Employer‐led Realities: apprenticeship past and present

ABSTRACT

In 1993, the United Kingdom launched yet another new initiative to revitalise youth training, but this time, rather than choosing a title which conjures up the flexible workplace of the future, it chose to delve back into the industrial past and introduced Modern Apprenticeship. Piloted for a year in 15 occupational sectors, Modern Apprenticeship is to expand in 1995/1996 to cover some 50 sectors, many of which have little history of substantive or accredited workplace training. By examining the history of apprenticeship in the United Kingdom, including evidence from two industrial sectors (electricity supply and chemicals), this paper suggests that whilst the concept of apprenticeship may still be very attractive to young people, their parents and some employers, the history of its decline over the past 30 years should be treated seriously by policymakers attempting to re‐create apprenticeship in the 1990s     

Children's discourse patterns and power relations in teacher‐led and child‐led sharing time

This study investigates children's language and interaction patterns during sharing time in a first grade classroom. When sharing time shifted from a teacher‐led to a child‐led event, corresponding changes appeared in children's language, including in discourse routines, style, content, and frequency of verbal interactions. In child‐led formats, peer culture flourished. Several linguistic routines were developed and used by children as a means of social control, as an agent for group bonding, and as expressions of care and concern. Two different child‐led formats revealed how the event's structure regulated participation and length of turn during sharing sessions. We suggest that teachers create speech situations that children are allowed to control. Such occasions encourage children's language development, learning through language, and the kind of collaboration essential for growth of peer culture.     

NCVQ and the 16‐19 Curriculum

Abstract

In Britain, the National Council for Vocational Qualifications is developing a new framework of vocational qualifications (NVQs). This paper presents an analysis of the place of this emerging system within the broader context of 16‐19 education. The needs for reform of 16‐19 provision are identified, and the potential contribution of NVQs to meeting them is analysed. Firstly, it is suggested that NVQs may not contribute sufficiently to student/trainee empowerment, because of employer control of the system. Secondly, while NVQs may be well suited to the training of adults in employment, it is suggested that they are ill‐equipped to meet the needs of students on full‐time vocational courses. Based on this analysis, three alternative future scenarios for 16‐19 education and training are presented, and the strengths and weaknesses of each identified. It is concluded that the extensive use of NVQs within 16‐19 education and training is likely to be counterproductive.     

Theory‐led confirmation bias and experimental persona

Questionnaire and interview findings from a survey of three Year 8 (ages 12–13 years) science practical lessons (n = 52) demonstrate how pupils' data collection and inference making were sometimes biased by desires to confirm a personal theory. A variety of behaviours are described where learners knowingly rejected anomalies, manipulated apparatus, invented results or carried out other improper operations to either collect data which they believed were scientifically correct, or achieve social conformity. It is proposed that confirmation bias was a consequence of the degree to which individuals were laden by theory, and driven by this, experimenters assumed one of three different personas: becoming right answer confirmers; good scientists; or indifferent spectators. These personas have parallels with historical instances of scientific behaviour. Implications of a continued teacher‐tolerance of pupil confirmation bias include the promotion of unscientific experimenting, and the persistence of unchallenged science misconceptions. Solutions are offered in the way of practical strategies that might reduce experimenters' theory‐ladeness.     

Open‐mindedness and the University Curriculum

This paper discusses the conditions for selecting and structuring media education in the Swedish comprehensive school, with citizenship education at the core. With reference to John Dewey and Walter Lippmann, different conceptions of the nature of the public are elaborated, which also have inherent in them the tension between a modern and a postmodern interpretation of communication. These conceptions, called ‘communication discourses’, affect the selection and structuring of the content of media literacy when interpreted on the basis of curricula, syllabuses and teaching materials. In the paper communication discourses are also considered from a more overarching angle of socialization ‐ how education and media affect the individual's conceptions of his/her own and other individuals’ relationship to society. The question put here is to what degree differing (social) subjects ‐ identities defined on the basis of social class, gender, race and so on ‐ are found in the texts of the institutions: how are subjects presented and represented?

If one wishes to realize the distance which may lie between ‘facts’ and the meaning of facts, let one go to the field of social discussions.

