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The paper presents mobile learning as an alternative for competence development in logistics for students already employed in industry world-wide. Discusses why today’s knowledge-driven economy requires lifelong learning especially in logistics/Supply Chain Management. Discusses using the internet for this purpose through a case study of Baltic Sea Virtual Campus. Experiences gained are shown and commented upon. Concludes that mobile learning also requires presence phases; mobile learning is very good for advanced programmes on Masters’ or PhD levels; and mobile learning is attractive for reasons of economy, time, space and opportunity. © 2007 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

A lot hangs on the summative grades that students are given. A good degree opens doors which otherwise might remain closed. Yet, as higher education is now a mass rather than an elite system, what is expected of its graduates is different from the expectations of previous generations. students are expected not only to be able to demonstrate high standards of academic achievement, but also a variety of capabilities that have at different times been given labels such as ‘generic skills’ and ‘transferable skills’. These abilities are difficult to grade for a variety of reasons and some graduates may be losing out because their particular strengths are given insufficient acknowledgement in current summative assessment practices. Using the UK honours degree classifications as a case study, this book appraises the way in which summative assessment in higher education is approached and shows that the foundations of current practices (in the UK and elsewhere) are of questionable robustness. It argues that there is a need to widen the assessment frame if the breadth of valued student achievements is to be recognised adequately. © 2008 Mantz Yorke.

In an increasingly e-literate society, new technologies are being developed and traditional teaching approaches are challenged to meet new requirements. Other aspects such as teamwork and knowledge exchange are also becoming more important. Collaborative work methods are more dominant in the networked working environment. The vocational training at universities is therefore continuously confronted with new challenges. The objective of this paper is to show how the implementation of a holistic teaching approach including the idea of blended learning can be an effective way to train students in collaborative and academic working skills, methodological expertise, information competence, as well as making students aware of new developments in media literacy. This approach follows our proposed concept DIAMOND (Didactical Approach for Media Competence Development) with a main focus on the implementation of the "knowledge- enhancing helix." This pedagogical concept was developed correspondingly the requirements for "good online learning." The paper accordingly discusses the theoretical framework and presents a case study where the concept was implemented in practice.

1 Mustafa F. Özbilgin and Ahu Tatlı INTRODUCTION At the intersection of education and work, work placement is often considered a route to careers in many industries. Therefore the process and the content of work placement can be studied in terms of future career opportunities and prospects. However, work placement design and process can also present career constraints if designed and delivered in particular ways. In this chapter, we explore the success and failure of work placement practices, with a view to revealing forms of career constraint that work placement practices present in the sector. This chapter reports the findings of a scoping study of London-based higher education institutions’ (HEIs) work placement practices within the creative and cultural industries. The research was conducted in four phases, involving a literature review, a field study which scoped the range of work placement practices utilized by HEIs in London, case studies of various models and assessment of work placement practices, and analysis of the documentary and field study data. Field research involved documentary analysis and interviews with representatives from HEIs and organizations in the creative and cultural industry as well as students who are undertaking their placement projects through these HEIs and in firms. We conducted interviews with 11 participants in ten HEIs, ten students, and five respondents in four host organizations. 397 398 Education, training and learning CAREER CONSTRAINT: THE CASE OF WORK PLACEMENTS IN THE CREATIVE AND CULTURAL INDUSTRIES Much of the literature on work placements comes from disciplines that have…. © Mustafa F. Özbilgin and Ayala Malach-Pines 2007.

This article surveys three strands of development in the further education of young people in England since the Second World War: its institutional evolution, some aspects of the experience of its students and staff, and the political and economic imperatives that have given it shape and direction. The account draws upon a wide range of primary secondary sources, from the literatures of professional and social research, economics, political science and political history. Toward the end of the paper, a broader comparative perspective is adopted in order to pin down the distinctiveness of the English experience, before overall conclusions are drawn. These discuss the extent to which further education in England remains a local enterprise and the areas of continuity that, as whole, account both for its identity and its place in English culture and society. © 2007 The Vocational Aspect of Education Ltd.

