Foreign-Born Adults’ Participation in Educational Activities: Evidence From Europe

This article demonstrates that foreign-born adults in Europe tend to participate less in adult education activities compared to native-born adults living in the same country. However, this is mainly explained through the job-related nature of nonformal education. Foreign-born adults tend to participate more in formal adult education than native-born adults in a range of countries. Based on analyses using data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Programme on the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), this article shows that participation rates in European countries are mainly determined by adults’ educational attainment and having a job and that countries with overall high participation rates have higher participation rates among foreign-born adults as well. Exploring the participation in adult education of foreign-born adults in European countries is important, as it is known that those adults perceive difficulties in finding a job and having their foreign credentials recognized in the new country context. Participation in adult education courses might help them in learning new or maintaining their already existing skills.     

Introducing the use of a semi-structured video diary room to investigate students’ learning experiences during an outdoor adventure education groupwork skills course

Outdoor adventure education courses are used in higher education to develop transferable skills such as groupwork and problem-solving skills. There is a need for exploratory investigation into students’ perceptions of this experience. This study aimed to develop an innovative qualitative data collection method, and to use it to explore students’ perceived learning processes and developmental outcomes when taking part in an outdoor groupwork skills course. Participants (n = 40) were undergraduate engineering students who were taking part in the 3 day residential course as part of their degree course. Students’ experiences were captured whilst immersed in the course, using a semi-structured video diary room. Participants entered the diary room at different time points throughout the course and responded to openended questions. Following a thematic analysis, students were found to arrive on the course with mixed feelings towards groupwork and expected learning outcomes. Activities were enjoyable yet challenging, revealing students’ weaknesses and demanding a range of skills and coping methods. The outdoor environment added novelty, risk and natural consequences. Students reported developing a range of skills in groupwork, adaptability, persistence, planning, problem-solving, time-management, communication, leadership, cooperation, group reflection and team spirit, as well as benefits to physical activity, self-confidence, self-awareness, peer and staff relationships and internationalisation. These findings provide a base for future investigation into the long-term impact on student development and skill transfer. The semi-structured video diary room yielded rich data, contributing to the literature by offering a simple, yet effective, qualitative research method that can be implemented in a variety of contexts.     

The hidden benefits of part-time higher education study to working practices: is there a case for making them more visible?

Within the UK, part-time study is now seen as important in meeting wider government objectives for higher education (HE) and for sustainable economic growth through skills development. Yet, measures to capture the impact of HE may not be wholly appropriate to part-time study. In particular, the continuing focus on tangible, economic measures may be down-playing, or even completely overlooking, other gains. Data from a longitudinal study of part-time students show that irrespective of whether graduates had changed job or employer, or had stayed in the same job, individuals reported substantial work-related gains from their HE studies. We suggest that current research questions that focus on job moves and progression within the labour market, may well be the wrong questions to ask to gauge measures of benefits/returns to HE. Further research is needed to develop measures to fully capture the social returns of skills acquisition through part-time study.     

When are poor reading skills a threat to educational achievement?

The cut-off levels of insufficient literacyskills used in national and internationalliteracy studies have not been validated. Thus,it remains uncertain whether adult poor readersare handicapped by insufficient reading skillsin everyday life, i.e. in job-related oreducational activities. The primary purpose ofthe study was to identify a minimum level belowwhich insufficient reading skills proved ahandicap to adults in their educational efforts. One hundred and eighty-nine adults in formal adult education participated in the study. The adults' reading comprehension, decoding skills, primarylanguage, level of exam, student and teacherratings of the adults' reading skills, and theadults' exam grades for courses in formal adulteducation were obtained. Exam grades below themean were taken as documentation of educationalfailure. Adults in the lowest 10thpercentile in reading skills only managed toobtain exam grades below the mean in coursesplacing heavy demands on their reading skills,indicating that poor reading skills were infact a threat to the adults' educationalachievements. Possible causes of insufficientreading skills were further examined. Adults inthe lowest 10th percentile suffered fromvery poor decoding skills. Even though a largervariation was seen in the exam grades foradults in the 10–25th percentile, theytoo, were handicapped by poor readingcomprehension. The decoding skills andsocio-economic data of these adults indicatedthat improved reading skills might increasetheir chances of getting an education.     

Recent changes to students' perceptions of their key skills on entry to higher education

Students arrive in higher education (HE) with a range of generic and subject‐specific skills which they are expected to use and build upon during their degree courses. In order to ensure that undergraduates are able to make a successful transition to HE, it is important that teachers and course designers understand the level and range of skills with which they arrive, and where support and remediation may be required.

