Towards the In‐College Evaluation of TEC Programmes

Abstract

The advent of the single European market has generated new demands for training and consultancy, and many further and higher education institutions have been anxious to exploit the commercial opportunities that have been created. In general, however, institutions have been more successful in providing training for the public sector than they have been for the private sector. A survey of FHE reveals the kinds of single‐market training that are on offer, and suggests that the training that is available needs to be more precisely geared to the requirements of business if colleges and universities are to make further inroads into the private sector. It is argued that much training is currently ‘supply led’ rather than ‘demand led’, and that institutions need to recognise important differences between information needs, skills needs and qualifications needs in the design of their single market provision. There are, however, examples of good practice, and institutions’ perceptions of their own needs in improving their European training are also discussed. The article concludes with some practical steps that institutions might consider in order to improve their single‐market training.

‘The training performance of industry and commerce in this country must be raised to meet the greater commitment and higher standards of other European countries.’

The words belong to the then Minister for Further and Higher Education, Robert Jackson, and were spoken in 1990 at the launch of the Department of Education and Science‐funded PICKUP Europe Unit ‐‐ an initiative designed to help further and higher education (FHE) to meet the training needs of industry and business in anticipation of the changes heralded by the single European market (SEM). Helping industry and business to respond to the challenges of the enlarged European market fitted well into the PICKUP scheme, which was intended to encourage FHE institutions to make their expertise and resources available for the purposes of updating and reskilling the labour force. It reflected the Government's desire to build a stronger link between education and wealth creation, and to foster competence‐based, as well as knowledge‐based, aspects of educational provision. The 282 measures associated with completion of the single market have made it increasingly important that workers at all levels are familiar with the new Europe in which they will produce goods and services, but just how effectively are further and higher education institutions facing up to their own challenge, and providing the ‘training for Europe’ that is considered so important in ensuring that British businesses exploit the opportunities of the single market?     

Training the Ethanol Workforce: The Importance of Partners in Niche Program Development

Educational, industry, and state leaders worked together to design a program to meet the training needs of Nebraska's fast-growing ethanol industry. The statewide initiative, guided by Northeast Community College and funded through the President's Community-Based Job Training Grants program, is developing dual-credit, short-term training that leads to a certificate, and degree programs in renewable fuels technology.     

Teacher training in early childhood education: The case of Ghana,West Africa

Abstract

Teacher training in early childhood education in Ghana, West Africa is more of a grassroots effort rather than a formal system that is fully supported financially by the Ministry of Education. Formal teacher‐training college or university‐based early childhood teacher training has yet to be realized for the thousands of teachers of children 3–5 years old in government or government‐supported primary schools. This work chronicles the past and present teacher‐training programs available in this country that reports approximately 4.3 million children in its population under the age of 6 years.     

Integrating Information Technology: competency recommendations by teachers for teacher training

ABSTRACT

A challenge for teacher training education lies in keeping courses up to date. This paper provides a view of the top ten IT competencies required of pre‐service teachers, as perceived by practising teachers in USA schools. This paper reports findings from 215 teachers in Colorado public schools. A complimentary view of reasons that teachers have for not using new media in instruction indicates that convenient access to hardware and software are significant issues and recommends re‐examination of traditional teacher training and practise.     

Women and the Enterprise Culture: The Australian Experience∗

Abstract

Information Technology is often heralded as the key feature of employment in so‐called post‐industrial regions. If this is the case then it is vital that education and training for IT is properly conceived and based on a knowledge of actual working patterns involving IT in industry.

The research reported in this article, based on interviews and case‐studies of a range of employers using and developing IT, examines current practices with a view to their implications for education, training and recruitment. By studying IT in the workplace in one city undergoing many changes we hope to highlight some of the general issues in the relationship between education, training, and employment. More specifically, the words of the employees interviewed contain many important messages for both employers and trainers, particularly on recruitment practices, curriculum design and training strategies for the development of information technology.     

Unemployment,Training and Manpower Policy in Inter‐War Britain

Abstract

The development of public training policy in Britain between the 1880s and 1930s was profoundly shaped by three continuing preoccupations. The first was political, and related specifically to unemployment: governments were required to respond to unemployment in the interests of survival, and at times it was believed that agitation amongst the unemployed endangered the socio‐political order. Second, training programmes were developed, at first out of the poor relief system and subsequently out of the ministry of Labour, in response to fears that human capital was deteriorating through protracted disuse and required ‘reconditioning’ if it was to remain active and mobile in the labour market. Third, there was a subsidiary but significant concern with renewal of the white population of Britain's dominions; governments sporadically sought to fit, through training, an urban, industrial labour force for migration to agrarian societies. Despite repeated concern between 1880 and 1939 for the competitiveness of British industry, governments were reluctant during peacetime to intervene in industrial training for fear of seeming to support socialist solutions to the problems of private enterprise. The First World War brought about short‐lived changes in emphasis, but post‐war Reconstruction measures renewed the division between liberal education (bound up with debates over ‘citizenship') and vocational training policies. By 1939, public training policy in Britain was characterised by (1) an exclusive preoccupation with training or retraining the unemployed, more to keep the work ethic alive than encourage the acquisition of new skills; (2) a considerably stronger orientation towards social and regional policy objectives than to labour market planning; and (3) growth through disjointed incrementalism, enjoying substantial bipartisan support, rather than throughopen debate and strategic change.     

