A new approach to vocational guidance for school-leavers in the 1920s? Exploring key themes from an influential 1926 report

The economic difficulties currently being experienced in the United Kingdom have served to further intensify debates about the role different kinds of education could and should play in both preparing individuals for work and boosting economic growth. However, these contemporary and historical debates have tended to neglect vocational guidance. This article offers a case study of an experiment to boost vocational guidance in schools during the period of social and economic dislocations that followed the First World War. The scheme drew on the thinking of influential figures like Cyril Burt, and at a theoretical and practical level sought to better connect the classroom with the workplace. Its stated aim was to better prepare children for employment and encourage school-leavers to find work that suited them.     

Co‐education‐‐II: AN ANALYSIS OF RESEARCH ON COMPARATIVE ATTAINMENT IN MATHEMATICS IN SINGLE‐SEX AND COEDUCATIONAL MAINTAINED GRAMMAR SCHOOLS

The Schools Council's evaluation of i.t.a. (Warburton and Southgate, 1969) did not seek to ascertain the attitudes towards i.t.a. of teachers using craditional orthography (t.o.) other than those involved in the British i.t.a. experiments in teaching control groups. This smaller‐scale research aimed to investigate the attitudes of t.o. users as well as i.t.a. users in the Berkshire College school practice catchment area.

The attitude measures distinguished clearly between users and potential users of i.t.a. and t.o. users.

No significant differences in attitude relating to the age of children taught, the age and service of the teacher or the position held in school were found for the t.o. sample, nor, contrary to some of the Schools Council findings, for the i.t.a. users. The sole exception was that older t.o.‐using teachers showed more feelings against i.t.a. than younger teachers.

About 10 per cent of t.o. users indicated that they were potential users of i.t.a., whilst 13 per cent of i.t.a. users rejected i.t.a. in a future situation. There was little demand for i.t.a. courses; only 3‐57 per cent of the t.o. users wished for these.     

Medication Adherence in Older Adults: A Qualitative Study

To effectively address medication adherence and improve cardiovascular health among older adults, a deeper understanding is needed of the barriers that this age group faces and of approaches that would be most effective and feasible for improving adherence. We conducted a focus group study (n = 25) in a diverse population of older adults with hypertension recruited from the Cohort Study of Medication Adherence in Older Adults (CoSMO). A structured guide was used to collect feedback on barriers to adherence and acceptability and the feasibility of intervention strategies. The final coding framework outlines factors at the individual, relationship, health care system, and environmental or policy level that affect adherence in older adults. These include memory, knowledge, attitudes and beliefs, side effects, social support, interaction with healthcare providers, and cost and convenience of medication filling. Patient responses highlighted the varied nature of barriers and the need for interventions that are both multifaceted and tailored.     

Discovering democracy in Australia

Discovering Democracy is designed to give tomorrow’s Australian citizens the knowledge and skills they will need in order to know what values and institutions they can and must change and which should endure. They will know how their democratic system behaves. They will be confident in their ability to act within it as citizens. If it is successful, Australia will not need another public education campaign before Australians celebrate their next civic anniversary.     

Applying systems analysis to program failure in organizations

Certain systems analysis techniques can be applied to examinations of program failure in continuing education to locate weaknesses in planning and implementing stages. Since failures can be the result of human errors and environmental conditions (and frequently a combination of both), a systems design to determine causes must include techniques that can detect both individual and nonhuman factors. Questions to guide an analysis and various procedures are recommended. Unexamined failures may lead to tossing the baby out with the bathwater, when analysis, in fact, could be the initial step toward successful future implementation.