For the last nine years, 2065 first‐year undergraduates entering Leeds medical school have completed a questionnaire asking them to self‐assess the number of opportunities to practise a range of 31 generic skills experienced in the previous year, and how confident they feel about their ability to perform these skills. Over this period, a number of trends have become evident. Increased reported practice in a range of information technology (IT) skills might have been expected as a result of improved availability of technology. However, a significant decrease in both practice and confidence in laboratory, data handling and numeracy skills would suggest that changes to post‐16 education are adversely affecting the skills with which undergraduates arrive at university. Other skills, particularly those which relate to students' experience in managing their own learning, have shown no consistent change in reported levels of practice during the period of study, despite increased emphasis on these skills within post‐16 qualifications since the introduction of Curriculum 2000. These observations have implications for course design across a range of courses, particularly in science programmes with significant practical and numerical components.     

高等教育阶段舞蹈专业教育的若干思考——关于课程设置与课程结构改革的思考

课程体系改革是教学改革与创新的核心.当前舞蹈专业的课程结构上存在着比较严重的偏差,专业技术课的比重非常大.这是因长期经验式教学所形成的思维惯性带来的必然结果,认为舞蹈教育的课程结构主要是突出专业教育"高、精、尖"的技能特征即可.由此造就了大批缺乏舞蹈理论与舞蹈文化的舞蹈人.学校面临着如何调整课程结构,加大本学科的基础理论课程,同时开设相关学科的理论知识和研究方法的学习,以适应社会发展,满足社会及人的需求.     

Immersion Learning in Social Work Education: A Pedagogical Tool for Enriching Knowledge and Practice Skills among BSW Students

Immersion learning is one form of experiential education and has great utility in social work education. However, there is limited research on student learning outcomes from immersion learning courses in social work education. This ethnographic research describes an immersion learning course offered to BSW students (N = 9) and the learning outcomes gained. This semester-long course focused on macrolevel practice with people experiencing poverty, homelessness, and the sexual exploitation of women. As part of this course, students went on a weeklong immersion trip, where they visited a dozen human service organizations and interacted with people experiencing poverty and homelessness. Qualitative analysis produced three findings. First, students reported that these interactions helped them realize their biases and impacted their understanding of poverty. Second, students reported enhanced social work practice skills, such as cultural competency, self-awareness, and interpersonal expertise. They also gained a better appreciation for macrolevel practice. Third, students reported a better understanding of how to deploy classroom knowledge in practice and how to apply what they learned back in the classroom. These findings have implications for undergraduate social work education and how immersion learning programs can be a tool for enriching both knowledge and practice skills.     

Teachers’ reasons for using self-assessment: a survey self-report of Spanish teachers

The study aimed to explore teachers’ beliefs about student self-assessment (SSA) and the reasons for their use of it in their classrooms. A representative sample of 944 Spanish teachers (38.8% primary school sector, 54.0% secondary school sector and 7.2% university or adult education sector) were surveyed about SSA. Data were analysed using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling to determine statistically and theoretically significant predictors of teachers’ self-reported use of SSA. Results showed that 90% of the teachers indicated having used SSA in their courses and 90% reported having positive experiences. A well-fitting structural model found five statistically significant predictors for the use of SSA: (1) positive experience with self-assessment, (2) belief in student participation in assessment, (3) willingness to include self-assessment as percentage of final grade, (4) self-assessment advantages and (5) having attended assessment courses. Statistically significant mean score differences for these factors were found according to level of employment and level of educational qualifications. In conclusion, teachers’ values, attitudes and prior experiences with this type of assessment contributed a significant proportion of self-reported SSA usage.     

Graduating as a ‘native speaker’: international students and English language proficiency in higher education

The current concern about low levels of English proficiency among international students who graduate from degree courses – that students’ English language skills are not being developed during their higher education experience – reflects negatively on the quality of Australian higher education and its graduates. More careful selection of students and increased use of English language testing are among the solutions put forward. These debates over English language proficiency tend to construct English language as a skill that can be applied in any context and ‘native‐speaker’‐levels of language ability as essential for employment. Within such a formulation international students can only ever be defined as in deficit. Drawing on socio‐cultural theories of language learning and academic literacy, alternative understandings of language proficiency in internationalized higher education are explored. Improved communication skills among graduates are likely to be achieved through a better understanding of issues beyond classroom instruction, such as barriers to social integration with native‐speakers, which reveal many international students unable to access adequate levels of language experience. Without wider perspectives on the debate over English language proficiency in higher education, the many benefits of having international students in higher education institutions are obscured by negative attitudes and unrealistic expectations.     