Intervention strategies for short‐term memory difficulties for a child with impaired hearing

Abstract

The following study was undertaken in an attempt to identify a procedure that could improve short‐term memory function in a child who is hearing impaired. Specific training in semantic categorisation was carried out over an eight‐week period and proved successful in improving the level of the child's serial recall performance.     

Training Online Technical Communication Educators to Teach with Social Media: Best Practices and Professional Recommendations

ABSTRACT

The author reports on social media research in technical and professional communication (TPC) training through a national survey of 30 professional and technical communication programs asking about their use of social media in technical communication. This research forms the basis of recommendations for training online TPC faculty to teach with social media. The author offer recommendations throughout for those who train online TPC faculty as well as for the teachers themselves.     

The Infoshare Module: Using Collaborative Asynchronous Training to Improve Web Search Skills

Abstract

This article discusses the design, development, and implementation of a collaborative learning environment for online training ‘Infoshare on the Web’ It was designed to teach participants how to use and/or improve their use of Web search engines to access information on the Web. Participants collaborated in completing group tasks using asynchronous communication provided by Simon Fraser's Virtual‐U, a Web‐based environment that supports distance education, information sharing, and training. The module was delivered in four weeks, and participants found both advantages and limitations in the use of asynchronous environments for training.     

Foundations of educational technology: integrative approaches and interdisciplinary perspectives

Abstracts

English: This study examined the effectiveness and efficiency of a three‐dimensional virtual reality simulation model designed to train kindergarten teachers in the understanding of kindergarten children's needs and perceptions. Statistical analysis of the data indicates that the kindergarten teachers who were trained through the virtual reality technology were significantly more understanding of children's needs and perceptions than those trained through the workshop method. Thus, in light of the results of the study, it is suggested that teacher trainers should favourably consider using virtual reality simulation models in the training of kindergarten teachers in order to maximize the effectiveness of the teacher‐training process.     

‘I’ as Maxime ‐ Some Thoughts on the Pedagogical and Therapeutic Use of Audio‐Visual Media

Abstract

It is not a new idea to use audio‐visual media towards therapeutic ends. This paper, acknowledging Aristotle's theory on the purgative virtues of art, also traces contemporary theorists vis‐a‐vis research conducted between 1926 and 1971. Having done so, the author relates this research, through the use of a case study, to the use of alternative audio‐visual materials as applied in the therapeutic sense. It is concluded that the use of audio‐visual materials and methods can offer great potential to the therapist willing to include them in treating patients.     

Teaching impulsive children with arithmetic deficits in special education: a self‐instructional training program

Abstract

Impulsivity is an important and co‐determining factor in the arising of learning difficulties. Impulsive children make many mistakes in arithmetic because of inattention and because they don't use the selfcontrol necessary to correct possible mistakes. In this investigation we examine whether a self‐instructional training program, applied in the teaching of arithmetic, has influences on the impulsivity (measured with help of the MFFT) of pupils who have a quick reaction time and who make many errors. The study involved 52 pupils selected from schools providing special education to children with learning disabilities and educable mentally retarded children. Sixteen of them could be categorized as impulsive children.

The effectiveness of the training program is statistically investigated by means of t‐tests for correlated samples. The results show that training with a self‐instruction strategy can be effectively employed in teaching addition and substraction to educable mentally retarded and learning disabled children with arithmetic deficits. Besides, the impulsive children show after the training a more reflective cognitive style when compared to their cognitive style before the training was started.     

Multimodal intervention in children with attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder

ABSTRACT

Children (N = 3) with attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorders were trained by using a multimodal programme, which comprised three types of intervention: children's individual and group‐based cognitive training, parent training and classroom intervention. The study was done using the experimental single‐case design. Baseline and progress were evaluated by classroom observations, questionnaires and rating scales. Results concerning the two children who were able to finish the programme were promising. Progress was seen in both classroom observations and parent and teacher ratings. Results are discussed and considered from the transactional point of view and some ideas about developing this kind of multimodal programme are given.     

