Understanding the information and resource needs of UK health and social care placement students

Background: Students on health and social care degree programmes spend 50% of their time on practice placements. Because of the diversity of settings and the need to evidence their work, it is vital to understand the information and resource needs of placement students. Objectives: The aim of this investigation was to understand the needs of placement students in terms of accessing resources whilst they are in the field in order to inform a guide to meet these needs. Methods: Focus groups were conducted with students on midwifery, social work and post‐registration health professions degree programmes on three different sites across the region. Data were analysed using Thematic Content Analysis. Results: Three themes emerged from the data: inequality, user education needs and students’ solutions and strategies. Conclusions: It is essential to speak to placement students in order to understand their needs in terms of accessing and using library resources. The timing and content of information skills training is key to meeting student needs while on placement.     

Limitations of levels, learning outcomes and qualifications as drivers towards a more knowledge-based society

National （and European） qualifications frameworks, the specification of learning outcomes and grand targets like the Lisbon goals of increasing the supply of graduates in Europe in order to achieve a more knowledge-based society are all predicated upon the idea of moving people through to higher and well-defmed levels of skills, knowledge and understanding. However, the work of researchers, from the UK＇s Teaching and Learning Research Programme （TLRP）, examining work-related learning from a number of perspectives, would suggest that the way to move towards a more knowledge-based society is for as many people as possible, whatever their supposed highest overall ＂level＂ of skills is, to believe that they should develop their skills, knowledge and competence in a number of ways unrelated to their current highest ＂level＂. This means rather than having an essentially binary conception of competence at the heart of the levels, it would be far more beneficial in inducing the frame of mind required of a knowledge-based society to have a developmental view of expertise. Such an approach can address three particular challenges that a ＂levels＂ approach f＇mds difficult to accommodate. First, there is the issue of transfer-there would be an expectation that graduates would be some way from ＂experienced worker standard＂ when they completed their initial training. Secondly, such an approach could provide the conditions in which a commitment to continuous improvement at work could flourish, as most people would believe that they needed to develop in a number of ways （at a range of ＂levels＂） in order to improve their performance. Thirdly, this approach of continuing to expect people to continue to develop a range of skills would offer some protection against the development of ＂skilled incompetence＂ （where organisations and individuals continue to focus upon what they do well without paying due regard to the future）.     

Distance Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Turkey: Identifying the Needs of Early Childhood Educators

This study aims to identify the needs of early childhood educators regarding distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic. This basic qualitative research was carried out with a study group of 24 early childhood educators, all of whom were determined via a maximum variation sampling method. The study data were gathered via interviews conducted with the participants and analyzed through an inductive approach. The study findings showed that early childhood educators need to improve their technological competencies, have more interactive resources at their disposal, be able to take advantage of a user-friendly educational platform specifically designed for the early childhood period, be provided with the resources to serve families, and have support for their psychological well-being. Considering the essential role of teachers, which the COVID-19 pandemic has called to mind, it is of vital importance to meet the abovementioned needs so as to improve the quality of distance education in early childhood.

     

Using teacher stories to reveal quality educational practice: An Eastern Cape experience

The University of Fort Hare Distance Education Project set out to improve qualifications of primary teachers in rural and township schools in the Eastern Cape of the Republic of South Africa. At the culmination of an 11-year AUSAid collaboration between the University of Fort Hare and University of South Australia a research project to reveal quality educational practice was undertaken. Using oral histories as the methodology, teacher stories were gathered through a sequence of interviews and classroom observations. This collection of oral histories constitutes the basis for the paper. Its research focus has been the science and mathematics practices of eight teachers who typify the many hundreds who participated in the project. This paper explores the use of oral history as a methodology for documenting quality educational practice.     

The Perceptions of Success Inventory for Beginning Teachers: Measuring its psychometric properties

This study investigated the construction and evaluation of an instrument called the Perceptions of Success Inventory for Beginning Teachers (PSI-BT) intended to measure factors documented in research that contribute to beginning teachers’ perceptions of success. The PSI-BT was found to assess the following factors using exploratory factor analysis: (1) Administrative Support, (2) Classroom Climate, (3) Mentor Support, (4) Colleague and Instructional Resource Support, (5) Commitment, and (6) Assignment and Workload. Internal reliability, content validity, and concurrent validity were also measured in the validation process. Our findings suggest that the PSI-BT provides a reliable and valid instrument that can provide schools with valuable feedback to ensure the success of their beginning teachers.     

After this,nothing happened

PROSPECTS - The presence of COVID-19 means that the world will not return to a prior normal, but we cannot yet know into what future we will head. The world will have considerably changed from the...