclusions: Depending on gender and the vocational choice, apprentices differed in their health risk behaviour and therefore require specially-tailored prevention activities. Health promotion and physical activity programs as an integrated unit in the daily life in schools and at the working places are necessary to increase the awareness for health-related life-style factors and to counterbalance the effects of occupational exposure. Based on the results both partners of the dual vocational training are challenged to implement effective and coordinated programmes to maintain health in this population. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart.

Numerous educators have proposed the development of constructivist Internet-based learning environments for students. When creating the constructivist Internet-based learning environments, it is important for researchers to be aware of students' preferences toward these environments. Through gathering data from 659 university students in Taiwan, this study developed a questionnaire to assess students' preferences toward constructivist Internet-based learning environments. The questionnaire, with adequate validity and reliability, included 34 items on the following seven scales: relevance, multiple sources (and interpretations), challenge, student negotiation, cognitive apprenticeship, reflective thinking and epistemological awareness. The questionnaire responses revealed that male students tended to prefer the Internet-based learning environments where they could solve challenging problems, acquire cognitive apprenticeship and guidance from experts, and promote epistemological development than did female students. The findings also suggested that, if educators intend to develop Internet-based learning environments for more academically advanced students, such as graduate students, care should be taken to create more opportunities for them to negotiate ideas, obtain proper guidance, reflect their own thoughts, and explore epistemological issues. Finally, students with more Internet experiences tended to demand more on many features of the constructivist Internet-based learning environments than those with less Internet experiences. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Research substantiates the effectiveness of problem-based, project-based, and case-based learning as effective tools for student learning. Research also shows the frustration of faculty who have offered excellent teaching in a classroom but who are faced with the challenge of shifting the whole classroom into an online environment. This chapter is focused on ways to transform and redesign a traditional classroom course into an online virtual classroom using the practical application of the problem/project-based approach to learning using online case-based instruction as authentic and active strategies. The chapter shares instructional design strategies as well as the effectiveness of problem-based interactive multimedia case delivery. © 2008, IGI Global. All rights are reserved.

Research substantiates the effectiveness of problem- based, project-based, and case-based learning as effective tools for student learning. Research also shows the frustration of faculty who have offered excellent teaching in a classroom but who are faced with the challenge of shifting the whole classroom into an online environment. This chapter is focused on ways to transform and redesign a traditional classroom course into an online virtual classroom using the practical application of the problem/project-based approach to learning using online case-based instruction as authentic and active strategies. The chapter shares instructional design strategies as well as the effectiveness of problem-based interactive multimedia case delivery. © 2008 by IGI Global.

Understanding the Classical Music Profession is an essential resource for educators, practitioners and researchers who seek to understand the careers of classically-trained musicians, and the extent to which professional practice is reflected within existing classical performance-based music education and training. Bennett maintains that a musician cannot be simply defined as a performer, but that a musician is someone who works within the profession of music in one or more specialist fields. The perception of a musician as a multi-skilled professional working within a portfolio career has significant implications for policy, funding, education and training, and for practitioners and students seeking to achieve sustainable careers. © Dawn Bennett 2008. All rights reserved.

