Independence and Prescription in Learning: Researching the Paradox of Advanced GNVQs

This article outlines the context in which General National Vocational Qualifications (GNVQs) have been developed with particular reference to the independent learning dimension of their principles and practice. It provides an overview of the problems associated with the GNVQ approach from the literature and from a study by the authors of twelve post-16 institutions in the process of implementing Advanced GNVQ programmes. It analyses the dimensions of independent learning and argues that GNVQs provide a hybrid learner experience in which autonomy in the organisation of the individual learning process is mediated by a heavily prescribed GNVQ framework. The article concludes by locating this paradox in four central dilemmas characterising post-16 curricular policy in the UK.     

PROFILE OF NEW TEACHERS IN THE TURKISH EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

A profile of students entering the teaching profession in Turkey was developed based on demographic and academic information obtained from the University Entrance Examination (UEEX) for 1982 and 1986. Findings reveal that low achieving students and others from low‐income families comprise the majority of persons desiring to become teachers at the elementary and secondary levels, thus posing the possibility of education serving as a vehicle for upward mobility. Alternative are considered so as to alleviate the consequences of the entering of less capable leaders into education than was the case in the past, in Atatürk's time, when educators were held in high esteem.     

Goodman,Roger, and David Phillips (eds.). 2003. Can the Japanese Change Their Education System?

International Review of Education -     

Type of feature affects transfer in operant serial feature-positive discriminations

In two experiments, the effects of feature identity in operant serial feature-positive discriminations were examined with rats. Rats were trained with two serial feature-positive discriminations (F1 → T1+/ T1? and F2 → T2+/ T2?), in which different operants were reinforced with delivery of a sucrose solution during two auditory target cues (T1 and T2). The features (F1 and F2) were two visual cues, two flavored sucrose solutions, or one visual cue and one sucrose solution. Transfer of a feature’s control to the target of the other discrimination was observed only when the features were from the same modality. When observed, transfer responding was of the form originally trained to the target, rather than the feature, and was preserved after feature extinction. Control groups showed that the differential transfer was not solely the consequence of differential feature generalization. Implications for theories of occasion setting are discussed.     

A model of intervention in child-abusing families: A wider systems view

This paper describes the application of some principles, taken from the modern psychotherapies by a therapeutic team, to the assessment and treatment of serious child abuse. Factors and dilemmas identified from the assessment and decision-making process are outlined, with particular reference to the roles of the various statutory and community agencies involved with such families. The paper demonstrates the ways in which the range of community and professional agencies may play a pathological role, unintentionally contributing to and maintaining child-abusing dynamics in families. The significance of dangerous unintended consequences of well-meaning agency interventions and of covert interagency activities are stressed.