Men in limbo: former students with special educational needs caught between economic independence and social security dependence

Individuals in their mid-thirties are expected to be employed and economically independent. However, people with disabilities and health problems – for example, former students with special educational needs (SEN) – may have problems in this domain of adult life. In Norway, individuals with SEN frequently rely on social security and support measures from the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV). This article is based on the narrative analysis of life course trajectories of seven young adult males over a period of 17 years – from their enrolment in upper secondary school with special needs teaching whilst in their teens to their participation in various NAV programmes whilst in their mid-thirties. The life course approach, with an emphasis on transitions and trajectories, has been used as the theoretical framework for analysing the presented data. The hope is that, taken together, these seven stories provide a deeper insight than one individual story could offer. We find that both social structures and the earlier life course affect one’s opportunities for joining the labour market.     

Special Teachers’ Educational Responses in Supporting Students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) in the Domain of Social Skills Development

The acquisition of appropriate social skills is considered critical for a person’s social development and personal well-being. This consideration is far more crucial in the area of inclusive education, where the development of social skills in children with SEN has been associated with academic progress, social inclusion and successful transition to adult life. Special teachers are considered to be critical agents in designing and implementing school-based interventions targeting at the social development of students with SEN. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore the responses of forty (40) Greek special education teachers about dealing with the difficulties experienced by students with SEN in the social domain. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews and were coded and analysed according to the principles of the inductive data-driven analysis approach. The analysis revealed that special teachers had to respond to a wide range of difficulties concerning the students’ social skills that were mainly associated with the formation and maintenance of peer relations, the development of assertion, self-management, compliance and academic related skills. The participant teachers used a repertoire of strategies. However, their responses were not a part of a systematic social skills programming. Furthermore, many participants did not consider themselves efficient enough to create and implement such programmes. The paper concludes by highlighting the need to advance the initial training and professional development programmes of special teachers by incorporating courses related to designing and implementing multi-layered and holistic school-based interventions targeting at the social skills development of students with SEN.     

Credible or Tentative? A Model of Open University Students with ‘Low’ Educational Qualifications

Changes in higher education have meant that institutions are attracting increasing numbers of mature students, who have diverse social and educational backgrounds and may lack conventional A Level (higher secondary school) qualifications. The present study by Dr. Shelley McAlister, an Open University Social Science Associate Lecturer, concerns a group of mature students at the Open University who entered Level 1 Foundation courses in Technology and Social Science without having A Level qualifications. Although they were all categorised as having ‘low’ educational qualifications, they had a range of educational skills and experiences which meant that they perceived their experience of university study in very different ways. Using a social cognitive framework Dr. McAlister has developed a model of Credible and Tentative students which does not predict drop out, but which focuses on the complex interplay between psychological, social and institutional issues which affected their study.     

Study Skills Analysis: A Pilot Study Linking a Success and Psychology Course

This study explored a concept that learning study skills in the context of the content area under study may transfer across courses, multiplying the benefits towards academic success. Methods that have been reported to influence academic growth at the community college level include success courses and applied study skills. In this pilot project among community college students, two instructors provided an enriched study skills curriculum by linking a success course with a psychology course. The instructors used techniques and activities geared toward enhancing study skills such as developing metacognitive strategies. The Learning and Study Skills Inventory (LASSI) was used to assess students’ progress. Despite few statistically significant findings, there were several interesting interaction effects. These provide some evidence for the need to emphasize the development of study strategies in existing success courses while also formally or informally tying such courses with a content course.     

Evaluation of the outcome of lifelong learning programmes for social inclusion: a phenomenographic research

Our current knowledge society does not only have an impact on labour market demands, but its citizens also have to cope with increasing social demands. A growing number of vulnerable adults lack basic competences and therefore risk social exclusion. In this respect, The European Commission as well as the OECD agree that adult education can play a significant role in increasing social inclusion of vulnerable adults. However, to date, evidence of outcome of adult education programmes in terms of social inclusion is hardly available. The present study aims to unravel the complexity of the phenomenon of adult education to enhance participants’ social inclusion. Using a phenomenographic approach, we have explored different experiences of 32 vulnerable adults who have participated in adult education courses. The results show that an increase on an individual level (activation and internalisation) is more often perceived by the interviewees than an increase on the collective level of social inclusion (participation and connection). To ensure successful results and to improve quality of the lifelong learning process it seems that particularly the variables teacher support, life circumstances, and learning contents and activities are important elements to enhance the transfer aiming to increase social inclusion.     