Strategies for the Assessment of Competence

Abstract

The paper examines three different strategies for the assessment of competence. The strategies are different because they base their Judgements about competence on different forms and amounts of evidence and they adopt different procedures for obtaining this evidence. Each strategy is illustrated by means of an analysis of an assessment programme in operation. The programmes are drawn from an investigation of competency‐based training programmes in TAFE colleges, industry and various training institutions carried out in Australia and Great Britain during 1992. The analysis brings out the strengths and weaknesses of each strategy as well as the particular problems and difficulties associated with the assessment of competence and the procedures that must be followed to ensure that principles of sound assessment are adhered to.     

Project Infusion: teachers,training, and technology

ABSTRACT

This paper describes a teacher training project at Barry University in Miami Shores, Florida. The purpose of this project is to develop, implement, and evaluate a model for providing district‐wide teacher training in the use and integration of instructional technology to achieve curricular goals that are competency‐based and designed to be world class standards. The project was funded by the US Department of Education's Fund for Innovation in Education for a period of three years. During that time, 284 elementary teachers received graduate credit at Barry University for participation in an intensive course on the infusion of technology across the curriculum and for conducting teacher training at their own schools. This paper describes the teacher training model and preliminary results of the project.     

The School and the Reduction of Inequality∗

ABSTRACT

The need to develop reasoning skills in children through discussion is generally acknowledged by curriculum aims. There is, however, a lack of any definite teaching strategy to fulfil this need. Matthew Lipman's Philosophy for Children programme has had success in this area. As with other ‘collaborative enquiry‐based’ approaches to learning, it depends upon a teaching strategy which enhances children's self‐esteem. This seems a necessary ingredient for the development of rationality, critical awareness and autonomy in children. Inadequate teacher training is suggested as a major reason for the failure of ‘collaborative’ approaches greatly to influence educational practice. With a shift away from the ‘authority/knowledge‐based’ paradigm and the provision of effective teacher training, it is considered that our educational institutions could become more democratically organised, and we would move closer to realising the liberal ideal of developing human potential to the full.     

Educational Planning in the Eastern Caribbean: A Strategic Approach

Abstract

The paper attempts to show that educational planning in the English‐speaking Caribbean and Surinam, is in a questionable state. Indeed, one can argue that any meaningful planning goes on in spite of, rather than as a result of formal planning by planning units where they exist. This of course raises questions with respect to efficient resource utilization. The paper argues that the available training bodies have concentrated on individual planners, and have failed to provide training in the development of planned systems, or planning as a process. The aspects of strategic planning recommended here, place specific emphasis on planning as a process, recognize the socio‐political imperatives in the management of education, and the essential bankruptcy of an approach that concentrates on a planner as the key factor in educational change.     

Media education for older people - views of stakeholders

ABSTRACT

This study is a part of an ongoing design-based research (DBR) project aimed at designing, piloting, and assessing a digital study module focused on older people’s media education. In order to gain a better understanding of older people’s media literacy and develop the teaching of adult educators, participatory creative workshops for a total of thirty-one stakeholders (older people and professionals who work with them) were conducted. Research data was collected from these workshops through a case exercise from stakeholders and a questionnaire from older people during the year 2019. According to the stakeholders, older people need more training in all the dimensions of media literacy, which is understood as competence in accessing, using, understanding, creating, and critically analyzing different media texts. However, use dimension was the most featured dimension in the data. In addition, older people are a heterogeneous group and it is essential that media education is tailored to meet the current needs of older people. The results indicate that media education should be designed especially to address the needs and individuality of older people.     

Work‐experience and schools: factors influencing the participation of industry

The growth of work‐experience as part of the school curriculum in such schemes as TVEI, has led to a growing body of literature concerned with the educational, social and political consequences of this trend. However, one aspect of analysis has been neglected by those working in this area. There has been a marked lack of investigation into factors which affect the supply of work placements to schools. Behind this lies an assumption that the participation of industry with schools is a straightforward and easy to accomplish process.

By focusing on some of the approaches exhibited by firms towards the provison of work‐experience, this paper seeks to make problematic the supply of work placements by industry in a market economy. I shall suggest that eductionalists and policy makers may have cause to be concerned not only with the quantity of placements which might be available to them in the future, but with the educational quality of these placements.     

Southeast Alabama Network: Improving Education,School Management and Teacher Training through Telecommunications

Abstract

In small language communities, radio, books and the press are regarded as the carriers of the national culture. Television, however, is considered as something coming from outside, threatening the local culture and identity. In two of the world's smallest small language communities ‐‐ Greenland and the Faroe Islands ‐ television was introduced very late (in 1969 and 1979 respectively) and has had an appreciable effect on the media structure and culture. Regarding the author's studies of the introduction of television (in Greenland in 1971) and in the Faroe Islands in 1979‐80) and the social premises, the question is discussed of whether television has had a dominant effect (maybe even a destructive one) and what more general media‐political experiences can be derived which are common for small language communities.