(John Dewey, 1991: 3)

     

Classroom‐Based Curriculum Development,Artificial Intelligence and History Teaching

The adoption of educational policy measures to close the achievement gap, as well as the significant amount of scholarship dedicated to the subject, are just some of the indicators that reflect the tremendous concern in education about the academic performance of students of colour. Within research aimed at promoting equitable practices in education, culturally relevant teaching has emerged as a good teaching strategy to improve achievement. Using genealogical methods to examine the ways in which culture has become relevant to classroom practice, the author argues that that the perceived difference from white students that made it possible to conceive of children of colour as culturally deficit in the 1960s is also invoked in more recent literature that promotes attending to culture as an equity strategy. The take-up of culturally relevant teaching as something that a teacher can ‘do’, instead of a critical stance that a teacher takes, is also examined and critiqued.     

A Breadth‐First Introductory Curriculum in Computing

This article identifies strengths and weaknesses in the introductory course sequence in computing, ^{1 1}Read as “computer science,” “computer science and engineering”, or any similar title. View all notes and proposes an alternative sequence using a “breadth‐first” approach. This approach integrates theoretical material, includes scheduled laboratory work, and covers a broad range of subject matter in the discipline of computing. We also summarize our early experience teaching the first course in this sequence.

     

Coherence and manageability: reflections on the National Curriculum and cross‐curricular provision

This is a revised version of a paper first presented at the Curriculum Association's annual conference at the University of York in April 1990.     

Curriculum: Broad brushstrokes or paint‐by‐the‐numbers?

Abstract

A renewed emphasis on standardized achievement tests has left teachers bewildered about what to teach and how to teach it. This article attempts to address that issue. Modified or enhanced mathematics instruction was the focus of this study based on two factors: national concerns over students’ achievement in mathematics and technology and the existence of an identified, national set of standards for mathematics instruction. Qualitative methodology was used to address research questions. Teachers involved in the study were trained in the different elements of curriculum modification practices and had one additional hour of orientation to the mathematics unit used in the study. Results of this study suggested that a modified or enhanced curriculum unit alone, with appropriate, escalated learning goals (Schunk, 1996) and authentic resources and products (Renzulli, 1977) can create substantial interest, motivation, and a perceived value in learning for students of all ability levels.     

Aspects of Intercultural Education and Curriculum Decision‐making

This article presents an analysis of intercultural education from the viewpoint of the dynamics of agenda building as a political process. In this analysis, particular attention is given to the theoretical and ideological assumptions on which the concept of intercultural education is based. The author contends that the employment of this concept serves the purpose of issue containment within the arena of conflict where educational policy alternatives are determined.

     

Reliance to Independence: Approaches to learning in peer‐led undergraduate science,technology, engineering,and mathematics workshops

The phenomenographic ‘approach to learning’ literature holds that students’ approaches to learning can change depending on the learning context. This implies that, by modifying the learning context, teachers can change the way students approach learning, and this can ultimately lead to a change in learning outcomes. The study presented here examines one effort to modify a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning context and the approaches to learning taken by students experiencing this environment. Using a qualitative, phenomenographic approach, we interviewed 45 students in a STEM peer‐led workshop programme at a large US research university. Similar to previous approach‐to‐learning research, the study identified three approaches students took to learning in the peer‐led programme, in which they focused on simply making it through the course, engaging more meaningfully with the material, and gaining better control over their own learning.     

A Lifeworld Critique of ‘Nature’ in the Taiwanese Curriculum: A perspective derived from Husserl and Merleau‐Ponty

Learning about ‘nature’ has particular significance for education because the idea of nature is an important source of inspiring meaning‐rich experience and creation. In order to have meaningful experiences in learning and living, this paper argues for a personal subject‐related lifeworld approach to the learning of ‘nature’. Many authors claim that the lifeworld‐led learning approach helps to enrich educational experience. However, there can be various interpretations of the lifeworld approach, as the concept of lifeworld is diversely understood. This paper proposes a personal, subject‐related lifeworld approach from a Husserlian‐Merleau‐Pontian perspective. I suggest that it holds great potential for improving our current curriculum which suffers from meaning‐impoverishment. This paper comprises the following parts: the elucidation of the lifeworld approach to learning, a demonstration of the flaws of current curricula by discussing and analysing the Taiwanese curriculum guidelines, and an exposition of the contribution of the Husserlian‐Merleau‐Pontian lifeworld approach towards improving our current curriculum.