This paper presents a research project that charts the complex development of engagement and professional identities in a group of international students (including British students) on an MSc course in Engineering. A detailed picture of the diversity of students' social, cultural and educational backgrounds at entry is placed against the development of students' own sense of what it means to be an Engineer in an international context. The case study was initiated by a concern for summative assessment outcomes in a number of the modules which were producing a notable bipolar marks distribution in students' final assessments. students were either achieving highly in the module or clearly demonstrating an inability to work with the concepts and ideas of the module. The aim of the research was to investigate the detail and the nature of this outcome following the introduction of an intensified focus on tutors' own research, amongst other innovations. Through survey, observation and interview data the case study focuses on the sociocultural background to learning in Engineering and presents a qualitative finegrained picture of how students build their competences and identities as professional Engineers through engagement with their tutors and their tutors' own research. The initial data on the backgrounds of students presented a fascinating picture of the effects of internationalisation on the composition of student groups in Higher Education. Through the student interviews a picture of students constructing both their competences and identities emerged. The research presented to them by their tutors and that they engaged in themselves as part of the course was seen to be a significant factor in their learning and one that distinguished their learning experience in the UK from their previous learning. students also placed emphasis on the social and personal factors that both supported them in their learning and motivated them to become Engineers in the first instance. Furthermore, early analysis of students' summative assessments indicated that there was a clear impact upon the proportion of students who had made a transition between weak engagement and failure and there was a growing engagement and achievement of threshold performance.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether there are differences in creativity level, as measured by Test your Creativity Level Scale (TYCL) between a group of vocational education students who were taught utilizing project-based method of instruction and a comparable control group taught via traditional method of instruction. The TYCL was administered as a pre-test and post-test for both groups of students (63 in the experimental group and 62 in the control group). Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) on the post-test results of the TYCL with the pretest scores as a covariate indicated significant differences between the groups at the.05 alpha level in favor of the experimental group on the overall creativity level and on each dimension's scores (intuitive awareness, external locus of control, self-confidence, and originality). The study ended by offering a number of theoretical and practical implications for the field of study.

Much attention has been focused on integrating competency-based curricula into educational programs in health management. Achieving the benefits of competency-based curricula requires substantial effort to identify competencies that are both specific and comprehensive, and that reflect consensus among faculty and stakeholders. The objective of this paper is to describe an approach to competency-based curriculum development and monitoring of students' progress toward competency achievement. Our approach identifies 20 competency areas, organized in technical, analytical/conceptual, and interpersonal domains. We demonstrate how individual courses can be mapped to these 20 competency areas and provide survey data on students' and graduates' self-rated competencies. We find the self-rated competencies of new graduates were significantly higher than the self-rated competencies of entering students in 17 of the 20 areas. Our work illustrates an approach to competency-based education that is feasible and helpful for program planning and evaluation. The list of competencies is tractable; the mapping of competencies to didactic coursework and practical experiences is clear and reflects reasonable consensus among faculty and preceptors. Finally, the approach is flexible, as competency areas can be added and removed to be responsive to new research evidence and the changing needs of the field.

The purpose of this study is to examine the attitudes and perceptions of current undergraduate tourism and hospitality students in Australia toward careers in the industry. The study is exploratory and based on a quantitative approach. Areas that students have concerns over include respondent's relationship with their managers, promotion opportunities, career paths, and the pay and conditions offered within the industry. Possibly the most alarming finding to come out of this study is that more than 50% of respondents are already contemplating careers outside the industry. Of those with work experience in the industry, 43.6% claim that they will not work in the tourism and hospitality industry after graduation, with 96.3% of these respondents' citing working experience in the industry as the main reason for this decision. © 2008 by The Haworth Press. All rights reserved.

Alternative approaches to learning and assessment have become common practice in higher education today. While these approaches have several learning, instructional and assessment advantages for students and teachers, a need exists for a better understanding of their consequential evidence. The purpose of this study was to examine students' perceptions of, and satisfaction with, the experience of learning English for Law in the environment of a comprehensive learning and assessment system integrating the project component and academic writing portfolio component into the framework of traditional learning. A sample of 58 law majors from Mykolas Romeris University in Vilnius, Lithuania participated in the study. The main findings of the study indicate that the integrated approach to learning English for Law was very well accepted by the students due to the following benefits it presented: (i) this approach is effective and useful in promoting students' productive and receptive language skills; (ii) it enhances students' satisfaction with their results; (iii) it fosters one's motivation to learn a foreign language; (iv) it promotes students' development as independent learners. It is recommended that this study be extended to the investigation of the impact of such an approach on the students' final results in ESP in comparable groups. © 2008 Taylor & Francis.