This article examines three conceptual reforms in US teacher education (competency-based teacher education (CBTE), reflective teacher education (RTE) and constructivist teacher education (CTE)) for their effects on the education of multicultural, multilingual youth, as well as considering alternative certification (AC), known here as an 'anti-reform'. The author suggests that although each reform made incremental improvements in the ways that preservice teachers are prepared to teach multilingual and multicultural learners, none significantly altered the education of under-served children and youth. For instance, CTE points out the importance of prior knowledge, but fails in connecting its core concepts with culturally relevant instruction. CBTE, while also generally failing to alter teacher preparation for multicultural learners, did try to make explicit connections for preservice teachers. RTE made explicit the moral consequences of working in diverse communities but fell short when it altered the apprenticeship-mentor relationship. AC of teachers is presented as the work of neo-liberals whose largely successful efforts to deregulate teacher preparation offer both an improvement and retrenchment for urban children and youth. Finally, the article links the field's focus on the preparation of teachers for diverse students and the moral dimension of teacher education, concluding that such a connection may be the only way to maintain the professional school preparation of teachers.

A positive work ethic is central to individual and career success. Yet, it can be difficult to instruct and assess work ethic with adolescents, especially those in middle and early high school who typically are not employed. This research developed an operational framework, learning experiences, and assessment of work ethic as it relates to school-based behaviors of adolescents. The framework was based on established conceptualizations of work ethic focusing on initiative, dependability, and interpersonal skills. It was used as a basis for the Work Ethic Trait Behavior Indicators Inventory, a 30-item performance-based assessment instrument, and a series of work ethic lessons. Development processes for the assessment tool and procedures for schoolwide data collection are described. Recommendations and discussion are based on pilot implementation of the learning experiences and pre/post assessments of students in a ninth-grade career exploration class taught in a large metropolitan high school. © 2007 American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences.

The emerging knowledge society is one of the main reasons that underlie the appearance of the interactive combination of learning and working in higher education. It is argued that the coop education system and work-based learning can become important instruments in integrating learning and working only if coop education is organized as a knowledge network in which universities and business closely cooperate. Based on this community perspective on coop education, a literature study and secondary analysis of evaluation and policy studies with relation to coop education are performed, in order to distinguish drivers for the development of coop higher education as well as factors that inhibit the acceptance of coop higher education. To further the conceptualisation of the coop system, the cooperation between a university of professional education and a number of business partners in a particular project (the Interface project) has been explored and examined. It is concluded that the further development of a system of coop higher education requires a number of advancements among others: further conceptualisation of this specific type of higher education, a quality assurance system that makes explicit what we mean by academic standards and how students can meet these standards, and a clear description of responsibilities and obligations of the various parties involved. When it comes to the development of sustainable knowledge networks in which institutions of higher education and companies participate the design of a coop curriculum can be very helpful, but cultural differences still need to be overcome. © 2006 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

This study examined a model of assessment that could be applied nationally for Year Twelve Vocational Education and Training (VET) subjects and which could yield both a differentiating score and recognition of competence. More than fifty colleges across all states and territories of Australia field-tested the approach over one school year. Results showed that the model allowed for a standards-referenced model to be used: that the approach was compatible with the diverse range of senior secondary assessment systems in use throughout Australia and that there were considerable cost benefits to be had in adopting the logic of item response modelling for the development of rubrics for scoring performances on units of competence from National Training Packages. A change in the logic of competency assessment was proposed, in that the performance indicators were not rated using a dichotomy but with a series of quality ordered criteria to indicate how well students performed specified tasks in the workplace or its simulation. The study validated the method of assessment development, demonstrated the method's consistency, and showed how the method could address the issue of consistency across states. The study also proposed a set of principles for a joint assessment of both quality and competence.

Wenger's ( 1998) concepts "community of practice," "brokering," and "transfer" explain the challenges co-operative (co-op) education students face in relating the knowledge learned in school with what they learn while participating as members of a workplace. The research for this paper is set within the contexts of the knowledge economy and increased collaboration in the workplace. The paper draws on several qualitative studies of work-based education to examine the similarities and differences between learning in the workplace and learning in school, with a focus on science education and science-rich workplaces. Barriers to connecting school knowledge and workplace knowledge include the nature of science (its purpose, accountability, and substance), the structure of knowledge in each setting, the form content knowledge takes, the sequence that the curriculum is presented in, and the gatekeeping that occurs when knowledge is accessed. The paper addresses implications for interventions in school and the workplace, with attention to the transition from school to work, and concludes by pointing to profound obstacles to con necting school knowledge with workplace knowledge. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.