Irish primary school teachers' experiences with Sport Education

This study examines the degree of active learning, participation and engagement of civic, social and political education (CSPE) pupils through an analysis of interview and focus group data, supplemented with key findings from a survey undertaken with CSPE pupils. The study focuses on pupils’ views of the status of CSPE, their experience of active learning, or its absence, and the benefits pupils derived from active/experiential learning. These findings are presented in terms of gender and school-level differences and are analysed within an appropriate participation framework.

The importance of citizenship education is conceptualised through a review of participation theory and the rationale for engaging pupils in active/experiential learning. It is argued that whilst it is important to engage young people in this type of learning, it can only be achieved if teachers believe in it and are willing to give pupils the appropriate autonomy needed to succeed. Examining pupil accounts of CSPE and active learning reveals there is a disparity in perspective between pupils who, in some schools, have benefited greatly from CSPE (through increased confidence and skills development) and those in other schools, where some pupils appear to have subverted active learning and have benefited little.     

“What’s the Middle Ground? Am I Ever Going to be the Perfect Teacher?:” Self-Study of a Doctoral Student’s Acculturation Process

In higher education, doctoral training has been identified as a process of stewardship development whereby individuals learn the knowledge and skills required to advance their respective disciplines. Self-study of teacher education practices is one approach that has gained the interest of doctoral students to help them understand their own development whilst also forging recommendations for others in publications. In this self-study, we worked to understand the experiences of Shrehan, a teacher from England beginning doctoral study in the USA. Shrehan had no experience teaching at the college level prior to moving to the USA, and she saw self-study as an opportunity to understand her development and acculturation into an unfamiliar system of higher education. Data were collected through journaling, critical-friend discussions, and artefacts, as well as student data in the form of surveys, exit slips, and focus-group interviews. Qualitative data analysis of Shrehan’s experiences was guided by the four stages of acculturation theory – honeymoon, culture shock, adjustment, and recovery. Shrehan’s journey emphasizes the importance of getting to know undergraduate students and building rapport as key aspects of teaching at the college level. Self-study provided Shrehan with a heightened personal-identity awareness that increased her cultural sensitivity and broadened her worldview. Results are discussed with reference to acculturation theory and future directions for research are provided.     

Developing an emotional awareness programme for pupils with moderate learning difficulties at Durants School

Abstract

Emotional awareness programmes and initiatives in education have a high profile. Training courses in emotional literacy and emotional literacy projects are being promoted nationwide. However, whilst many successful projects and programmes have taken place in the context of mainstream school settings, by comparison relatively fewer projects have been reported in special school settings. A seven-week emotional awareness project was designed for seven pupils in a Year 8 form group (12–13 years of age) who were presenting with emotional and emotional/behavioural difficulties in Durants School, which caters for pupils with moderate learning difficulties. The project drew upon principles of circle time and placed emphasis on multisensory activities and role play. The purpose of the project was to identify whether an emotional awareness programme would lead to an increase in the pupils’ awareness and understanding of their own emotions, and whether an awareness of other people’s feelings/emotions could be integrated as a core module of the school’s personal, social and health education curriculum. This project illustrates that an emotional awareness programme can be adapted creatively for pupils with special educational and learning needs without involving expensive resources, and can give pupils life skills that can be applied both in and out of the classroom.     

对高校信息技术课程教学的探索

随着科技和社会的发展,获取信息、处理信息、使用信息的能力已成为现代人类最基本的生存能力之一。计算机技术的掌握程度成为现代人受教育程度和科学文化素养的一项重要衡量标志。信息技术教育是一门知识与技能相结合的基础工具课程,不能仅仅满足于使学生掌握基础知识和基本技能,还必须有意识、有计划地培养和发展学生的自主学习能力,为学生更好地适应未来学习、工作的需要提供有力的保证,满足学生终身发展的需要。     

Learning from childhood to mature adulthood: what makes people want ‘to learn to learn’ and keep on learning?

This article describes 35 individuals who have expressed an interest in taking university courses after retirement. Longitudinal data and individuals' own accounts are presented, in an effort to clarify the role that symbolic resources play in individuals' lives, for their capacity to construct their own identity, to function as social actors, and ‘to learn to learn’. It is argued that their lives provide grounds to consider a re‐conceptualisation of adult learning.