Lifelong learning: concepts and conceptions

This article reviews a number of versions of the concept of Lifelong Learning and sets out the main lines of the conceptions of education articulated in them. It then goes on to suggest an alternative to attempts to produce essentialist definitions and proffers a pragmatic, problem solving approach. The article draws substantially on the book by the same authors The School, The Community and Lifelong Learning (London: Cassell, 1990).     

The 'Knowledge Economy': New dreaming or the same old nightmare?

This article explores some of the assumptions, implications and possible futures that arise from an examination of the concept of the 'knowledge economy'. We conclude that the notion is a very misleading one and that, instead, the notion of a critical 'knowledge culture' might better serve the needs of humanity and the environment.     

Amazons,Vampires and Daredevils: Athletic Women in Silent Films

The first two decades of the twentieth century are considered a golden age for sport, but these years were also a time when female daredevils, lady swashbucklers and athletic heroines were surprisingly common. Although they are virtually forgotten today, muscular women stars were a worldwide phenomenon. The first of these female daredevils was Pearl White who put her athletic abilities on display in weekly serials where she continually rescued herself from improbable scrapes by using her own strength and wits. Other intrepid females in Europe soon showed off their own brand of cliffhanging: Frenchwomen Musidora and Josette Andriot, the Danish daredevil Emilie Sannom and the ‘mastodontic’ Italian Astrea all demonstrated their muscular and thespian skills in popular cinematic entertainments during the silent era. These mighty ladies helped to expand the vocabulary of what it meant to be strong and sporty and feminine at the same time. Unfortunately, this enjoyment of female strength and independence all came to an end when sound came to the movies in 1929. By the early 1930s, the era of athletic female stars had come to an end and a more traditional form of femininity caused the disappearance of these forgotten Amazons of the silent screen.     

Using Blogs and New Media in Academic Practice: Potential Roles in Research, Teaching, Learning, and Extension

Compiling a referenced article for publication in a peer-reviewed journal is traditionally the most respected means of contributing to a body of knowledge. However, we argue that publication of evidence-based information via new media – especially blogging – can also be a valid form of academic scholarship. Blogs allow for rapid sharing of research methods, results, and conclusions in an open, transparent manner. With proper references, blogs and other new media can position academic research in the public sphere and provide rapid, reliable information in response to emerging issues. They can also support other traditional goals of higher education institutions, serving as tools for teaching, learning and outreach.     

Applying early decision: Student and college incentives and outcomes

Colleges’ early decision (ED) admission policies require accepted students to commit to attend the school without comparing outside options. With data from two liberal arts schools we find evidence that students with higher willingness and ability to pay and lower measured ability levels are more likely to apply ED. Applying ED raises the probability of acceptance by 40 percentage points. We address the potential selection of students into ED, including estimating an upper bound of 46 percentage points following Altonji, Elder, and Taber (2005). One college appears to use the ED process to screen applicants with high SAT scores and female applicants, thereby avoiding the potential adverse selection of applicants in the regular decision process. Finally, even conditional on higher socioeconomic status and other observable characteristics, applying ED is correlated with higher financial aid packages, perhaps because the college's financial aid resources are higher earlier in the admission process.     

The biomedical doctorate in the contemporary university: education or training and why it matters

The form and function(s) of doctoral education continue to be a subject of much debate by stakeholders internal and external to the university. Notable concerns driving this debate derive from a seemingly discursive array of factors including increasing student numbers, increased understanding of the economic value of doctoral graduates, capitalisation of the academic market and a focus on allocating funding using ostensibly narrow, arbitrary measures of ‘program success’ such as completion rates/time to completion, all framed by a wider debate regarding precisely what constitutes valid knowledge in contemporary society. Within the university, the biomedical sciences are one area of scholarship undergoing rapid change in this respect. One of the salient outcomes of these internal and external dialogues is the apparent transition of biomedical doctoral education towards a ‘training model’ that places increasing emphasis on rapid completion and the generation of ‘industry ready graduates’; a transition that is, potentially, occurring at the expense of the edifying and transformative aspects of biomedical doctoral education. Focusing on the effects of academic capitalisation, this paper draws on data from Australia and Europe to examine the drivers and potential effect(s) of this shift on contemporary doctoral education in the biomedical sciences. This paper acknowledges the potential benefit of contemporary developments whilst simultaneously concluding that by progressing too far towards a quantitatively assessed, industry-driven training model we risk eliminating the intellectual and societal transforming aspects of biomedical doctoral education that make graduates increasingly valuable to our economy and, just as importantly, to our society as a whole.