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Educators have long considered assigning a grade in the assessment of s tudent clinical practice performance as too variable, too subjective, or educationally inappropriate. Consequently, most undergraduate nurse education programs have maintained non-graded pass/fail criteria assessment for evaluating and reporting student clinical performance. This paper argues that, while the varied clinical environments do make assessing students' clinical performance difficult, the reliability and validity of assessment practices should be maintained no matter what the grading system. Furthermore, many assumptions about criterion-referenced assessment, and the associated preclusion of graded assessment, are seen to be baseless when dealing with competencies rather than with traditional behavioural objectives. By combining both criterion-referenced and norm-referenced assessment, graded assessment can clarify and impress on students the minimal competency requirements, while at the same time describing and rewarding meritorious practice. It is argued that to do so would provide a more appropriate way of communicating the assessment of theory application in praxis, a highly relevant issue in a practice-based discipline such as nursing. It is now appropriate to reconsider the debate of graded student clinical performance assessments, and to investigate both the practicalities and benefits of this approach. © 2000 Harcourt Publishers Ltd.

Learning is high on the political agenda for post-compulsory education and training in England. Official discourses about learning assume a predominantly individualist stance, despite the development of theoretical models that stress the contextual and situated nature of learning. In a study following 50 young people through further education over 4 years, it became apparent that the institutional culture of the colleges had a significant impact upon students' dispositions towards their learning. In this paper, we explore the nature and significance of this impact in a case-study sixth form college: an under-researched sector of educational provision. This is followed by a brief discussion of the implications of our analysis for issues of access, widening participation and inequality in relation to current proposals to reform age 16-19 educational provision in England. We conclude by identifying some of the questions about the fine-grained nature of that college culture that our data does not permit us to address directly.

Many Canadian provinces have introduced youth apprenticeship initiatives to facilitate transitions into the labour market. As the German dual system is often considered a model for such initiatives, this paper attempts to introduce a critical perspective on issues affecting the system's future. Economic restructuring, work reorganization, changing hiring practices, and young people's increasing preference toward higher education form the main challenges for the dual system. The review of recent debates about the German dual system suggests that youth apprenticeship initiatives in Canada need to provide students with career options that are more transparent while at the same time maintaining or increasing flexibility in the transition process.

Due to the different ways in which students learn, professors must vary their teaching styles. This variation in teaching styles will aid students in their understanding of course materials and enhance student learning. Richard Felder, a leading scholar in the area of learning styles reports, "students preferentially take in and process information in different ways: by seeing and hearing, reflecting and acting, reasoning logically and intuitively, analyzing and visualizing, steadily and in fits and starts." Project-Based learning (PBL) is an innovative teaching methodology available to teachers to provide student a different type of classroom experience. PBL is designed to make learning relevant and useful to students though the establishment of connections outside of the classroom. This style of teaching changes the relationship between teachers and students. It focuses on the central concepts and principles of a discipline, involves students in problem-solving investigations, and allows students to work autonomously, to integrate concepts across disciplines, to apply principles to real life scenarios, and situations and practices. This article looks at the incorporation of PBL into a Statistical Quality Control Course. The incorporation of projects synthesizes information that the students have been presented via formal/traditional lecture. Also the use of projects serves to solidify and expand students' understanding of the covered material.

The movement of the health care and education professions from an apprenticeship model in the early half of the century to the tertiary education sector has brought an awareness of the key role field experience or practicum plays in professional development. The literature has demonstrated that field experience during teacher education and clinical education is a valuable part of preparation for entry into the teaching and nursing professions. The purpose of this study was to compare and contrast the perceptions of final year students from three distinct undergraduate field experiences. Queensland University of Technology students from adult and workplace education, secondary education, and nursing participated in the study. Data were collected through a series of focus group interviews with groups of five to nine participants across the three discipline areas. students described their expectations of the practical side of their learning and the learning outcomes that eventuated during the practicum.

It has been recognized internationally that undergraduate medical education must adapt to changing needs, as illustrated by the Tomorrow's Doctors recommendations from the General Medical Council. This paper aims to relate contemporary educational theory to undergraduate medical educational requirements, specifically highlighting conditions (e.g. experiential learning) for: professional knowledge acquisition; critical thinking, problem-solving and clinical problem-solving; and lifelong professional learning. Furthermore, problem-based learning (PBL) is highlighted as potentially providing such conditions. There are lessons from contemporary educational theory for the reform of undergraduate medical education. These include valuing prior knowledge and experience; promoting learner reponsibility through facilitating rather than directing learning; encouraging learners to test out and apply new knowledge, and using small-group work to foster explicitly the elusive skills of critical thinking and reflection. Contemporary educational theory contributes valuable insights, but cannot dictate the ultimate 'mix'; at best it provides some principles for reflective analysis of the learning experiences created for tomorrow's doctors.

What are the perceptions and attitudes of high school students toward computer courses? Do they find the computer courses relevant and helpful in their preparation for the world of work? Which kinds of pro grams were rated most positively by students as related to preparation for employment?

The Defence Force School of Music (DFSM) has been responsible for the education of Australian Defence Force (ADF) musicians since its inception in 1984. Previously the preparation of soldier-musicians had been the responsibility of the Army School of the Army School of Music, which was part of the Army Apprentices' School. Preparation of sailor-musicians had been the province of the Royal Australian Navy School of Music. Thus, with its roots in a tradition of training for music as work, the DFSM has been well-positioned to adopt the principles and practices of Vocational Education and Training (VET). This paper reviews the principles of VET, describes the DFSM and its work, and addresses the questions: "How has the DFSM's philosophy and practice of Music-Education-as-VET been shaped by its history?" and "What is the nature of the experience of students at the DFSM?".

The benefits of incorporating the concepts of contextual learning and cognitive apprenticeships into a cross-functional safety curriculum within industrial technology, are discussed. Interactions between industrial technology disciplines can lead to a more efficient use of departmental resources across a larger number of classes. The safety students take the real-life challenges seriously because manufacturing faculty are interested in their suggestions and recommendations. Successful cross-curricula interactions can lead to experiences that are more realistic for the students and heightens interest level among students for content outside of their area of focus.

This paper investigates the nature of teaming outcomes of thirty six electronics students who were receiving training under the recent reform processes advocated by the Australian government. The reform processes place great emphasis on macro issues thereby unintentionally relegating the micro issues, such as learning in the classroom, to a lower priority. Such misdirected emphasis may hinder the development of an intelligent workforce. A multi method approach which involved a problem task, interviews and concept maps was used to establish the learning outcomes. The learning outcomes were analysed to identify the nature of students' knowledge structures and the sophistication in their understanding of the topic "Frequency Division Multiplexing". students' knowledge structures and levels of understanding were compared with those generated by 3 experts. The findings indicated a low level of understanding and a very lean knowledge structure with limited relational links to other elements in the given information. Furthermore, a comparison of students' knowledge structures and levels of understanding was made between students with more than 2 years work experience and those coming to their course straight from secondary schools. The findings of this analysis did not support the argument that work experience enriches students' knowledge and understanding, as students with no work experience performed better then the work experience students. Thus, there needs to be more empirical research on the nature of real work experience routines and how it affects learning rather than theorising on ideal work situations.